Quito's Mariscal Neighborhood

We walked this área during the day and got to know the streets, shops and restaurants.  Probably rocks loud at night with all the bars and clubs.

Here is the Plaza Foch with lots of outside seating.

Cute eateries.

Several cute hotels in the área, too.



We'll share Carolina Park with you later.

Quito -- More Pics from the Bus Tour

 

 

Being Tourists in Quito (bus tour)

We visited Quito again for a few days.  We love being tourists!

This trip we decided to get the lay of the land by taking the doublé decker tour bus.  Cost for us was half price because we are old:  $12.50 each.  A nice feature is that one can jump off the bus, enjoy the sights and then jump back on a later bus.  There are 12 stops.  You catch the bus outside of Carolina Park at the Quicentro shopping mall end.  It runs every hour. (The ride is about 3 hours to see the 12 attactions.)

Both Spanish and English for the tour.

We sat on the top.  Open air. The bus has a retractable roof which the staff pulled over us when it started to rain.  Cool.

You can see the sign on the bus to watch your head.  Overhead wires.

Bikes for rent.

Love this sign with creative spelling.

We saw neighborhoods we probably wouldn't have seen if we hadn't taken the tour.  Quito is a big City!

Nice new sidewalks all over Quito.

Nice old restored buildings.

We passed the gothic-style Basilica.

Passed Independence Square and the Presidential Palace.

A protest was in progress.

The bus took us up to the hill with the statue of the beautiful Winged Virgin. 

She is standing on a snake.

She is made of 7,000 pieces of aluminum,  about 148 ft tall.

The base of the statue.

The views of Quito are lovely.  You can really get a good perspective of the size of the City.

.

















(More pics from the tour later.)

Volcanic Ash in Cuenca

As we were watching the sunrise Sunday morning, it seemed the City was misty or hazy.  Our City view was a little different than normal.  We didn't think too much about it as our morning view changes each day.

One of our daily chores is to sweep the terrace...  Well...

What was all that dirt?  Nearby construction?  Or just a dirty City?  The terrace hadn't been swept for a few days so could it really be just dirt?  (We were in Quito, more on that later.)

As the dirt became piles, we realized *something* happened in or to Cuenca over night!

Volcanic ash! A first for us and a rare event for Cuenca.  Dark gray, very fine powder on everything, including the inside of our apartment since we leave windows open all the time.

Sweeping and sweeping and cleaning...and more ash added later in the day. 

One of South America's most active volcanoes, the Tungurahua, is located north about 84 miles SE of Quito. Three explosions and earthquakes rocked the town of Banos and surrounding communities.  Tungurahua, which means 'throat of fire' in Quechua, sent a plume of ash about 6 miles up and hot lava down.  Local pólice and members of the military evacuated folks around the volcano.

Tungurahua has been quiet for awhile.  When it does send out the ash, Cuenca rarely sees it but it depends on  the winds.  Our light dusting this time covered the City, our state of Azuay and several other áreas south.  Cuenca's airport closed as a precaution for a few hours.  Military and fire fighters cleaned the runways.  Workers were also dispatched around the City to clean. 

Free dust masks were available at the Square and pharmacies were doing a good business selling them, too.  The ash made it hard to breathe for some folks.  We also saw folks with faces covered with scarves and bandanas.

We decided to not walk much on this Sunday, why push it.

While looking for volcano news, we learned there are 50 volcanoes in Ecuador!  Most are 'sleeping', thank goodness!

PS -- Volcanic ash is good for your garden.  In the soil, NOT on the plants.