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Published: August 5th 2023
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The delicate flowers Thursday night Esteban brought home some flowers that the company he works for grows. We will tell you more about his job when hopefully we get to visit next week. The flowers are small and delicate and are only grown like this in Ecuador. They would lovely in a bouquet.
Friday morning started out with shoe shopping. Before covid, Ellen used to have a shoe store in another part of her house. We found this new room when we went out on one of the terraces. She sold shoes by appointment only and served coffee and juices in a relaxed atmosphere. Clients could bring their kids and relax. During covid, she shut the business down. She still had some inventory so Susan and I went shoe shopping. Luckily, we have bigger feet than Ecuadorians so there were some shoes our size. The shoes are leather and great quality and were made in Columbia. We both found a pair that fit and that we loved.
After that, we started our fruit tasting. Our first fruit was mangostino. It tasted like a tangerine but sweeter. Next, we tried tuna (not fish). It tasked more like a crunchy
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They were making pickles today. The machine he is working on sliced the cucumbers melon. The green one was more like honey dew and the orange one was more like cantaloupe. Then we tried uvillas. These had a loose outer skin and the fruit inside was waxy so we needed to wash them. They tasted like a cross between an orange and a tomato. I thought we were going to stop then, but we continued on. Granadilla was our next adventure; it is a cousin to passion fruit. You eat the seeds and the flesh was jelly-like. It did taste like passion fruit with sunflower seeds. Next came tumate de arbol it had a sweet, citrus tomato flavor. Simone likes to put salt on it. Then we tried miravala and it tasted like a sour peach. Finally, we had rosados or pink banana. They tasked like a sweeter banana. By now, we were full. Ellen did heat up left overs and some new potato cakes for lunch.
Ellen had to work and do some business in the afternoon so Susan and I took it easy and watched some shows on our computer. Around 5, Ellen, Simone, Susan and I took off to go to the Virgin of El Panecillo. The traffic
there was crazy and we had to go thru several tunnels on the way. The statue is on top of a hill in the middle of town and is probably 1500 feet higher than the 9500 feet elevation of Quito. We learned that the statue was a gift from France in the 50s. I guess France likes to give big monuments. From the top of the hill, you could see all around Quito. Wow, the city goes on forever. Looking north you could see Cambria one of the active volcanoes in the area and to the south, Cotopaxi, which is currently erupting (luckily it seems to not be a significant eruption). We walked around the area to get views of the city. While we were there, the sun set and we could see the lights of the city turn on. It was wonderful. We decided to pay he $1 and climb the stairs to go to the top of the Virgin. After 2 flights of stairs, I had to take a break because of the altitude. On each floor there were exhibits and, on this floor, there were models of the old churches in town. We finally made it to
the top and took some great pictures of the area.
After that we headed to dinner at a nice restaurant just below the statue. The views were amazing and we got a great table by the window. We came at the right hour because by the time we left, the place was packed.
Finally, we headed so Sol Ida, which is down the hill and is the first street in Quito. We parked and walked down a few of the streets. The architecture reminded Susan and I of old Europe. We bought some items in one of the stores and continued walking around. One of the streets had several night clubs. The music in the streets was so loud it hurt our ears. I can’t imagine what it was like inside. We then left and headed back to Ellen’s house.
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