Monday 6.10.14 – Quito, Mitad del Mundo.

Last day of Aurora tour today. Up at 5.30, got 3 blog posts done.

A great night’s sleep – think it was exhaustion from no sleep last night on Coral I and the tiredness from a buy and fantastic time in the Galapagos. Latish breaky, as we are ditching the “City tour” provided by the tour.

Instead we walked to Convent Santa Catalina, where the Nun’s make creams, lociones, medicines etc. We watched some local ladies approach a wooden “lazy susan” type thing and talk to the Nun hidden behind it, they would order, place their money on the lazy susan and turn in, and then the product would appear also. Suzie had planned to purchase something, but we just couldn’t work out what was what, and had no idea what might appear, if we tried to order.

Quito street scene.

Some street art in Quito.

The wooden lazy susan that hid a
nun. Money placed on the rotating
shelf and out popped the product.

Quito building.

Loved the ropes holding this bell.

A cool doorway discovered on
our wanderings.

Cross on top of church.

Those tiles again.

Then we ended up at Plaza Grande again, had a coffee at our favourite Colonial Dulce and watched the changing of the guard from a different vantage point. It was just as good the second time, we saw the horses more clearly this time. There was also an additional band (perhaps a Navy band we reckon) that played on beyond the ceremony, they were a bit like VicPol’s ‘Code One’ and had a group of 4-5 singers at the front. Groups of people were allowed onto the street in front of the Palace to dance. It was great to watch. The President was on the balcony again and he grooved along to the music for a while.

Street scene again.

The marshmallow ice cream.

Changing of the guard, for the second time.

Cool checks on the horses bum.

The small kettle drum and trumpet party.

Soldiers marching out.

One of the many different
uniforms.

We ran into Bob and Cherie, only to find they had spotted us in our great vantage point earlier.

Bob's shot of us with our great view of the
Changing of the Guard.

Back to the Guesthouse/Boutique Hotel again – La Casona de la Ronda (a very nice hotel, great service in a different end of the Colonial part of the city) We had lunch before taking a car to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) with Larraine and Gay. 

Suzie on the Equator.

Me on the equator..in the rain.

The world at the Mitad del Mundo.

Lat. 0.00

Stopped raining now.

Funnily enough, we ran into the rest of our group, as they were there at the same time. This morning was fine, but as we were leaving it began to rain, quite heavily during the trip out. It was still raining at Mitad del Mundo, but it didn’t stop us standing astride the equator (supposedly) at 0.00 degrees. Took about 3 hours all up – over an hour each way in the taxi. (just quietly it was nice to have a break from Roberto)

Back to La Casona for a drink, while Suzie rested, we chatted to the marketing manager Maria – a local with fabulous English and a great knowledge of Australia.

Then we all met to leave for our Farewell dinner at Theatrum. It was raining again, so coats and brollies were donned as we walked to meet the bus to take us to the Restaurant.

We enjoyed a beautiful meal, we started with three warm bread rolls, followed by two balls on groovy pewter teaspoons on heavy pewter plates, one was a cheese balls, and one risotto ball. Main was a most delicious steak, followed by an amazing tasting plate of local fruit deserts, accompanied by a smart pamphlet explaining it all. There was an interesting sorbet in between of watermelon and celery. Overall a real hit.

Prior to the meal Roberto introduced us to the “Captain” of Advantage travel – Raoul – who was also the designer, builder and owner of the Anakonda. He thanked us for our trip with them, he was a really humble man who seemed genuine in terms of continuing the relationship with Aurora, but also in making any improvements. He sat with another table group and from all accounts was a lovely man. When we left, he was off to a meeting with Minister for Tourism at 9.30.

Raoul and Roberto.

The tour group. 

The tour group.

The tour group.

The tour group.

The tour group.

The food.

The food.

The food.

This was our last meal with Roberto. Home to the hotel pretty early as 23 of the 35 of our crew are leaving for the airport at 4.15am. Said goodbyes and then off to bed. It really was quite sad to say goodbye, as we have been eating and living with these guys for at least 23 days.

We were pretty stuffed and looking forward to not having to get up early in the morning.