Exploring Ecuador - Day 5(a) - City center of Latacunga

Dear Family and Friends,

This post has to be divided into two parts.  Just too much to share all at once.  

Our hotel in Latacunga was again located in the city center.  After breakfast Sunday morning we headed out for a stroll in the quiet city center.

Chuck standing with the pigeons in a nearby plaza.

We walked a couple of more blocks to the central plaza.  On the way, this building caught my attention...sorry I do not know what it is.  It pays to have a guide sometimes instead of do it yourself.  But doing it yourself is better than not doing it at all.

This is the lovely main square. 

In the center of the square is this marvelous statue in honor of Dr. Vicente Leon.  He was born in Latacunga and ended up being the president of the Superior Court of Justice of Cuzco, in Peru.  He bequeathed his fortune to educate the youth of his home, Latacunga.

One governmental building facing the square.

I love archways.

This building faces the square on the other side.  It is the municipal palace and it made out of pumice stone.  I like the neo-classical design.

On the third side facing the main square is Saint Francis's Church, the first church built in the city.

Since it was Sunday morning, the church was open and we were able to look inside.  There were only two or three people there when we went in.  A very lovely church.

On the way back to our hotel, we saw the church that was bustling with people.

The Church of Saint Augustin.  I love the shoe shine stand located just outside the main entrance.  Don't want to have dirty shoes in church.

I also noticed this large backdrop on the other side of the entrance.  It looked like they were setting up for taking photos.

Then I noticed a lady selling masks.  I looked closely and realized these were special masks for first communion.

I asked if we could go inside.  The lady at the door nodded her head saying yes.

This church had many more people.  Of course most of the people were parents, family and friends of the recipients of their first communion.

Here are some of the children leaving the church.

And one special last picture.  Sometimes you are at the right place at the right moment.  

We needed to get back to our hotel which was named after San Agustin, just like the church.  We had to drive to our next hostel, the Black Sheep Inn, an eco lodge high in the remote part of the Andes.  

The next part of this post will be about traveling there. Lots of good photos and a great adventure. It may not be out in the next couple of days because we are going so remotely that there likely will not be internet.  

Love,

Nancy and Chuck

Exploring Ecuador - Day 4 - Riobamba to Latacunga

Dear Family and Friends,

The following morning, we left Riobamba for Latacunga.  To be honest, I could not recall of hearing of the town. 

As we left Riobamba, we could see the bottom portion of Chimborazo volcano in the distance.

Today, I will concentrate on some of the activity we saw during our drive.  For example below are a woman and a man waiting alongside the highway, most likely for a bus.

This man is a traditional type highway vendor.  As you travel through small towns, sometimes there is a red light and these vendors take advantage of waiting traffic to hawk their wares.  This man seems to have a variety of items for sale.  Besides the chips and nuts, he appears to be selling cigarette lighter chargers, masks, and other items I can not make out in the photo.

One of many, many produce venders along the way.

A dairy.

Sometimes, there are multiple vendors selling the same items.  This man is selling cane juice.  In order to help his stall to stand out, he has stacked some sugar cane tepee style.

This man is selling potatoes.  It looks like maybe a 100 lbs or more per bag.

When the new highway was built within the last 10 years, the town of Salcedo was bypassed.  This town is known for its ice cream.  Instead of losing business, the brought the ice cream to the new bypass.  We saw at least a 100 stands similar to this selling the same ice cream.

As we passed this truck, I took a picture.  He is carrying food for guinea pigs.  Guinea pigs are called cuy down here.  Many people raise them.  Cuy is traditional food here and has been since before the Spanish arrived in the mid 1500s.

After we arrived in Latacunga, we decided to wait until tomorrow to see the town.  We ordered room service and had a nice meal of steak, fries and salad.

In our next post I will share some pictures of Latacunga.

Thanks for traveling along with us.

Love,

Nancy & Chuck

Exploring Ecuador - Day 3- Walking Tour of Historic Riobamba

Dear Family and Friends,

This is Dimitri, our Riobamba tour guide.  

As you may remember, Chuck and I were in Riobamba about a month ago.  We did not drive there, our tour guide, Dimitri, drove down to Cuenca from Riobamba to get us, drove us up to Riobamba, toured us for a couple of days and delivered us safe and sound to our condo in Cuenca.

