Transition Day in Ecuador

The second half of our trip to Ecuador was quite a bit different than the first half. After we spent a couple of days in the jungle, we all headed back to Quito. By all, I mean me, Toby, and Jesse as well as her professors and Charo and her mother, Rebekah, jumped in the van with M&R and went to Quito. The two professors were flying home. Charo was taking her mother to the doctor (just like me and my mom). And Toby, Jes, and I were moving on to the second part of our vacation - this time further north in Ecuador near Quito. This was Wednesday and it was sort of a transition day or travel day.  Since we took a different route back to Quito, we saw some different things on this trip

It was a bit rainy and cloudy, but a good day for traveling.  It was actually rather chilly that day.  M&R stopped in the little town of Papallacta (great link) at a place called The Don Wilson for lunch because it supposedly had great trout. And it did!  Keep in mind that places in Ecuador do not usually have air-conditioning or heating because the weather is so mild. But it was a bit cold that day when we settled into our table at the Don Wilson. The owner brought each of us a small glass of some sort of liquor. I don't know what it was, but it burned going down. Everyone took one drink and that was enough. Well, Toby finished everyone's liquor for them. Thanks Toby; we didn't want to look ungrateful to the owner. I guess it was cheaper to give us liquor than to heat the place.

When we were paying our check at the counter later, everyone had headed to the van leaving Toby and I to speak Spanish and pay our tab. There was a man and his wife there - an Ecuadorian who spoke English and was happy to help us out. He told us he and his wife were just married - she was from Columbia and very interesting in a pretty sort of way. They must have been on their honeymoon and taking the waters at the local hot-springs. He had spent time in New York and seemed to want to talk - Very friendly people.

We arrived in Quito and dropped everyone off at their respective places. Since Jesse had not had much time in Quito, we hopped a cab to the Grande Plaza to tour her around the older part of the city. We did not have a lot of time, but we were able to take some photos and see some sights and drink a beer at a sidewalk cafe. That evening we met up with the professors for one more evening of laughing and eating. They met us at our hotel and we walked to an area that has lots of restaurants. Toby and I had been to this area on our first time through Quito. It was lots of fun - we felt safe with our crowd. We had a good meal and said good-bye to the profs. We were now on our own - in Ecuador. The adventures kept coming.