Tourist Day in Quito, Ecuador

I woke up at the crack of dawn to head towards Diego - my designated 'guia de touristico'.

When I arrived there were a few friends around the communal house doing homework on the computers (this sounds Americanized but you must realize they have no wired internet and some parts of the roof are plugged with plastic rain sheets - the budget kind). Diego was feeling very ill from the partying the night before. Nonetheless, we headed towards the cities biggest tourist attraction "Telerifiqo" (the gondola that ascends 3000 feet above the already 9000 ft). Unfortunately, it was very foggy at the top and we didn't stay long but the ride up to about 11000 feet boasted sweeping views of the city.

Diego had to go home and sleep off his hang-over so I decided to knock-off a few touristy places that were on my list. I visited a couple churches and museums in The Old Town (Centro Historico), hiked up to el Parque Ichimbia (a mountain with 360 degree views of the city), tried some local fare, shot many photos of the city, and basically fulfilled my tourist-needs for Quito in one day.

After dinner, I headed back to Diego's house and watched the second half of the local soccer derby (Quito's La Liga versus Guayaquil's Barcelona); these are the two best teams in the country and they drew 1-1.

I practiced Spanish for a couple hours after and went home early to bed; all the walking today

tired me out and rest is much needed.

On the bright side, my Spanish is improving everyday and I am slowly remembering all that work I did in high-school.

Tomorrow I want to catch some cock-fighting or venture out of the city for something cool ("bacan") or even cooler ("bacansisimo")!