Settling in

Karen's travel tips

If you arrive in Quito on a Sunday evening, better have snacks with you! The carpets roll up and the metal doors come down at 6. Well, at least they do in the neighborhood where we are spending the night. There are a lot of restaurants close by, but nothing open. Add to this that apart from a tuna wrap at Dorval airport the only thing I could eat on the plane was the fruit salad (the steward kindly gave me two), and the pineapple juice, by Monday morning we were both feeling somewhat light headed when we set off down the many, many, many steps down to the commercial district (visualise Mount Royal, only steeper, no hand rails, and a descent at least twice as far, with your head spinning).

Needless to say, we were a bit early for breakfast in the commercial district, but a cafe kindly opened early for us, and I essentially inhaled eggs, avocado toast, fruit salad and an almond milk cappuccino. Serge, who had ordered a larger breakfast actually ran out of steam, and didn't finish. Sadly a young boy walked by, and begged his leftover French toast - and ate it immediately. Came back a bit later to ask for an uneaten sausage for his slightly older brother. Inflation is hitting everyone hard.

Feeling somewhat revived, we headed off to the MegaMaxi to get me some oatmilk. I hadn't planned to write about grocery shopping of all things, but this particular store had drastically changed since the last time I was in it in 2016. I walked in, and it looked more like a Walmart, no food to be seen anywhere! Oh dear, oatmilk is not to be found in Otavalo, and I didn't really feel like traipsing around looking for another Maxi. Then I noticed that no one was shopping, they were all heading straight to the back with their shopping carts, so I followed them, and discovered an even larger grocery store. They had really expanded. Grocery stores don't come that big in Quebec, certainly not with a full Walmart tacked on!

So I found my oatmilk, and we are now off to Otavalo.

Oh, another travel tip, if your water bottle is the type with a straw so you don't have to tip it up to drinks, always twist off the lid to crack the seal first when on an airplane at 30,000 ft. Ask Serge how we know this some time. Me, well, I haven't laughed that hard in years!