Although beaten by Guayaquil on the
population stakes and in economic
clout, Quito is the political and
cultural hub of Ecuador. In this
highly centralized country, there's
no mistaking that this is where the
power is wielded - by an elite class
of politicians, bankers and company
directors, often from old, moneyed
families. It's not these
sharp-suited business executives
that grab your attention though, but
the very visible presence of
indígenas
that form a large part of the city's
population. While most other Latin
American capitals have been stamped
with the faceless imprint of
imported US culture, Quito is still
a place where Quichua-speaking women
queue for buses in their traditional
clothes, with metres of beads strung
tightly around their necks, and
where it's not uncommon to see
children carried on their mothers'
backs in securely wrapped blankets,
as they are in the rural sierra. All
this makes for a slightly exotic
introduction to the country, though
the proliferation of ragged
shoe-shine boys and desperate
hawkers trying to sell miracle
products is a sobering reminder of
the levels of poverty in the city,
and of the social inequalities that
exist here.
The key to orientation in
Quito is to see the city as a long,
vertical strip. At the bottom, in
the south, is the old town ,
focused on three large squares: the Plaza
de la Independencia (also known
as the Plaza Grande), the Plaza
San Francisco and the Plaza
Santo Domingo . The grid-laid
streets around these squares form a
small, compact central core
dominated to the south by a hill
known as El Panecillo ,
crowned by a big white statue of the
Virgin of Quito . Fanning
north from old Quito towards the new
town is an "in-between"
stretch around Parque La Alameda
, while the new town proper
begins a few blocks further north at
Parque El Ejido . Known by
Quiteños simply as El Norte
, the new town stretches all the way
north to the airport, but the only
bits you're likely to visit are the
central areas of La Mariscal
, just north of Parque El Ejido,
where most accommodation and tourist
facilities are located, and the
business district further north,
around Parque La Carolina.
The City
As far as sightseeing is concerned,
Quito's chief attraction is the old
town's dazzling array of churches,
monasteries and convents , dating
from the early days of the colony.
The city is also famous for the
wealth of ...
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