Last night was a tough one. I believe the altitude finally caught up with me (too bad I did not read about the symptoms and how to treat it before it got as bad as it did). Mostly it feels like having the flu – nauseous, achy and just plain old yuck. Needless to say I spent most of the day in bed trying to drink water so I could feel human again. Tod is a saint of a husband (well just as a person in general), and spent the day pestering and trying to nurse me. No just kidding, really he spent the day catching up with work emails and trying to make sure I had what I needed to rest.

I will use this post to tell you some interesting things about Quito traffic. It is so over populated in the city that there is a restriction on when your car can be on the road. Based on the last digit of your license plate number will determine your restriction. Sandra, our landlady, cannot be on the road on Tuesday mornings from 7:30 – 9:30 and again in the evening rush hours from 4:30 – 6:30. You really do not want to be walking around on busy streets during these times of day because the exhaust fumes are so bad. We are in more of a residential area so it is not so bad but still cars have to respect the restriction no matter what. The photo below is the entrance to our casa and also Sandra’s “garage”. It is long and narrow – 3 (small) cars could fit.

Tomorrow we are planning to take a bus to the middle of the world, “Mitad del Mundo”. I am sure it will be more interesting than today was. Until tomorrow or Hasta mañana.

I forgot to mention that we did watch the Packer game Sunday. Tod and Jeremie (Jeremie configured everything while Tod complained it was taking to long) have it setup so Tod can turn on his SlingBox/NFL Ticket on a computer from here, connect the computer to our TV in Ecuador and we can watch anything available on the TV in Dallas. Crazy right? Anyway we enjoyed watching the Packers beat the 49ers right from the comfort of our Ecuadorian casa/home.

Monday we were on a mission to check out the local “Cake Factory” (not sure why the sign is in English, nobody there spoke a word of English). Sandra said this is a great place for coffee and breakfast, she was correct. The problem is, like most of the places in our neighborhood it does not open until 9:30 AM during the week and 10:00 AM on the weekends. Who the heck ever heard of a bakery / coffee shop that does not open until the morning is almost over? Oh well, it had great reviews and we had no choice, so we waited until 9:30 for coffee.

Next stop, the Panificadora or Bakery which is a great place to get fresh bread. There is a photo below and if you notice the green garage type door next to the bakery it is another shop that is just not open yet. It is strange, during the day the streets are busy with pedestrians and open shops. At night or early (Ecuadorian) mornings the streets are deserted and just look like rows of garage doors.

The photo of the fruit stand is not the greatest – the sun was in the wrong place – but you get the idea. These little fruit and vegetable stands are all over the place and the prices are great. I scored big time at the stand a few doors down the street. They had Guanàbana (not sure if there is an English translation) for $4.00! And not just one, they had several of them. I asked how much and was sure I did not understand what the shopkeeper told me when she said “cuatro dolares”, I repeated it back to her and held up 4 fingers and she nodded, “si cuatro dolares”. I am sure I could have bargained down but I was in such shock I just picked a ripe one out and put it in my bag. This was still expensive for Ecuador but not compared to the $25 they cost at the exotic fruit stand in Puerto Rico.

I wish I could send a case to Kristen, a friend from my Puerto Rico days. She loves Guanàbana so much that if there was only one at the stand we would save it for her. The taste is sort of a combination of strawberry and pineapple with an after taste of maybe coconut or banana – it’s hard to explain. Most of the local people cannot stand all the seeds so use it to make juice or a type of ice cream. It has a high content of nutrients and antioxidants. It’s high in vitamin C and several B vitamins but believe it or not all the nutritional value has nothing to do with why I like it so much. I just plain old love the taste!  So as you see below, I made Tod take the photo below of me holding my prize Guanàbana!

Sundays in Old Town are a blast. The streets are closed down and all the vendors come out. There are musicians, mimes, and all kinds of street shows. I love Ecuadorians for many reasons but mostly because I do not have to be in the front row to see the shows! (At 5’ 3 1/2″) I am taller than most of the women and even some of the men.

I’m not sure if it is every Sunday but on the 4^th there was a parade from church to church and the Ecuadorians were dressed in native ceremonial costumes. We toured a few of the cathedrals all of which are beautiful but the most spectacular cathedral was the Iglesia de la Compańia de Jesus. This cathedral took 160 years to build and was under construction from 1605 – 1765. Walking into this cathedral is absolutely breathtaking and feels like you just walked into a golden palace. 23 carat gold leaf covers almost every square cm of the interior. I do not think that photos could have done it justice but it’s a shame we cannot show you pictures of the inside of this magnificent church, but photo taking is not allowed.

We walked across a bridge sort of away from old town and came across a local band. We stopped to listen for a while and have a video that I will post as soon as I get it sized. These people know how to have a good time! Old Town is definitely worth going to but do it on a Sunday when the streets are blocked off and the festivities are in full force! This will be hard to top.

