First exploration

Let me summarize: walking into town - cache along the way - got lost - hot as hell - stopped at McDonald's and chugged half a liter of cola - wanted to buy sunscreen - didn't do it, too expensive - bought a hat instead - took the bus - Centro Storico - sat down, looked around, marveled, enjoyed - went to the cathedral - Quito is tough: up-down-up, and not just a little, no, steep, and all of this at 2800 m above sea level without acclimation - bought a meat-filled pastry along the way - good idea because I was hungry - bad execution because I ran out of breath before reaching the cathedral - survived anyway, didn't have air to cough - went back down - discovered a cache on the GPS - started walking - of course it went...up - gave up, not because of lack of air, but because the neighborhood seemed very dirty, rundown, and poor - went back to the bus station - now I already knew how it worked - squeezed in - squeezed out prematurely, one station too early - one way or another: the way home was uphill

I have to admit, that was almost too much. The tropical sun almost finished me off. Just a few meters from the house was a 'tienda', a small market. I had to go in there, buy a bottle of water, and find a spot of shade outside. Only then did I walk the remaining hundred meters.