One last post from Quito

We elected to spend an extra day in Quito post Executive Council meeting (on our dime for those who wonder) to do some last-minute exploring. So this morning we took the popular TeleferiQo, Quito's 2005 telepherique (actually a ski gondola identical to the Killington VT Skyship), that takes you to 4050 m (13,300 ft). Up top on a clear day (which we didn't have) one can see the summit of Pinchincha, the volcano that overlooks Quito (it last spewed ash about ten years ago). Today we had passing clouds and fog but for a while we could look down on the city. In this photo by Compa, Pinchincha is behind me. On our next trip here (we can dream, no?), we'll bring hiking clothes because there are trails to the top where one can look into the crater.

After that, we went to a church, la Compañia, a Baroque church that is over the top. Even all the retables we saw on the Camino de Santiago can't equal this gilded, super-decorated church. It seems more to be a museum than place of worship now (also like the churches in Spain). The tour guide was fabulous, perhaps egged on by having a group of people who seemed to know about a lot of church history (we were with four others from council or the church center but we never let on what our background was).

Then this afternoon, just wandering up several blocks and over more to a funky store for fair trade coffee and chocolate and then one last gasp/fling at the artisinal market near the hotel.

Now as I write from the 16th floor overlooking the city, I say goodnight to la Virgen del Panecillo and the basilica which I have seen for the past week. (I never did see the southern cross, alas — too much night fog.)

It's up at 4.30 to get a 5.00 bus for a 7.20 flight and I won't be back in my house until midnight tomorrow, ready to get up for a 8.00 HE. Señor, ten piedad.