Getting High in Quito

 Our breakfast buffet at the Hotel Sierra Madre was excellent. I devoured the fresh papaya and they served eggs besides the other fresh fruits, cheeses, and local specialties, which had sugar. I could not touch those.

While still trying to adjust to the thinner air with this altitude, we decided on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus today, so we asked directions from the hotel clerk to get us to the nearest stop. It was at a park about 8 blocks from here. Once we found the park, it was huge, covering like 4 square blocks and nary a sign as to where the tourist bus was stopping. We asked a half-dozen people, but either they did not know, they took wild guesses, or sent us on wild goose chases. Finally, we came across a tiny little restaurant down some stairs. Something told me this was the place to ask yet again. Bingo! The young man came out on the street with us and showed us exactly where the stop was, directly across from the Hotel Colon. We had a half hour to wait, but with the walk to the park and the walking around looking for the stop, we were ready for naps.

While we were waiting, we were sitting at the bus stop where public buses stop, watching people come and go. Some of the locals are so short they practically need a step stool to get up to the first step of the bus. In some ways it was comical, but one would think the bus companies would have kneeling buses for just such reasons. 

The Hop-On Hop-Off bus is $12 per person; the complete circuit is 2 ¾ hours. We did the entire round to get the feel of the city. In many ways, Quito is farther along than any city in Guatemala or Belize, but not quite up to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, the commentary on the bus did not keep pace with the attractions or in many cases, the attractions were so far off in the distance, you could not pinpoint what the ghostly voice was referring to anyway.

On the 2nd go around, we stopped in an area that was known for the restaurants and bars. As it turned out, it was mostly bars and international restaurants. There were Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and Chinese places to dine, but finding an Ecuadorian one was like finding hen’s teeth. For a tourist area, it was dismaying when some restaurants did not have a menu in English. Although we could understand the basics, it was the nuances that were important to my food selections.

To Ron’s dismay, I opted for the Mexican restaurant after the hawker outside convinced me it was good food and fresh. This turned out to be an excellent choice. When in Quito, do try El Mariachi Taco Factory at Foch €-318 and Juan León Mera. If we had known the portions would be as large as they were, we would not have ordered as much as we did. I had a salad of lettuce, beans, avocados, and tomatoes with a lemon dressing along with a chicken consommé with avocado, onion, rice, and cilantro. Both dishes were fabulous, but too much food. I could not finish either one. Ron had a combo platter that he was not able to finish either.

We walked around the area for an hour wasting time to catch the bus once more. We did the circuit for the length of time that they were running, but ended in an area we had no idea how to get away from. There was a mall, so we went there to see what it was like. Tremendously large and swank with stores the quality of Tiffany’s and every designer that could come to mind, our eyes were glazed over with the abundance. The decorations were splendid, but what we wanted was el baño. In this giant mall, there is only one. According to the mall directory, the location is not clear, so it took some time, but we were finally successful.

What was not a success was finding a bus to get back to either the restaurant area or our hotel. Buses do not have printed itineraries at the stops. You wave a bus down that has incomprehensible sections of the city on the front and when it slows, there is a person hanging out who you ask if they are going your way. No one was after flagging 14 different buses. Then we tried a taxi, but that was pointless too. Fifteen thousand taxis in this city and they all had a fare. We tried our luck by crossing the street. A taxi stopped for us.

Without an address, we asked him to take us to the region of Mariscol where the restaurants were. It was quite a lengthy ride, which would have cost us $2. The driver did not have change for a $5 bill, so he settled for the only $1 bill we had.

After going from restaurant to restaurant to try to find food that was not fried, heavy on starches, or enough to make a carbo counter go skyrocketing, we had almost failed. We also asked for an Ecuadorian food establishment, but were told the only one went out of business. They lied! We found one, had dinner, and were not impressed with it. I had a braised chicken breast with beans that was supposed to be a specialty of the coast of Ecuador. It tasted like the braised chicken breast Ron makes at home. Nothing out of the ordinary. Ron’s dinner was so unexceptional by his comments; I cannot remember what he had. We asked that they a taxi for us and went back to the hotel.

