Quito

From Horizons Unlimited Ecuador, Melanie caught a lift back to Quito where we had rented an AirBnB for a week. I followed on the motorcycle and arrived early. I tried to follow the directions to the parking garage. I mistakenly followed a car into the wrong basement parking garage. Once in I realized it was wrong because I couldn’t find the correct space. Right building, wrong garage. Then I couldn’t get out. I ended up remaining captive for almost 45 minutes. Finally the manager, whom was waiting to let me in, realized in was in the wrong place. He contacted security who opened the gate releasing me from my temporary prison. We had a nice 2-story rooftop suite, which we ended up having to move to another building the next day. Poor Melanie couldn’t use the stairs so we slept on the 1st floor. PITA!! We finally got int the correct apartment the next afternoon. Beautiful one level place with a wonderful view of the city.

The next day we attempted to get in to see a Dr. for Melanie’s knee. It was confusing so we decided to wait a couple days and fly Mel to Cuenca. We had some friends there that had used a highly recommended doctor. I would ride down and she would meet me in a couple days. In the meantime we would take the hop-on/hop-off bus for a tour of the city. Later in the day we met up with Dan and Carrie. They had their car and offered to drive us around and be our tour guide. In the larger cities, they limit the days you can drive. This is determined by the last number on your license tag. Just so happened their last number wasn’t supposed to be in the city on that day. We found out about all this when the traffic police pulled us over and confiscated their car. OOPS! Too late. They got it back the next day for a fee. Luckily we caught a taxi right away and headed to…a brewery. LOL. Its what you do, isn’t it?

We also stopped to see a couple churches. First was the Basílica del Voto Nacional. The second was the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. Churches, or any place of worship, still amaze and fascinate me. So much wealth owned by a group and not shared.

The next day they took us to a cable car. It climbed one of the volcanoes that surrounded the city, Teleferico De Quito. Amazing views, a cuppa coffee and good friends.

We followed that with a stop at another fun brewery, the Santana Brewing Company. What a day.

Dan and Carrie headed home to Cuenca the next day. We would follow in a couple days and get Melanie’s knee checked out there. Her knee just wasn’t getting better. We were fearing the worse. Would our ride south be coming to an end….

Cheers,

2WANDRRs