Iglesia de Santo Diego

So today I have a new teacher for this week, named Laura.

This afternoon we went to the church of Santo Domingo, which houses nuns, a primary school & a secondary school. The church is under restoration and there are murals that simply cannot be fixed, but all in all there were many beautiful pictures and staues throughout this church. Unfortunately, no pictures can be taken inside and thus all I have is from outside. One interesting thing inside the church is that there is a hidden passageway to the right of the altar in the main chapel area and to get there you have to push a huge stone looking thing which has to wigh a ton, but is easily moved. Ingenuity at its finest...makes me wonder if we could create something like that now.

I dont think that I mentioned before how many things are made of volcanic rock here but there are many volcanoes, some active, in Ecuador and the rock is smooth and hard and great for floors. Many old churches and govt. buildings have this kind of stone for the floor and at times the walls or other things. In the church today, I found out that parts of it date to the 1500´s while other parts the 1700´s and 1800´s respectively. Of course I am hearing all of this in Spanish so it could have been finished last year. ;)

There are many people online and I think this is the reason that my pictures will not upload...a few more tries and then you will have to wait...sorry. Well....after 4 tries...you will have to wait.

One other thing that I was going to post a picture on is the graveyards, mainly above ground and there are thousands...I have few pictures and will TRY to get them uploaded...