Today we experimented with public transportation. By familiarizing ourselves with transportation we opened the doors to exploring Ecuador. The trolleys and buses cost .25 cents each trip but there are the long buses that are about $1.00 an hour. We took the trolley to Parque La Carolina (Carolina Park) which is a 165 acre park in the Quito central business district. We were on a shopping center touring mission so we did not have much time to spend in the park but plan to go  back to tour the botanical gardens some other day.

First shopping stop was Centro de Shopping Ińaquito. This was a huge shopping center and I saw many things I want to go back and possibly purchase, but our only real purchase was a HDMI cable so we could connect a computer to the TV so we would be able to watch the Packer game on Sunday. This center has so many children’s activities from face painting to riding little animal cars it was amazing. Besides all the kids activities the majority of shops were for shoes, followed closely by women’s clothing, and then the normal mix of everything else. Next we walked over to Quicentro Shopping Center and the first store I saw when walking in was Tiffany and Company the entire shopping mall was high end fashions and totally amazing. Again most of the shops were shoes and women’s clothing followed by “all the rest”. Our only purchase here was coffee and scones at the Juan Valdez coffee shop. It seems like Juan Valdez is the Starbucks of Ecuador and quite honestly I love it just as much as Starbucks. Well except nobody speaks English and all the menus are in Spanish. Even the mall security guards in their gold rimmed top hats did not speak English. (Good thing I know how to ask where the bathrooms are!) Our Spanish is coming back, but not as fast as we would like it to.

We took a bus to the Mariscal district with plans to visit Finn McCool’s Irish Pub and Sports Bar. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the map nor did we remember the street it was on so after walking a few more miles we took a taxi home. (Some taxis have meters – those are the easy ones – most don’t.) This was the first time I asked how much it cost, after that we more just estimated and gave the driver what we were willing to pay. Usually about $4.00 which includes a generous tip.

So did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Australian and the Canadian? OK me either but these three are the founders and owners of Finn’s where we did end up going back to for an early dinner. We both ordered the Ecuadorian Potato, Cheese and Avocado soup. It is wonderful and again I wish I had taken a picture. I must get this recipe. It was nice to speak English with a few of the Australian’s there for the big game but honestly we are relieved we have the means to get the Packer game in our flat. Finn’s is a fun place but way to noisy and crowded for our football viewing pleasure.

Day one in Ecuador and I woke with a screaming headache.  I knew right away it was from the unaccustomed altitude (9000 feet), I drank as much water as possible until my headache dissipated. The big plans for today are to walk and familiarize ourselves with the neighborhood and find the grocery store or Supermercado. We had street maps and verbal directions from Sandra (received between 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM after a full day of travel, not to mention the elevation issue) directing us to the Supermercado, a hardware store, a bakery/coffee shop, the trolley and the bus stops. She told it would be an easy walk to the grocery store but take a taxi back – it would cost $1.50 for the taxi ride. The coffee shop, fruit stands and hardware store are more “level” so in Sandra’s opinion, would be easy to walk both ways.

We found out exactly what Sandra was talking about. I believe anything less than a 45 degree angle is considered “level”. Our flat is located on a very steep hill and everything to see or do is at least a mile or so lower than where we are. Early on, we discovered that the easy / downhill part of our daily journeys are always at the start of the trek, when we are fresh and full of energy. I think we are both going to have extremely strong leg muscles when we finish this trip. (By the way, we never did take the taxi back from grocery shopping. It was uphill all the way – we had to stop to catch our breath several times on that trip.) You cannot tell from the photos but it really is Very steep.

We explored on foot all day and put on well over 5 miles, mostly up hill and other than our landlady Sandra, no one speaks English. So the good news is we are being forced to brush up on Spanish.

There isn’t much exciting to talk about with travel except to say it was really uneventful which is what all travelers hope for – no delays – no cancellations – no problems.  I almost finished “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and Tod studied his books and maps on Ecuador. We left home at about 9:30 AM and got to Quito by 8:30 PM. I wish it would have been light out when we landed so we could have seen the mountains and the active (smoking) volcano.

Our lower flat is cool. I like all the hardwood and tile floors. It’s much bigger than we really need or will use, but the price and the central Quito location made it an attractive choice.  Sandra had bottled water and a fruit dish filled with local fruit. I was in heaven, I felt like we had just hit the jackpot! All this great tropical fruit – Maracuya or Passion Fruit, Oritos or Baby Bananas, Tuna or Prickly Pear, Papaya. I wish I would have been awake enough to think of taking a picture but we were both so tired, I am sure we were asleep within minutes of climbing in bed. (Can’t wait until tomorrow to start exploring this corner of Ecuador.)

Our trip to Ecuador October 1, 2015 – October 28, 2015 should prove to be yet another of our great escapades. We fly from Dallas to Miami and Miami to Quito. Approximately an 8 hour trip at the end of which Sandra, our landlady will pick us up and transport us by auto the 45 minute commute to our Ecuadorian home. Our primary residence will be a lower flat in the central western part of Quito. We have plans to explore in and around Quito by bus, trolley, train, and foot. Other journeying will require flights but we’ll tell you about those excursions as they happen.  Let the adventures begin! (Can’t wait to tell you all about it!)