January 25, 2016

This morning we received some bad news. Michel's mom, who is 88 years old, fell yesterday and broke her hip. Surgery is planned for today or tomorrow. His father, who is also 88, is unable to stay on his own. We are not sure yet how this will affect our plans, but we decided that we were going to shoot on down to Cuenca today in the event that we must go home early. 

Quito has so much to see and do, and we barely tapped the tip of it. But Rich and Tina have chosen to stay on in Quito and continue with their site seeing plans. We may meet up later. 

So Michel and I caught the Trole bus just a couple of blocks from where were were staying. It was so crowded! Like sardines in a can...There are seats for 36 people and standing room for 124 - but I swear at one point there were more than 124.

And we were two of the sardines standing - with luggage no less. But this is not uncommon.  There were many standing (and a few sitting) with luggage. 

Anyway we made our way to the South Terminal to catch our bus for Riobamba, which will be our stop over for the night..  3.5 hours on a bus is long enough for one day.  Tomorrow we will bus the rest of the way 289 km.


The highways are nicely paved and not busy at all.






We had a very relaxing ride, arriving around 3:30 pm.