Monday 29 October 2012

Day 113: Exploring Quito with Shirley

Hello everyone
It's Shirley here. Today I am going to write the blog. Not for any particular reason but just because we thought it might be fun!

It was very quiet here this morning after a very noisy Saturday evening, Spot the difference:

Wednesday


Today:






Avenue Rio Amazonas and a number of the surrounding streets are closed to motorised vehicles every Sunday for cyclists, runners and wheelchair speedsters. Families were out in force.

We didn't do any running but we did do some walking - looking for a breakfast. Lots were closed but the few that were open were filled with blokes having breakfast with beer accompaniments!

Then we took a taxi up to the cable car. $6 for seniors! Well that sounded like us. Here is the view from the base of the cable car.



Quite a few people were taking their bikes to the top!






And some monks waiting to take the trip.



I chose to go with my back to the view.



Once I was at the top I was fine.



So were the views.






We were at 4,050 metres asl.



Ken found this altitude a little breathtaking and breathless-making!

These are for you Lorraine with your new mountain bike.









We had a coffee (capuchino made with Nescafé) and headed on down. This time I was in the seat looking downwards at the view. I was ok. A grandmother in the seat opposite told me not to be scared.

At the bottom we had quite a wait for a taxi and then went to the Botanical Gardens. Lots of orchids. Ecuador claims to be native to 96% of the world's orchids.















And lots of plants that feed on animals. By drowning?



Smelling of rotten meat?



This was in the carnivore area but I'm not sure how it worked.



This was an educational section.



Different types of corn and maize.



A baby pineapple



And huge-trucked banana plants.



A walk through the park with lots of families enjoying the sun.



A clown entertaining the traffic stopped at the red lights.



And so we walked back to the hotel for a late lunch. Ekki and Phil, two of our friends from the Stahlratte have arrived and are staying in a hostel just down the road so we went to say hello. They didn't enjoy the closed roads quite as much as us as they were trying to GPS navigate to their hostel. GPS don't necessarily understand that on Sundays certain roads get closed.

We started to have a big pack up because we are moving to a new hotel tomorrow. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant tipico. After our late lunch we weren't very hungry so just had skewers and salad. They were very good.



And some red wine in funny glasses.



Which we repeated in my watermelon-free fruit salad.



Love to Lachie and James and to everyone.
Shirley.


Today's run: 0kms
Cumulative: 27,996kms
Tipovers: 6

Location:Quito, Ecuador

4 comments:

  1. great pics and blog too Shirley! trouble with taking you bike up the cable car is you'd have to ride down and that would be a scary thought for me. I almost go slower downhill than up hill - but I can see that dare devils would love the big ride. Glad you are having a nice tourist look about - and hopefully Kennif's ribs are starting to feel better.

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  2. You should start your own blog, mum! Very nicely written...

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  3. True I could! But I'd need an iPad too :-) have had plenty of input into your Dad's blog. Love to you all Mum

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  4. Well done, and again, as always, love the foodtography. Were there any vanilla orchids at the botanical gardens?

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