Day 2, Cuenca

Day 2 is Day 1 of Carnival - the celebration prior to the 40 days of lent.  It starts today, Thursday the 12th through "Fat Tuesday" next week.  I am still struggling to get acclimated to the 8,300 feet altitude 24/7.  I am sure it is because of age and lack of excellent conditioning. In 1986, just after retiring as a very good triathlete and weighing 60 fewer pounds I adapted in 24 hours to the much greater altitudes of Cuzco and Machu Pichu Peru.  The weather here is unsurpassed. For me t-shirt weather. For most gringos, light sweaters. For the locals, coat and scarf.  Highs are breezy near 70F. Lows are breezy and near 50F.  It has so far only rained late at night. Breakfast pancakes and bacon with honey - no syrup here.  Then, we went to the market [photo]  to buy yeast (for bread) and pintos (for frijoles refritos).  On the way out I saw something new. [Photo]  This is a fire in a metal pan with prongs up to hold a pan not umlike a wok, with food cooking in the pan and the whole process wrapped in a STRAW basket to keep the heat in and wind out! Then to an internet cafe to print out pages for Donna's work since the charging cable is broken.  Big lunch at a tapas restaurant, thrn home for a nap. 3p went out to the central square for drinks with Nancy, Stephen and Mariah who been emailing us info to Waleska.  The new cathedral is beautiful [photo]. Dinner was chicken curry. Later we returned to the central square for the start of carnival, then home for a Netflix movie and to sleep.

Day one, Cuenca Ecuador

We arrived last night at 8p after a 55 min flight from Quito. We decided to fly for $80 each instead of a 9 hour bus ride for $8 each because we have an 8 hour bus ride when we leave here for Baños and it gave us most of an extra day in Quito. On the way in, Flat Stanley almost got airsick but he recovered to be featured in a photo.  We also saw a snow-covered volcano. Photo. I saw and photographed the same volcano - except it was erupting - in my last flight out of Quito headed to Machu Pichu in Peru.  Photo.

Our apartment is about average, 1 story up on a side street 50 feet from a major road so it's noisy, but the location is good and FS is behaving. We took him on a tour of Cuenca today.  Photo.  The tour went up on a mountain nearby and we were able to take a nice photo of the city.  Photo.  Ok, so you can't see the city for us. Donna took a nice photo. See her blog. Took a nap!

Afterwards we went to the market. Fresh veggies and fruits are 40% or so of the US cost.  [We bought everything else at the supermarket where we spent $88 for what would have cost $55 at home. Everything is significantly higher than the USA at the supermarket: bread, butter, chicken, bacon, paper products, wine... everything.
Spaghetti with avocados, local cheese, wine for dinner.

Netflix works here.  So we are going to watch a movie now, go to sleep, and start fresh tomorrow.

Tres Amigos

Today Donna, FS, and I took a bus tour of Quito [Photos] then dashed off to the airport. We are now waiting for our flight to Cuenca while having lunch at Johnny Rockets at the Quito airport.  FS feels much better being out of timeout.

Time out for Flat Stanley

2/10/15. I didn't appreciate him jumping into the picture of the angel from our apartment so I left him there as a lesson to behave better.  Now Donna are out for a late lunch and then, perhaps, a bus tour of Quito.  Clouds back, temp has dropped.  We are prepared!

I learned today that in 2001 40% of Ecuadorians lived in extreme poverty. [In the USA, 51% of our children live in poverty.]  Ecuador decided to do something about it. In the next decade, they dropped that percentage to 17%.  Now there is a new President who is continuing to push for economic freedom while the government still clamps down on personal freedom (speech - notwithstanding asylum to Julian Assange - women's health, LGBT rights, etc).  The economic freedoms (Ecuador grew 4% per year throughout the economically turbulent first decade of this century) make him and his predecessor very popular here.

The Basillica del Voto Nacional was a delight!  130 years ago, German architects set out to copy Notre Dame in Paris, my favorite city but not my favorite cathedral (Laon is that).  They built a smaller but still huge copy: the largest Gothic cathedral in Latin America. Inside, the columns and walls and ceilings seem 1,000 years old - not 30 years since completion. Only the floor gives away its youthful secret.  Photo

But behind the alter is an astounding thing.  But first, some history.  Blanche of Castile had a son - Louis - who inherited the French throne over 1,000 years ago when he was just a child, and too young to hold it. She built for him the magnificent fort at Angers to protect him until he was old enough to hold the throne.  He became Louis VII (also Saint Louis).  He sent his mother to Jerusalem - which has been conquered by the Saracens - to retrieve the remaining remnants of Jesus' cross.  While she was away doing that Louis built La Chapelle - a stunning chapel attached to his royal residence in Paris.  Blanche returned with a piece of the Cross, 2 nails from it, and the Crown of Thorns. They stayed in La Chapelle for 700 years until the French Revolution when they were moved to Notre Dame for protection.  La Chapelle was gutted by the mobs, but its incredible stained glass windows all survived. Today, the inside of La Chapelle is essentially unchanged since the destruction. It is one of my favorite places in my favorite city.   But behind the alter in the Basillica those German architects recreated La Chapelle, pre-French revolution!!!!!  Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!  Photo

Of course, being German, they reversed the "L" in St. Louis' overlayed S and L monogram. And they stylized the French fleur d' Lis.  But those are details I saw long after I was blown away at the discovery.  It's called La Capella del Corazon de Maria.  Go see it.

Mercado Central was closed so we went home, watched a movie, brought in dinner, and got FS out of time out. He was chagrined.

PS. Quito is 9,300 ft high, not 8,000 as previously reported.  {gasp} 

PPS. Bus tour tomorrow

At 39,000 feet - wear your seatbelt

I think this is the highest that I have ever flown. The air is choppy so we went high to get over most of it. FS slept the whole way.

First morning in Quito

Like many large Hispanic cities I've visited in the Western Hemisphere (San Jose, Managua, Medellin, Lima...) Quito is a busy place not at all developed with tourists in mind. That is usually a good thing as we get to see more foreign culture. Here too. Plus - at 8,000 feet the air is thin. Lots of hills, too. So we walk slowly. FS went to church this morning. Photo.

As we walked through town, in the mist above us, an angel appeared.  Photo.

As we strolled about, he was hungry so we stopped for breakfast.  Photo.

Then while walking we saw our apartment in the distance.  2 photos.

Then - thanks to GPS - I realized we were walking the wrong direction so we headed back the way we had come. 500 year old city, no rhyme or reason to the street names or directions.  We will figure this out - by lunchtime.

Took about 15 more minutes and now we are Quiteros.  We walked up to the national palace.  The Presidente comes out at 11a on Mondays for the changing of the guard.  We saw him, filmed him, videoed him, and all the festivities, along with nearly a thousand other people. Photo.

Then we walked home, took the reverse picture from the one we took this morning of the apartment, and then FS sneaked into a photo of the angel from our bedroom window.  That ham!  Photo.

Morning done. Back to the apartment to change clothes - it's warmer than we expected - and for a snack. We have water, tomatoes, avocados, and chocolate. Yum!

Later....

I wanna Cheeto in Quito

The three of us (Donna, Flat Stanley, and John) arrived at the new International Terminal at the Atlanta Airport 2 hours early to try to get an exit row for extra leg room (F.S. has REALLY long legs ;) ).  We did!!!  Now we will have a much more comfortable 5 hour flight (5:30p - 10:30p) to Quito. F.S. said "Thanks, guys! and "Buenas Tardes" (he's practicing his Spanish) to all the kids in 3rd grade at Hasty Elementary in Canton.