" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the world, ( presently in Equador )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 18 Feb 2010 21:49
TUESDAY 16th FEBRUARY  2010
 
08.00hrs " Quito " 
We had a " crepe" breckfast and it was enjoyable
We tried to get the laptop working, but gave up after half an hour in total frustration, bloody things,
like mother in laws, they never do what you want. Oppppppps  sorry Nanna,
 
10,00hrs Our prearranged taxi arrieved to take us on a tour of  "Quito" for the day ( $ 90 ), would you believe this, The guy " Eddison"
had his wife and 6 year old son with him, so we had the family for the day, and they were lovely people.
We went to the " Old Town " first and visited all the churches, Cathedral,and Basicilla, what a fantastic collection,
Internally 90% were highly decorated with gold, Wall toWall with gold and the detail was spectacular.
The other amazing thing was...............There was Mass going on in them all when we arrieved and the crowds were huge and
included all ages, There was a lot of blessing of babies and dolls and other children's toys, not seen at home, but wonderfull to see here.
 
13.00hrs, When we were in the centre plaza, we spotted a very nice little hotel called " Grand Plaza" hotel.
We escaped from our tour guide/taxi for a while and checked the place out, Orgasmic..........
Within an hour, we had ourselves and our few bits of baggage moved to this cute hotel.
 
15.00hrs We headed off to the " Equitorial Mesuem "
This turned out to be the highlight of our trip to Equador, We had our photo's taken with one foot in the northern hemisphere
and the other foot in the southern hemisphere, They did a water test, a big basin with water and small leaves was placed on the Equator
line, the plug was pulled and the water and leaves went straight down,
They then moved the basin ,water and leaves were moved 2m to one side of the equator and the plug pulled, gosh the water went around
anti clockwise as the water flowed out of the basin.
Then they moved the basin 2m to the other side of the Equator and the water went out in a clockwise motion, Spectacular !
They had lots of other shows, too many to go into here, but one of the most interesting tourist traps we have been to so far.
 
Lots of people were asked to walk the equator line with their eyes closed and no one could do more than 2 steps
except the skipper , who walked 10 yards, a massive round of applause followed, followed by a great burst of
laughter when he told them that in fact he had one eye open all the time, ( Sun glasses are great for hiding the eyes)
 
17.30hrs we returned to the Hotel and relaxed, We got the laptop working and looked at all the photo's of Nanna's 90th birthday,
leah and Johnny's newly adopted child and many other items long overdue for reading.
We even did a bit of " Skyping" Ohhhhhhh we must watch out here, We could get accused of being experts.
We also wrote a bunch of postcards bought earlier in the day, along with a local Indian painting, which Aileen thought represented
the area fairly well.
 
19.30hrs We went to the in Hotel French Restaurant called " Le Belle Epocque"
( it reminded the skipper of a night in london with Peter Redden many years ago, where we had dinner in a fab restaurant called " le Belle Epocque "
in down town Chelsea )
HOWEVER  this restaurant served up live Opera Singers along with the food and the whole night, including the food was brilliant.
God , Ted Crosbie,Clare O'Flynn, and all the other opera 2005 fans would really have enjoyed the wonderfull evening.
 
There was lots of rain that night with plenty of thunder and lightning to boot .
The only downside to a great day was,   ........... The news paper headlines   ........... Deploring the Irish Hierarchy for the child abuse coverup
and the fact that they still refuse to acknowledge the whole thing.....and do whatever is necessary.
 
00.00hrs bed Happy out................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
Signed   :-  Stephen Hyde,    Skipper