Time to quit Quito!

We thought our time in the Ecuadorian city might have been too long but the 5 nights have flowed at a good pace.  HJ has achieved her personal best of not only managing the 4 steep floors non stop, but she could even get the key into the door and open it befor subsiding.  Anyway yesterday was time to move on and our pick up was at 7.00am.  We placed bets on who and what car we would get and were both wrong when Rodrigo arrived in his own 4WD.  He gave us a full run down of our five or so hours to Riobamba, taking in the sites as well as breakfast and lunch.

The Avenue of the Volcanoes

We were again lucky with the weather as it was very bright and clear and we could see the volcano range dominated by Mt Cotopaxia in the distance as we came up out of the valley that Quito sits in.

We continued on the PanAmerican Highway that runs virtually uninterrupted from Canada to the bottom of Chile until we hit our first official stop.  This was breakfast at the home of the Lassa family, a Colonial Hacienda, now a 40  bedroomed hotel based in the remains of what had been a very large estate.  The table was laid out for the three of us and we enjoyed a regal meal whilst Rodrigo continued to provide an excellent insight in to where we were and other more cultural and personal views.  After a tour of house and grounds we moved on.

After breakfast at Hacienda Cienega

We travelled through a number of small towns, all set out in the Spanish style of a central plaza and church with administrative buildings on the flanks.  On passing one grand church high on a hill HJ asked about it, for once Rod was stumbling.  Er, er, it´s where the Ecuadorian football coach comes from he managed, and he´s not been too good lately.  The name was later remembered as we arrived at our next stop in the town of  Pujili and this being Sunday, it was their market day.  We hopped out and left Rod in charge of the car and bags and HJ snapped away at the bustling scenes of locals getting their weekly shop having queued for ages at the town banks to withdraw their government grants - this looked familiar to RM from his days on a DSS counter in London. 

The market at Pujili

Time then to travel the remaining 2 hours to a stop just outside Riobamba for lunch and then to our hacienda hotel. Here the bathroom is bigger than our bedroom and bathroom in Quito.  The only bottle of Agua Tonica had long gone flat and they only had two airline size bottles of SB.  At least the wine was chilled and Pisco Sours replaced the G&Ts.  Early to bed amidst the din of a rowdy crowd in the games room.  HJ commented to reception about the noise, hoping to prompt some action.  Yes they said and they are the owners!  As the only guests here we thought it was time to retire.

PS from HJ - RM  nearly had palpitations when Rodrigo told us at lunch time that under a recently passed law, drinking on Sundays in banned.  Apparently so many people were arriving at work on Monday with hangovers, that they abolished drinking.  However, the good news is that if you have lunch between 1pm and 3pm, you are allowed to drink with it!