mahdnc

Some more sights during our trip today.

Anyone who wanted skip the afternoon part of the tour and go back to the hotel was offered transportation. No one in our group accepted. The afternoon tour consisted of a visit to the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World City) which is tourist area mainly devoted to the equator. It was very well done although I don't think it warrants a trip back. There were other exhibits which included chocolate production, animals of Ecuador, and even shrunken heads. All of the exhibits and demonstrations was guided/conducted by an employee of the park. Again it was very well done. My claim to fame was being the only one in our group (who had a chance to try) to balance an egg on a nail head.

We had a catered buffet lunch which was very good.

We then visited the Iglesia de La Compania which sadly does not allow photographs inside. The church is extremely ornate as it is covered in gold, It was beautiful. Furthermore there was an orchestra inside the church practicing for a recital. It was really cool to listen to the music and be surrounded by gold at the same time. Our guide, Michael, spent a great deal of time pointing out the different features of the church. It reminded me of the Vatican tour we took last year. We then visited the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco. This church was also adorned with gold on the inside and photos were permitted:

After that we got back on our bus and proceeded to head down to Old Town to do some walking.

Today was our day to get the official Celebrity Cruises tour of Quito. We were divided into 3 groups imaginatively named X1, X2, and X3. The group assignments were made in the hotel lobby when we met at 8:45am as instructed. We were assigned X3 (like the BMW SUV). During the ride into Quito from the airport, our Celebrity representative, Eduardo, asked us if we were going on this trip with anyone else (we weren't). The question was being asked so they could factor that in when they made a decision on how to split everyone up. Our group, X3, had 8 Celebrity passengers. Our group was assigned a Celebrity guide (Michael) and a driver. There was a 3rd individual assigned to our group. His job was to keep an eye on the us to make sure we stayed together so that no one got lost or into trouble (a people shepherd or chaperone). I was impressed with the number of Celebrity employees that were dedicated to our small tour group. The tour was conducted with a great deal of control and safety. It was well executed. Because each group had their own guide, driver, and people shepherd, the tours were conducted so that each group was independent. No crowding together all 3 groups except for meals. We were all given electronic earpieces in the lobby (the kind that hook around your ear and easily fall off) so that we could hear Michael talk which was handy in the churches that we visited. Our first stop was the Virgin of El Panecillo which is a massive aluminum statue of the Virgin Mary (with wings) that looks over the historic section of Quito from a large hill. The high vantage point also allowed you very nice views of the city. We spent a little more than half an hour there. This included time for Michael to talk about the statue (it is chock full of many different symbolic elements) and point out some landmarks of Quito down below. We also were given about 10 minutes on our own. You could climb up to the base of the statue during that time (internal stairwell). Here are some photos of the statue. There are also some shops located near the base of the statue.

Another view from the hotel. Quito has a sky line that is dotted with volcanos.

Thank you, Ron and Sue. I hope the weather in Chicago is still good. David and Marcia

Thank you, Cathy. I am sorry I didn't respond to your post until now. David

Thank you!

We got back to the hotel at 4pm where the Celebrity desk in the hotel lobby opened up. Celebrity did a good job of giving it the Celebrity experience as we were welcomed with a nice drink and a hot towel. Ana Maria was behind the desk to greet us. She gave us our instructional paperwork and our prized Celebrity Xpedition refillable water bottle. The refillable water bottles for all 3 Celebrity Galapagos ships were lined up behind her kind of like bowling pins. Our names were printed on a label for each bottle.

We have hired a private guide for the two full days in Quito where we are on our own: Sun Nov 26th and today. I took some of @Shiba_Lover's advice and decided to ask our guide today to take us to place around Quito that we won't see during tomorrow's Celebrity tour. The tour was to start at 9:30am so we could sleep in and end around 4pm. The cost was $100USD not including lunch or admission fees. I was interested in taking the Quito TeleferiqQo cable car ride which is outside the city so we hit that first because it tends to get cloudier as the day progresses. We got to the admission office a few minutes before it opened at 10am. There was about 30 people already in line ahead of us. The admission was $9/adult for the ride up and back down. While waiting in line, I took this photo of an indoor mural: The cable car ride was very smooth and takes about 20 minutes. We got in the cable car at the base station which is 10,226 ft above sea level: The ride up the car was pleasant and the views at the time were good. Here is a photo of our guide talking to my wife: The destination as the top of a ridge is at 12,949 ft above sea level. At that level the air was very thin and cool. Unfortunately when we arrived, it was totally cloudy below us and we could not see anything. It looked like we wasted our $18. At the cable car destination, there is an indoor area which housed a seated viewing area, gift shop, bathrooms, and a place to get a snack: There are trails that lead away from the cable car station. The trail initially has a good uphill climb which was difficult to walk as we labored with each breath. However my wife was motivated to walk along the trail to visit a money-making llama station where you can pay a dollar to have someone snap a photo of you standing/hugging/etc two llamas. About 15 minutes later, the clouds lifted enough for us to get a clear view of Quito below: In the next photo you can see one of the volcanoes that surround Quito. The white peak is poking above the clouds in the upper left hand corner of this photo: We then stopped to see Mirador Del Pululahua which is an old caldera now with farms in it. Some pretty flowering bushes/trees that we saw there: As we were driving around Quito, we crossed the equator a couple of times: One of things I had forgotten was that Ecuador is an oil producing country and exporter. Consequently their gasoline is cheaper than the USA. Regular gas costs $2.40/gallon. We stopped by a chocolate store in the Old Town for a chocolate tasting. The tasting was informative and ok, although we were mixed in with a pretty fun group of people. It was located very close to Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco: We were going to visit a market not too far away from our hotel. But we were pretty much done and decided to call it quits (3:30pm).

