Saquisilí - Cotopaxi - Ecuador

Canton Saquisilí. It is a canton of the Province of Cotopaxi, Ecuador. Its cantonal head is the city of Saquisilí. The lively town of Saquisilí will offer you an exquisite variety of crafts and experiences in its markets that take life in eight colorful squares.

The name Saquisilí means "leave here". The population is 11 km. in the north of Latacunga. Agriculture and livestock are its important production lines. The folklore with its dancers is very rich and the fairs of Saquisilí are famous on Thursdays that congregate the indigenous people of the surroundings with their agricultural and artisanal products. The lively town of Saquisilí will offer you an exquisite variety of crafts and experiences in its markets that take life in eight colorful plazas, each of which provides different merchandise and interesting objects from the indigenous communities of the region.

A place that will captivate you for its colors, customs, landscapes and the kindness of its inhabitants. The Saquisilenses are people of work and commerce, just visit the fair in mention of Thursdays where you can see products such as: livestock, birds, cereals, looms, textiles, gastronomy, crafts, cattle, etc. all in a space located in the center of the canton.

Clima Canton Saquisilí.

It is considered temperate with an average annual temperature of 12 ° C, with the coldest months being July and August 11º C.

Economic development Canton Saquisilí.

Most of the population is dedicated to agriculture and livestock, are its important production lines.

Typical Food Canton Saquisilí.

Cuy roasted: Includes a guinea pig (seasoned and roasted with charcoal), accompanied by potatoes cooked with lettuce, tomato and bramble (similar to a stew that has long onions, milk, peanuts, among others).

Mote and hornado: The cooked mote is accompanied by "picadillo" (cooked carrot, onion and chopped cilantro), chochos, corn, mellocos and beans. It is usually served with Fritada or Hornado (porcino fried or baked).

Corn tortillas: The corn flour is kneaded with butter, salt and other condiments that have their secrets to give it a special flavor; in the center it has cheese with white onion and they are toasted in a wood stove.

Tourist Places of the Saquisilí Canton

Fair of Saquisilí

Within the cantonal context, every week, every year since the fair took place in a small square, the traditional Thursday Fair was growing and taking possession of the economy of the center of the country, which is historically folk, traditional and cultural ; In addition, three official fair days have been declared: Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in 8 different exhibition spaces.

• Sundays: It is a fair of medium magnitude that is growing in the Plaza Kennedy and Mini Market Juan Montalvo. They sell products such as prepared food, clothing, vegetables, pulses, potatoes, grass and other products of first necessity.

• Wednesday: The fair takes place in the Plaza Gran Colombia: O popularly known as the Plaza de Papas; its marketing characteristic are potato tubers; clothing, vegetables and wholesale, and several other products. In the Plaza de Animales (Carlosama sector), small animals are commercialized: pigs, sheep and goats; older animals: cattle, swine, horses, cargo, etc .; and grass.

• Thursday: This fair is a general level, maybe our canton is one of the few in the country in which it is marketed in eight different exhibition spaces in a single day and offering the consumer a great variety of products.

Attractions Saquisilí Fair

• Plaza Gran Colombia: Also called Plaza de Papas, it is located 100 meters east of the central park. Vegetables, vegetables, potatoes, groceries, and others are sold wholesale and retail.

• Plaza de Rastro: or plaza de animales, is located north of the city and whose animals are acquired for slaughter, breeding or resale. Bovine, equine, swine, sheep, etc. are sold here.

• Plaza Gran Colombia: Also called Plaza de Papas, it is located 100 meters east of the central park. Vegetables, vegetables, potatoes, groceries, and others are sold wholesale and retail.

The lively town of Saquisilí will offer you an exquisite variety of crafts and experiences in its markets that take life in eight colorful plazas, each of which provides different merchandise and interesting objects from the indigenous communities of the region.

• Plaza Vicente Rocafuerte: whose main characteristic is the commercialization of poultry, guinea pigs, rabbits, domestic animals. You will also find furniture, hardware and construction materials.

• Kennedy Plaza: Located 200 meters west of the central park, it is characterized by the wholesale and retail sale of dry grains (cereals: quinoa, morocho, barley, lupine, mote, lentil, etc.). They also sell vegetables, vegetables, handicrafts made of clay and clay. And to eat prepared typical food.

• Plazoleta Juan Montalvo and Mini mercado: Located 100 meters south west of the central park, it is characterized by the commercialization of three specific products due to the small size of the same, we have the sale of wholesale and retail candies, footwear and the mini market typical food prepared. Here we can also observe the presence of sewers that instantly sew any garment.

• Plaza 18 de Octubre: Located north of the city, 200 meters from the central park. Handicrafts from Otavalo, Cotacahi, Tigua and other communities of the Canton and beyond are sold here. As fabrics, carpets, caps, etc. You will find groceries, food, reed baskets, fruit wholesale and retail, seafood, artisan cookers and what you can imagine.

• Plaza San Juan Bautista: located a few steps east of the central park here you will find products such as footwear, clothing of different colors, cultures and measures, for ladies, children and men.

• Plaza Vicente Rocafuerte: whose main characteristic is the commercialization of poultry, guinea pigs, rabbits, and domestic animals. You will also find furniture, hardware and construction materials (doors, windows and window covers) and fish wholesale and retail. It is located approximately 400 meters northwest of the central park.

