Feb. 10 - A Sunday stroll in the park

I'm starting to get the impression that my friends in Quito need a lot of sleep. Today's activities were not going to start until 3:00 in the afternoon. So it was a very relaxing morning with Susy. I managed to sit on the patio and read/study/listen to music for most of the morning while Susy told me who knows what (one of these days I'll manage to convince her to talk slowly). After lunch with her I headed down to meet my new friends only to learn that the only route I know to our meeting place was closed. Once a month the city closes Ave Amazonas in one direction for bike traffic only (or if you are under 5, electric cars, but only under parental supervision), and it just happened they closed the direction I needed to travel. I started walking in the direction I had to go and managed to find a bus that would take me there.

We had fully intended on heading to a park in the south of the city, but once we all arrived we decided to go to Parke La Carolina instead (it was right beside our meeting place). First off we went to the grocery store to find things to nibble on, in particular exotic fruit that we had never had before. So armed with our exotic fruit (granadilla was the only one I knew....I think one was pineapple though) we headed off to the park to relax for the afternoon. My friends made fun of me for having such an eclectic selection of things in my backpack - knife, hand cleaner, camera, frisbee, roll of toilet paper, latex gloves, water purification tablets, sweater, guide books and Spanish vocabulary list. Never the less, they were glad to be able to throw the frisbee among all the newly planted trees. Ecuadorian children are probably still wondering why we were playing with a plate instead of a soccer ball. All in all it was a very relaxing afternoon in the park, and we got a lot of amusement out of watching the children throw the frisbee back to us....not as easy as a soccer ball!