Waiting For Our Luggage in Quito, Ecuador               June 8th, 2013

Flying into Quito’s new international airport was a roller coaster type landing with a full on brake slam at the end for good measure.  There was an older lady from Quito sitting near us and I noticed she was making the sign of the cross as we were descending.  She said that this was a normal landing for Quito.

The fun was just beginning as our luggage never arrived and so sadly we headed into the big city with not so much as a tooth brush.  Our bags did show up, one bag at a time over the next five days.  There was nothing we could do about that and so we made good use of the time and explored the city.

Fortunately we had our cameras and I had my sketching gear. (More important than a toothbrush) The picture at the top of this blog entry is a watercolor and pencil sketch depicting a day of hiking in the hills above Quito. On one of our walkabout’s we came across a construction crew demolishing an old building.  All these men standing around looking at a back hoe seemed like a scene I might see back in Canada.  I guess construction culture is some what universal.

Quito was a good opportunity to acclimatize to the next two months of travel through South America and to start working on my Spanish.

A page from my sketch book. Pen and watercolor wash.

The View From The San Francisco Monastry

Exploring The Hills above Quito.

Old Man of the Mountains, Pencil and watercolour sketch