Our Ecuadorian adventure started with a search for a hearing aid charger. It seems that somewhere in our travels my hearing aid charger must have slipped out of my day pack. My guess is that it slipped out in the overhead bin of the airplane. With a quick Google search, I discovered that Quito, with a population of 2.8 million people, had an audiologist that carried Oticon, my brand of hearing aids. With some help from our hotel concierge at the Patio Andaluz, I was able to confirm that the clinic had a charger in stock. Amazing, since my local audiologist doesn’t stock these. The concierge found me a driver to take me to the clinic. Carlos, my driver was amazing, taking me to a part of town that was not on any tourist route, navigating impossible traffic and what looked to me to be nonexistent parking, maneuvering his car in ways that seemed impossible. Once parked even finding the clinic was a challenge. Calos led the way, asking for directions and acting as my interpreter. We were back at the hotel within two hours, with time left to explore parts of the Central Historical district on foot, including some delicious food.
We also visited a number of churches including The Gold Church, Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, plazas and a Panama hat factory. Panama hats are made in Ecuador.
Some of our explorations were with our fellow Galapagos tourists, and one of our stops included chocolate tasting. Who knew the subtleties of chocolate. Kind of like tasking fine wines. What amazing journey from coca pods to chocolate and so many flavors. We left with bars to bring back as gifts.
On one of our free days, we hired Carlos again to take us to some of the sights including the Centro Cultural de los Artes Museum with many examples of pre-Columbian art, a stop at the equator, and dinner of Cui Asado at a restaurant in Parque Mitad del Mundo.
So much to see and do in Quito, museums, churches and restaurants. Wish I could share more, but I’m having trouble keeping up with my own adventures. You can see more photos are available in an online gallery.
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