Quito – Historic Town Center

Arupo Tree in Independence Square, Quito, Ecuador

After our visit to the museum on the equator, I will now take you to the historic town center of Quito.

Quito was established by the Quitu tribe way back in the first millennium. By 980 CE the Quitu were conquered by the Caras Tribe. Between 1534 and 1556, the Spanish invaded the city, executed the ruling tribe’s leader, named the city San Francisco de Quito, and established Roman Catholicism in the city. Drawing on the native tribes for slave labor, the Spanish began construction only weeks after the invasion. The oldest religious building in all of South America is the San Francisco Convent; its unadorned architecture stayed true to its Franciscan roots:

The attached San Francisco church is a blend of Spanish and Mudéjar architecture and the focal point of the cobblestone square:

The plaza is on the site where the palace of the Incan ruler, Auqui Francisco Tupatauchi, once existed and it was the location where indigenous tribes traded goods for centuries:

The white domed church is La Compañía de Jesús:

From here the steep streets lead to the hill El Panecillo with the statue of the Virgin of Quito:

Just around the corner from San Francisco Plaza is the Jesuit church La Compañía de Jesús with its beautiful baroque columns :

After 300 years of colonial rule, Quito gained independence from the Spanish in 1822 under the command of Simón Bolívar. The city was annexed to Gran Colombia until it dissolved in 1830 when Quito became the capital of Ecuador.

If you are wondering where we saw that beautiful flowering tree in the first photo, it's called the Arupo tree  and we saw it in full bloom in Independence Square:

Quito, Ecuador – Latitude 00° 00’ 00”

On our way to the Galapagos Islands in the summer of 2007, we stayed in Quito, Ecuador for a few days. There are two equator-related tourist attractions in Quito. The monument at Mitad del Mundo was built before electronic global positioning devices were invented and, unfortunately, it is a few hundred yards away from the actual middle of the earth. Once this was discovered, an enterprising family built an unabashed tourist trap named Museo de Sitio Inti-Ñan located at the equator, or Latitude 00° 00’ 00”. The museum has a staff of English-speaking guides who take you through the replicas of native houses:

A burial site. The deceased is placed in a tight fetal position in a pot like the one on the right and the remaining artifacts are for the journey:

Other artifacts:

 

A grizzly, shrunken head:

A Castor Bean plant:

 

I love the sundial indicating when it was morning (tuta manta), noon (pajta), or night (chisi). That would be a welcome brand of time-keeping! The native tribes did not have a numbering system; these numbers are a modern addition. Note how the numbers range from six to six because at the equator the sun always rises and sets at six.

There was a sign that claimed: “On the equator your weight is less than in your country because of the bulge of the earth. Thus being farther from the center of the earth, the force of gravity is less.”  And here I thought the earth was round. When I asked how much less my weight would be, they said it was about a kilo. Of course, we will ignore the fact that our mass remains the same. 

The guide then performed an experiment meant to demonstrate the Coriolus force. She placed a sink on the northern hemisphere, where the water drains counter-clockwise and then moved the sink a few feet over to the southern hemispehere where the water drains clockwise.  When placed exactly on the equator, the water drains straight down. She placed a few small leaves to help show the movement of the water.  

We were invited to balance an egg on a nail, a feat that can only be accomplished twice a year elsewhere on earth:

There are plenty of websites refuting the authenticity of these experiments. Regardless, I thought they were very interesting, entertaining and they underscore the unique properties of the equator.

My husband told me an interesting equator story about an aircraft that supposedly had polar confusion when it crossed the equator. The guidance system assumed its orientation to be relative to the North Pole. When it cross the equator, the guidance system thought the plane flipped over, so it “righted” itself into the upside down position. It is probably an urban myth, but at least one source reported that it was rumored that early versions of Microsoft’s F-16 Flight Simulator game had this same “feature” (as we software types like to call bugs). You can read more about it here.