Day 4 - Damn, I am TIRED!

 Quito, 1430

I slept poorly last night.  On previous nights I was dead to the world by 2000.  Last night, I saw 2335 and beyond.  (One learns to NOT check the time too often as a chronic insomniac. I checked only once.)

Part of it was noise.  When the sun goes down, this part of towns shuts comletely down.  The streets are absolutely empty.  The stores are all shuttered by 1800.  The place rolls up the sidewalks, the tourists disappear. (I am in the historic old town it is tourist laden by daylight as is appropriate for one of the original UNECO Heritage Sites.) It has usually stayed deserted until a few hours after sunrise (~0615 +/- 20 minutes year round.  Sunset is always ~12 hours later.)  When I wake at 0800ish the stores are just re-opening.

Last night there were trucks parked outside.  Lots of conversation.  Lots of diesel engine noises.  Lots of exhaust fumes.

Ear plugs and a mask helped.  But only a bit.

I awoke tired.  And I still feel so.

Here's the street when I woke up at 07h30:

It's a bit late now and things are already winding down.  I'll take some when I can show it when things are active.

It's clear I have found a routine:

0800 Wake & have breakfast

0900 Start walking

1200 Find food

1300 Wander home

1500 Write up the day so far

1600 Head out for a short walk

1700 Find Dinner

1800 Be safely ensconced in my room

1900 Pop an Ambien 

1930 ZZZZZZZZZZ!

(Do not worry about the Ambien.  My health team agrees that at elevation the risk of exhaustion and insomnia is far, far greater than the risk of the Ambien.  I'll start reducing and stopping it when I get home.  N.B., no weed since I left either.  I do appreciate the concerns some may have.)

This morning I just did not want to walk.  Nor did I want to see yet another museum where I can only guess at 90% of what I see and know that my guesses are only 10% correct.  What to do???

Get on the bus, Gus.  $0.35 took me all the way to the northern end of the line: El Labrador.  Not much to see at the bus terminal.  So I got back on.

I got off a stop or 2 south.  In the Iñaquito neighborhood.  The home of the wealthy - the Mercedes Benz dealership is huge.  I could see a Stadium to the east.  Eastward I went.

Pro traveler tip:  Shopping malls always have bathrooms.  The food court is always a location for one too.  

I enjoyed a crepe in a mega mall.  $1.60 for sugar and lemon (very simple but best crepe there is.)

I laughed at this: https://www.vagabondjim.com/2023/06/intentional-irony.html

Saw some kids playing in the park.  Is this sexist?

(Look at the goalkeepers.)

In the same park, I saw this:

(Perspective!)

I passed a McDs.  A Big Mac Meal is $6.55.  Chicken based meals are ~$4.  I was ashamed to even walk in there.  Ugh.

I walked further.  I got on the Ecovia line of the Troleybus.  I got off after a few stops.  Lack of a destination and the excessive crowd just made me want to change approaches.  I walked back the other TroleyBus line.  I rode until I knew I could walk to lunch and home.

Lunch was amazing.  It was what I have beenlooking for since I landed here.  Roast pork, hominy, and potato 'dumplings' (they're griddled not boiled).

$3.00 for the food, $0,75 for the Fanta.  AMAZING.  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  Mercado Central for the win two days in a row!.  To the right of the Fanta, under the green sign is my connection.  I cannot express how much I loved this plate.

Oh, yes I can!  So much so that I broke my slef-imposed English barrier.  A couple who had paid for a tour was walking by.  The guide was saying "...you can get chicken or pork."  I interrupted.  I told them to get the pork and to get it from Sra. Cecila.  I expressed my total joy at the meal.  I walked on.  I hope they listened.

The walk home was fatigue laden.  I did get to see a TroleyBus do what I had previously experienced and swore could not have happened.  The streets here are about wide enough for a car and a passing motorcycle.  Maybe 15 feet in many cases.  16th century narrow,  Some of the TroleyBuses are double articulating.  They are  3 carriages long.  They make right turns in impossible places.  I have no idea how. It's insane.  Here are some stills:

Craziness.  I'll eventually learn to post videos.  Eventually.

I'm hungry, it's 1600.  Back soon.

1700

Dinner run was successful

The first stop was a grocery store I had seen earlier.  As expected, the price of water there is cheaper than the reception desk or the local little stores.  Also as expected, they declined my ratty ass torn up $10 bill.  I've seen this for 30 years in LatAm.  If it ain't in great shape, it ain't accepted.  So I put away $2 worth of mango juice.  I had enough change for 3L of water ($1.50) and ...

N.B., They're Grizzly Bears not Gummy Bears!

They are quite tasty too.  If you do not appreciate 'gummy bears' I'm not sure we can be friends.  😅  I love mango juice, I really do.  But gummy bears take me back to 1980 in Germany.  

All in, I had enough change for $2.50.

Having a keen eye (I do!) I recalled seeing a machine at the BCE Museo  that would break dollars into coins.  It took my ratty ass $10 bill just fine.  I'm not sure the BCE has much to do since dollarization (I believe it is basically now just a gold to cash transfer entity,) but I sure appreciate that machine.  Take that Supermercado TIA!  And, I found another market to try next.   Ciao, Tia.

I wandered back to Plaza de Gran Siglo XVI.  I kind of like it for some reason.  Dinner was from the Museo de Pernil in the form of a Sanduch de Pernil.

Yummy. Especially with the local condiment  Aji de Tomate de Arbol.  Tree Tomato hot sauce.  Very yummy.

I dined at the Presidential Palace, of course.

As soon as the sun sets, I'm going to take tonight's Ambien.  

Good night.


Press on.




Jim