Let's eat meat!

It looks like we are going to stay in Quito for some time. We have finally found a real mechanic (or I want to hope so) who is currently performing a thorough check up on our camper. Once this is completed, we should be able to continue our journey until the end with no more mechanical hassles. These mechanics finally found out what was wrong with the suspension. It is not the s hock absorbers, nor the springs or the struts. It is another part, am not sure what exactly, that needs to be changed on the front wheels. A few rubber parts were also completely worn out, hence this constant irritating clunking noise. We are also changing the brakes as we do not want to have any kind of problems on mountainous roads. After 17’000 miles (25’000 kilometres) through the Americas, this check up was badly needed. So we should be ready and off by middle of the week.

In the meantime we are enjoying Quito. Quito is the capital of Ecuador, 2.5 million people at an elevation of 2’800 meters, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It is not the largest city of Ecuador, Guayaquil is with roughly four million people. We are staying in a backpacker hostel right in the historic center. The hostel has a rooftop terrace with amazing views of the city. Dinner is served every night on the rooftop terrace, and there is a wood fire afterwards so we can keep warm. The atmosphere is really nice, with people from all over the world. Most of them are in their twenties, but there are also some older backpackers, in their sixties. The hostel is not heated, but we have good comforters, so do not feel cold, except when getting up in the morning. Showers are heated with these electrical devices found everywhere in Latin America that provide, at best, lukewarm water. This is maybe deliberate so people do not linger too long in the shower. If it is, it works…

Yesterday, we took a small gondola up to a nearby mountain where we enjoyed a fantastic view of the city from above, almost touching the sky!

Since a couple of weeks, I have been feeling constantly hungry; am not sure whether this is due to the altitude, cold weather, old age creeping in or who knows what. Two days ago, I could easily have wolfed down another serving at dinner. And yesterday, I could have had four eggs for breakfast…there were only two, so I bought two chocolate bars. We had lunch but at 5pm I was already hungry again… dinner was not enough, so I went to one the restaurants nearby and ordered a quarter chicken with soup…I had a big piece of beef for lunch today and I feel good! So let’s eat meat!