I am really not feeling great today so it seems to be the best day to just hang about town. The first thing I did was go up the Teleferico , or cable car. It goes way above town and you can just ride the car up, hang out and ride it back down. More adventurous souls hike from there, but it is not safe to do it alone, so for once I was smart. The really wild souls ride mountain bikes down! Okay, I really wanted to rent one but alas, my old body wasn't up to the task today. Hat tip to those bikers because they made it to the bottom around the same time that I did in the cable car. Must be quite the adrenaline rush. Pictures of that will have to wait until I get home. Conveniently, a man in the cable car had a guide with him so I got a lot of free info. We also had great views of all of the surrounding volcanoes. It can get pretty cloudy up there, but sometimes you can see the mountain peaks of the Eastern range above those clouds. Very cool.

After a rest, I wandered to the Old Town. Ecuadorians are very family oriented and often hang out in the parks on weekends. The city wisely bans traffic from the old city most of Sunday so it is packed with locals and tourists alike. They also close off part of a main road for cyclists, which was really fun to watch. I saw all manner of bikes, even a unicycle. There were even some adrenaline seeking in line skaters, going down fairly steep cobble stone roads. Yikes! Not one was wearing a helmet either, made me shudder. There is video of one skater.

The plazas and parks had lots of entertainment for the kiddies. There was also some folk dancing and of course street vendors. I walked through many parks and just soaked up the vibe. Treated myself to lunch which didn't go well, so it is back to bread and water again. On the bright side, I scored some unscented Kleenex. The tissues here (very hard to find) are all scented which just makes me sneeze more. I think the tissue makers are evil... I also have a cold so my nose could really use some TLC.

Time to pack up tonight for an overnight in the cloud forest at Mindo tomorrow.