Pages

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Quito and one of its many parks





We're in Quito.  Life has changed.  Today we just walked around the city, getting used to the altitude change, the simpler focus, the lay of the land.  Nice people, good food, good cerveza, foreign language.  We happened into a park, and hung out for over an hour, watching folks, families just hanging, playing on this lovely Wednesday afternoon.  Three things impressed:

  • a storyteller in the park who'd gathered and held a crowd (he's the one in the blue shirt);
  • the amazingly fun looking playground equipment throughout the park, stuff that can no longer make it in the US -- waay to "dangerous", I'm sure, for our litigious society.  The swing in the photo is like a papasan chair basket that you lie down in, and the girls on both sides of it pushed as hard and high as they could.  The merry-go-round just visible behind it looked super fun, too.  These were a small part of the offerings there.  We'll go back, to await our swing turn. 
  • being in the vicinity, walking through the corner while money was being transferred from a bank into two heavily armored cars/almost tanks -- with at least 20 guys with machine guns in khakis with bulletproof vests and intense faces, aiming their guns all around while money carrying guys literally ran from the bank to the armored vehicles.  Scary.  Too scared to take photos. 



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh, a swing! and a story teller.

Nancy said...

We went back today (Sat) and waited and waited . . no swinging. Popular spot, for good reason. May have to come back to Quito just for the swing.