24 de Mayo

On May 24, 1822, General Jose Antonio de Sucre led Ecuadorian liberation forces in the Battle of Pichincha, which established Quito's independence.  In effect, this was the final step to liberating all of the territory of the Real Audiencia de Quito, basically a swath of land from Guayaquil on the Pacific Coast  to present-day Belen, Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Coast, including all of present-day Ecuador along with parts of Peru, Colombia, and Brazil.

So, you might ask, why does a battle 189 years ago matter?  Because it's a holiday here in Ecuador!  Actually, due to the politics of the current Ecuadorian government, all national holidays that fall midweek are moved to either Monday or Friday, resulting in a long weekend.  In this case, last Friday was the holiday, and I took advantage of the day off to climb through the site of that ancient battle--the slopes of Volcano Pichincha.  I had mentioned my climb earlier in May to my friend Leo, and he wanted to tackle the mountain as well.  We conquered the summit in about 2 hours, 45 minutes after a slight detour due to the intense fog.  My favorite part was finally seeing snowfall.  Yep, I missed snow all winter, but on May 27, I finally got to experience flurry showers...and the accompanying almost-frozen fingers!  It was great to tackle that summit again, and the next day I attempted a new summit, Pasochoa, with some friends.  We had to turn back because of fog and low visibility, but hopefully in August we can make the top.  More on that story (hint: pictures) at a later point.

Since I'm talking about 24 de Mayo, I want to end by sharing a little about how that battle and other events from hundreds of years ago shape present-day Ecuador.
1) The Sucre: Until dollarization in 2000, Ecuador's currency was the sucre, named after Jose Antonio de Sucre, whose face showed up on the 5 sucre note.
2) Border disputes: In 1822, the territory ruled from Quito extended from ocean to ocean and dwarfed present-day Ecuador.  Over the years, bitter battles and disputes with Colombia, Brazil, and Peru have shrunk the borders of this country, where hostility still remains.  Since the last border war, the Cenepa War with Peru, came in 1995, some Ecuadorians still harbor hard feelings against their neighbor to the southeast.