#227. Tuesday 23/11/04
Posted November 26, 2004, 18:08 CET
Breakfast is eggs, toast, jam and papaya juice (made with boiled water of course). Coffee is ok, but the best beans are exported to North America and Europe.
This morning we went to the "Museo National del Banco Central del Ecuador" for a bit of culture. It had a good account of the history of the various indigineous groups of Ecuador up to the Incas and then till independance (we skipped the colonial section). We had the museum to ourselves except some giggling school kids.
After a pizza lunch in an expensive gringo hangout we looked in vain for the "Vivarium" reptile house. I managed to communicate with an old wrinkled chap and he informed us that it had moved to somewhere else in the city. My Spanish is bad. I can ask questions but not understand the answers, except for left/right. People babble away and I nod, not understanding until they stop talking and expect a reply to something. When they realise I haven't understood a word they either laugh or look pissed or incredulous - to some people the entire world must seem to speak Spanish. We have a couple of weeks of Spanish starting next week, so we should be much improved after that.
you have to boil it to kill the germs. in fact, at this altitude you have to boil it for a few minutes to kill the germs.
it's a case of buying bottled water to drink and brush teeth and keeping your mouth closed in the shower.
quiteños boil and store their own water, but are probably used to the dodgy fruit juices sold on the side of the street.
