I've been here for a day now and spent all of yesterday walking into and around the old town, which has been beautifully restored. The air polution here is atrocious though, you can actually taste the exhaust fumes. I was surprised at how modern the city is in comparison to Cuba, say, or even Sicily. Generally people seem to be reasonably comfortably off although poverty is still very apparent. There are endless numbers of boys and men offering shoeshines and they look really badly off. There are also a lot of people wearing traditional dress, which I find surprising. They're mostly women though - the men tend to wear the Andean hats that look like trilbies. Nor are there any pushchairs or prams; all the babies are carried in slings and toddlers just have to walk by themselves. I was lucky enough to come across a big Andean dance festival in Plaza San Francisco yesterday afternoon, which involved around 10 different traditional dance groups doing their thing in amazingly colourful costumes. The dancing was actually pretty rubbish and completely uncoordinated, especially the senior citizens' groups, but it was fun to watch anyway. Rach, you would have despaired!
As much as I'm enjoying being here, I'm most definitely not a city person. I went into several churches yesterday (it's all that seems to be in the guide book!) and actually really enjoyed it. The quiet and tranquility is in such stark contrast to the noise and bustle of the city itself that they provide some welcome respite. Today I'm going to head to the Ecuadorian cultural museum, if it's open. A few of the places I wanted to visit yesterday were closed for restoration, unfortunately. Then I think I'll get a taxi up to the monument of the Virgin on a hill overlooking the city (apparently it's not too safe to walk up there and my legs are very tired from all the walking yesterday anyway). Then tomorrow, provided it's not raining, I'll head to the huge Parque La Carolina to escape the fumes and noise and visit the botanical garden and reptile house, which is home to 87 scary species, 86 of which are native to Ecuador.
There's another girl going to the farm who's arriving at the hostel tomorrow evening, so I'm looking forward to that. It's a bit lonely on my own, but I'm meeting Jim tonight too, which is good.
The jetlag is making itself felt now. I'm waking up at before 5 in the morning and just laying there until it gets light. Hopefully that'll soon sort itself out though. I've got to grips with the altitude now and am not getting out of breath anywhere near as much. More updates will follow very soon!
