The old gods and the new

Visiting Ecuador’s capital Quito before the Covid-19 crisis struck, we encountered high hopes, a generation nodding to the past while building a bold future. We fell in love. Our Trip story runs as we had intended, honouring Quiteños’ endeavours at time when they need support

- HUGO MACDONALD

It is midday in the Jardín Botánico de Quito. In a dense, knotty patch of vegetation, somewhere between the orchid house and the bonsai garden, shaman Taita Shairy is talking about ancestral knowledge. Bathed in the equatorial sunlight, he radiates a piercing dignity that would stir the soul of the most stubborn agnostic. His message is simple and powerful: ‘We are connected to the trees and the mountains and the soil. This is where our ancestral wisdom comes from. We don’t have gods. Our spirits are our ancestors, and nature is where we find our wisdom.’ And despite the noise of the traffic shrieking through the downtown district of La Carolina, ferrying Quito’s 2.8 million bodies back and forth down the corridor of volcanoes, we hang on the shaman’s words, suspended for a moment in time and space.