pablito a.k.a. "mr.ecuador"

Wednesday, August 4th
Yesterday Paul had convinced me to stay another day in Quito. I told him that I would stay only if he promised to take the day off of work and give me a tour around the city. So he said he would. I stayed for one more full day and he had to work the first half of the day. While he was plugging away at work, I went on a walking tour with some other tourists and it was guided by Paul's staff. I learned all about the old city section of Quito. I was so absolutely beautiful. Apparently Quito is the oldest city in South America. I was surprised to learn that because I would have thought for sure that Cuzco, in Peru (old Mayan city near Machu Picchu) was the oldest city. After my walking tour, Paul took me around the city and we did a supermarket sweep tour of the other districts of the city. The old city and new city are like night and day. The old city has the beautiful old Spanish colonial architecture and the new city is more like an modern American city with touristy shops, cafes, restaurants, and discotecas (dance clubs). I preferred the old city. At the end of our day, Paul took me to a great restaurant at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Quito. We sat on the rooftop deck and could see the whole city below. It was truly beautiful. Quito is very hilly, like San Francisco, and when you sit overlooking it you can really get a sense of the topography of the land. The different parts of the city are also shine differently in the dark. The light in the old city had a more yellowish afternoon-sun glow while the new city was bright, florescent, and somewhat sterile. The sight of the city from above was romantic and I was moved by it's aesthetic beauty. Paul and I had a tasty dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. I was feeling slightly sad about leaving Ecuador because I was so pleasantly surprised by it's life and culture. I had a looooonnnngg day of travel ahead of me tomorrow. I had to cross the border into Colombia and arrive in a town called Popoyan.