Last day in Quito

---

Last day Quito
There's a park opposite the hotel and we decided to walk through to the town centre. It was like walking through an English park except the trees were mainly in full leaf but some were dried out apparently they have had a really dry season with lots of drought but now it seems to rain every afternoon. Traffic on the road so we took a taxi, the pollution is so evident and not nice to walk by the road. We arrived at the Plaza Grande then just walked and after buying postcards went to the Ronda where artists used to hang out. The whole road was refurbished and very quiet and there were many plaques with the names of famous artists. Looking for a coffee we came across someone who asked if we were English, he then spoke in Spanish mostly but said there was an art gallery we shouldn't miss. We went for a coffee in a beautiful old hotel and Steve ordered an 'esmarillo' wow, don't go there, it's uncooked meringue with fruit and two cones stuck on the top. I ordered a fruit drink and when it arrived it was full of chopped up pieces of fruit and it looked like vomit, luckily it didn't taste like vomit, tasted quite good but you ate the fruit with a spoon. Not quite what we wanted but sometimes you just have to try these things. We then went to the watercolour art gallery of Oswaldo Munez he's now 87 and lives in Quito and does the most beautiful watercolours of places in South America. We strolled further around the old city and we started to fall for Quito, it may be poor and in need of renovating but it has a certain old world charm that is warm despite the chill in the air. The people don't beg they work hard for a living, shoe shines, others selling freshly picked fruits, coco sweets, papers, anything they can they do. The taxis are cheap but the traffic is slow, however we made our way to our favourite cafe in the ethnic shop. Yummy food some of the best we have tasted then the rain came. We collected our laundry $.5 for a shirt and two T shirts and went back to the hotel. Skype we love you it was soo good to talk to Danny, Betsy and the children, Nim was at Glambop so we will have to wait until we can talk to her. Went to meet the rest of our group going to the Galapagos, they all seem really nice, then packed, had supper and read until we fell asleep as we had to be up at 5 in the morningA relaxing day sometimes you need those.

---