We decided to take the cable car up Mount Pichincha today. It climbs up the Andes mountains to 16,000 ft above sea level and I imagine the views of the city are spectacular. But you know what they say about the best laid plans....it was cloudy today and we couldn't see the top of the mountain so the views would be less than spectacular. We were told there would be no rain, by the cnsierge, so we were hopeful that the clouds would clear out and we could get up there in the afternoon. So on to Plan B. We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. 

The botanical gardens were about 5 km from the hotel so we thought we'd walk there and take in the sights and sounds of the city along the way. We went through an area rife with restaurants and cafes and street vendors and then through a bit of an industrial area, then a shopping area until we finally reached the gardens. 

There were some lovely bits but it seemed like many of the flowers were at the end of their season. I did take some nice shots though. we spent about an hour and a half there. 

We kept our eye on the sky but instead of clearing up more dark clouds were appearing and I began to feel some drops. We thought we'd check out a mall we were passing and felt like we'd been transported to Yorkdale when we entered. It seemed so out of sync with the area. We walked around but after a few minutes we hightailed it out of there and started the walk back to the hotel to regroup. We decided to take a different route and came upon a square called Plaza Foch which had restaurants and bars everywhere you looked. The rain started really coming down so we ducked into one of them for lunch. The rain just kept coming so we knew we weren't going to get up Mount Pichincha. We grabbed a cab and came back to the hotel to pack. We're leaving for Panama City tomorrow morning. Good thing as we've had enough of Quito for now. It's a nice city but we're not really feeling it for some reason - maybe the weather or maybe it's a let down after the Galápagos. In any event we feel like we saw everything we wanted to (except for the cable car views). It was still raining pretty hard so we took a cab back to the hotel. The driver was very nice. He spoke no English but we managed to get by somehow. But he tried to rip us off. We should have caught on that he wasn't using the meter but... So we got to the hotel and the guy asked for $3.00. Vic was livid and started saying no way. Yesterday we took a cab from the Old Town that was twice as long and it was $2.75. We gave him that and a tip, even though tipping isn't expected here. It wasn't the money but the fact that today the driver was trying to take advantage. We ended up giving him $2.00 and no tip. We made arrangements for our 5:30am departure and wnpent up to the room. Vic crashed and later we packed and de died to just stay on and call it an early night. We were hoping to stream the Leafs game but it wasn't meant to be. 
 
Here are my thoughts about Quito. The people are mostly sweet-natured. There are many parks and green spaces scattered about and it has gorgeous scenery. It's very inexpensive - the food, the taxis, public transit. It’s a city where you can take a taxi anywhere in town for $1 to $5 and find a menu del dia... usually a four-course meal of soup, salad, meat/rice/vegetables, dessert and beverage... for $1.50 to $5.00. Yes, there are gourmet restaurants where you can spend more but compared to home, it’s a real bargain. Often called the “most beautiful big city in South America” for its location in a valley cupped between tall Andean peaks. Personally, I'm not sure it's the most beautiful but it is nice. The 14,000-acre Parque Metropolitano, bordering the city’s Bellavista neighborhood, is the largest urban park in South America. (For comparison, New York’s Central Park is just 834 acres.) We didn't make it there but I hear that it has mazes of forested paths, and is a nature lover’s delight with air that smells of eucalyptus and pine, and from atop the eastern ridge, the views of Quito to the west, and to the east, the valley and volcanoes beyond is unforgettable. I hear that on a clear summer day you can see the snow-topped Antisana, Cotopaxi and Cayambe volcanoes looming over the city. (That’s the way it appears, but they’re actually far away.). Of course, when we use the word “summer” it means something different here than it does at home. In Ecuador there are only two seasons: summer—or the dry season—and winter, the rainy season. In either case, I read that've average temperatures hover around 75 degrees during the day and 45 or so at night...every day. We were here in the rainy season and I think it was likely 75 yesterday until it started raining but generally it was jeans and t-shirt weather. 

The Old Town, the first-ever locale in the world to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage site covers more than 800 acres and is the largest historic center in the Americas, with an over-abundance of ancient thick-walled, tile-roofed colonial buildings, churches, museums, and more. The gold-gilded La Compañia de Jesus Church and the neo-gothic Basilica del Voto Nacional adorned with animals native to Ecuador instead of gargoyles we're incredible pieces or architecture. Shopping in La Mariscal, also called “Gringolandia” because of the hordes of tourists and backpacker hotels here, was fun. This is also the place for retaiI therapy. They sell carved items, ponchos, sweaters, scarves, rugs, ceramics, gourds, textiles of all kinds, artisan chocolate, souvenirs, and paintings. In short, Quito has many Old- and New-World charms.

Something to think about: The equator divides Ecuador. Does that mean that if you live south of the equator in Ecuador it's fall now and if you live north of the equator it's spring now?