We had a nice breakfast at La Cartuja Hotel: cereal, fresh fruit scrambled eggs, fresh fruit juice (orange or plum) and toast. We decided to walk into town having discovered that the Hilton was just down the road and they are normally located near something of note. Our hotel is beautifully clean and very secure – you have to be buzzed in and out of the front gate. It is a locally owned place, which we discovered is 2 doors up the road from the French Embassy. There is a main road at the end of the block and then a large park. We walked around part of the park and then into the Museum of Modern Art which is at one side. Apart from being interested, it was cold and drizzly so a bit of a sanctuary. There was a large exhibition of an artist who seems to paint only women, especially women with young children. There was one painting of horses and one of a very grumpy looking man and that was out of a collection of 40 – 50. Then we followed the corridor around past a collection of portraits, only of middle aged men.

At one end there was a display of musical instruments. The Incas must have loved music. They made instruments out of everything from sea shells, bones, and bamboo to turtles.

They had a selection of bamboo flutes that you can play which was cool. Mike could get quite a good sound out but we were seriously out of breath afterwards. Upstairs they had more historical, ethnic art which was quite powerful and also this cool map showing the distance of particular places along a route (of significance that was lost on us) together with the elevations along the way. Quito is at 2,777m above sea level (depending where you measure) and there are mountains north and south on this route that are over 3,500m.

When we emerged it was no longer raining and was hot. We walked round the rest of the park then found a local cafe that seemed only to offer toasted sandwiches, so we had a ham and avocado one, which was nice. The coffee with milk was some kind of funny tinned milk that tasted odd. We got a cup of this hot milk stuff and a small jug of Luke warm coffee which we figured out to tip in. At first I thought it waa maple syrup as we’d ordered some mysterious fried thing that the waiter said was maize. It turned out to be what looked like ground couscous stuff shaped into a maize cob and then fried, which tasted a bit like a donut. Anyway I tried the liquid from the mug on the plate and it was more like coffee than maple syrup!

We did some more walking, found a vendor that sold fridge magnets and then the local cathedral, which was rather beautiful inside and a real haven of tranquility. Then we decided to check out the city mall which turned out to be a spiral with a lift down thee centre on one side. Lots of electronic shops on the bottom levels plus various clothing and shoe shops and by the time yo get to the 10th level it’s sex shops plus a travel agent at the very end. You’d have to be desperate. We got the lift down, having now climbed to at least 2,900m but then couldn’t figure out which level to get off on and ended up doing another 3 levels on the spiral just looking for the exit.

After we got back we had a briefing meeting with the tour company and met Laura who is also travelling on the same boat. She is a young lawyer at Freshfields in London who had come over for 2 weeks also. She had been in a taxi that got tear gassed near rioters in Bogotá, Columbia which was not fun. The rest of the group join on the way to San Cristobal tomorrow and some are already on the boat having started on Wednesday.

We caught a taxi to the old city with Laura for dinner. Our tour rep had warned us to be very vigilant with our gear so we were a bit apprehensive as there was horrendous traffic and people everywhere. The buildings in the old city are beautiful and hopefully we will have tome to visit on our way back. All very traditional, colonial Spanish. We had been directed to this famous pedestrian street full of authentic restaurants. We were accosted by numerous restaurant people and eventually settled on one that had nice balconies overlooking the street. Of course when we got up there we couldn’t get into any of the balconies but selected a secure table at the back of the room. The place was full of locals and it turned out to be a karaoke restaurant which was a bit odd. The singers were pretty serious and all awful but it was amusing for us.

Mike and I had steak and mushrooms and Laura had chicken and mushrooms. A guy from Spain asked for medium rare on our behalf but he needn’t have bothered. It was more like over cooked veal fillets but the mushrooms and fries were good all washed down with beer. We’d also been recommended to try a local empanada which was described as being large but full of air. Good description but add that it is essentially battered fish without the fish and sprinkled in sugar. A few bites each were more than sufficient. We eventually managed to get the bill and found a legal taxi to take us back. A fun night overall.