• Municipal Camal: It is currently located about 500 meters south of the central park, is a modern infrastructure that allows the slaughter and hygienic processing of the meat product of cattle, sheep and pigs, with good technology, has a quarter of oreo and a cold room. For the sale, 3 warehouses have been assigned where the merchants directly sell the product.

Festivities Virgen de El Quinche Canton Saquisilí

They are celebrated approximately 65 years ago, when the Virgin of El Quinche is handed over to the Canton by her godmother. Every year from the last week of January to the first week of February one of the largest religious festivities in the canton and possibly the center of the country takes place.

With novenas, masses and processions the Saquisilenses meet and especially those who return from different parts of the country and beyond to thank the miracles of "La Viajerita".

Father Guillermo Rivera, local parish priest, comments that this festival dates back to 1851 when a family gave the Saquisilenses the image of the Virgin. Since then, festivities have been held every year, lasting a month, and attended by national and foreign tourists.

The tradition, which was reflected in a document, indicates that each of the 44 neighborhoods of the canton should receive the Virgin and honor her. In addition, a committee will be formed and a prioste will be chosen, who will organize the event.

The people of Saquisilí work all year round for these holidays and actively participate in both social and religious events.

But, on the days of the Festa Major (First Saturday, Sunday and Monday in February) the Prioste (designated to a neighborhood or Institution in the canton), is in charge of delivering the Band to the People to celebrate the festivities, with the Parade of the Confraternidad Saquisilense come clowns, disguised, guarichas, carishinas and capariches.

Sunday is the day of purely religious Party includes in the Mass of Party, Procession and tour of different arches and altars decorated for the occasion.

Finally, on Monday the Prioste of the next one is known and in a solemn and symbolic delivery the Band of Musicians is delivered, and with the blessing of the Virgin and the sound of the Pasodoble Virgin of El Quinche all say goodbye until next year.

Attractive Festivities Virgen de El Quinche Canton Saquisilí

• For hours in the afternoon and evening to celebrate the reunion there are bullfights, burning of fireworks, dances to the chords of the village bands, melodious orchestras and outstanding artists.

Church of Saquisilí

The Church of Saquisilí, located opposite the central park of the city, is of modern design, cutting and construction. A double lateral concrete structure serves as support for a notoriously angled and large roof.

The large upper deck allows a large central nave, with pillars in its central area. At the back of the nave there is a series of stained glass windows referring to the Catholic liturgy.

None of the towns has preserved ancient temples like ours, built with adobes, gravel, reeds, chilpes of cabuyos, straws and stones carved to decorate doors and windows, the facade and arches of niches and urns that can not be imitated by architecture current, constructions with a scale so sublime, so beautiful and with unique appearances to the Egyptian buildings.

They are walls two meters wide, their vaults that formed the ceiling as if it were a sky where the angels flew joyfully.

The ceiling, the walls, the carved pulpit, painted and adorned merrily made the view of the main altar at the bottom of the church amazing.

The works of art, be they images, sculptures or paintings of the church, must be conserved, since their values ​​are incalculable because they belong to the colonial artist, who for his designs, sculptural art and painting are coveted.

The religious art within our history is the most frank and categorical demonstration of what the man of Saquisilí is capable of, there he demonstrates his faith, his love and the wise teachings of his father sculptors who to this day live by earning their daily sustenance and expressing its cultural value

Address Church of Saquisilí

The church is located on 24 de Mayo Street and a hole, facing the central park.

Building date Church of Saquisilí

The church dates from more than 270 years of age approximately and some of the images are of majority and worth for their sculpture.

Description Church of Saquisilí

Some paragraphs written by priests and religious tell that our church and its images are made by men and women of Saquisilí, by faithful Catholics who knew how to organize the images in their corresponding places giving more real demonstrations so that the faithful feel more respect.

The church in general was worthy of admiration both in its exteriors and with greater reason in its interiors where we found a true work and art of multiple merits. In each vault, urn, or niches floated a biblical perfume with incense flavor, which made us leave perfumed the whole spirit and giving faith, devotion, giving our prayers at the foot of the high altar, rich in ornaments, art, sculpture, carvings and inimitable paint.

The founders of the church left each one of their belongings and those that they brought from other places, reason why it became a colonial artistic patrimony surrounded by cloisters, gardens, candelabras, calyx of gold and silver that were pride of this land.

We would like to locate each of the images, as well as describe their beauty and historical contents that put the believers to meditate and we will remember a few valuable pictures:

The Last Supper, one of the paintings painted on canvas by skilled hands and that Jesus, the picture on canvas called "The Purgatory" or hell is a picture full of bitterness and tenderness that made humans see that under the flames of sin they suffered, moreover, the painting is a scene converted into reality because the flames and the unpublished colors, since the people who suffered the punishment of hell on their faces saw pain, in their bodies we saw the wounds of fire.

The birth of the Messiah, Saint John, Saint Peter, The Divine Shepherd and his Sheep was another of the paintings that stood out and adorned the walls of the church, The Virgin Mary, The Sorrowful, Mary Magdalene, Saint Vincent, with his book in the hand, the sores on his legs and knees and a dog licking the blood of this Saint, it is long to list each image and large paintings that placed on beautiful walls gave a wonderful sight to the view.

The ceiling, the walls, the carved pulpit, painted and adorned merrily made the view of the main altar at the bottom of the church amazing.