Day 3 in Quito

Happy to report that the South American leg of our journey is finally underway (bet you thought it would never happen). 

In Parque Carolina

We arrived in Quito Thursday night and got a ride into the city from our AirBNB hosts. Pablo and Gabriela have been great, he runs a small tour business and has been eager to share local recommendations and potential itineraries for our upcoming travels.

We've been taking it easy  as we adjust to the high altitude and close proximity to the sun. The air is dry and cool and the sun is intense. Quito is surrounded by mountain peaks and volcanoes - as you walk along and look up streets to the east or west you see the green hills with houses crawling up their sides. 

We've done a little bit of exploring in the Centro Historico of Quito - full of colonial facades, cathedrals, and pretty plazas. The language school we will start tomorrow is in that area of town so we will explore it much more. Also enjoyed strolling through Parque Carolina yesterday and Parque Ejido today with our host Gabriela and her mom where there was an artisan's market going on. 

Graffiti near "our" mercado

Everyone we've interacted with in Quito has been incredibly kind and patient - from the taxi driver to the woman in the mini-market to the guy trying to get me to tell him if I wanted lentils or beans with my meal today (I really need to learn a lot more food related Spanish, stat). We have seen fewer tourists than I expected so far, I think Cuenca may have more of an expat scene than Quito does - although there IS a bar nearby called Finn McCool's if we decide we need a Guinness. 

Basilica del Voto Nacional perched above Old Town

Unintentionally ordering whole fish in the mercado

We've had some good introductions to being out of our element - finding a bank to get smaller bills at, pushing on to an insanely crowded bus, ordering food and buying our veggies at the lovely Mercado Santa Clara nearby. As E.J. said last night as we were laughing about having to go in 4 different entrances before we found the correct part of the bank - "We are definitely not in a rut".