Quito

The Quito airport does not inspire confidence. There are two things that jump out as you land upon arriving. As you decend, you see planes line the runway and parking aprons that will never fly again. Welcome to Quito -- Where airplanes come to die! Nose cones, engines, and important sections of the wings are all missing from both civilian and military aircraft. As you disembark the airport looks like any other third world airport, including Washington Dulles. That is until you spy the large signs declaring that in Ecuador "using minors for prositution and pornography is illegal." Duly noted. To underscore the point, cardboard cut-outs of immagration officials point to the announcement. I tried to take a picture of it but the real immagration officials wandering around discouraged that.

I also want to thank whomever notified the Ecuadorians that we were coming. When Drew and emerged from the airport a mass of reporters swarmed us. Camramen, photographers, and reports all crowded around. Apparently there was a celebrity walking right behind us. He stopped and gave a quick interview on the virtues of not using Ecuador´s children for nefarious purposes. If you caught the Quito nightly news you probably saw Drew and me in the background waving to the crowds. I tried to ask who the guy was, but I never figured it out.

We are staying in a great hostel in the new town section of Quito. The cafe attached it is appears to be very popular and is always packed with Quitoians of all ages in for coffee, dinner, and drinks. There is a big fireplace in one corner which is handy since it get really cold here at night. The new town is where most of the hotels and restauarants are in Quito and it is the safer of the two sections. It is also loaded with elementry schools and a military academy is right around the corner from our hostel. This morning I awoke to mobs of militant cub scouts wandering up and down the street.

Today we walked down to the old section of town. It looks much like you would expect a former colonial capital to look like. Grandious architecture and baroque churches vying for your attention, but you dare not glance at them. If you do, smack! That diesel bus you just ignored gunned you down. However, Quitoians are very polite and they will honk before they run you over. Actually the Old Town is great. I will talk a bit more about it when I figure out how to post some pictures.

So welcome to Quito. The planes don´t fly, the children are ready to stage a revolution, and crossing the street requires olympian bursts of speed. Needless to say Drew loves the city.