It is much more entertaining

Mary on the hill

We are home and both flights were on time.

There is always a chance that a United pilot’s cat will have the sneezes and have to be taken to the vet - in which case the flight gets cancelled and every United flight in America is two hours late.

This was our first South American trip and has been quite fascinating. Quito is quite wonderful and we have enjoyed it immensely. The food is good but they do not make wine so were quaffing Chilean wine - which is most enjoyable.

The people in Ecuador are very short and we tower over most of them.  We narrowly avoided stepping on a couple of really small ones.

They look like they are supposed to look - like people who live in South America. 

They all wear the same types of hats and garments. Every second person in the street is selling bags of fruit or plates full of ice-cream and some strange red concoction which could be ice-cream or mashed fruit of some description – or bat entrails.

They eat Llamas and Guinea pigs here but we managed to restrain ourselves.

Every other person is selling Panama hats and vats full of various types of juices. We did not buy a Panama hat but looked at a few.

They are very religious here and there are more churches than there are in Indianapolis - but they are all of the one type - Catholic.  

Mary is very big here. There is a colossal statue of her on top of the hill overlooking Quito. If you wish to pay homage you can walk to see her by climbing up a gigantic stairway of about 6,000 steps. The local sanitation department picks up the bodies of devout tourists who expire trying to do this - and their souls go straight to heaven.  

Cate has recovered remarkably well although her foot is swollen and she thinks she may have been bitten by a small critter. She is already thinking about the Gobi desert next year.

Now – back to normal.

The first Republican debate is tonite on Fox and I just can’t wait. Of course it is Fox so they won't be asking any tricky questions like:

Do you believe in evolution?

Do you believe in climate change?

Do you think President Obama was born in the USA?

But it will still be such fun and I think the Donald will blow them all away.

This has turned out to be much more entertaining than I had expected.