Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

* Tamara posting *

We were glad to sleep in this morning - the past few days have been a lot of riding and very technical riding.

We went to the South American Explorers clubhouse to collect a package (hasn't arrived yet though) and browse their listings for a language school for me. It is a nice place to hang out and they have a ton of information on all the various countries and activities.

That area of town is where all the embassies are - in cute older buildings. There was a marked difference with the US embassy though - it actually had streets closed around it and was very military-looking. Even the United Nations office down the street from our apartment doesn't have anything near that kind of security. Though that does seem to say something about the foreign situation with the US.

We did a little more grocery shopping this evening - it is interesting to see how different the prices are. For example, a smallish jar of peanut butter was $3.89 while carrots were $0.27/pound and cucumbers $0.24/pound. Things like 'Florida's Natural' orange juice (imported, I assume) are relatively expensive.

The grocery store is well-stocked and just around the corner (actually in the big mall) and so it's very convenient. I am looking forward to trying some new fruits. There are a bunch that I've never heard of, but I can't remember many names. I did buy some juice from 'tomate de arbol' which was kind of strange, but not bad.

And just as a warning - since we are here in Quito for a while we may join a few days' worth of posts instead of updating the blog every day since things will hopefully be fairly routine.