First day in Quito

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

We had to be at the Tucson airport early on Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013 for our 6:50 AM flight. The trip went very smoothly in spite of our tight connections in Dallas & Miami.  We, and our luggage, arrived safely and together.  We will be in Quito till Saturday morning.  Today, Jan 23, 2013, we walked down to the Historic District, about 7 miles round trip.  The weather here in Quito is a lot like San Diego, overcast most of the day with occasional outbreaks of sun.  The temperature was 11C/52F this morning.  I needed my sweater and my windbreaker.  But by the time we walked home it was 19C/66F.  This weather means that everything is green and there are lots of flowers everywhere you look. 

There was something big happening at the presidential palace around noontime today when we were at the Grand Plaza.  They had the band out on the balcony and lots of speeches.  After a tamale lunch we took a bus tour around the city just to get our bearings.  The city is in a long narrow valley.  It is quite impressive when seen from the big hill, El Panecillo, at the southern end of the city.  The top of the hill is a park with a huge statue called Our Lady of the Sun.  Tonight we’ll walk another 3 blocks to the restaurant district for supper.