Quito landing!

It’s a long jaunt from Bellingham, WA to Quito, Ecuador!  We left Bellingham at 9:00 Wednesday morning, slept in the Miami Airport Hotel last night, and arrived in Quito at 7:30 this evening.  There’s been some rain, but nothing while we were out to dinner tonight, and the air is as “fresca” as I remembered it being when mom and I were here 20 years ago!

We had a great interlude with my friend, Lisa Imel, from Fulbright Argentina 2010 when she was a school administrator in Ohio, and I was in Mount Vernon.  She’s now living the sunny life in Palm Beach, and took the time to come have breakfast with us in the Miami hotel restaurant this morning!  

Tonight’s arrival in Quito found us in a quaint little Italian restaurant in the Mariscal section.

Tomorrow morning we head out in a collectivo into the Andes around Otovalo.  I expect we’ll have some real photo ops, since I remember the indigenous people weave all their own clothing and wear it with pride–lots of colors!  Lonely Planet’s South America on a Shoestring has been a great resource, although we agree, we’re going to have to start finding some more reasonable eateries.  Most of our lodging includes breakfast, so if we can do that and find a cafe frequented by locals, it will be much easier on the pocketbook.

So far (knock on wood), no altitude sickness, even though we are at 9,000 feet and will be going to 12,000 tomorrow.  The advice is to leave the more strenuous treks for a day or two after you have acclimated.  I’ll post more photos and notes from the mountains tomorrow!