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Where is Our Fax? - Sydney

As soon as reception opened this morning, Ron was there to check on the vouchers for the cruise. Nothing still. I am thinking about $1,000 Australian dollars on my Mastercard and I have nothing to show for it. This gave me a headache and two aspirin did not touch it. We took our laundry to a place where they will wash, dry, and fold for a reasonable amount. Ironing is extra and if we wanted to iron, we could do it at the hotel. Ron wanted to do the hop on-hop off bus. I was not keen on the idea, but we went anyway to the bus station to get it at the first stop. It is advertised as having 31 stops with two routes one going to Bondi Beach good for 24 hours for $30.00. Getting on was not a problem when we started out. There is a taped narrative in English. Here is where the fun started. Each stop, the narration advises that all passengers must remain seated at all times. Once the bus started, we heard “We are now approaching...as you can see on the left...and to your right we are now approaching...” All of the … parts are where the narration cut out. About a third of what we were supposed to hear was missing in the atmosphere. Due to construction, the bus had to drive on the wrong side of the street. He kept warning us that we would have to duck for low branches since they were not trimmed on this side for the bus. At the Opera House, we gave up the ghost and hopped off. Seeing the Opera House up close was terrific, though I had no desire to attend a performance, even if there were one during our stay. Inside there are five major performance spaces, the largest of which is the 2,690 seating place. The money for the construction was allocated by having a lottery. Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who never saw the completed project leaving after major disagreements. The cost went from a projected $7 million Australian to the final cost of $102 million Australian. Locals either love it or hate it; this has not changed over time. The parks and green spaces throughout the city are treasured by tourists as well as locals. With all of the high rises, blotting out the sky, these oases give some breathing room. Frustrated with the hop on bus, we walked the city. All of this time, I had been carrying my computer around thinking that I would have some time to write, but it never happened. A coffee break was just that and nothing more. One of the unexpected treats were the occasional Aboriginals playing the traditional didgeridoo. I really love the music, so we stood around for some time listening. We ventured to the Queen Victoria Building, a gorgeous red sandstone building that has been converted to a high class mall with expensive high end shops. By this point, my anxiety level had reached a peak, so we returned to the hotel to check on the elusive fax. It still was not there. I was beside myself, but we called the cruise lines, but with no answer this time. Panic! We went to reception to tell them our concerns and she was great. She went to check to see if anyone else had taken a fax when she was away from the desk. Reception is upstairs where the hotel rooms are, with the bar below. The fax had actually been sent to the bar area. Finally, my headache disappeared. With that weight over my shoulders, we went to get the hop-on bus again to go to Bondi Beach. When we arrived there were five people waiting for the bus that went this route. After waiting for thirty minutes, I asked one of the others how long they had been waiting and she responded an hour. She said they could not get on the first bus because of overcrowding. When it finally came, a German woman pushed ahead of me; she had only been waiting five minutes, so I blocked her husband.. The guide caught and said something, but I corrected him and he told the husband to keep his wife on a shorter leash. Bondi pronounced Bond-eye, is one of the most famous beaches in Australia. The beach is roughly a kilometers long, patrolled by those famous Australian lifeguards that we see in all of the movies and on calendars. Being a beautiful beach, I really expected to see tons of beautiful people in their little speedos lazing around sunbathing. The beach was not nearly as crowded as I would have thought, there was rarely a speedo in sight, but those that were had the overhang problem. Their bellies hid the speedo. The men who could easily have worn a speedo, wore those long and boring to look at long shorts type bathing suits. How many beaches have their own web site? http://www.bondivillage.com/ The area is full of restaurants, bars, and souvenir stores. They had a little crafts market in the center, which we perused and bought a couple of trinkets. We figured it may be too expensive to eat in this area, so we took the public bus back to the city. By now, the hop-on bus had stopped for the night. Though our tickets are good for 24 hours, we do not plan on attempting it again tomorrow. We found an Indian restaurant that appealed to us on Oxford Street. You can order 2 or 3 main dishes with rice for a fixed price. I had one type of chicken, one beef, and one vegetable. The servicing are for the famished, because it was all I could do to finish it. We are not sure how they can do it, since the prices are so reasonable, but it was a great deal for us. This restaurant is a repeater.

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