Papallacta to Quito

I´ve been out in the country hiking in the mountains the last two days. Stayed at a place with no heat or hot water, so obviously no internet access. I have notes I´ll have to post later about some of things that happened there. This morning I returned to Quito, this time to the new part of the city, which is more touristy. I like it better than the old part of town because its not so hectic and you can actually fit in some of the buildings. But in all, Quito itself cannot compete with any of the towns I´ve visited in Spain, which it emulates in many ways. However, the surrounding areas more than make up for it. It would be a great place to return to for a more serious hiking and camping excursion. The people are perhaps the most friendly and helpful of all the places I´ve been. It is strange that such a seemingly friendly place has such a high level of security, at least in Quito. Many of the businesses have private security forces out front, all with either a machine gun, a pistol, a shotgun, or some combination of the latter. The plazas have a dozen or more soldiers standing around in full riot gear, shields and all. Even the Burger King has an armed guard. The Baskin Robbins next door affords 2 armed guards for just 31 flavors. But apart from this, you´d think nothing bad ever happened here, particularly in the country where you don´t see such things. Yesterday, a young man was shot in Guayaquil, it was on the national news. In the States you´d never hear about that beyond your evening local news. Then again, this country is small enough that just about everything is local. Anyway, enough observation. All set to come home tomorrow.