A Day in Quito

The Virgin of Quito (I'm pretty sure there are others.)

Laid low in Quito, recuperating from a mysterious internal ailment, listening to Hot N Cold by Katy Perry blast over the speakers of an internet place downtown. Kind of an annoying song but the video's kind of funny. Speaking of music videos, here are five of my all-time favorites:

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel (Visual innovation over a great rythm section.)
November Rain by Guns n Roses (I still get emotional. . .)
Sabotage by The Beastie Boys (Absolute classic!)
Nuthin But a 'G' Thang by Dr. Dre (Watch it at least three times.)
Go With The Flow by Queens of the Stone Age (GO GO GO!)

Nuthin' but a we thang: Rafael Correa y Hugo Chavez

It's a Saturday in Ecuador's capital, and whatever excitement was generated by Hugo's visit here yesterday has faded. That's right, the Venezuelan president came to Quito to meet his Ecuadorian counterpart. He also gave a taxi an oil change, using a new blend developed by a Venezuelan petrochemichal concern. The headline in El Comercio (Ecuador's main paper) read "Presidents Correa and Chavez sign 13 agreements." This issue also carried stories on rock climbing in and around Quito, "Some of the President's Pearls" (a list of 75 demeaning or insulting terms Correa has used in his weekly TV addresses over the past year) and gave extensive coverage to the new Miss Ecuador, Lady Mina from Guayaquil. There was also an interesting article entitled "La Unase arrested 92 people for kidnapping last year." La Unase is a national anti-kidnapping and extortion force. The article ran through the problems of abduction in Ecuador (55 people so far in 2010), most of which are cases of kidnapping for ransom. Several tips were given on how to avoid becoming a victim: get to know your neighbours; if you're a person of means, don't show it and keep a low profile; get an alarm system and CCTV; vary the routes by which you commute between home and work; tell your kids not to talk to strangers or give out addresses, names of parents, etc.

The humble humita

I hit the streets early, and after walking for 45 minutes gave up on getting a decent cup of coffee. I ducked into a dark doorway and sat down to humitas and coffee, a very popular Ecuadorian breakfast. Humitas have a lot in common with the tamale, their culinary second cousin, but humitas are much simpler and just as tasty. Cornmeal is mixed with butter, eggs, and a little mild cheese before being wrapped in a cornhusk and steamed. The result is a moist mouthfull of cheesy corn: dense, cakey and very sustaining. Give me more! Tragically, the horrendous cafe pasado distracted from the heavenly husks. This is a type of super-concentrated, low-quality drip coffee that looks like old motor oil and is definitely NOT safe for kids. I was served a mug of hot water and instructed to add some of this "concentrate." I gagged my way through that cup of convulsions and got the hell out of there. If anyone thinks it's easy being a coffee snob, IT'S NOT!

Here are a few more observations from yesterday's notes:

-In the main tourist office, amid postcards, maps, and bookshelves full of coffee-table tomes on Quito and Ecuador, I found "Meet Your Ideal Man After 40." I'm not sure what that has to do with tourism but I thought it was kind of neat.

-At the Palace of Government, a few hours before Chavez showed up, I watched a color guard flanked by armed riot police receive dignitaries on the ancient stone portico, while a few feet below a barber calmly gave a trim in one of the alcoves.

-Just saw an old lady put FOUR large spoonfuls of sugar her coffee. A sweet tooth or a cry for help? (Suicide by diabetes?)

-Talked to a friendly butcher about the huge pig's trotters I've been seeing everywhere. The word is that they're amazing in the pressure cooker.

Some shots from Quito:

Try and count the churches, I dare you

Grilled plaintains. They're amazing.