Day 2













 We didn’t get much sleep and woke up after 7 am. After a big buffet breakfast we walked the neighborhood. It’s called La Floresta and it’s a mix of some old colonial mansions and very modern high rises. There are several universities in the area so lots of young people, cafes and quirky restaurants. It’s also very green here because it rains a lot. Quito is surrounded by extinct volcanoes that are higher than the city – 15,000-18.000 feet. We see some of them from our hotel window when clouds dissipate. After the walk, we took a taxi to the center to take a 3-hour bus city tour.  Quito is a huge, mostly modern city, but it also has the largest and best preserved colonial city center in South America. The tour took us through extremely crowded and narrow up- and down-hill streets of the historic center to the El Panecillo hill with panoramic views of the entire city and the enormous metal figure of the Virgin, which supposedly is bigger than Christ the Redeemer of Rio.  We also have to say that Quito’s hills make San Francisco appear to be flatland. The city also has many large parks, the largest being Parque Catalina, which is like Central Park in NYC. It was full of people today. Before our tour we watched a part of the Quito city police community integration event with games and super cute presentation of 5 police dogs. In late afternoon we ventured again to explore other parts of our neighborhood, including a cult old movie theater called OchoyMedio (probably after Fellini’s 8 1/2 movie).  One notable thing: Everywhere we went to when you enter any public space (e.g. shop, restaurant, mall, tour bus, etc), you have to show proof of vaccination. If you don’t have it, you can’t enter. And people wear masks (most double mask) indoors and out.  

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