Monday, 1/13, Patrick drove, Monica, Ben, Keisha, Mike, and me to the equator. He dropped us off there and we took the tourist tour. Mike and I did this before but we suggested that the others go because it is so interesting, fun, and educational. The most interesting parts of the tour are the experiments that you can participate in. One interesting fact that we learned is that a day is 3 minutes and 46 seconds short of 24 hours. The time shown on our watches and clocks is not the correct time according to the position of the sun. This can be seen on sun dials. If I knew this I had forgotten it.
After the tour we walked up the street a bit to Fiambre's, the restaurant where Andrew Zimmern taped his television show. This is also the place where he ate cuy, or guinea pig. There are cages filled with guinea pigs; apparently, you can pick the guinea pig of your choice. Similar to choosing a lobster at Red Lobster. Several cuy are roasting on the open fire pit outside. A huge stick is shoved up the body of the cuy before the grilling takes place. It's a shish-kabob without the veggies. Ben and Keisha ordered the cuy, Mike, Monica, and I enjoyed more normal dishes. Chicken or fish with rice. Here comes the good part...while we are eating and older man approaches our table and tells us how much he loves us and then proceeds to give each of us a hug. He zeroed in on Keisha and told her at least one-hundred times how beautiful she is and how much he loved her. Obviously, the old man was drunk and get this, he was the owner's husband. Wifey was not too happy with his behavior. She kept telling him to leave us alone but he never did. He just continued telling us how much he loved us. We played along because it was rather entertaining. He wanted to play music so that we could dance with him. He would climb onto a chair and he tried his best to turn on the radio. The radio was not participating and we were pleased. At one point he got up from the table to get himself a beer. When he returned I motioned for him to give it to me. He did. Mike and I drank it. Guess what...the wife charged us for it, boo! Hey, we tried :-). We then left the restaurant and caught a taxi for the ride back to the hotel.
Tuesday we hung out at the hotel until the afternoon. Late in the afternoon the five of us walked down to a store in the La Pampa community. It was about a mile and a quarter there, not so far. We bought whatever we needed at the Pharmacy and walked back. After dinner Patrick drove us to see our friend Jack Abercrombie. Then, Patrick surprised us and took us to the sacred grounds of the wind god. This is where babies were sacrificed to the god. The babies had their heads chopped off and then were shot into the canyon with a sling-shot! Upon our return to the hotel Monica prepared her special drink the "Medori Hooter."
Today was a very nice day. The weather was perfect, mid-seventies, so Mike and I decided to take a trip to Teleferico. You hop on a cable car, chair lift like at a ski resort, and take a two mile ride up to the top of a mountain. All I can say is that the view was breath-taking!! We walked a trail and found it difficult to breath due to the elevation. We were walking at a slow pace but my heart was beating as if I was running a marathon. Breathing was so difficult we had to stop several times to catch our breath. Denver thinks they have a high elevation...they should come to Quito. After that trip we took a taxi to the Condado Mall. I got a McFlurry and Mike had yogurt. We then grabbed a taxi and came back to the hotel where we just finished a delicious meal of pork chops, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. Yes, they have macaroni and cheese in Ecuador.
A bit of good news we received today is that we have an appointment with immigration Friday to have our picture made and to get fingerprinted. Everything is moving forward, right on schedule!!
