Musings of a Casual Drifter: Quito!

We arrived at the Quito airport at 11 PM Monday night. Thank goodness we had arranged for a private driver to pick us up in a large van. Otherwise, we would have needed two taxis for the four of us and our luggage. Our driver spoke no English and we knew only a few words in Spanish. God does have a sense of humor!

We were about 15 minutes away from the airport when we had to slow down. The national police had stopped cars and were putting out a fire along the road. Welcome to Quito!!! The airport road is a long, winding road through the mountains. Ominous came to mind. We were supposed to pick up Hailey before going to the Airbnb. We finally got into the city. The driver stopped, got out and went into a building. There we were, sitting alone in the van, with young men walking along the street. It was past midnight. Then the driver motioned for us to come in. The armed guard asked us for our passports….are they thinking we are a security risk? We handed the passports over and found out that we were actually at the Airbnb condo and we were escorted up to the 12^th floor. Whew! We settled in as the driver took Glen (our son-in-law) to get Hailey.

The couple who managed the Airbnb were wonderful. We found out where the jug was to filter all the water, how to use the electric stove and admonished not to put toilet paper into the toilets (3 of them). There were fresh flowers on the coffee table which was a pleasant surprise. Eggs, fruit, milk, bread and butter had been provided for our morning meal.

All together at last! It was the wee hours of the morning and we all were exhausted and thankful to have made it this far. Hailey knew that her banker (Glen) had arrived to replenish her cash which was down to a mere $20. This called for a both thumbs up sign from her!

This is what the kitchen looked like. Beautiful views to the north and to the west. It even was stocked with a rice cooker, which worked out nicely for one of our evening meals.

The main living area was perfect for the five of us. Just enough space to move around, plus 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms If we had to be stuck inside somewhere, this is 100% better than two hotel rooms. Gorgeous views!

We knew at that point that we were basically stuck in the condo. Many other areas that we wanted to explore were unsafe. No eating out. That necessitated a trip to the SuperMaxi grocery store about 2 blocks away. Many police were out, and when we got into the store, we found many shelves empty. Most of the fresh meat was gone. There was a huge protest scheduled for the next day, Wednesday and the locals were stocking up. We got fruit, snacks, rice, noodles, eggs, and Heidi found some frozen packaged meats. Glen stood by the grocery cart while the 4 of us scurried around to find things. While we were inside, the manager made an announcement for everyone to keep calm and move to the front of the store (per Hailey’s interpretation). Down came the steel doors at the front of the store! We paid and hurried out, all carrying several bags of groceries. We made it to the corner by the condo. Then one of the big trucks carrying protesters banging sticks on the side and yelling, stopped right by us! It was a heart stopping moment! All five of us dashed across the street against the red light! That was enough excitement for the day and we were quite content to play Skip Bo and watch out the windows at the streets below.

A bottle of wine managed to make it back to the condo with other snacks.