Click for Day 2 Group Photos

Day 2 began with breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel followed by meeting our guide, Jose Naranjo, at 8:30 A.M.  We bussed to the historical part of Quito to see buildings that dated back to the days of the Spanish inquisition.  The Centro Cultural Metropolitano building was originally used by the Spanish monarchy to  identify what became the Ecuador territory.  The large building later served as the site of the first Universidad Publico de Ecuador.  Today it is known as the Centro Cultural Metropolitano and is a place dedicated to education and culture.  The National Library is still located in this building.  The Centro Cultural Metropolitano is conveniently located across the street from the Presidential Palace.

   

Centro Cultural Metropolitano	Presidential Palace

La Compania Church, Independence Square, and the San Francisco Church and Convent were next on the itinerary.

 

La Compania Church--Exterior	La Compania Church--Interior	Independence Square

San Francisco Church

The interior of the La Compania church is completely covered in gold leaf with paintings and religious statues everywhere.  Quite a breath taking site!  The San Fransciso Church was built just two years after the Spanish founded Quito, though the site was used by indigenous people as a market place to trade products.

We had lunch at the Cafe Plaza Grande, a popular and somewhat famous restaurant that was opened in 1942.  It has been the favorite place for the movers and shakers of Ecuadorian society and politics to cut deals and shape the future of the country.

 

Cafe Plaza Grande	Plaza Grande

After lunch we bussed out to visit the equator and a fun, hands-on museum, Museo Inti-Nan.  The museum has a display of cultures that were present before the Spanish arrived in this region.  Of course, the thing I remember best is finally successfully standing an egg on its end directly on the equator, and watching water run out of a basin without the customary whirlpool effect.  The jury is still out on a demonstration where water ran out of the drain of the basin with a clockwise or counter-clockwise whirlpool depending upon whether the basin was a few feet north, or south of the equator!

 

The Museo Inti-Nan Outside	Right on the Equator

We returned to the Sheraton and had an excellent lecture by Dr. Diego Quiroge on "An Analysis of Ecuador Social and Political Reality".  He dynamically put together a view of the history and future of Ecuador all in an hour time period.

Dinner at 8:00 P.M. and pack for the flight to the Galapagos early next morning.

A note about the website layout. Each day will have a home page, like this one, with pictures from the net to help you recognize more detailed pictures taken by group members.  By clicking on the Camera below, you will go to pages displaying pictures taken by group members, primarily Bob, Corinne, and Patrick.  For the curious, the pictures are displayed using the HTML export function in Picasa, with a little modification to help with navigation to and from the pages produced with Microsoft Front Page.  Isn't that something you really wanted to know??!