We went to Centro Historico (Old Town) where we saw the Presidential Palace and The Church of the Society of Jesus, which is entirely gold plated inside and takes your breath way. La Ronda Street is like walking into the 18th Century. In independence Square outside the palace, I was approached by a shoeshine boy who said he would shine my shoes for 50 cents and then proceeded to ask for a a dollar; he did a nice job, so I gave him the dollar. All of his fellow shoe shiners proceeded to surround me and thought they needed money too. They were cute and they knew it...and reaped the reward. From there, we took a taxi to Restaurant El Ventanal. It is up on the Hill of San Juan overlooking Quito. The restaurant is very simple but elegant with special attention to service and creative foods. The walls are total glass with an amazing view of the city. Of course, when we went back to Al Cala, we ended up at Shooter's. To top off the day, we ate our Inga edulis, ice cream bean, which we had bought earlier. This is a long pod with a white pulp that tastes like vanilla ice cream. Another fun day.
