Lost a Blog

I did post another blog but it got lost. So here I am updating you all.
The other day we went to the mercado (market) where we had a fantastic breakfast, there is everthing here, fresh vegies, unbelievable fruits, meats, cooked foods, flowers, etc. Next Rachelle is still feeling bad so in this market there is a natural herb healler and we went to her and it really did help.
Next we went to a used book store in old town and here the husband of the owner is American and he was quite a contrary person, he liked it and hated it here. He has a child and they will be going to America to provide school for her. He feels there is nothing but theives here but honestly I haven´t seen a single thing. Beleive me the locals could have easily taken advantage of us but they never have that we know. There are police everywhere so I guess that is part of the reason. This fellow did say that the taxidrivers were a bit naughty and they are. So what he said is ask if they are metering the drive. If they say no or that it is broken, don´t take them. Here in Quito, it is illegal for taxidrivers to not use the meter, or to have a broken meter. So I guess, they have been trying this little trick for a while. It did help quite a bit.
We bought some lovely art, can´t wait to hang it up. It was very inexpensive. We have only found 1 gallery for painted art here and only some sculptural art.
There is very little painted art here, meaning paintings unless you mean a church. Yesterday, we ditched the kids in the hotel so we could look at the churches and the kids could do some school. Fantastic, the churches are as good as or better than any in the churches in Europe. It´s enough to almost convert you. In one of the churches I actually started crying the painting covered the entire inside of the church, the colors and design were lovely, you could see that this type of painting came straight from their hearts. Lots of gold throughout the insides. Unfortunately some of them are very run down but you can still see the oppulence that was once here. They must have been very wealthy people. WOW. There aren´t many people who go to church here anymore just some stragglers, these are mostly tourist interests though. One one block there were 2 very large churches, we are still wondering why so many per square inch here. It must have been very competitive at one time.
The painting supplies is very hard to find and we have only found 1 store here in old town. The prices of the paints are fairly cheap 75 cent for and ounce any color. And the canvases are 9.00 for 20/24 in stretched and gessoed. Too bad I won´t be able to paint this time but I will be drawing. The airplane wouldn´t allow for gells or other stuff over 2 oz. So If you are thinking about getting on a plane remember ¨ no permite¨. I have pencils here and I will be buying uno libro de dibujo. There are unbelievable sculptures and designs outside the building so I want to draw some of them.
The other day we went to the botanical garden and the orchids were like aliens landing on earth the most beautiful colors and combinations and shapes I never thought of before. Flowers we only see in pots in small quantities in green houses here grow like crazy. Lots of pictures. Thank god for zoom lenses.
Tomorrow for a couple of days we will be going to otovalo, here there is the largest market for local indigenous arts and crafts. We were going to go to one of the volcanoes but they have evacuated the area of all locals. This is how it works here, they locals are evacuated and sent to a evatuation site and housed. After it is safe to go home the president will send them a bill for taking care of them. I found this all out using my famous spanglesh, I am starting to think in Spanish. We went to the Center of the Earth, the equator and now we all have found north and south.
Send e-mails if you are reading this blog to let me know if you want to know anything or have any questions that I can answer.
Talk to you all later
Robin