Wednesday 10th May 2017
Quito area. Unfortunately pouring with rain which put paid
to the 15km hike which Tomaz had planned. Secretly pleased, as the ground was
sodden and it was ‘Equatorial Flat’ i.e. up and down some serious
hill/mountainsides. With the Galapagos
in sight, I didn’t want injuries or soaked clothing in ‘left luggage’ for a
week. Instead we went to a Hummingbird
centre where hundreds of different varieties were supping a sweet liquid, only
feet from us. Diane and Terry braved an
hour hiking in the pouring rain. We stayed watching birds under cover, and
having hot tea next to a wood fire. The
lunch (nose) bag was a fabulous huge sandwich with multi-slices of meat and
salad. Very tasty.
Visited a rose distributor where we saw hundreds of roses
boxed up ready for sending abroad. Beautiful perfect roses with 3foot long
stems (Russian market like them long for some reason) were selected, de-thorned
and packaged in what appeared to be a small family-run outfit. Roses are one of the main exports for Equador
(Oil first, then tuna, bananas and coffee).
The rain eased a little and I decided to get wet and brave
an afternoon walk with Tomaz, Diane and Terry.
As luck would have it, the clouds cleared and it started to get quite
hot! Walked to the Lagunas de Banos, at altitude of 3800metres – a lovely
waterfall and then tried to reach the mountain lakes until mud stopped us.
Back to Quito, staying at the Posada
Mirolindo Hotel, a hacienda outside of town, but 15 mins from the
airport. Lovely little walled homestead with llama, chickens, donkey and their
own veggie patches. Very friendly and
allowed Gunna and crew to leave their luggage there whilst they went on the Galapagos
boat trip.
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