I'm up early once again. I'm not sure why I continue to comment on it. It's just how it is. I'm sitting out on the porch swing outside my room at the hotel, looking at the scenery as the sun increasingly brightens the landscape.

I wish I had known about this place before. Even the shower rocks.

***

We drove for a long time alomg that same windy, dirt road through what were the most beautiful mountains and valleys I've seen on this trip. I guess we were saving the best for last.

We stopped for lunch at Hacienda La Ciénaga, near the main highway. It's a truly pretty place with lovely cozy rooms to stay in. The lunch was good and was highlighted by a local band playing Andean standards mixed with 60s pop songs on pan flutes, charangos and a guitar. They were quite good, really loud, and right next to our table.

After lunch, we said goodbye to José-Luis as he went to the highway to catch a bus home to Cuenca then continued on our way to Quito.

***

We're at a nice hotel in the Mariscal (Quito's tourist zone) and we had a really tasty Thai meal for dinner.

After dinner we went to a couple of bars. The first one was a rather trendy seeming place. We had a few beers the moved on to an Irish pub. It was awful. We tried to order a beer from their menu called Llama Negra, which Ross says is pretty good. However, our waitress returned a few moments later to inform us that our choices were Pilsener or Coca-Cola. Adding in the fact that a strange smell emanated from Ross' chair, we chose option three and went to look for a different place to drink.

We ended up at the British pub we went to when we first arrived in ecuador. Ross and I had pints of bitter and Jim had a Guinness. It was much better and the first time we've seen an actual selection of beer to choose from in many weeks.

We've actually decided that this pub, La Reina Victoria, is the new archaeologist hang out in Quito. So, if you happen to be an archaeologist in Ecuador, come here. There may or may not be other archaeologists there when you go (there aren't many archaeologists in Ecuador, so likely not), but it's the place to go.

***

I've come to the conclusion that Quito makes me nervous. I feel vaguely threatened and on edge here. I haven't felt that way anywhere else in Ecuador, just Quito. I don't like it. Quito has some great stuff, but I'll be happy to not be in it for too much longer.