Day two in Quito

Wow! We feel a LOT better today. It is amazing what a good night's sleep can do, especially after not sleeping on the plane the night before. Susan went to bed at 8:40 and slept for a solid ten hours. I got to bed about an hour later, and woke up about 6:30 this morning, as daybreak brightened up our room. We do NOT have a quiet location here, with a major street passing perhaps 50 yards to the south, but when you are tired, you sleep, and the bed was/is very comfortable. We feel like we are already mostly adjusted to the time zone, which is two hours ahead of home.

And let me say a little about the weather. It is gorgeous! It was cool enough last night that a blanket felt good, but not cold. Then this afternoon we sat on a bench in a park for a while, and sitting in the shade, Susan finally decided to put on her jacket, but again, it wasn't really needed. We could easily have just moved to a bench in the sun instead.

This morning we took a taxi out to see Patty del Corral, who is the administrator for the University here in Quito that Samuel was put in contact with by NMSU. They have some sort of cooperative agreement. It is not a large facility, but it seems very personable. A large fraction of their students are here to study Spanish, while others are studying Administration or Ecological studies of some sort.

After we left the University [and I didn't write down their name, and don't remember it], we caught a taxi and went to the LDS Institute in Quito. It is here to provide religious classes for college-age LDS students, but it also turned out to be a good place to get other information. We met a man there named Renzo Baquerizo whose English was quite good, and helped us figure out where and when to go for church meetings during the three Sundays we will be in Ecuador. It was a very pleasant visit.

Then this afternoon we decided to go walk through a park just south of our hotel. It is called Parco El Ejido, and it is wonderful. There are wood sculptures there that are carved from trees that died, plus numerous beautiful live trees. There was a clown or storyteller there, probably more of a stand-up comedian, who had probably 50 people standing or sitting around him, and with whom he interacted a lot. We came up and stood at the edge of the crowd, and after a moment, he asked where we were from. He actually spoke very clear Spanish, probably a necessity in his job, and every few minutes he would go around and hold out his hand to collect contributions. Most of the contributions appeared to be of the nickel and dime variety, but as we were about to leave, and he was windong down, I saw him transfer probably $20 into his backpack, so for an hour or so of performing in the park, he is doing quite well. He did ask if we had children, and then when I said we had two sons, he said "Too bad. If you had a daughter, I could marry her, and you could be my father-in-law," which drew a good laugh from the crowd.

He is standing in the center of the second picture posted above. I need to figure out how to get the pictures to land where I want them to, but I won't hold up this post on that account.

We then walked around and enjoyed the park, and I took quite a few pictures. The top picture is one. They have playground stuff here that kids would love, but that have almost entirely disappeared from the US.

There are a lot of birds here that I don't recognize, but one that I think I do are mourning doves. If they are not, then they are a very close double.

Other interesting notes. When taxis are looking for a fare, they will lightly tap their horns at pedestrians who look like they might be looking for a ride. A wave or a nod, and they pull over. And there are a LOT of taxis around, and they are very inexpensive. We rode in three taxis today, two of them for a pretty fair distance, and the total cost was $5.25. Even if I lived here, I would not own a car or drive. I like more margin of safety than is the norm here.

It is now time for supper, so I will post this entry and go on to other things. Hasta luego!