Quito. Broke through the clouds in the mountains above Quito at 5:00 pm. The mountains were terraced and green with crops.. Beautiful vistas. Soon a sprawling metropolis unfolded.  Whatever they say is the population of Quito, it is triple that number.

Learned right away, English is not commonly spoken in Ecuador. Airport personnel don't speak it.  Our driver to the hotel didn't either.  However, he was very happy to help us with our lousy Spanish. We went from the new town - nothing noteworthy on the drive, except great views of the valley with the city and mountains in the background.

Arrived at our hotel in old town one block off the main plaza and directly on Plaza Santa Domingo. We arrived to hear live latin music  coming from the plaza.  Hotel Real Audiencia is an old colonial structure that has a lot of history.  It is quite beautiful, if you like that kind of thing. We checked in - no one speaks English here either. This is a good thing. We now know we have to get on the stick and improve our Spanish. Up in the room, we look out our windows and see a fiesta going on in the Plaza. We hurry down to join the huge crowd watching the entertainers.  We learn it is a weekly thing to promote Quito pride.

The first group we see is 6 sax players 6 trumpets, 6 trombones and countless percussionists.  In addition there are three dancers in traditional Indian dress. They go for 30 - 40 minutes with no break at a frenetic pace. We think this is incredible.

The next group is even bigger. It has all ages 10 years to the thirties. They play a salsa rhythmic style.  there are two vocalists/cheerleaders, who get the crowd going.  Salsa dancing breaks out in the crowd. Then strange things start happening. Some band members don Dia de los Muertos type masks.  Two of them, sax players do a back and forth routine that is phenomenal. All the players are doing some type of dance routine throughout..  Not to be outdone, there were libre luche  costumes and things we have never seen before. Another all out forty minutes.

We then left for dinner at the hotel which has a restaurant overlooking the plaza.  We had great entertainment for dinner. As I write this, at 9:00 pm, they are still going strong.

On a more mundane note, we flew LAN (a South American airline) from Miami to Quito.  Probably the best air ride we have had.  Includes real food with real metal silverware and free wine. Electronics in the seats - could watch movies, TV, play games, listen to music. Highly recommend them.

We will explore Quito tomorrow.  Hope to post some pictures.