One of the things that´s been worrying me this past week is where/when to get laundry done. Fortunately, today turned out to be laundry day, and I dropped off my little basket by the machines on the back porch.
I tried the new route going to La Lengua this time. It turns out it actually is a little shorter, and it´s a lot more colorful - a lot of vendors and their dogs seem to hang out along there. Since it´s a much more residential neighborhood, there are some houses with high walls and very nice gardens.
Class with Pilar was pretty unevenful, except that she finally convinced me to try the tea that´s always being brewed in the school kitchen. I have no idea what plant it´s from - it´s something with big wrinkly leaves and stems like twigs - but the rest of the students drink it and they seem all right, so hopefully it will do no harm.
As I said in my last post, this week is supposed to be my week for touristy things, so after lunch I consulted the guidebook I brought. My first choice was the Vivarium, a little zoo of reptiles and amphibians located near the botanical garden. Luck was not with me, though: I walked over only to discover it isn´t open on Mondays.
My next choice was the Quito Observatory in Parque Alameda - it´s the oldest observatory in South America, opened in 1864. Since Old Town is beyond walking distance, I took my first taxi ride to the park. There luck cheated me again: the Observatory is closed for rennovations. The park itself was pretty, though, so I roamed around for a while, taking photos and keeping my back to the wall/statue/tree/etc.
By now it was mid-afternoon, so I decided to make one last try at tourism, and took another taxi to the Centro Cultural Metropolitano, where there are supposed to be several beautiful churches. The only one I had a chance to go into was Iglesia de El Sagrario, but it was gorgeous - I´ll have to go back and check out the others.
It started raining soon after, so I ducked into a store and bought a few packages of dulce de leche candy while I waited for the rain to stop. Tired and wet, I took a taxi back to Casa de Isabel, where I retired to my room to eat candy and do my Spanish homework, and occasionally run door-answering duty for Isabel.
(By the way, I think I either misremembered dulce de leche or bought a bad batch, because the first candy I tried was awful - grainy and slightly rancid-tasting. The chocolate ones were good, though.)
Photos:
One of several monuments in Parque Alameda.
Yes, that is a rooster.
The observatory I wanted to visit, with one of Quito´s many roaming dogs in front.
A closer view of the observatory.
Mourning doves are almost more common than regular pigeons, and they don´t like being photographed.
The monument to Simon Bolivar.
Two more shots of the Bolivar monument.
The outside of Iglesia de El Sagrario, under repairs. I didn´t take any photos of the inside because I was the only tourist out of maybe 9-10 people, and I didn´t want to be rude.
¨They say Aslan is on the move . . .¨
An outside shot of the Centro Cultural.
A close-up of the statues on top.
La Virgen de Quito, on top of El Panecillo hill. You can´t really tell it from my photos, but that statue´s over 90 feet tall. It´s possible to go up to the base, but the neighborhoods are said to be bad so I didn´t try it.
