Quito Day 3

We had an eventfull last couple of days. Took our first of many bus rides on a very modern articulating city bus, only costs a quarter, to the historic centre of Quito, swaying with the masses as we hung on, nearly hitting pedestrians and cars crossing our ptth. Quito is a big city, packed very tightly in this very hilly area. The historic part of the city is very cool with very narrow cobblestone streets and large plazas where its great to people watch and look at the colonial architecture. Plenty of polizia keeping the muggers at bay. Most people dress very well, taking pride in how they look, however the women wear alot of makeup. We dragged Lukas up and down the narrow streets, still in culture shock.

The most noticeable activity for us is keeping aware of the cars, they rule the road, crosswalks are token features. Cars and trucks continually cut each other off, its quite comical. We took a taxi up to a 100ft statue of the virgin mary overlooking the city yesterday, the guy was great taking every weird backroad into the seedier hill areas over the biggest cobblestones. He rambled in Spanish about many sites and we gawked in awe. The negotiated price at the start of the trip was $7 but when we got back to our starting point he would not take the money, locked the car doors and told me $20. We argued in our basic Spanish and after many minutes locked in the car we got him down to $12. It was an eye opener and a super trip all in one.

We are eating awesome food here, they eat well and mucho. The banana and pork made into large round balls was fantastic at dinner last night. The potato soup recipe is coming home with us too. The big meal is at noon. The beer is cheap, only $3 for a 6 pack of Ecuadorian Pilsner and it tastes good too.

Tia will be adding pictures soon so stay tuned.

Buenos tardes!

Bernd