I thought today was Sunday, thinking I had a whole day's time to put together a slide show and string 50 crosses on silver chains for the school kids, the orphanage kids, and the dump children. ...But, noooooo, today has to be MONDAY, meaning tomorrow is the big teaching day! So here I am, up at 9:37 p.m. stalling even further by doing this blog. I think I'm going to go work on my family slide show for the kids. I'll be back (said Arnold).
Oh no; I've got to catch up!
One of my highlights of Quito was going to be Otavalo Market, they say the largest one in southern South America. Well, we went there, and I actually bought a sweater that I love for $15, because the indigenous women of that area make a lot of the alpaca and crocheted wear.
We headed up North about 2-1/2-3 hours, which was okay.
I bought several pieces of art from this woman.
Back to Quito
Ladies selling lemons that look like lime from car to car
Then I went to the Center of the Earth (literally).
And I balanced an egg straight up.
You could feel an eerie little pull in the energy
of the earth, and then your egg just stood upright.
I think I mentioned the prevalence of murals in Ecuador- not just Quito, it turns out.
As Pinky taught me, Ecuadorians do things en mass.
The whole town where we found this Guatamalan-looking
church was wall to wall nurseries for rows and rows of streets.
Ecuador is the number one exporter of flowers.
Can you see Mother Mary looking out
from the church behind the coffee shop?
Next, I got Pinky to take back roads so I could see
how people live in this town. We stumbled across an
affluent pocket of opulance.
Because Ecuador was conquered, not settled, they
did what those who are conquered do: They built
walls around everything.
After driving tight, windy dirt roads until we
hit a dead end in the middle of nowhere,
we went to the botanical gardens, where-after having just been to the
impressive Garfield Conservatory , only this one plant impressed me:
Driving back into Quito...where mountainsides are
lined with colorful houses stacked on top of
one another.
We had Chinese for dinner and I ordered a
Pilsner beer, which was twice as big as
a normal bottle of beer, was made locally,
and was only $1.30 a bottle!
It were good.
We also went to the Artesian Markets, where I find that I've
seen enough of the exact same thing to choke a horse.
So we went home.
And I stayed up until at least 2 p.m. putting 50 crosses on silver necklaces
for the students and the orphans I would visit the next day.
Plus, I had to put together a presentation for when I taught at the
two facilities. Long night.
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