Saturday of Random Adventures

The day started at 7 am, when we left the house to catch the beautiful view of Quito as the sun was rising for the day.  We left a little to late and missed it, but the view of the city was still breathtaking.  

Next we went to breakfast at Café a La Vaca, (Vaca is cow in Spanish).  The restaurant was on a farm with many cows.  They had very fresh milk (which I don't like, but my family made me try anyway), and they also make there own cheese there! I had the most delicious jugo de guanabana (Guanabana juice) which is a fruit that I've never had before (it's green like an avocado on the outside and white and soft on the inside).  I also had a delicious egg dish consisting of cheese, tomatoes, and eggs baked in an oven. 

Next we went to a flower greenhouse.  Ecuador is known for mass producing roses, you can buy 24 roses for $2 here.  They come in a wide variety of beautiful colors and types.  Areas of Ecuador are lined with rows and rows of rose greenhouses.  And inside those greenhouses there are rows and rows of flowers grouped by color and type.  I don't think just anyone can go into these greenhouses, but my host dad does some work for them, so we got to explore these beautiful rose gardens, and see the production process. 

Just outside the flower garden we ran into a llama.  My host mom (Yadi) encouraged my host sister (Amy) and me to go up and pet the llama.  I have no experience with llamas, and thought they were mean and spit.  Upon walking up to the llama, it started to run towards us.  I got scared and ran in the opposite direction, tripping over a rock and severely bruising my foot.  A man who witnessed the fiasco and knew the llama came out to let us pet him. He reassured us that the llama was friendly, and in the end the llama turned out to be a super sweet dude, who really enjoyed sniffing my hair. 

Next we headed to the city of Ambato.  Ambato is the capitol of the province of Tungurahua and is known as the garden of Ecuador or the land of flowers.  We didn't spend too much time here, but while we were here we shopped around the market and explored the small parks in the middle of the city.  Ambato was full of beautiful artwork on the street, and a much cleaner city than Quito.