Guayasamin's Capilla del Hombre

The bus ride from Otavalo to Quito was $2 for two hours. I am dropped pff at some northern terminal and grab a taxi, because I now have two bags after the shopping haul in Otavalo. The darn cab to La Tola is $10, and the driver barely has a clue where to go, but I know (so he should pay me). I get the top floor single suite at Casa Tolena and lay down to rest and read the guide book on what I should fit into the last day and a half. Can't rest long, though, because the first thing I read is that the Capilla del Hombre, which houses some of Guayasamin's biggest work is not open on Monday and I have about an hour and a half to see it. I cannot find it on the map, so I grab map and haila cab. Cabby has no clue what or where this place is, but he tells me to go take a bus...but which one and to where?

I grab the red line "EcoBus" and get three different recommendations as to where to get off. The common denominator is "La Paz," but there I am told I should have gone one more stop. I finally find the Capilla on the map and realize I should go two more stops. Then everyone agrees it is uphill from there. Of course, this is Ecuador!

This is as close as Quito has to a subway. The bus has two cars and its own lane, with stops where you pay and get on when the subway-like doors open. When they are full, it is pickpocket heaven.

It took 20 min to get to the righht stop, but the hike up into the Bella Vista neighborhood was about 30 min in a full sweat. Nice views of the city.

And classy houses that take in that "Bella Vista" (means pretty view)

It is about 5pm when I get there (top of Bella Vista) and the Guayasamin house and museum are closing, but El Capilla del Hombre is still open. This was to be a chapel to house the artist's greatest statements, but he died before it was completed, and it was made into a foundation and museum to house his work, much of which laments the problems of man in society (servitude, slavery, racism, malnutrition, war...dark stuff). There was a period at the end of his life where he painted about "tenderness" to balance it all out with a solution. No pics from inside, but here is a little bit of the surroundings. The man was on a par with Picasso and the Nobel Laureate Chilean poet, Neruda. He got his message out there, and his work is an Ecuadorian treasure. I am so glad I did not miss it completely

Guayasamin was friends with Allende, Neruda and Jara, all of whom were dead within a month of the 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile. Guayasamin clearly believed hey were all murdered. ( Allende reportedly shot himself, Neruda's health was declining, but then his driver said he only deteriorated after the doctors gave him a particular shot...)

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-04-09-pablo-nerudas-body-to-be-exhumed-over-pinochet-regime-murder-claims

See the artist's painting regarding this controversy:

http://www.wikiart.org/en/oswaldo-guayasamin/tears-of-blood

The above reflection applies to the paintins of Quito below (view from his house)

I enjoy the walk downhill, although a neighborhood resident offers me a ride, saying I should be careful walking around there.

I get off the bus at La Mariscal to look for dinner. This is known as "New Town" in English, Plaza Foch in Spanish. Also known as "Geingolandia" No wonder... Look what they have done to the name, putting a whole screwed up sense to it in English. Is this supposed to be funny or stylish? Neither, I think.

I had a great, light meal (but Gringolandia expensive) meal at Boca del Lobo a block away from the square. Glassed in dining area and a "Mediterranean" menu.

 

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Las Cascadas de Peguche

I plan to leave Otavalo around midday and be in Quito by mid-afternoon. I go out in the morning to see how the town has cleaned up after the market mess. I also need an ATM to settle up with Adriana at the hostel.

The daily vendors are setting up again, but the place has cleaned up well. At breakfast, there is another solo traveler, Jakob, from Germany. He signs on for a short morning hike to Peguche Cascades. Jakob is a booking agent for Bavarian bands and this is his off season. He lived a year in Venezuela, so his Spanish is good. Lisa is studying tourism and just did her internship in a hotel on the coast. We primarily spoke Spanish, since I don't know any German.

This place is pretty popular, being easy to get to. It had cobblestone paved paths to the falls. There is one time of year they close it for some sacred indigenous bathing ritual. Sounds pretty kinky.

Complete with arco iris (rainbow)

Above the cascades, this must be where the kinky ritual takes place. There is a cave-like tunnel to get you further upstream...

A different path down leads to a bouncy suspension bridge and international photo op:

Great folks. We walk back to town and see evidence of the President of Ecuador's "Revive the Train" initiative, as this machine was preparing the railbed for ties.

I don't dare eat before the bus ride, so the international hikers say their goodbyes and I head for the terminal where buses leave for Quito every 15 minutes or so for $2.

 

 

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De Compras! A Sacred Tree and Raptor Adventure

I meet up with Lisa, the Austrian girl, at breakfast and we plan to save time for a local hike to the sacred "Lechero" tree, somewhere just outside of town (in Ecuador, that means up) and perhaps to the Parque del Condor. Supposedly the whole hike is is two hours one way and you can get a taxi or a bus back to town - maybe.

I have been holding off on purchases to keep my bags from getting heavier, but now is the time, since I am leaving on Tuesday. Everyone in Otavalo warns about pickpockets on market day, so the camera was placed deeper in the mix and came out less frequently. I plan to do a post on dressing for antitheft, so stay tuned because I have been able to feel reasonably secure throughout the trip.

Threre are those squirmy guisanos again, to cure all your ills.

Thos pig is all dressed up with no place to go!

Must have bought that chicken at the animal market...

Views over vendor tents in "Poncho Square"

Offer low because the goal is to dicker for about 30% off the "asking price". Plan to walk away before buying.Maybe I'll add pictures of the haul. It was pretty sick.

2pm was the meeting time for the hike. It goes up and up out of the back side of tow over old railroad tracks and up some more with very little signage. Just keep asking the locals the way to "El Lechero"

Basically we are climbing the hill that separates Otavalo from San Pablo del Lago, but we don't know that because maps are flat.

We see more dogs and sheep than people, except for a delightful child excited to share her sheep.

There are signs to El Parque del Condor, but nothing to El lechero, the sacred tree. Finally, we see a tour group going up a path between two fields and figure that must be it. Indeed...

You can feel the tree reaching out to you with its soul. I think the legend has it that the tree is the love child of the two volcanoes, Imbabura and Cotacachi back when they had the hot lava for each other!

View of San Pablo Lake from El Lechero

And Imbabura to its left

Again there are no signs to the Condor Park. Keep asking whenever you actually see a person.

I believe this is quinoa

We arrive just in time for the flight of the birds show.

Many of these bids have been shot. All are in some kind of rehab. Some will be released. Some will never be ready for the wild.

The birds are flown twice a day, and fed as part of the show. The bald eagles are Gringo and Gringa. The female does not yet have her full adult pkumage at 3 years of age. They did not fly the Condors for us, but there were some. See below: (might take a while to load)

Owls blinking!

We thought we would take a taxi, but there was only one and someone else got it. So we start walking again toward San Pablo, which you can see at the bottom of the hill. But what is the best way to go down?? There is about an hour and a half of daylight left...no problemo!

 

Must have been the wrong road, but is still the right direction. Pickup volleyball anyone! We get re-directed more than once. The path becomes just that, between two fields, and the hill quite steep...

It is very dust and slippery

And we seem to be heading into the back yard of dog heaven...

But...then there is a bus that says Otavalo on the front and all is well.

 

Time for one of those shitty Ecuadorian beers!

 

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