Last Day in Quito: Church Church Church Church Church Museum

View of Panecillo from Santo Domingo Plaza

This was a mini-vacation. And when one is on a mini-vacation, the end comes soon. Tonight. Technically, tomorrow morning, but is 12:30 a.m. really tomorrow morning? Or is it simply tonight?

Today's agenda was to visit the churches that were pointed out in the free walking tour. Most of the churches has small admission fees, so this was, in effect, a $10 walking tour of Centro Quito. I started at the southern most point of this walk and would walk northward, hitting the National Museum just in time for the regularly-scheduled afternoon thunderstorm.

My walk started in Santo Domingo Plaza, with the Iglesia Santo Domingo. And who's the statue in the center of the plaza? Mariscal Sucre, the second most important liberator after the internationally-renowned Simon Bolivar. Sucre is more "local famous."

Let's go in.

It was a very nice church.

Mass was in session so I had to be discrete with my photographing.

I knew there were more spectacular churches ahead, so off we walk.

You can see the Basilica del Voto Nacional, Basilica of the National Vow (or Vote, but Vow makes more sense) off in the distance. We'll get there soon enough,

Next up was the spectacular Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, the Church of the Jesuits:

Spectacular is in understatement.

There's almost too much gold ornamentation inside.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside. Not just no flash photography. No photography of any sort. And I do not violate church law on photography, based on a really weird experience years ago. So nothing from inside Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. Just picture gold gold gold gold and more gold.

Next up: Iglesia El Sagrario. Church of the Tabernacle.

I was in the neighborhood.

I was en route to Catedral Metropolitana, on the Plaza Independencia, a.k.a. Plaza Grande.

It was still beautiful and sunny at the time so the plaza was packed.

There's one huge massive mega-reason to pay the fee to go inside Catedral Metropolitana.

The painting of the Last Supper where cuy (guinea pig) is being served.

Alas, no photography of any sort was allowed inside Catedral Metropolitana, too. You couldn't even tell it was cuy being served, the painting was so high up, anyway.

Now, in true Quito fashion, it was time to trudge up hill.

The Basilica del Voto Nacional.

And look who's there to greet me. Saint John Paul II.

The Basilica is a very recent addition to Centro Quito.

And its twin spires sore over Quito.

The tower in the back is the one you can walk up in, and get spectacular views of the city. You can. I can't. Mi piernas! My legs are still in a gelatinous state. So no climbing a million billion stairs just for yet another spectacular view.

Despite its recent vintage, the interior of the Basilica is quite impressive.

This is a small chapel in the back:

And that concludes my tour of Quito's churches. Now, it was on the National Museum.

Free admission! My kind of National Museum.

These are the Pescadores (Fishermen) from Ecuadorian artist Jaime Andrade.

And this is a scene from the rearing of the Baby Jesus you've never seen before:

Virgen de La Leche. The Virgin Mary feeding the Baby Jesus as only a mother can. It's from an anonymous painter in the 19th Century. But definitely a showstopper.

Not all inside was either religious or modern art. Inside were artifacts from pre-Columbian civilizations in Ecuador.

We interrupt the pre-Columbian artifacts for this work: La Nariz Del Diablo, by Guillermo Muriel, 1960. This is a stylized painting of Ecuador's famous "La Nariz Del Diablo," or "Devil's Nose" train ride through the peaks of the Andes.

Back to the pre-Columbian artifacts. This time in gold:

There was not anything even remotely close to the amount of gold ornamentation on displays in Colombia's absolutely spectacular Museo del Oro in Bogota. But the collection was quite nice.

We now come to the "interactive" part of the museum.

This is a three-dimensional rendering of this work:

El Club Estrafalario, by Juan Agustin Guerrero. Why do you need a three-dimensional version of this work?

So you can put yourself into the artwork. They did not give me a musical instrument to play, so I just stood there useless like Suzanne Crough in the Partridge Family. Or Davey Jones in the Monkees. Or Stevie Nicks with Fleetwood Mac, all of whom just stand there while the others in the band do the heavy lifting.

One last item from the collection of pre-Columbian artifacts:

And then we move on to the museum's masterpiece. From the interactive art section:
 

And that concludes my Quito vacation. Not sure when the next vacation trip will be since the May trip is looking like it's in serious jeopardy from the coronavirus scare. Here's hoping I get back to, and back into, the U.S.A. tonight.