Welcome to Quito, Again

This was the first weekend we were going to spend in Quito in nearly a month. Not such a big deal for me, Maya and Jonah, because we get around and see things during the week. But Rebecca is at work all day and sees only the neighborhood where she works. So, we were all excited to show her some of the cool things that we have found in the city.

For example, a few weeks ago Maya Jonah and I went to the Basilica Del Voto Nacional. You can read about it here. One of the views we had from the balcony we reached was of this park in the hills in the southwest side of the city. The park looked neat and we thought it would be fun to go there.

On Friday after school, we finally made it. The park was actually kind of dirty with trash and a drunk passed out in the grass. But because it is perched in the hills, it had awesome views of the city, which you can't really tell from this picture. But trust me, it did.


And by now, we are used to the trash. Funny how we barely even notice that anymore. Maya used to comment about it, but no more. I guess she's now conditioned. She is still always on the alert for dog poop though.

So, the Basilica is in the background of this picture. The Basilica looked a lot closer to the park when we were in the park than the park did to the Basilica when we were in the Basilica. Like people always look taller on TV. Or is it shorter. I forget.


The drunk was perfectly placed right at the top of a hill and Maya, Jonah and I joked about rolling him down it. But even though that would have been a lot of fun, we ended up just playing around in the park and eating chicken empanadas that someone came around selling.

There were a lot of local kids at the park and they were really interested in Maya and Jonah. As is their usual custom, Maya and Jonah pretty much ignored the kids. I think it is more of a language thing than a shy thing. Finally though, because of this enormous concrete slide and a merry go round thing, all the kids ended up playing together and having loads of fun.

Maya and Jonah didn't even want to leave when I told them that we had to get home to let Mommy in the apartment because she doesn't have a key. Kumi, our cook, has our spare keys.

As we left, I gave the local kids some candy that I had in my backpack. I later realized that I'm that guy your mother warned you about - the stranger offering candy. These kids took it with no questions asked. I guess Ecuadorian mothers don't give that advice.

So anyway, taking Rebecca to the Basilica or to this playground (which is actually part of a park called Parque Julio Montovelle) would have been new and exciting things to do with her. But somehow, on both Saturday and Sunday, we managed to end up exactly where she has already been.

Well, that's not exactly true. All week the kids were blabbering on about Volcano Park and the roller coaster and how they both went on it and how it was their first roller coaster ride and blah blah blah so on Saturday morning we went there. But going to an amusement park isn't exactly cultural. About the only thing unique about Volcano Park as an amusement park is that you can go there and still have money in your pocket when you leave.

This is the third time I've been there and the fourth visit for the kids (they went once with Opa and PoPo). And despite all those visits, we still haven't spent as much there as we would to get the family into a Six Flags in the U.S.



This visit (our first as MVPs - which means we've spent enough money in the place to get discounted games and rides) we did the usual round of rides and played some games. I managed to win one of those water squirt gun races (I beat Jonah and some other guy) and got a prize to give to my boy. The prize is a bear head on a stick - if you are confused, picture those pencils that they probably still make where you rub the pencil back and forth between your hands and the fuzzy hair guy at the eraser end gets all crazy-haired. I was pretty psyched to get it.

Being in that place, with all the manly games like knock down the cans with a baseball and bang the sledgehammer on the block and make the ball ring the bell, really made me want to play those games and win some prizes for the kids. It took me back to my Jersey shore boardwalk days at Asbury Park, Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights. The only thing missing was the spin the wheel games. But, now I really want to take Maya and Jonah to the boardwalk. Anyone up for renting a shore house next summer?

So, after Volcano Park we went to get lunch at a place that Rebecca goes for lunch during the week. Then we walked to Parque Elijido, which is the park we went to the first weekend we were here. You can read a little bit and see pictures of that visit here. But again, nothing new for Rebecca to see there. But we had a good time.


Maya finally mastered the rungs that you hang from and go hand over hand to get to the other side. I don't know what those things are called. Monkey bars? She did it by hanging underneath and by climbing across on the top.






I've mentioned before that the Ecuadorian playground is a lot more exciting than those plastic contraptions that inhabit our playgrounds back home. Nothing like the risk of blood and broken bones to challenge a kid. Maya is going to ace any playground she runs into back in Alexandria.



Today we went to Parque Metropolitano because there was some artsy kind of thing going on. Rebecca has been in Parque M too. We went to Parque M the first day we were here. To steal a line from Yogi Berra, it's like deja vu all over again.

The reason we went there today, and didn't do something new and exciting, was because this past week, when Maya, Jonah and I went to Parque M, we saw these two mimes practicing their routine. After they were done not talking, they told us that there was going to be some artsy thing in the parque on Sunday at which they were going to perform.

Even though we woke up at about 7 this morning, and the show started at noon, we managed to miss the beginning of the show. But, we caught most of it (and anyway, we'd seen it before without the costumes) and it was good. The kids wouldn't approach the mimes to have a picture taken. Maybe it is a shy thing. But when Maya and Jonah put on a show for Rebecca and me before bed tonight, Maya was doing some of the moves that these guys used today. They also played guitar, danced and did head and shoulder, knees and toes.

Back to the day. Afterwards the mime show, we had a picnic and stayed in the park all day. We played soccer, played on the various playgrounds, rode scooters, and watched Maya try to kill herself on the zip line. The zip line at Parque M is similar to the one at Pachamama, but much more dangerous. There are rocks underneath the line and the structure holding the thing up is creaky and split in places. Maya had about five dozen rides on the thing and was basically riding the thing upside down towards the end. She's definitely into thrills.

Jonah rode the zip line a few times but was content to just throw himself around on the grass most of the day. All of his pants are getting holes in the knees because he is on the ground about eighty percent of the time.

Rebecca and I are planning to leave Maya and Jonah's clothes here when we go home because Maya's are all filthy (yes, we wash them, but she currently has only three pants and four or five shirts in her rotation, so the dirt accumulates faster than we can wash it out. They are permanently stained). And most of Jonah's pants are now floods because he has grown, and they are full of holes.

Parque M is nothing like it is during the week, when we have the place all to ourselves. It was jam packed. Couldn't even park our car if we had one. But, one of the drags about going to Parque M is also one of its attributes. The park is high up in the hills on the northeast side of the city. Very remote. Getting there is no problem because you just hop in a taxi in town and ride up there. But getting out of there is a pain. There are no taxis to be had there and during the week, very few people. When we were there last, I asked a woman with a kid to give us a lift down the enormous hill you have to climb to get to the park so we could catch a taxi on the main road, but she refused me. She told me she was uncomfortable with the idea of giving a man a ride. It was annoying because it meant that I had to carry Jonah about halfway down the mountain before we were able to hitch a ride, but I understand her hesitation.

To get out of the park today, we had to start walking but were able to hitch a ride at just about the same place we did last time. It's probably not a good idea for me to get my kids into the habit of standing on the side of the road with their thumbs out, but at least I don't hide in the grass and jump out when someone stops. I'm right there with them. That should at least filter out some of the weirdos that would otherwise offer a ride.