Sara's house or 'la casita de Sara' is a very typical small, single family block house located north of the central area of Quito.All the houses are walled with some sort of deterrant to burglers and other 'hombres malos', broken glass cemented into the top is standard. Some fancy places have electric fences! Quito is BIG, about three million people. It is very crowded, with narrow streets and lots and lots of traffic going as fast as possible. Just getting somewhere in one piece is an adventure in itself!
Underneath theis church is a series of catacombs that are now being used as a museum/arts and crafts store. There are some really interesting old pieces of Inca art, and some very nice reproductions for sale. This photo of Sara shows the incredibly think walls. The hat's nice too.
One area of the catacombs is dedicated to what Sara calls "pichi" (penis) art! The Inca's thought sex and sexuality was important not only for making babies, but a spiritual activity too that was helpful to the natural world. There is lots of stuff like this.
Inside the catacombs the hallways are very narrow and sometimes quite long between the various rooms.
This is the front of the church where the catacombs are located. Th stonework is amazing. It was built in the 1500's by the Spanish.
City of Quito
We spent an interesting afternoon in a museum in the heart of Quito that had the majority of Inca artifacts that are still in Ecuador. There were lots of armed guards and thick glass to protect it, and it was hard to take decent photos. I did manage to get one really nice one of this Inca Sun. It is made of solid gold! There were many artifacts make with gold, either pure, or alloyed with other thngs. The Inca's used gold because it was pretty, was easily worked, and could be made into about anything, and, there was lots of it to use. To them, it had no special intrinsic wealth.
Trip to Ecuador
