Digigran

I suspect most of you didn't even notice I'd left. Well I have and I am posting this from the Hilton in Quito- feeling slightly light-headed from lack of sleep and the effect of the altitude. I don't think I've got that altitude sickness though just a little sad at heart because in all the wonder of a beautiful city we keep coming across examples of dire poverty and gross neglect of the indigenous people. I guess when we finally get to the Galapagos tomorrow we will see mainly widlife and tourists. However, that doesn't make the ridiculous spectacle of a Catholic Church spending God knows how much to re-furbish their churches with huge amounts of gold leaf, when outside the Indian population is not getting an education or the kind of healrh care to treat the most obvious illnesses and disabilities.. In the school day the public square was full of little boys trying to hustle a buck by cleaning shoes and little girls toting babies round in shawls, showing their faces to try to get a dollar. The guide remarked that education was no longer universal and poorer families often chose to educate only their sons and keep their daughters at home.
And they are so dignified these indian people and the churches in which they worship so groos, over decorated and oblivious of their need. They feature God and the saints as Spaniards and show hell fire pictures to frighten the vanquished into prayer. Ended up empytying my wallet od f one dollar bills.
Lost myself for the afternoon in the anthropological museum which is full of the wonderful artefacts of the pre- Inca periods. Gold to airy thinnes beat in breast plates and head gear, and a multiplicity of ceramic imagings of the human condition- some of them very rude indeed - but I coudn't take pictures in the museo so you will need to make do with the ones at the top of the page. Digidoc said a very wise thing; he said that he was struck by the beautiful simplicity and human-size clarity of the Indian art in comparison with the over-blown, suffocating, deadly sentimentality of the Spanish conquerors' rendering of Christianity. I hope we don't have to visit any more cathedrals on this trip or i might just have to vomit.
Anyway BLOGGING is a bit expensive at the Hilton so that's all for now. I'll see if I can BLOG again on our return. I think we are marooned in Miami for six hours on the return journey, so I can try then.