Oh, how beautiful: painting of Quito, Ecuador at night

Quito is a beautiful city, especially at night, and this painting reflects that. Funny, too, I paid more to get it framed here in he US than I paid for it Quito! I might add Quito is known as a city of churches as the painting reflects, and the statue on the hill, that can be seen from all over Quito, is certainly a landmark of the city, too.

Spanish-style courtyard drips with beauty

This photo is the inside courtyard of a commercial building right on Independence Plaza, Quito, Ecuador. It is a visual treat and a wonderful place to sit, sip a cup of coffee and be thankful for being surrounded by such beauty. A lot of Quito is like this, the sense of being surrounded by beauty.

Beautiful young women, and they know it

By chance, purely by chance, I happened to be at Independence Plaza in Quito, Ecuador, one morning when this high school band marched in led by these beautiful, really beautiful young women. It was a mostly all girls band, and I cannot tell you how beautiful they all looked. And, guess what, they knew it? Love it! Take a look.

Another view of the Winged Virgin and all the color, too!

See all the color in the houses, the roofs, the sky, the church. I never went to actually see the statue because of all the thieves working around the base. Never felt I needed, too, though as I could see it from anywhere in Quito!

Winged Virgin Mary on the Mountain, Quito, Ecuador

You can see this dramatic statue from about anywhere in Old Town, Quito, Ecuador, day or night. In this photo I did not get exactly what I saw, but close. How beautiful. Oh, by the way, you do not see any neon signs in Old Town at night. The white lights of the city at night all up and down the hills and mountain sides impress and awe, though.

Click the photo to enlarge and really get the impact! Awesome!

Quito, so colorful, so beautiful!

Here is a photo of the inside of just one of the many, many Catholic Churches in Quito. Gold is the central, brilliant color inside many of them. Why? Gold became a central, main part of the religions that preceded Christianity in Ecuador. So, it naturally follows, that gold made its way into churches there when Christianity came along.

Children of Ecuador Proudly Wear Beautiful Costumes

These children made several trips through Independence Plaza in Quito not long ago, and they clearly liked being in their costumes and in doing what they were doing. The costumes represent the various cultures in the country, and they are numerous.

Want to know what the Equator looks like?

Here it is just south of Quito, Ecuador. The tall building with the directions, North, South, East, West supposedly straddle it, and the yellow line you see is IT. Some of the locals told water flows in opposite directions in two sort of basins that can be found on each side of Equator. The area is known, in Spanish, as Mitad Del Mundo.

Beauty of Quito, Ecuador

The wonder of Quito to me is its color. Everywhere you look there is interesting, eye-stopping color. It is in the buildings and the people, too. I attach just a few of the photos of this beautiful city that is at the Middle of the World. These men are members of the guard at the Presidential Palace in Quito. They change on Monday of each week. They all carry spears or lances made from bamboo and wear spurs.

Adventure To the Middle of the World!

