Vagabond Jim

  ( Do you know where you're going?  What's your polestar?) (Old sailors love their sextants.) (Closed until at least August.  The home of the dissolved Assembly.) (Aristotle weeps) (No, no fucking way.) (Wow, just wow.  And, this elevation sucked a lot less than it would have last week.  4,000m+  Still left me winded.  And, awestruck.) (Doors seem to pull me in.) (Contra the advice of Lyle Lovett, do NOT 'step inside this house.' 'The House of Grief') ($5, including the first, and best, beer in memory) (I turned the corner and just stopped.  This picture fails to capture the moment. Nonetheless,..) (It feels to me as this captures my experiences here quite well.  Don't ask; I could never explain.  It just does._

~1330 I asked a pharmacist for some help.  I mis-steped the other day and immediately felt it in my back.  NSAIDs were not cutting it.  It's going to take a massage or two when I get home. Muscle relaxants should help.  I hope. And, I am definitely forcing myself to rest. ~5k steps so far (not a reliable count) but only 12 zone minutes. Going slow and improved cardio combined.   Breakfast (from my favorite ladies at Mercado Central, why go elsewhere?)  Roast pork, potato, and mote.  YUMMY.  And a guanabanana (no, I have no idea what it is) "shake" ( Batido ).  Happy, happy, happy! This stuff is so damn good.  I wanted 'fried' pork but it was not in stock so I went with what I know.  "Fried" is actually braised first and then seared in its own fat.  I know it from Bolivia and love it. Really, pork rules.  It just rules the proteins completely.  Sorry, cattlemen (I do have friends in the dairy business; milk is the...

Quito, ~1545 Exhaustion is setting in and I'm doing my best to pay attention.  Honest, I am.  It's also about accepting limits and being smart.  That's very hard to do here.  Elevation is tough on a fat (but thinning) and balding dude. Today's sole destination:  Science! (For kids) My two favorite museums, in the world, are Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and Muenchen's Deutsches Museum. [Immediate digression, to live in the moment: While it has rained here everyday, it sounds like a doozy is about to blow in.  Thunder for the first time.  Big temp and light drop just now.  Glad I'm blogging rather than logging footsteps  at this moment.   I hear the stores shuttering; I do not hear the touts.  Oh, shit... 20 minutes later... I now have 3 bananas, some cookies and chips - perfect for a rainy night dinner.  Plus about 4 litres of various fluids.  Hydration matters at elevation. Supermercado Santa Maria must be...

 Quito, 1430 I slept poorly last night.  On previous nights I was dead to the world by 2000.  Last night, I saw 2335 and beyond.  (One learns to NOT check the time too often as a chronic insomniac. I checked only once.) Part of it was noise.  When the sun goes down, this part of towns shuts comletely down.  The streets are absolutely empty.  The stores are all shuttered by 1800.  The place rolls up the sidewalks, the tourists disappear. (I am in the historic old town it is tourist laden by daylight as is appropriate for one of the original UNECO Heritage Sites.) It has usually stayed deserted until a few hours after sunrise (~0615 +/- 20 minutes year round.  Sunset is always ~12 hours later.)  When I wake at 0800ish the stores are just re-opening. Last night there were trucks parked outside.  Lots of conversation.  Lots of diesel engine noises.  Lots of exhaust fumes. Ear plugs and a mask helped.  But only a bit. I aw...