Boulevard 24 Mayo, 5:57 in the morning. Quito’s former most notorious drug and prostitution street, now pedestrianised, decorated with pink paving and neat concrete planters is deserted and covered with rubbish, broken glass and excriments. Occasional figures are running across with bags, dressed ready for the day of work, some are with kids. Almost no one is walking at normal speed, and stray dogs are ripping apart thrown away remains of meat.
Despite architect’s and planner’s efforts over recent decades, buildings continue to turn their backs onto the wide promenade originally a trench purposed to divide the Spanish colonial Quito from the indigenous settlement on the South. This division is emphasised by the placement of the Virgen de Quito statue, which turns her back on the non-colonial part of the city. The statue is offset slightly from the 24 Mayo axis to be on right the top of the hill.
On the eastern side the Boulevard of 24 Mayo runs into a transport interchange. With a Panoptican prison (now a museum) on one side and Quito’s enormous cheapest single sale market on the other, this epicentre of unloading, informal selling, parking and conflicts, gives an early morning newcomer a fresh portion of adrenaline.
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