urbanblitz

Since, I only was able to visit 3 sights yesterday. I had my work cut out for me. I needed to check into the Rio Amazonas hotel for beginning of my Galapagos tour. But I was trying to hit some sights before I checked into my next hotel.

The first thing on my agenda was the Monasterio del Carmen Alto to buy these famous lemon candies which is only sold on Tuesday and Thursday. Due to my lack of communication skills, I ended up buying these lemon cookies. Then I started wandering over to Independence Plaza and ran into a car accident. No one was hurt, but I think the taxi driver hit a fruit truck. Who knows. I just know that they were in some heated argument, and I wanted to get over the Teatro of Sucre which wasn’t all too interesting. And I was trying to figure out how to walk over to the Monasterio of Santa Catalina. I kind of gotten lost along the way and ended up in the Grande Plaza. Where I encountered a protest. I was surrounded by blue balloons, but I felt really bad because I didn’t know what they were protesting about.

I finally made it to the Monasterio of Santa Catalina. But not before being derailed by a yarn store. I love yarn. They had so many colors to choose from. While I was perusing, I was accosted by a homeless man who had walked into the store. He had grabbed my arm and wouldn’t leave me alone. I’ve never had encountered a bum that was so forward. He kept pestering me for 5 cents. And I was bit shaken. Finally the store owner told him to leave.

At the Monasterio of Santa Catalina, they had walked me through a 20 minute tour of the religious artwork. It was well worth it to see the view from the top of the bell tower.

After I checked into the Rio Amazones, I quickly headed over to the Jardin Botanico. It isn’t as big as the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and there were no trees for me to sit on. But it was absolutely stunning. I just kept taking pictures until I heard thunder. 10 minutes after I got into the cab, it started hailing. Literally hailing golf balls. Apparently this a regular occurrence in the afternoon that last about 1 hour. I don’t know if that is something I could get use to.

At about 5:30 pm or so, I head down to G.A.P. trip briefing. It was a bit confusing for a sec because we were all doing different tours. Dave and I were on the 8 day tour of the Galapagos. While Rolf, Rita and Karen were doing the Inca Trail and Galapagos Island tour. They were only going to be on the cruise for 4 days. But we finally sorted that out. Afterwards, I went out to dinner at La Boca del Lobo with some other folks from the tour. We were all independent travellers and seem to get along quite well. Hazel and Jonathan were also on the 8 day tour, but they were going to be on another boat.

(left to right: Karen, Dave, Me, Jonathan and Hazel. picture taken by Hazel)

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