Quito, 9/4/04
We arrived late last night after a stressful pre-departure mess caused by Hurricane Frances. There was a moment when I thought we would not end up coming -- and at the time, that thought relieved me as much as it saddened me. It seemed simpler to just stay put, hang out with the cats and get Edie back home, relax and enjoy the refund when it came through. But the other side of my brain prevailed -- the adventure side, the side excited by the idea of this trip, the side that knew a thousand people were waiting to hear how the trip went when I got back. So we decided somewhere around midnight or 1 a.m. to go ahead and spend the $500 extra to book a flight that would get us to Ecuador in time for our cruise, with hope (but not certainty, by any means) that our travel insurance will cover the fare change.
So we're here. It's an interesting city, nice enough, some beautiful churches. We couldn't get a day tour, so we took taxis and the trolley to get around. We spent a few hours in the Old City, the Grand Plaza area (Plaza Grande, rather), had lunch at a pizzeria, took a horse and carriage ride (our driver, Eugenio, made such a grand show of giving us an introductory speech that went on and on until I finally cut him off with "¡No hablamos español!") -- and we came back to the hotel and took a three-hour nap. We are tired girls. It turns out we got some sun today -- Kim has a bright pink triangle on her upper chest from wearing a v-neck -- and surely that helped us sleep like babies all afternoon and still be tired at this writing, 10:46 p.m.
Our hotel is quite nice. Most of the staff speaks English -- one of their selling points -- and all of the material is bilingual. This spoils us a bit -- we walk outside and expect everyone to be able to speak on our terms -- but I have had occasion to put my high school Spanish to work. So much has come back to me. When I get home I'm going to look up Srta. Rhodes and send her a nice note. (I don't think Sra. Aleman would remember me -- she always liked the popular kids more than the good students -- but Srta. Rhodes surely will remember me!)
So, it's time to sleep again. So much I'm not mentioning -- our walk to the market in the big park (El Ejido), the really cheap bottled water, the policia on practically every corner, including the one outside the hotel tonight with a beautiful rottweiler, the masses of people around Plaza Grande, the way all the children lit up when our horse and buggy passed them (making us feel like minor celebrities), the attempted mugging or whatever it was right across the street while we waited for the light to change, the funny walk light, the Bob Esponja (Pantalones Cuadrados) t-shirts, the not knowing when or if to tip, etc. etc. etc.
More later.
So we're here. It's an interesting city, nice enough, some beautiful churches. We couldn't get a day tour, so we took taxis and the trolley to get around. We spent a few hours in the Old City, the Grand Plaza area (Plaza Grande, rather), had lunch at a pizzeria, took a horse and carriage ride (our driver, Eugenio, made such a grand show of giving us an introductory speech that went on and on until I finally cut him off with "¡No hablamos español!") -- and we came back to the hotel and took a three-hour nap. We are tired girls. It turns out we got some sun today -- Kim has a bright pink triangle on her upper chest from wearing a v-neck -- and surely that helped us sleep like babies all afternoon and still be tired at this writing, 10:46 p.m.
Our hotel is quite nice. Most of the staff speaks English -- one of their selling points -- and all of the material is bilingual. This spoils us a bit -- we walk outside and expect everyone to be able to speak on our terms -- but I have had occasion to put my high school Spanish to work. So much has come back to me. When I get home I'm going to look up Srta. Rhodes and send her a nice note. (I don't think Sra. Aleman would remember me -- she always liked the popular kids more than the good students -- but Srta. Rhodes surely will remember me!)
So, it's time to sleep again. So much I'm not mentioning -- our walk to the market in the big park (El Ejido), the really cheap bottled water, the policia on practically every corner, including the one outside the hotel tonight with a beautiful rottweiler, the masses of people around Plaza Grande, the way all the children lit up when our horse and buggy passed them (making us feel like minor celebrities), the attempted mugging or whatever it was right across the street while we waited for the light to change, the funny walk light, the Bob Esponja (Pantalones Cuadrados) t-shirts, the not knowing when or if to tip, etc. etc. etc.
More later.
posted by Kristina at 6:51 PM
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