Ecuador, Quito - Half of the world

Mitad del Mundo – Life Divided (Half of Life)


Quito, Ecuador

There is an imaginary line that defines the world in two parts (North Hemisphere and South Hemisphere) – The Equator line, and that is where I stand now, in the middle of the world with half of my body in the North and half in the South. I imagine that this line divides me as well: the North represents my urban life, my work, my routine; South represents the unexpected, my dreams, my journeys, the search for myself and the world’s truths. I jump to the South part of the line and I’m in the South Hemisphere and it will be south that I will be heading in the next few months!

Quito

I woke up early morning and left the building where the friends that hosted me the first night lived. I had arrived late the previous night after a 16 hour journey and in the Taxi ride on the way to my friend’s house I could hardly grasp the city as its lights merged into the darkness undefined. I was unable to enjoy properly my first hours in Equator’s capital, I had left my passport in the cab the night before, and if I didn’t get it back I would be unable to ´head South´. In the end I got my passport back, the taxi driver kindly kept my belongings and I was very happy to have passed my first ”challenge”, I would be heading South after all!

The first days in Quito turned out to be almost two weeks. After meeting my friend and travel buddy – Nuno we had our bikes to fix and bike parts to find …

Quito is a beautiful and chaotic city, its colourful houses sprang like a rugged carpet through the breathtaking flanks of the Pichincha volcano that occasionally awakes and releases clouds of ashes and smoke through the whole city! The first Spanish colonized the city by building their churches on top of the old Inca sacred places and markets. The old baroque Christian churches are decorated in gold in an almost obscene way as if faith on its own wasn’t enough to convince the indigenous of the new religion. In fact observing some morbid paintings displayed in some of the churches one can imagine that the new faith was imposed by fear rather that by other more valid beliefs!

Quito revealed more than its well kept colonial architecture. Quito is like a gigantic “ant’s nest” spread out into what it feels like the infinite. The human landscape that I had the privilege to unravel was also amazing. After my first night with Francisco and his family in Quito I stayed with the Paredes family a welcoming clan who made me experience Quito and Latin American life in a very special way. Leonardo, the dad is doctor who studied in Russia during the cold war in the 60´s and has worked as minister’s advisor, as vice-chancellor of a university and who currently teaches a subject about herbs at the university. He is the son of Nela Martinez (1912-2004) who was the first Ecuadorean woman to be member of the parliament; she was also a writer and a revolutionary for women’s rights and Ecuadorian people. Leonardo’s passion for his country, its history and nature made for great conversations and his kindness and warmth I shall always remember as one of my best memories from Quito! There is also Gloria, the mum, a sweet, kind and intelligent woman who works for an agency who helps local people to develop their own projects by lending money (the micro-credit idea pioneered by Nobel Prize Muhammas Yunus). The warm afternoons would not be the same without the flute sounds that filled the Parede´s home played by Daniela the daughter. And last but not least, Leonardo the son, a bright young man who showed me Quito and made me try all sorts of unexpected and unknown food and fruits. His intelligence and politic views are seen by me as a prospect for a brilliant future, who knows, maybe as head of his country, which lacks so much competent and honest leaders!

The Men’s Chapel (La Capilla del Hombre)

The steep climb was compensated by the amazing minimalist building with supberb views over the East mountains of Quito – this palce is called Capilla del Hombre and it is a Cultural Centre that was projected by one of the biggest contemporaneous Ecuadorian artist’s – Guaysamin. To the eyes of Guaysamin Ecuadorian faces are painted in colourful and strong colours yet revealing the suffering that this people have endured at the hands of poverty. The black, white and grey tones of some other paintings reveal bone thin bodies of hunger and political repression. He also paints in geometric symbolism reminiscent of the Inca heritage. In this building of objective simplicity remains in my memory a big mural where a Condor, the symbol of the Andes, dominates a Bull. The analogy that I make comes to me as inevitable: may the Utopia be true and may the Condor fly a free flight towards a free existence, free from foreigner manipulations, corruption and interests of those who always seem to exploit and never contribute. An existence away from poverty, away from suffering in balance with nature, a well deserved and worth existence!