On Sunday morning, the weather was especially great.  Most of the days that I have been here, it rained during the day or it was foggy during the daylight hours. Therefore, we decided to visit the TeleferiQo Volcano in Pichincha early, which was originally scheduled for another day. We got there around 9:30 am and waited in a long line after purchasing our tickets. We took a gondola ride to get to the volcano. In my opinion, the ride was very scary for me. I really fear high altitudes. Afterwards, we had to climb a long way to get to the top of the volcano. Nevertheless, it was so worthwhile once we got to the top. We were able to view spectacular landscape from the top.

Here are some of the pictures that I took during that part of the trip. Here is a picture of me trying to look brave during the gondola ride.

 

Here is a picture of me posing with a llama, which I  encountered while I was climbing up to the top of the volcano. During my climb up, there was a man with a llama offering to let people take a picture with it for one dollar.

 

This is a picture of some of the trip participants on top of the mountain.

 

Here is another picture of me and a friend on top of the volcano.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and then headed for the, “Museos de Arte Precolombino Moderno and the, “Capilla del Hombre”.  The website for the place is located here: http://www.guayasamin.org There we visited a museum and the house of a famous Ecuadorian artist. Oswaldo Guayasamin was an incredible artist who depicted the cruelty and injustices of life through his art work. If he were still alive, I would have loved meeting him. His art work touched my emotions in a way that no other artist can match. After consulting with all five of his children, he decided to donate all his artwork, his home and his collection of precolonial artifacts to the republic of Ecuador. I am so happy that he did and that his children agreed with his decision. In my opinion, this generous act is a gift to the world. I really enjoyed learning about him and his artwork.

Here is a picture of me standing in his backyard of the artist’s home. The museum can be seen in the background.

We then stopped off at a locate Quito restaurant named,” Crepes and Waffles, who webpage is located here: http://crepesywaffles.com.ec/quienes-somos This is a picture of the meal I ordered. It was delicious.
We then headed back to our bed/breakfast location and called it a day.