Now, I"ll try to get these photos posted.

This shows two things.   Hundreds of mattresses were delivered to the NGO, PLAN, in Quito and this is a line of college students who were transferring the mattresses from the warehouse to the waiting trucks which would then deliver them to the earthquake region.   The piles of white bags were filled with non perishable food which would also be delivered to the coast.

Above are several pictures I took of another food collection effort that was being held in the old airport terminal building.  This one seemed to be run by the city or national government since a lot of the workers were municipal employees and the trucks we were filling were dump trucks with the Quito city symbol on the doors.  Lots of citizens volunteers were working but there were lots of police and other govt. employees leading the effort.

 

 

These two photos are sort of out of order.  I took them at a market not too far from the Peace Corps office.  I am just amazed at how beautiful the fruits and vegetables are.

 

 

This is a whole aisle at the market for potatoes..   They grow a lot of potatoes north of Quito in the Ambatu province.   We are in the mountains, after all.

These show some of the murals they paint on their walls along the streets.  Really pretty stuff and it cuts down on the graffitti.

These are two shots of the Plaza del Toros.  Can you imagine...up until three years ago, bull fighting was legal here.  President Correa outlawed, thank god.  Now they use the venue for concerts.

 

This is a funny story.  I have seen this structure several times when I was downtown in the commercial center.  The Hilton is a block away, the Sheraton nearby.  I thought how wonderful that they preserved this ancient Incan structure right in the middle of this commercial center  Well, I learned last week that the building is called "The Caracol" which means the snail in Spanish and the building is a circular retail space with a spiral ramp up through it with little storefronts all along the ramp...nothing Incan ( or honorable) about it. 

Not Incan

Pretty dog patrolling the shopping center.  The top of his right ear is off...don't know the story. 

This is a water filter that is made by the Nikken company...one of those pyramid companies that sells magnet mattresses etc. , lots of things based on magnet power.      But, they tell me these magnet filters work.  Interesting.