South America Blog



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Navigating Quito

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Francisco de Orellana, a cousin of Francisco Pizzaro (the conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in Peru), was the Spaniard who came to Quito in search of El Dorado, the city of gold.  Quito was located on the northern edge of the Incan Empire.  The Inca in Quito also fell to the Spanish.  Even today the locals seem to feel that they could have done without the Spanish, as evident by the brick on Orellana’s statue.

Juan Carlos took me to an overlook on a hilltop and showed me the trail that Orellana traveled on his way into the Amazon in search of the city of gold.

Quito is divided into two sections – Northern and Southern Quito.  North Quito is where the wealthy live, and South Quito is where the working classes live and where all the industry is located.  The divide between the two is the center of Quito, a section known as Colonial City. 

The historic colonial section of the city is where the Presidential Palace is located.  There is a street known as the Crosses because there are seven churches located on that street.

La Plaza De la Independence has a monument for the heroes that fought for independence from Spain.  There is a beautiful statue with a lion on the base (indicating Spain) with an arrow in its chest and broken chains.

The valley the conquistadors followed in route to the amazon

 Mitad de Mundo.