Last Day in Quito, Ecuador

Palace Guards

President's Courtyard

Lovely Old Couple

Upstairs in the Palace

Lovely old couple!

Scarf sellers

Happy bicyclist with Mary

Beautiful native lady

Want to buy some flowers?

Those green things have white sweet fruit inside.

My CR-V keeps showing up!

Old Town Quito with mt. view.

Quito, Ecuador's capital, sits on a long, level valley between towering Andean peaks. It runs 22 miles from north to south and just 3 miles from east to west. Most of the city's attractions are found in Old Town (where we are) on the southern end and New Town (where we visited a few years ago). It was founded in 1543. I read that if the founder (Sebastian de Benalcazar) were to walk the streets of Old Town today, he might still feel at home. We feel its ancientness as we walk its narrow streets. Traffic is always backed up here because of the super-narrow brick streets. The original colonial buildings, many of which have been restored or are in the process of restoration, have survived earthquakes and volcanic disruptions over the years. Quito was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It's the first city to earn the designation. Old Town is a living museum.

Today's photos include our visit to The Government Palace. We gave up our driver's licenses to get in, but they were returned at the end. We went through two levels of security and were guided through the building. Imagine walking around in the White House taking pictures! The guide was so gracious as to translate his talk for us, the only gringos! A lovely old couple (one of my favorite sights in Old Town is to watch these beautiful old people walk arm in arm) were in our group and they willingly posed for my picture. Then, they came over and said something to us in Spanish and she kissed me on the cheek and gave me a big hug and he gave my hand a really good squeeze----oh, such sweet human beings! You see many, many old people here and I'm constantly wondering what their ages might be. They have such a dignified grace about them. The old men usually have suits on. These people exude a certain elegance and are a joy to observe. They take pleasure in their graceful aging.

We had our first pizza since leaving home Dec. 1st. Our toppings included peperone Americano, cebbola (onion) and aceitunas (olives). (Aceituna is one of my favorite Spanish words to say.) It was really delicious. The Pilsener (local) cerveza was on tap and nice and cold.

I tried to take more pictures of people today. It's hard sometimes because  don't want to intrude and be an ugly Americano shoving a camera at people. I did my best. The young man in the picture with me sells his photos and tee-shirts on a street corner to fund his bicycling adventures. His photos were of his 6 months bicycling around Ecuador (which is almost the exact same size as Colorado). We chatted with him for awhile and found out he's saving up for his next BIG adventure riding around South America. He plans to be gone for 2 years. I bought a shirt for $10 and wished him well. He said that after those 2 years, he wants to bicycle in Africa. I love it when young people have a goal and a dream.
Every time we walked by the street he was on, we saw crowds looking and buying his photos/shirts. I think that his suenos will come true.

We leave early tomorrow morning heading south to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. We have rented a house at Hacienda San Joaquin, a place that captured our hearts when we visited it 3 years ago. We don't have wifi in the house, so my blogs may not be as up-to-date as these last 3 days have been. We've been spoiled at our vrbo here with fast wifi.
Adios,
Mary and Bob
P.S. UNESCO's World Digital Library (WDL) has been available on the internet since Nov. If you love maps (like me) or are interested in the jewels of great cultural value to humanity, go to www.wdl.org. Among the more than 1,200 documents, are the first maps of the Americas from 1562 and the Gutenberg Bible. The site is free.