May 1st - Holiday

May 1st is a holiday in Ecuador. Not only did I have the day off from school, but the Ecuadorians also had a long weekend, which they enjoyed. I didn't have anything special planned for today, so I took the opportunity to go geocaching in Parque Metropolitano. The park is practically right outside my door. This was actually my third visit to the park, but it was the most extensive one so far. Last time, I had to turn back because the sun sets promptly at six o'clock in Ecuador and I don't go geocaching at night. Today, I started in the morning, not too early, mind you, and I was able to continue until about three o'clock. The park is huge, and if I had planned in advance to collect all the caches in this area in a three-hour tour, I was sorely mistaken. Today, the primary goal was the farthest cache, plus one that was in danger of being archived. I visited and restored that one first. The highlight of the day was meeting a geocaching family from Quito right at the cache. Like everyone else here, they were extremely friendly. When I mentioned that I was from Switzerland, the woman spoke to me in German. She had attended the German school in Quito, just like her son does now. As proof, her son cheerfully said "Guten Tag" and we continued talking about geocaching. We discussed how few geocaches there are here and where the others are in the park, etc. We even took a photo together. It was a heartfelt goodbye and then I headed back. Since I had lost my pen somewhere during the first cache, I went back there specifically, but with no luck. Of course, there were people in the park, unbelievable!

And now I'll take a break from geocaching and describe the Sunday pleasure of the Quiteños (there should be a tilde on the "n", but I can't type it here). They go to the park with their whole family or as a couple of lovers or as a group of friends, or fathers on bikes with their children. Some are having a picnic, others are lying in the grass or letting their children romp around the playgrounds in the park, and many others are playing on the numerous sports fields. There are serious games with almost identical uniforms, as well as families with young and old members having lots of fun. Besides playing soccer, they also love playing volleyball here. They play this game in teams of three on a hard surface with a ball that is more like a fistball and heavier than a volleyball. No one dives or goes to the ground, but they have to be incredibly fast on their feet. It's very exciting to watch good teams play.

After returning from the park, I took a shower. For the first time in two days, warm water came out, and this time I was very grateful because I had been sweating. Then I put something in my stomach and went down to Avenida de las Naciones Unidas to visit a few Pokéstops. On the way, you can always find many street vendors. Someone here once said that you can buy everything on the street in Quito. A cup of crema with strawberries caught my eye. Even in this park, no, especially in this park, there were many people playing. The atmosphere in this area is simply delightful. Joy of life everywhere. Wonderful!

I managed to escape the rain twice today. The weather here is much more like April than ours. Sun and heat - typical equatorial sun - and thunderstorms with heavy rain. Both have their place and are quite normal. Each time it rained, I was under cover again.

I'm not sure if I've already explained it in such detail before. The thing is, Quito is an "up and down" city. When I walk from Parque Carolina (flat) to my house, I have to cross Avenuda de los Shyris, and after passing Avenuda Seis de Diciembre, the uphill climb begins. First, I go up Portugal, cross General Eloy Alfaro, and continue on Juan de Dios Martinez towards Federico Paez until I reach Guanguiltagua. Voilà. Done. But that's easily a hundred meters of elevation gain. So, it's like a fitness program as well.

However, today the problem was not going uphill, but going downhill. I had quite a bit of muscle soreness from yesterday and the day before!