My only experience with South and Central America has been with the U.S. Air Force Reserve, unless I add Puerto Rico, also an Air Force Reserve adventure of some years ago and then last year working in Haiti as a volunteer following the massive earthquake.
But, next month, all September, I will be in Ecuador for the second time in my life, the first being one of those Air Force Reserve trips. People on hearing of my coming adventure all ask if I am going on a “mission,” meaning a religious mission of some sort? Many people around Columbus, Ohio seem to do that. They are are surprised to learn by my trip is for pure adventure, nothing more.
Why and how did I select Ecuador?
First I retired from my very mundane, ho-hum job with the State of Ohio at the end of July. So, I began looking for something interesting to do, an adventure, and travel naturally came to mind. I did not want, however, to go as a pure tourist walking around gawking at the sites. I wanted to be a part of something more interesting. And wahla, thanks to the miracle of the web I decided on Ecuador because I found a place to stay where my room and board will be covered in exchange for my teaching English to operators of a hotel. My wife laughs when I mention my teaching English since she is from New England where English is more properly spoken than in New Mexico where we do speak English, but with much less precision and with a bit of a slow, Western drawl. The people I teach should not see that as an issue, of course.
I've also been encouraged to come to Ecuador by a fellow I've also met on the Internet, an American, who some years ago bought and now operates a hotel in Quito. He knows Ecuador and the life there, and he has given me some good information on what to expect when I arrive. He even offered to refer me to what he says are excellent medical doctors and dentists who perform all sorts of procedures at prices much less than in the United States. In fact, he promotes something called “medical tourism,” and it seems to go well for him and for the medical people, too. It goes as well as can be expected until he tells women who come there for breast implants, many who seem to be bartenders from Las Vegas, like in Nevada, that after they've had their operation, they will not be able to nurse a baby.
He says many daytime soap opera stars from Spain make “medical tourism trips” to prop up sagging chins and cheeks. Their numbers verify to him how good the doctors in Quito are. I'd asked about surgery for the sags beneath my own chin, but have elected instead to try a wrinkle cream I've been told will do wonders.
The first time I ran across the American with the hotel he also offered another service which I declined. He sent several pages pictures of very attractive young women offering services of a sexual nature. I did not decline because I am a prude, by the way, but because for one thing I am married and for another I have been in third-world countries before. And, they do have venereal diseases in some of those places that even the most sophisticated doctors cannot name.
Finally, I will describe briefly my first trip to Quito and how because of that I am anxious to return.

It was a trip with the U.S. Air Force Reserve. We staged out of Panama City, Panama, regularly making flights all over South and Central America. Today, those flights are staged out of Puerto Rico following the giving of the Panama Canal to Panama.
This particular trip we did two things that were different from some of the others we made. We flew a plane painted silver or aluminum as opposed to camouflage because the silver was considered a peaceful color and the other meant a war plane. We also were instructed to bring civilian clothes with us to change into from our uniforms once we got to Quito. The reason was the same. We were to arrive for peaceful purposes, not war.
The highlights of that brief sojourn on the ground were memorable. On the one hand, we were taken to something called the “MAC Shop” or Military Airlift Command shop. That was a shop where we could buy all the curios of the country in one place. Every country seems to have them for tourists, like cuckoo clocks in Germany or shoes in, what was it, Nicaragua? I still remember one Air Force fellow I knew, by the way, whose entire view of the world incidentally was curios. You collected all the curios of a country, and then you left.
My most vivid memory of the MAC shop was how while I most of the time just go to a shop, buy what I came and then leave, at the MAC shop it was like someone had turned up some sort of vibes. I was buying everything in the shop as fast as I could pull it off the shelves mostly llama related stuff, scarves, blankets, shawls etc. I've never ever experienced anything like it before or since. Others among my group had the same experience. So, the plane we flew out of Quito was a lot heavier than it was when we flew in. We, incidentally, has the same experience in Puerto Rico, except there it was rum, many, many bottles of very famous rum.
Finally back to Quito, I remember this wonderful, really elegant restaurant we visited. We were told we could buy a steak dinner for $10. I think most of us ordered the suggested steak dinner. The waiters who took our orders all wore these very formal looking white jackets and carried white napkins over one arm. I remember seeing what must have been a Ecuadoran naval officer in a uniform that would have made any American officer jealous for all the medals the fellow sported.
We had our meal, and it was excellent. Most interesting in my own case, I'd ordered cream for my coffee and when it did not arrive, I asked about it? The waiter pointed to a piece of mirror. There was a squirt of whipped cream that I had not seen.
We finished our meal, and that was when the real confusion began. We got the bill, and it turned out that instead of paying $10 each for our meals as we'd been told to expect, the bill was $2.50 per person. One sergeant with us became so confused over this that he tried to have a discussion about it with one of the waiters who spoke very little English. The sergeant could not believe his bill was so low. We all finally did pay, and all of us left more for the tip that we paid for the meal. When we left the sergeant was still shaking his head, not at all understanding how the check could be so low.
So, with what I have lined up and what I remember, I do look forward to my trip to Ecuador. I expect it to be one grand adventure.