Fab day.... walked out of hotel straight into Old Town Quito. Lovely old buildings, rambling streets, over-gilded abundance of churches (sorry to all you Catholics out there), loads of what is referred to as "local colour" in guide books, in this case Andean people with baskets of fruit, veg and babies tied onto their backs with woven blankets. Spent the morning wandering around soaking it up. Quito has a multitude of free galleries, historic houses, museums etc which you can just pop into. Old Town is heavy on security - where ever you look there are at least 2 (I joke not) security/police men with semi-automatics.
New game: security mit gold braid - gets you one point, mit boots & spurs 2 points, mit moustache 3 points. 1 extra point for each surplus weapon. 2 extra points for an entire group in 4x4. Muchos points if you get them to pose for a piccie.
Predictably all the unsavoury stuff is a couple of miles further out where Old Town merges into New. Definitely wouldn't want to be here after dark. Bad enough in day light picking your way between the traffic, pot holes and (possibly live) electric cables. Spot the pick pocket a little less fun.
One of the highlights (for Caroline) was the purchase of a Panama hat - which may be the first of many.
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