Quito forever...

Today, Thursday 25th of September we have been in Quito for a fortnight and one day… Still waiting for the camper to be fixed, apparently two rubbers parts are still missing. Although Quito is a nice place to be stuck, we want to be back on the road now.

We spend most part of these idle days on the roof-top terrace of our hostel reading and enjoying the fantastic view. We also regularly check on the workshop for any progress… The good thing is that I have now enough time to read all my numerous newspapers and magazines. Since we have arrived at Quito I have downloaded already three weekly issues of “L’Hebdo”, “Newsweek” and “The Economist”, not mentioning the daily issues of “Le Temps”. Thus I am completely up to date with with world affairs these days. We also download plenty of books on our Kindles.

We do some sightseeing too. We visited the Government Palace two days ago. It is open to the public, as according to the incumbent President, it belongs to all Ecuadorian people. The guided visit lasts about 45 minutes  and is free. It is really interesting. We saw the room where the government meets, the banquet hall and the press conference room. Unfortunately, we did not meet with the President, he was not around at that time… I wish the visit would have stayed longer so I could have had a better look at the various official gifts and pictures on display. But there is a guided tour every hour so we had to move on. We received a souvenir picture at the end. Yesterday we visited the house of Ecuador most famous painter Oswaldo Guayasamin, full of his painting and other items from his private collection that he donated to Ecuador when he passed in 1999.

Guayasamin

The other good thing is that we are by now completely used to altitude. We are not even out of breath when climbing the stairs anymore. 

We visit something new everyday, but really, now we are sufficiently rested and it is time to move on…