We have been to Riobamba several times before, but not to sightsee the city.  Chuck says Riobamba is the easiest city for him to get lost in when driving in Ecuador.  When we drive here, we are driving through, or trying to drive through it on the way to Banos or Quito.

To be honest, when we have been in Riobamba before, I have not been impressed.  It seems to lack the charm of Cuenca, which is a well preserved colonial city. Riobamba is relatively new because the original city which was founded in 1534 by Diego de Almagro, was destroyed by a massive 8.3 magnitude earthquake in 1797.  Over 200 hundred years of colonial architecture destroyed. The citizens moved the city to its current location and began building again. 

When we were in Riobamba last month I learned that there are several things of interest and decided we should spend a little time there to see the historical sights and learn some history.

Chuck picked us out a nice old hotel, Mansion Santa Isabella, in the historical section of Riobamba.  It was a fine old mansion that has been converted into a hotel.

This hotel was perfect for the purpose of our visit. We were able to do our tour and other sightseeing on foot.

Dimitri met us at the hotel for our tour.  Our first chore was to walk up these steps to the top of the hill for an overview of Riobamba.

The city is remodeling these steps and they are going to be very nice and handicap accessible. This explains the green barriers in the photo.

At the top of the stairs is a colorful tile mural.  It shows the history in Riobamba.  I will post some photos in sections to share a little history of this city with you.

The mural starts with this scene.  It depicts the arrival and unification of the indigenous Puruha nation with the Inca.  This happened not too long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

In this mural the Inca are on the right, the original people on the left and they are shaking hands.

The next scene shows the arrival of the Spanish. The Inca and Puruha people were conquered and the city of Riobamba was founded in 1534.

Dimitri is pointing to a post that has the year 1797 printed on it.  This is the year of the massive earthquake and the destruction of the original city of Riobamba.

At the right of the post are military soldiers and an officer with a white horse.  This depicts Riobamba's fight for independence from Spain.  The officer is actually Juan Galo de Lavalle, from Argentina.  After a cry went out for help to defeat the Spanish, Argentina came to the aid of the local people.

Demitri is pointing to the image depicting the modern day city of Riobamba.

At the top of the hill is this monument of gratitude to Juan Galo de Lavalle and to Argentina for their help in obtaining independence for Riobamba.

From the top of the hill you can see an overview of the historical part of town.

The yellow round building on the right is the bull ring. Yes, they still have bullfighting in Riobamba, however, in 2011 through an Ecuador referendum, the bulls are no longer allowed to be killed at the end.  

We walked to the train station.  Back in 1908, the rail system was completed between the capital city, Quito and the shipping port city of Guayaquil.  Riobamba was located between the two cities and became a stopping point on the rail journey.  Many hotels were built around the train station and a lot businessmen from Quito and Guayaquil would meet and conduct business in Riobamba.

Today there is no train service in Ecuador and the once bustling station is now filled with artists and shopping for tourists.  Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, like all other businesses, the plaza is struggling.

Here are some of the displays inside.  Not many vendors were actually open because of the pandemic.

Always a favorite of mine, the leather goods.

Chuck purchased some artisanal beer and this is the vendor wrapping it up very secure.  The three beers were chocolate, coffee and pepper flavored.  We will see when we taste test when we get back to Cuenca.  

Dimitri said that this building housed the first school for women.

This is Sucre Park.

The green building behind the fountain was originally a seminary, today it is a local high school.  It is important because the first constitution of Ecuador was written and signed in 1830 in this building.

Although the building is closed to the public because of the pandemic, Dimitri sweet talked the guard into letting us go inside for a few minutes.  Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful interior.

We walked about a block to the Maldonado Park.  In early Riobamba, this park was the main plaza, containing the central market.  

The pink building is a museum called Casa Museo.  Unfortunately we were unable to go inside at this time. 

At the other end of the park is the Cathedral San Pedro de Riobamba.  This is the oldest church in Riobamba.  The facade was hand carried from the original church that was ruined in the earthquake to the present location to reconstruct the church.

In the close up picture below you will see darker bricks at the top of the facade.  This is the only part that is not original stone.

And finally, as a treat, I am sharing this adorable picture with you.  Riobamba has many more indigenously dressed people than Cuenca.  I loved seeing this lady sitting in the park.  It makes me wish I could go back about 50 years and visit Ecuador when it was all like this.

Tomorrow we leave Riobamba for Latacunga, and hopefully a view of the nearby volcano, Cotopaxi.

Love,

Nancy and Chuck.