In some ways, I am not surprised that you said you did not like to shoot in RAW because of the photo editing. It can suck up a lot of time. I used to shoot my son's travel baseball games. I would easily shoot 600-1,000 photos per game because I was firing in continuous mode for many pitches (I made a CD album at the end of the season for each player). I shot in JPEG only and not in RAW because I did not want to spend all my free time editing shots. So I understand. However I thought you might shoot in RAW + JPEG and get the best of both worlds (and you would make the memory card suppliers lots happier, too!). My camera at the time did not have that option.

I was going to ask you how many photos a day you were averaging on your D500 on this trip. I also assume that you are shooting in RAW + JPEG which takes up a lot of space. I brought with me a 2x128 GB (300 MB/S, $$$) and 2x256 GB (200MB/S, $$). I am using each pair of SD cards in mirror mode so I effectively have 128GB + 256GB capacity. I also have a pair of 256 GB (250 MB/S, $$$) that is full from another shoot/trip that I can reformat in a pinch to re-use.

I have my thin wet suit packed with me for our trip. I really wanted to get one that was printed with a tuxedo on it so I could wear it to dinner and impress everyone.

I have to catch up and read your live thread. It's a lot of work! You are doing a great job. I was thinking today on how you are able to do it.

To my surprise, Ecuador has a thriving year round rose growing business. And so the lobby of the JW Marriott hotel has rose arrangements throughout. They roses are perfectly placed and shaped. When I first saw them I was convince they were artificial. My wife convinced me otherwise. I was too tired to notice them when we checked in late last night. I am sure I walked right past them. The last photo has the front desk in the background.

Hot and cold hors d'oeuvres were served at 5:30pm. There was enough food to ruin your appetite for dinner. Shrimp skewers (left) and mini filet mignon (right): The three signs in the next photo say (from left to right): Vegetarian Option, Skewer caprese, and Salman canape: Here is the food that I grabbed (and ruined by dinner appetite with):

There was a sparse offering of snacks in the middle of the day: There was a whole fruit availavle and a station to make a mix of nuts, etc

Here are photos of the breakfast buffet. It included continental choices including rolls, fruit, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs. There were self serve pans of scrambled eggs, sausage links, and bacon strips. There was a made to order omelette station which is nice. I will have to try that tomorrow. I did not see pancakes or waffles or even Belgian waffles.

Wine and beer were available for free. Whiskey and gin could be purchased by the glass or bottle.

Here were the beverages that were readily available in the self-help area: The coffee machine is on the left in the above photo. I believe the black appliance in the middle of the photo was for espresso,

The Executive Lounge was not crowded today. We will see what it looks like tomorrow when all of the Xpedition cruise tour passengers have arrived. I imagine it may be even more crowded if there are Flora cruise tour passengers staying the hotel because I believe they all get Executive Lounge access. The lounge has a living room area with a large screen television: There are a small variety of board games available there: There are quite a few seats for eating in the dining area. Many two top tables were line against the wall of windows in the left of the photo below. There also is a small outdoor (shaded) eating area which is in the very back of this photo. We had breakfast there this morning. The views from the Lounge are nice but not spectacular.

The 9th floor Executive Lounge is pretty nice. It required your room key card to get in through the front door: It was staffed by a couple of friendly Marriott employee. You signed in with them for each trip to the lounge. Since my wife was a Platinum Elite member, I was allowed access as the trailing spouse. For families, I am not sure how many people one Platinum Elite (or above) member can bring in with them. Here were the posted rules and hours of operation:

This few posts is specifically written with Marriott loyalty club members in mind such as @mahasamatman or certain passengers such as @prmssk who had a Penthouse Suite on Xpedition (Royal Suite gets access, too). I believe all Flora passengers get access as well. My wife is Lifetime Platinum member and among the benefits are a welcome gift and access to the Executive Lounge. As I mentioned earlier, we booked a regular room using award points for the 1st night. Celebrity would be taking care of the 2nd and 3rd nights before the cruise. I had questions about how my wife's benefits would be handled. When she checked in, the Front Desk offered her a welcome amenity. Lately. many full service Marriotts that we have been to have watered that gift down to something trivial or 500 loyalty club points. She was pleasantly surprised to be given a menu card which had many options listed. Among them were a cheese and cracker plate, or a fruit and nut plate, or ice cream. There were a couple other options (I think you could get 1000 points instead) which I cannot remember because my mind really lost focus when I heard ice cream as an option. She order the cheese plate because we were pretty hungry since the last time we ate was at Miami. The front desk clerk also got us a couple of bottles of water which I think we got simply because we were guests. The cheese and cracker plate that was delivered to our room was nice and it reminded me of the way things used to be several years ago. Presumably because of my wife's status, we were assigned a room up on the 9th floor where the Executive Lounge was located. In fact our room was located right next to the Executive Lounge which was very convenient although there was a little noise from there early in the morning.