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Imbabura province, this market in Quito is a must. It is located at Jorge Washington St. between Reina Victoria and Juan Leon Mera St. Open every day from 10h00 to 19h00.
MINDALAE - ETHNO-HISTORIC MUSEUM OF HANDICRAFTS “Mindalae” is the pre Hispanic name of the indigenous tradesman who, with his basket tied to his back, walked long distances carrying merchandise to offer at the popular market called “tianguez”. The second floor of the museum holds and exhibit of utensils from Amazonian cultures. At this same floor there are also handicrafts for sale. The third floor presents a display of the origins of the natural fibers used in textiles, such as seeds and wood from native trees. Finally, at the fourth floor, the museum holds a demonstration of the indigenous skills in textile production. Open Monday thru Saturday from 9h30 to 17h30. Sundays from 10h30 to 16h30. Located at the corner of Reina Victoria and La Niña St. Admission fee: $3 general, $1.50 students and senior citizens.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES RUMIPAMBA ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL PARK The most antique stone walls found in Quito are those of Rumipamba Park, a 32- hectare complex located in a former private hacienda, now in the heart of the city of Quito. The walls date back to 400 AD. Rumi means stone and pamba, pampas or plains. Rumipamba has some huge stones from the last important eruption of the nearby Guagua Pichincha volcano, which took place in 1660. The Rumipamba site includes a gully that has become a niche for flora and fauna, especially birds. Several flora species including trees, medicinal plants, fruits and others, are found inside the park. It also includes a “culunco”, which is an antique road connecting the highlands with the
coast for the commercialization of products. These roads date back to the Yumbo culture, a pre- Incan civilization that inhabited the cloud forests surrounding Quito. Address: between Occidental, América and Mariana de Jesús Avenues (North West) Open: Wednesdays thru Sundays from 8h00-16h00. Free admission.
LA FLORIDA BURIAL CHAMBERS La Florida Burial Chambers date back to 220 – 640 AD, belonging to the Quitus culture. To this day, the FONSAL has excavated 10 burial chambers which are 1517 meters (49– 56 ft) deep and have 2 meters (6.5 ft) of diameter. Large amounts of amazing ceramics, spondylus and other shells, jewelry, wooden objects and gold were found in the chambers alongside hundreds of bodies. The funeral architecture reflects the cosmovision of the Quitus: the human bodies were given back to Mother Earth’s womb. In order to present the archaeological findings in a didactic manner, the FONSAL has done a great job reproducing one of the burial chambers with 16 bodies and the respective ritual objects. The replica of the faces was done by experts through a systematic reproduction based on the skulls called “forensic medicine”.
Moreover, the FONSAL has placed a “robot” that reproduces images from the original walls of one of the burial chambers on a screen so that visitors can closely admire the traces of the original structure of the chambers. The complex includes a small museum that exhibits original objects found in the burial chambers. Some of the most impressive pieces are the spondylus ponchos, which were worn by only a few of the buried bodies of hierarchical importance. Address: Calle Antonio Costa, between Román and Fernando Corral St., at the San Vicente de La Florida neighborhood in Northern Quito. Open: Wednesdays thru Sundays from 8h00-16h30. Free admission.
SURROUNDINGS THE MONUMENT ON THE EQUATOR It is located approximately 20 minutes away from Quito, at San Antonio de Pichincha. The “Mitad del Mundo City” surrounding the monument includes several restaurants and folklore shops, museums about the missions that measured the Earth, the “Solar Culture Museum” (with a display of the latest investigations about the real middle of the world), and a Planetarium. Inside the monument is an interesting Ethnic Museum. You can shop and place one foot on the northern Hemisphere and the other on the southern
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