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Articles Tagged ‘ecuador’

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Jesus of the Andes

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

I love churches. Can’t say I love the Church, but the buildings and their contents fascinate me.  I am awed by the faith and patience in their God by the builders.  We have a couple of real churches in the U.S., but nothing like what exists in Europe and what I am finding to exist throughout Latin America.  You have to imagine men working on a church for their whole lives never to see it completed.  I don’t have that kind of faith and patience in me.  I want real results and complete results in my lifetime.  I don’t need it to be the speed of McDonald’s, but three centuries to build something exceeds my limits.  Yours, too, I am sure.  The contents of these buildings fluctuate between the beautiful and ornate to the scary and bizarre.  La Compania de Jesus in Quito is one of the greatest churches I have ever entered.  On one side of the entrance is a painting depicting Final Judgement including people getting poked and burned in the rear as they are forced towards the fires of Hell.  On the other side of the entrance is a painting depicting Hell itself.  It includes many scenes of various sinners being tortured in ways to match their sins.  For instance, the adulterer is perpetually having his groin burned by a fire-breathing dragon.  Damn!  That one made me hurt!  The churches of the colonial period are the real art of that time.  The subject matter may be a little narrow, but I still love it.

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Greatest Show On Earth

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

That’s what National Geographic calls Galapagos Islands.  I would have been skeptical after what I saw in Africa, but it’s National Geographic making that pronouncement.  Well, being the ultimate skeptic, I was, but I decided to have a little faith in my favorite world journalists.  I am more than happy to report that I have seen what may be the greatest show in the Universe.  Best of all, my sister, Julie, joined me for such an amazing experience.  We were lucky to see wildlife acting in ways that they just don’t exhibit anywhere else.  Sea lion pups “walk” up and nuzzle you.  Sea lion parents frolic with you in the water.  Blue-footed boobies put on a courtship dance including exchanging sticks as if they are exchanging vows and wedding rings.  Reptiles called marine iguanas swim in the ocean.  Eleven species of giant tortoises exist on the islands.  Sharks swim with fish and humans and all are content.  Sea lions play with iguanas and crabs.  Pelicans and just about every other animal allow humans to walk or swim within a meter of them without balking.  I’m still at a loss regarding why the animals allow human contact.  The common wisdom is that they did not have contact with humans and did not learn to be afraid of humans as predators, but this seems to be a myth when you learn about buccaneers wiping out most of the tortoises and that fishing and other hunting went on until the last few decades.  One day we were snorkleing at Devil’s Crown and I was acting like the third sea lion with two real ones.  I looked down and three meters below us was a shark!  I stopped acting like a sea lion immediately knowing I was the slow one, but I had to wonder why the sea lions would hang out around a shark.  Another day and we found two sharks cuddling near a large school of butterfly fish.  I kept my eyes on them.  I looked for the group and they had all turned their backs on the sharks as if that was ho-hum, just sharks.  I guess even the humans get conditioned to hang out with the predators without worries very quickly in the Galapagos.

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