I found a free walking tour of the historic district of Quito. It met at a hostel that was about a 20 minute walk away from my hotel so I signed up. They said on their website that you can experience all four seasons in one day in Quito so prepare for every kind of weather. Today it was overcast and cool, turning progressively rainy as the day wore on.

When I arrived at the Hostel, I met travelers from all over the world. US, Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Argentina... Nebraska. There were 12 of us including myself. Our tour guide Paul (pronounced Páool in Spanish) was an energetic, 30ish year old, mountaineering guide who did these city tours when he wasn't climbing.

What I really enjoyed about the tour was that it didn't focus so much on the buildings and colonial history, though there was some of that. We began by going to the central market to taste fruit. Paul stopped at one of the fruit stands and collected a basket of exotic fruits. As he explained about the different varieties he gave us a lesson on the geographical regions of Ecuador. Ecuador has four distinct growing regions and is surprisingly diverse for such a small country. There are 10 languages spoken here with Spanish, English and Northern Kichwa (Quechua) all taught in school. After Paul finished explaining, he handed the basket of fruits over to the shop vendor, a woman who was about four and half feet tall with a friendly smile and wearing a traditional felt hat. She started pealing and cutting the fruit, arranging it on a large platter so that we could taste them. Some were delicious, others... not so much. All were interesting because I had never seen these things before.

From there we went to the flower market to learn about medicinal plants and how Equador supplies the whole world with roses. Paul segued from roses to other Ecuadorian exports including shrimp, bananas, cacao and coffee but most importantly... oil. 50% of Ecuador's GDP is based in oil production. Of course that comes at a price because the oil is found in the Amazon region. This results in widespread destruction of the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet.

In front of the presidential palace, we learned that after the United States, Ecuador was the second country in the Americas to earn its independence from European rule in 1803. It was a funny moment for me when Paul kept referring to himself as "American". I had to laugh a my own unconscious Americentrism. Of course we are all "Americans"!

Ecuador suffered a banking collapse in 1999 which plunged the country into poverty causing a mass migration to the United States and Spain. To stabilize its economy, the country adopted the US Dollar as its national currency and to this day, Ecuador no longer prints its own currency. Fortunately, decades later, Ecuador is emerging as an economic force in South America (or as Paul says... America).

Our tour concluded with my favorite part. We visited a boutique chocolate producer to learn about the cacao industry and... have a tasting. Yumbos Chocolates is a small producer that only uses a rare variety of yellow cacao. OMG! AMAZING!! We got to taste 15 varieties of chocolate from 100% cacao (which is not very nice) to some fantastic chocolates infused with mango, tangerine, mint, and my favorite... coffee. All sourced and produced here in Ecuador. Unfortunately for you, at this time they don't export any of their product. I guess you will have to visit Ecuador to try some yourself.

As the tour was wrapping up, I overheard some of the other guests asking the guide for restaurant recommendations. I pick up on a place not for from my hotel that specializes in farm to table, traditional dishes from several regions. I had to try that!

I had a cream-based ceviche and a salad made with a mix of legumes and goat cheese. Delicious!

As I write this, I can hear it raining hard outside. I'm REALLY hoping for some decent weather tomorrow as I would like to get a view of the volcanos. I'm planning to ride around Cotopaxi (19344 ft / 5896 m) and Chimborazo (20,648 ft / 6293 m). This ride will require crossing two passes of 11,200 ft / 3413 m and a whopping 14,680 ft /4474 m. It would be nice if it didn't rain all day at least.