I grew up eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch - I still love them. I moved on to bologna and sometimes egg sandwiches for special occasions. Eventually, I started 'roach coach' dining at construction sites. So, it might surprise friends and family of long ago that I cherish many types of food and that I have been primarily vegetarian for about 13 of the last 15 years. I have been fortunate to eat great food in homes and restaurants in many places and have sampled many types of cuisine. In that spirit, I will try to covey the occasional culinary experiences from our travels. I have already missed reporting on many excellent meals and I will continue to do so. But here is a brief excerpt of our eating experience in Quito.

Our first cheap and delicious meal at a friendly local diner in Old Town - about $10 for all four of us.

Our walking tour guide, John, suggested a set meal vegetarian restaurant in the La Ronda quarter. It was communal sitting with some genuinely nice folks. The language barrier wasn't a big deal as everyone was very accommodating. Maeve and Liam were a little uncomfortable with the idea so it wasn't our most relaxing food eating experience. It was another $10 meal for the four of us and included fresh pear juice and dessert.

Communal veggie food in La Ronda - $10 for all four of us.

Kristin has made some great dinners too.

Kristin's excellent creation - nearly free.

Dinner at the apartment - Liam is trying to freak me out.

We ate out a lot and really enjoyed Uncle Ho's pan asian cuisine with an Ecuadorian spin.

Since I am on an Asian theme, it is worth mentioning that Liam has adopted a 'crouching tiger' pose whenever eating outside. He finds it comfortable while everyone else finds it disturbing.

Liam just finishing the food inhalation process of a pastry - great bakeries in Quito.

Delicious ice cream abounds.

We had some great meals in Quito. One that was not so great was ironically a Mexican restaurant that I believe we will have a starring role in an upcoming marketing campaign. There was a professional photographer circling for our entire meal and he often had his lens trained on our table. It was a little disconcerting. On a possibly unrelated note, it was the only restaurant where I have ever been where the waiter had more difficulty reading the menu than I did. His coke bottle lenses reminded me of my own experience growing up in the ‘80’s and his inability to read the menu mimicked my own difficulty as I often ask Kristin or the kids to read it to me.

On another positive note we found a great park where we could work off some of our caloric intake.

We arrived in Quito via Avianca Airlines - my new favorite airline. The attendants were superb. They hustled to serve a warm meal on an hour long flight and were very attentive in the process. At the airport, there was a greeter who said ‘good morning’ and ‘welcome’ to every passenger and it sounded sincere. Immigration and customs were pleasant. Our ride to the apartment was easy and scenic. The apartment had great views and our hostess left us water and fruit.

I will admit to feeling the effects of the altitude on the first night. I felt like a gold fish that jumped its bowl. Fortunately it eased the next day - I just became out of breath easily. I found that dark chocolate helped reduce the effects of the altitude - just another feather in the cap of one of the world’s greatest cure-alls.

As we head further south, there are fewer English speakers. Kristin’s Spanish has improved rapidly. It’s been an amazing transition in only one month. The kids laugh at my attempts and were especially harsh when I mixed up 'morning' for 'evening' when I attempted to greet someone.

The weather has been incredible – mostly sunny, but cool. The sun is extremely strong this high up along the equator so I had to buy a hat in the market. Liam bought one too. I also bought a sweater from an old man. Liam said that he kissed the $20 bill and tucked it away after our purchase. Maeve bought some earrings. Kristin is still waiting for that right something.

Liam and I sporting new hats while being admired by an onlooker.

We took a couple of tours - one on a double-decker bus where we could get off and back on again at different points of interest.

We hired a guide for a walking tour of the old city. He was an older man named John who wouldn’t take no for an answer and would disappear without warning into one of the public toilets. We did get to see some things that we weren’t terribly interested in, but he did lead us to a number of sights that we would have missed otherwise including an inside tour of several churches including San Francisco. The churches took my breath away - the amount of effort and care that went into building them is astonishing.

Incredible paintings and other art everywhere

Another road in La Ronda District of Quito

Quito has its share of poverty too. One of the shoe shine boys came over to me and said ‘shoeshine.’ He was very persistent, but polite. It’s difficult to say no, but I did based on my limited understanding of not reinforcing poverty circles. The boy pointed at my shoes and shouted ‘looks bad’ and then stormed off.

This is a good place to say thanks to Indie (http://indie.bootsnall.com) - a company that has been helping us with our flights. They have been very easy to work with and helped us out in numerous ways including notifying us of a flight change, adding our frequent flyer points retroactively and most importantly, booked us great fares.