Quito, Ecuador

From Madrid, I fly through the long day chasing the sun. It takes twelve hours but when I arrive in Ecuador it is only six hours after I left.

The plane descends through layer after layer of clouds. Green and cold and high in the mountains. A new country. A new continent.

Map, taxi, hotel, ATM, local SIM card, internet. I read emails from a day in the future. I´ve stretched out the day so much it is already the next day in Australia. I am living in the past.

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Quito

Morning and I start to explore Quito. It was a cold night and when I hit the street it is overcast and foggy. The streets aren´t that interesting in the part of town I am staying. I pass through a sterile park. I decide to make my way to the old section of town. Grafitti on a wall reads, ¨VIVA LOS PUNK¨.

As I progress the fog starts to lift. A large cathedral appears. I see misty hills covered with houses in the background. One hill has a huge statue of an angel on top looking down on the town. (It isn´t really an angel. It is actually Mary with wings.)

In the cathedral a man approaches me and asks if I would like him to show me around the cathedral. I ask him if he will be expecting a tip afterwards. I have been in this position many times before. A local approaches a tourist, offers an unwanted service and afterwards names his fee.

"Well, you know," he says, slightly sheepishly, "a man has to make a living." I offer him a dollar and he says it isn´t much. I don´t know if that´s true or not but it´s the standard response. He would probably say the same if I offered him twenty dollars. We agree on a dollar and he shows me around for fifteen minutes or so. Afterwards I think, " a man has to make an honest living".

The cathedral is beautiful. Light shines brightly through the stained glass windows showing all the Popes up until John Paul II. The most interesting thing is a statue of the infant Mary. It shows Mary as a two year old child dressed up as a Spanish princess which supposedly was the fashion for small town Jewish girls circa 20B.C.

I light a candle in front of the infant Mary in memory of Tanja and Dim. I think Tanja would be perplexed.

Outside the cathedral, I like the look of the hats the locals are wearing and think I should get one for myself. After a while I change my mind as it seems only the women are wearing the hats.

The laughs and shouts I hear tell me I am passing a primary school. There are so many high pitched squeals it sounds like an aviary.

The old part of town is quite charming. It contains numerous churches, museums and ornate old buildings along narrow cobblestone streets.

A man draws my attention to a streak of wet purple paint that is running down my shoulder bag. He points up to suggest the paint has dripped down from above. I look up but can´t see the source. He gives me some tissues and beckons me to the side of the road to cleanup. I thank him and decline. My instinct tells me to leave the scene and I go to the restroom of a nearby restaurant.

There is a line of paint on my shirt, bag and down the leg of my jeans. Another manenters the restroom and notices my misfortune. He speaks in Spanish but I gather he thinks someone squirted paint on me to distract me so they could try to steal my camera or bag. I suspect the helpful stranger with the tissues.

After lunch I sit in a park and relax as the sun comes out warm and bright. I see some men wearing hats and I once again plan to get one. Breathing is already a little difficult at 2600m and the pollution from passing traffic makes it worse.

Town squares like the one I am in are a prominent feature of towns throughout South America. Even small towns will have a Plaza de Armas or a Plaza Mayor, typically a square with a path around the perimeter and four paths leading into the centre form each corner. In the centre is a prominent statue which may be in the middle of a fountain. The rest of the square is usally gerrn grass and trees or bushes.

I head to an Internet cafe for a while and when I come out the sun has gone and it is raining. Typical Melbourne weather.