So I have been walking to work every day this cycle which has helped me get in shape, avoid the bus, and get to know the city a little better.
Like every city, Quito has it's own distinct culture, with lively things and unpleasant things. I quite enjoy walking through the streets and people-watching (except when people walk incredibly slowly and don't let me pass! That's part of my culture clashing with theirs.). In general, Quito is everything that you would expect a modern city to be. It has plazas and parks, government and giant businesses, hordes of business people dressed in their finest, street vendors and countless other things.
But the other day when I was walking to work, I passes under the over pass in one of the busiest parts of the city, and what should I see but a gaggle of geese! This particular gaggle was accompanied by a man herding them gently with a stick and carrying several cages of ducks and chicks! I was so startled that I actually stopped in my tracks to register the whole scene. Where was he going? Where did he get the geese? Is there a market for live geese in Quito? Alas, all of the questions remain unanswered, but I was struck by the sensation that I had just walked through a little piece of rural life on the dirty sidewalk of a busy Quito street. But then, that occasional bump with the rural is part of the unique metropolitan culture that Quito calls its own.
#OnlyinQuito
