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Mum and I had 2 days in Quito before she was flying home so we spent a day in and around the old town. The first thing we did was go the see the changing of the guards which happens every Monday at 11am. The President and Vice President were out on the balcony of the presidential palace to watch it and it was really interesting to see how excited and enthusiastic the people were to see the President. He waved to them and seemed to be really loved by the people, and there were lots of Ecuadorians in the crowd, not just tourists. (Having since found out a bit more in my Spanish classes and with the homestay family in Banos I now know that the President is in general popular with a lot of people for the work he has done and policy he has implemented). The people seemed really proud and patriotic and sang the national anthem with pride- I think this may be why schools also sing the national anthem on Monday mornings. After the changing of the guards and a snack for a late breakfast we did the LP walking tour and wandered in the old town, seeing the old buildings and churches. On Tuesday we went on the telefériQo, which is the cable car up volcano Pichincha. In good weather you get good views of Quito but sadly it was very cloudy. Before you reached where the cloud was you could see the city from the cable car so it wasn't a complete waste of money, but a shame that once at the top (at 4100m) we could see nothing at all! In the afternoon we went to visit a couple of museums that were inside old colonial houses.
Wednesday morning it was time to take my Mum to the airport, but on arrival there we discovered I couldn't go through to check in with her, you have to say goodbye before that, which was weird. I knew I wouldn't like saying goodbye- I'm never very good at goodbyes! I was really glad she could come and was lucky to have had Mum visit and travel with me. We went to a lot of places and experienced lots of different things. I know she enjoyed it too and I think it gave her a good introduction to South America :-)
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