The Salchiche

(from my travel journal)
Yesterday my flight to Quito was super fun.  I had a window seat and great seat mates.  To my left was a little boy and his mom, Areceli.  They are from Spain and Araceli gave me her number to come visit or call when Darren and I are there in March.  I don't think what will happen because because she lives in Madrid, but it was a nice gesture.

Sitting behind me were two men working for the Navy. One was originally from Ecuador.  When he saw how excited I was about all the snowcapped mountains we passed, he started telling me their names.  We also chatted about his navy experience.  He says he only has two years left, and then he'll probably move back to Ecuador.  He has dual citizenship which, of course, is awesome.

Equally cool was my taxi driver to the Royal Radisson.  he told me Quito is called the "salchiche" (hot dog) because it is super narrow--it's a valley between humungo mountains.  I ended up telling him I was studying physical therapy and he immediately asked me about if he should continue having his daughter use orthotics.  I told him that honestly I didn't know--that I still have two more years to go.  He told me to come back then ;).

At the Radisson I found out we'd been upgraded to a suite.  So after drinking some tasty strawberry juice in the lobby, and reluctantly giving my credit card to be swiped and used as a "guarantee," I took advantage of the giant bed.

I slept until Richard and Ryan arrived.  We decided to take the teleferico up to about 13,400 feet (4100 meters).  Firts we had to deposit a heap of money ($590 each!) for our time in the Galapagos.  We missed the bank next to our hotel being open by five minutes.  We reluctantly took a taxi to another bank a mall.  Ryan purchased some coffee while I got a disgusting panini and a mora batido in the food court.

Surprisingly Richard got the money taken care of quite quickly, and we took of to the mountain.

Arriving we found ourselves next to a cheap fair-ish park and the entrance.  It was about 6PM and hardly anyone was around.  We bought tickets, hopped in one of the little gondolas, and admired the desertlike grasses along our slow ascent.  Ryan talked non-stop the whole way up.  I've never met someone so talkative, but it was kind of interesting to observe.

We took handstand pictures under magnificent clouds, then walked around snapping pictures of Quito under a full moon.

We wanted to meet Becky, so we rode back down, got an entire bus four ourselves for only $5 and got back just in time to meet her in the lobby.

She settled in and then we walked to the restaurant area.  We decided on a place called the Magic Bean where we had hummus, pitas, avocado and Greek balls, vegetarian burgers, and a massive cheese empanada.  Yum!