Monticristi Part 2

The second museum we went into was dedicated to Eloy Alfaro Delgado, he was Ecuador's president for some years and did a lot for the country until his assassination in 1912. He was born, raised and graduated school in Monticristi before traveling the country and back and forth to Panama, where he married and had 9 children. His birthday is June 25 and is a major holiday in some parts, here's his memorial...from upstairs, looking down

And from downstairs, seems like there was a memorial very similar in Washington DC once when we were there.

The seats you can see in these pictures are very old, and popular as far as "antiquities" go, replicas everywhere.

The reason I think Joffrey wanted us to wear long pants, closed shoes and bring a sweater, is the height of this hill, it could get windy and the walk down is long, but beautifully decked, so it wasn't like we were hiking, but he may not have known that. It looks like a lot of the landscaping is new.

One of the things President Alfaro did was get the railroad finished from Quito to Guayaquil. (In the past 10 years or so, the current President Correa has revamped and reopened the railroad, and is pushing rail tourism)

On the walk down the hill, there are picnic areas and playgrounds, there were probably 5 terraced areas, that were very nicely done. (That's the cesped-Astro turf)

A very prominent church at the bottom of the hill, has a huge mosaic of Pres. Alfaro. We stepped inside for a picture, and then from the balcony.

We continued down the hill thru the streets, this is when I realized everybody was closed for Family day. Many people open in the morning on Sunday, but after lunch they close down, so another day will be a shopping day. As we were waiting for the bus something unusual happened. A Funeral stopped traffic, now that doesn't sound unusual, but...Ecuador style

Trucks came and stopped traffic, and the mob just swarmed us for a minute, and boy were they drunk! I can't believe they were able to carry that coffin, some of the men were so drunk, but alas no problems, and as quick as they came, they were gone.

We had one more stop, Joffrey wanted to take us to La Pila where they do statuary.

Didn't find anything here we couldn't live without, some of it may have needed to be repainted, maybe a tad...mmm...Latin American for my color pallet...and I like color! We got a little rain on the bus ride home, and after a shower and some dinner we were ready for bed. We didn't get to talk with Joffrey as much this time because he had RosaLinda, but he loves to show off his country and we are enjoying having him as a tour guide. He said he wants to do another outing next month, so stay tuned...the Adventure continues!