First day in Quito...

So great to have a full day to just explore...These images depict a smattering. The first two are from the center of the old town in the Plaza Grande in downtown Quito...there are massive mountains on the western side so it's cool to look up from the plaza amidst narrow streets and see the mountains looming so close by.

The next few are from an awesome photography show I went to "World Press 10" at the Centro Cultural Metropolitano. It was a juried international photo competition, asking photographers to make a statement about the world today...almost 200,000 photographers applied and 21 were chosen to represent. The images were stunning, shocking, disturbing, beautiful, moving and funny.  It was so interesting...

Images three and four are part of the same story in Zimbabwe involving a village and an elephant which I found fascinating...you can read about it yourself.

Image five is dedicated to Rich...about the World Masters Games (the worlds largest multi-sport event) with mature competitors from around the globe taking part in 28 different sports...The old guy here is an australian, aged 91, after swimming the 800 meters freestyle.

Image six made me cry. It's a mother comforting her (soldier) son after he lost 40% of his brain during a grenade explosion in Iraq. You can see how much of his skull is missing...they are at a hospital in Massachusetts.

The next two images are just more around the plaza...some adorable teenage boys all too willing to be photographed...

The final one is looking out the airplane window as we were about to land on tierras sudamericanas...the bright red light was awesome...

It was a good day....minimal rain, no real altitude issues...learned about and ate some very tasty local dishes (involving alot of corn and plantains and excellent savory sauces) and now all I want is my luggage back for the next leg tomorrow...let's see if the airline comes through...

I went to a great open air artisan mercado and shopped around...it was fun to interact with local ecuadorians...many people want to know why I speak spanish so well and where I'm from...also visited a clositered nuns monastery which sounds like it could be boring but wasn't! 

And...pretty soon I will be in the land of no electricity or internet so I'm indulging while I have the chance...It takes some committment to post on a blog...especially when you're wordy and love to share photographs like me!