Day 8

 

We started the day with nasal swabs at 8 am. Negative covid results are required for entry to the US so without it you’re not allowed to board your flight. The results were supposed to be ready and emailed to us in 2-3 hours so we decided to visit yet another place in our La Florest neighborhood – a park called parquet Navarro, which is mostly popular in the evenings because it has a lot of different street food. Other than that, it’s pretty unremarkable, but it has a big Quito sign so we took a picture. After receiving our negative test results and uploading all the required documentation required by United (extremely laborious and frustrating), we set out to see the Good Friday procession in the historic center. It’s the main attraction of the Semana Santa in Quito.  We requested the young hotel driver to take us to the Basilica church, which is on the edge of the historic center. The kid was obviously not up to the task, not only was he learning how to drive, but he also didn’t know the city and was relying on GPS. After he drove around in circles for 20 minutes we said STOP  and we got out.  We got a taxi and 3 minutes later we were at our destination.  First, we visited the Basislica, which is said to be the largest neo-gothic church in all the Americas. It is enormous, but it’s more impressive on the outside than on the inside. Then we walked into the street in front of the Basilica, which is on the procession route. The whole area was completely jammed with people waiting for the procession. After standing in the crowds for 30 minutes we left, but we walked in the direction from which the procession was supposed to come. We didn’t have to walk very far and there it was --- hundreds and hundreds of people dressed in purple robes with pointed hoods/hats covering their faces with slits for eyes only. We also saw a few Roman soldiers, but we didn’t get as far as Christ bearing the cross. The sea of purple was enough for us. We had a nice lunch in the hotel restaurant which was full of what looked like local families celebrating Good Friday. Then we decided take one more exploratory trip to a different neighborhood called Guapalo, which is one of the oldest Quito neighborhoods. In its center is a lovely plaza with a beautiful Franciscan church/monastery built in 1586. The surrounding streets are very narrow and quite steep. A very charming area. All in all, we got to know central Quito pretty well. It’s an interesting, vibrant city with a spectacular location surrounded by 8 (?) extinct volcanoes and spread on their slopes.

Our flight to Houston is at an ungodly hour of 12:40 am. The airport is pretty far from the city so we left in plenty of time not knowing how efficient it is. Going through the immigration and security was a breeze. They have a special priority line here for pregnant women and seniors, which is pretty nice.








 

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