New Digs, New Dog

 The South American Explorer's Club (closed two years after our visit) had a Quito clubhouse, a lovely old building near the Mariscal tourist area (near a place called "Gringoland" on the map!) The Explorer's Club was a safe harbour for members, who paid $60/year or $90 for a couple.  They had a good website, social events, a few rooms available to rent upstairs for around $250/month, a huge lending and book swap library, binders of maps and trip reports from members, and a club network throughout eight countries. 

    There we met Kate, a young British girl who began a tour around S. America five years ago in Colombia. She got as far as Quito, and stopped. She's content here. She assured me that if I'd made more fuss on the "trole", bystanders would have pitched in and stuck up for me. I was fierce but quiet about it; I think that on my mind was the thought of not attracting the attention of any accomplices my pickpocket might have had to what I was up to, before I bounced him out the back doors when they opened at the station. Kate said other bus lines are not as full and are therefore much safer, and the trole can also be not as packed on the weekends.

    We went to the Cultural Museum a short walk from the clubhouse, and enjoyed paintings by Ecuadorian artists of the past two centuries, large panoramic photos by high altitude photographer Patricio Tisalemas, a gallery of musical instruments that they claimed was the second largest collection outside of Belgium (take that with a grain of salt!) and gazed upon my first real charango, which I covet. I'm looking for a place to buy a second hand one. There was also an exhibition of photos and panels celebrating the life of Richard Schultes, a very famous ethnobotanist. I enjoyed reading about him - science topics are easier for me in Spanish, because the concepts and roots of the words are already familiar.

    That evening the Mayor and his retinue opened a new park on the corner a half block from Edwin and Any's, calling it the Parque del Agua, with many long speeches. It's lovely, beside a ministry building, has pretty gardens and walks and a new fountain. The workers worked three fifteen hour days to finish it in time for the opening, and they shut off the water for three nights in a row to try to make the fountain work, with no warning to the residents of the neighbourhood. That really messed up the Salazar family's morning shower routine. 

    It was quite a celebration, with stilt-walkers, called "zanqueros", who danced in front of a "bando del pueblo". Once it was dark enough, they set off fireworks behind the fountain. There was a special design construction of blue neon lights to symbolize the park and many of those were lit up on neighbouring buildings and on lamp posts down the street in front of the Salazar house.

    Edwin and Any had a flood overnight - the water line for the ice maker on Edwin's Mom's frig broke, upstairs. His Mom and Dad live on the top two floors of the building.  Edwin and Any live on the main floor in the middle, and the clothing factory is on the ground floor, along with a secure parking and storage area that you can drive into.  They took us upstairs to show us the top two floors of the home. I photographed the central area of the top floor.  

    Edwin, Any and Aaron took us for a drive to locate our new digs.  We treated them to a "thank you" dinner at a Chinese Food restaurant next door to our new address.  The next morning they drove us over again and dropped us with our belongings.  We'll be here for the next three weeks. There are photos of the place in today's album. 

    Jeannie Friedmann is a USAID worker who has been in Zambia, Ghana, Afghanistan and now Ecuador; maybe other places too.  She has an apartment which is quite lovely and upscale for what I've seen in Quito so far, with three bedrooms, each with its own bath, on two levels, with lots of dining and lounging areas and lots of light and space, with windows in four directions - maybe 6000 square feet. There seem to be about six two-story apartments stacked up on top of each other, each with a view in every direction; we're all of the fourth and fifth floor, and I'm told that the U.S. Ambassador lives just above us.

    Jeannie brought a friend named Maggie from Ghana to be her housekeeper in Ecuador, and she remains here while Jeannie and her daughter Becky are away in New York. We'll keep Maggie company over Christmas and New Year's, and pay her to cook and clean and do laundry as she normally does. 

    Zoey is here too: she's a nine month old little black dachshund that is also probably part chihuahua. Our assignment while we're here is to try to house-train her; Jeannie and Maggie have tried for months without success. We do think they should have named her "Shiva, goddess of destruction".  She has already crunched the button off the cuff of my shirt, and has previously ruined their shoes, the ironing cord, coffee table legs, the Bible that she pulled off Maggie's bedspread...anything she feels like setting her teeth to.

    Maggie made us Ghanaian stew for supper, with veggies, meat, peanut butter and peppers...delicious. I'm smelling it cooking as I write this. For tomorrow we've hired Paulo, a friend of Edwin's, to drive us to Mitad del Mundo, the "middle of the earth" - in other words, the equator that Ecuador is named after. There's a monument and a little museum there, and great scenery, I'm told.

Next post: The Middle of the Globe