Iglesia de San Francisco

Javier and I had another amazing weekend (our last hurrah before the kiddos come to school!), which included a fun concert/show on Friday night.  A fellow teacher (who rides our bus) performed in the show and told us a bit about it (mostly that everyone would be dressed as little devils and that there was a lot of fire planned).  The show was at Plaza de San Fransisco and told the legend of the church, Iglesia de San Fransisco, that dominates the western part of the square.  Here are some pictures, the plaza looked beautiful at night!

This is the most expensive hotel in Quito! You can also see the statue of The Virgin on El Panecillo (to the left).

This is not Iglesia de San Francisco but Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus that we've toured!

I should maybe start with a quick recap of the legend of Iglesia de San Fracisco (so that you know why there were little devils running around everywhere).  The story (as we've heard it and another version you can read on the church's wiki page ...down at the bottom under El atrio de Cantuna) is that a native man named Cantuna was supposed to build the church.  He was given the money upfront but (depending on which story you listen to...) spent it drinking and having a merry ole time instead.  As the deadline for the construction approached, the devil offered to build the church for Cantuna in  exchange for his soul.  Cantuna accepted the deal from the devil (that he would 'place every stone in one night' in exchange for Cantuna's soul).  So the devil and all his minions ran around and built the entire church in one night.  Cantuna, however, hid a single stone (either by drunkenly passing out on it or cleverly hiding it from the devil...again depending on which story you're going with here...) so that when the devil claimed to have completed construction, Cantuna revealed the hidden stone and claimed the devil had not 'placed every stone.'  In this manner he escaped hell and was able to complete the church on time.

At the start of the show they set off ample amounts of fireworks from this church that was first constructed in the 1500s (which made all the Americans very nervous).

Here are the devil's minions descending from the church and into the crowd.

Two demons actually walked down the church from the roof (where they had been setting off all the fireworks)

This is the stage (there was fire everywhere, constantly) where the band played some awesome (and creepy) music throughout the show. (Santiago is the Colegio Menor teacher who told us about it...he played sax!)

The performers (and their fire) ventured out into the crowded square often.

Their costumes (and the fire) were terrifying!

Here is a picture of Santiago on stilts!  He told us he was going to walk in them at some point, but he ended up dancing, hopping down stairs and playing with fire in them.  We were very impressed!

In the end Cantuna came out (also on stilts) and defeated the devil by revealing the last stone (which was also made out of fire).  It was a super entertaining show (did I mention the fire?)!  It was fun to dance in the square and get to witness such an extravagant Quito event!  Also the fireworks were awesome (and close)!  We hope it was just the first of many :)