Quito

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.

View from apartment.

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.

Atop the Virgin Mary statue.

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.

Church pipe organ

Incredible paintings and other art everywhere

Typical town square

La Ronda District

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.

Panama Canal

The highlight of the Panama City trip for me was visiting the Panama Canal, specifically the Miraflores locks. The interpretation center was packed when we arrived and thinned out as the morning progressed. We decided to have an early lunch and then dragged it out so we could have a prime seat for the next ship coming through.

The canal is an amazing feat of engineering and construction, especially for the time that it was designed and built. The human story behind its construction is even more compelling with many told and untold sacrifices. Its scale, reliability and impact on world commerce is impressive. Currently, the government is expanding the capacity of the canal by building two new locks to accommodate New Panamax class ships. Unfortunately, parts of that project have been delayed by construction disputes.

The Panama Canal is facing fresh competitive pressures as well.  A Chinese firm has been awarded a 50 year concession by the Nicaraguan government to design, build and operate a new canal running nearly 300 km through that country. This would be one of the world's largest construction projects valued at approximately $40 Billion USD. Construction is scheduled to begin late 2014 with the new canal operational by 2020.  As with nearly all megaprojects, there are concerns about environmental impact and expropriation of property.  With a mindful approach, this project should be very good for the Nicaraguan economy and demonstrates the bold thinking required to improve the world's infrastructure. Many capable nations seem to have lost the plot being mired down in politics and institutionalized corruption.

Another source of competition for the Panama Canal that appears likely is the opening of new shipping routes through the Northwest Passage due to the unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice.  This could happen by mid-century and comes with severe environmental and geopolitical risks.

Time for a schooling

I didn’t start out thinking of this round-the-world trip as a gift to our children.  It seems likely that the kids don’t think so either.  But plenty of people have said that ‘I hope your children appreciate what you are doing for them’ including friends, family, REI associates, excursion buddies and other near strangers.  I credit Kristin with taking the lead to ensure that this trip suits the kids' academic needs and provides the right learning environment for homeschooling. As school begins in earnest, my contribution will be focused on the marvels of the physical world as well as real world math contextualized within the framework of financial literacy - something missing in most schools today.

Maeve has the answer.