Sunday Walkabout - Coffee - Books - More Supplies

This morning I decided to venture out for my longest tour of the city on foot. I wound up walking about a total of two hours by the time it was all done. The interesting thing to me was that every time I asked how to get somewhere, the people immediately told me to take a cab or a bus. When I told them I wanted to walk, they all uniformly told me 'that is very far away, so you should take a bus!' When I insisted on walking, they warned me that it is hilly (which it can be) and that it is quite hot (which it is not!). In any event, I eventually convinced them to give me directions and I enjoyed visiting the city on foot.

My first stop was to the section of town known for the nightlife. It is simply called 'La Mariscal.' Every city in the world has this sort of area of town. It is not the downtown, but pretty close. It is not too expensive, but has lots of popular bars, dance clubs, pubs, and trendy restaurants. There are also internet cafés and places that tourists would look for, so this is known as the place that the tourists go. Still, many younger locals go to the area, too, because it has the clubs, pubs, etc. It was pretty quiet in the morning, but some restaurants were open and a lot of businesses opened around 11AM.

I went to El Cafecito first. This is an older home, which has been converted into a hostel, coffee shop, and small restaurant. While there I met 6 German tourists who were hiking throughout South America for two months before starting work after graduate school. I had a great cup of coffee and a freshly made fruit smoothy (papaya, cantaloupe, and watermelon). I also sat around and talked to the night manager of the hostel who was getting off duty. He is Greek, but lived in Munich for 20 years before moving to Ecuador 3 years ago. He speaks decent Spanish, slightly better English ...and a great deal of German and Greek, obviously.

After my coffee, I wandered around La Mariscal. I ran into a young tourist who tried, in broken Spanish, to ask me if I could direct him to the Cafecito Hostel. Boy was he in luck! Not only could I do that but, when I detected a hint of an Australian accent and asked if he spoke English, he got very excited. Turns out he is in Ecuador to study Spanish and has been here about one week. We chatted a bit --as I forced him to practice his Spanish -- and walked back to the hostel. I left him there with the nice Greek/German man who was still sipping his espresso (probably his third of the morning) and rolling a cigarette (probably his second since I left him).

I eventually made my way to Libri Mundi, regarded as the best book store in Ecuador ...and it is! This is a top-notch bookstore with an extensive selection of all types of books in several languages. I came here because I was told it has a great selection of books on architecture and interior design. I spent about one hour looking at the selection and eventually made my decision. It settled on a book that takes one on a tour through many different countries focusing on diverse home designs that efficiently utilizes minimal space. Interesting ideas and I do love architecture and design. On my way out of the store, I spotted a book by John Rawls, quite a distinguished philosopher on law, government, and politics and, though I have read the book, I bought it in Spanish this time! I'm sure it will take me longer to read, but it will improve my vocabulary in Spanish on all of these intersections of civil society in which I am now working. The book is Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy.

Next, I headed toward the Parque Carolina and the El Jardin shopping center. This has become a regular stop for me on Sundays. The park has lots of people wandering around and the mall has a little bit of everything. After walking around the park for a bit, I shopped for some groceries and more cleaning supplies that I needed. The mall was, as usual, full of people. I can't tell how much they buy, but there sure are many people wandering about.

Finally, I started walking back toward my house. When I got back, I made myself a great cup of coffee using my new French press coffee maker I bought. The only problem is that I noticed that it takes a very long time to boil water at nearly 10,000 feet of altitude! Still, I can now make coffee whenever I want, instead of walking to a local coffee house. After coffee, I took Jackson on his afternoon walk, brushed him, and came back home to do a little reading and call some friends back home.

Quito is quiet on Sunday nights. Most restaurants close early, so I went to one of my favorite places --La Liebre (the Hare). This is a little DVD rental place that is also a coffee shop and small restaurant. The food is simple, but quite good. Now, I'm off to read some more and watch the evening news.

The map at the top generally shows where I was today. If you want to see a detailed map that shows some of the places I stopped, first click on the 'Quito Walk' link below the following map. From there, you can just zoom in as much as you want for as much detail as you would like on some of the points along my walk. Thanks for dropping by to see what I'm doing today in Quito! ...and please let me know what you think.

View Quito Walk 09 06 09 in a larger map