November 8, 2014: The Cruise Bus Tour of Quito
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Well, we have returned to Quito from our cruise through the Galapagos Islands, and on this page I want to put the few photographs that we took after our arrival back here in Quito and our stay this evening at our cruise-supplied hotel.

Our Arrival Back at the Quito Airport

Our flight from Baltra Island arrived back at the Quito Airport about 3:30PM, and an hour later were in a bus heading back the the J.W. Marriott.

The Ride to the J. W. Marriott

You have seen pictures before of the new road that they built from the airport into Quito, so I don't want to repeat a lot of those here.

The most interesting feature of the new highway is the graceful bridge that was built across the ravine midway out to the airport. The highway snakes down to it from the Quito side of the canyon, and then climbs up from it to the mesa on which the new airport was built. There is a pretty stream that runs underneath the bridge.

Click on the thumbnails below for some views of this streeam an a few other good pictures of the mountainous terrain between Quito and its new airport:

By the time we came up the Quito side of the canyon and began going through the suburbs of the city, it was late in the day and quite cloudy, so the pictures I was able to take out the window of the bus weren't as nice as those we'd taken a week before.

Quito is an interesting city, as we discovered during the two days we spent here before the cruise. In many ways it is similar to any other large city, but in others it is quite different. Below are thumbnails for a representative collection of the candid streetside pictures I took on our way in to the Marriott:

At the J. W. Marriott

We arrived at the Marriott late in the afternoon, and checked into our rooms. The cruise includes this room night because it would not be possible for the cruisers to get flights back to the United States (or anywhere else, for that matter) the same day as they left the Galapagos. Most folks were getting flights out the next day- some home to the States and others, like us, onward to other destinations in South America.

All we did this evening was have the dinner provided by the cruise in one of the hotel restaurants, and we did just a bit of walking outside. The only pictures we took were from our hotel room window, and these, at least to me, were interesting. You have heard me mention many times in this album that some of my panoramic pictures were taken in-camera, while others were created by stitching together individual pictures. Here is a good example of the difference between the two.

First, here is a panorama from our window that I took allowing the camera to create it (I pan the camera and it takes multiple exposures and puts them together):

Now, a series of pictures I took of the same scene:

And, finally, the panorama stitched together from them:

Maybe you find that interesting; I do.

So, we spent our last night in the Marriott which brought the official part of the Celebrity Cruise to the Galapagos to a close. Next on our agenda will be some time in Cuzco, Peru. You should return to the index page for our Quito stays and accompany us next on our fantastic cruise through the Galapagos Islands.

	November 8, 2014: The Cruise Bus Tour of Quito
	Return to the Index for Our Stay in Quito