Continuing to Explore While Ill

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017--Quito

Today's plan was to see the Museo de Cuidad.  After the National Museum which I didn't get to see yesterday due to closure for remodeling, this museum is considered to be the second best in Quito.  Located in an old monastery, it is a very nice museum telling the story of the city from the time of its first residents to the present.  Rather than fill it with every possible old thing they could find, it seems almost sparsely filled with recreations of aspects of points of the city's history--a sample hut of early settlers, a sample general store from the 1800's, seats from the Devil's Nose railroad (built from here to Guayaquil) with film projected onto the windows as if the train is moving, mannequins in costumes from local festivals, etc.

After seeing the museum, I had lunch at a Hari Krishna restaurant.  They are located in many cities of the world, and I have considered going to one before.  This one is only about 4 blocks from my apartment, so I went today.  They have a set menu, repeated weekly, for each day if the week.  And they only serve vegetarian food.  I had a spinach-potato soup, brown rice with peanuts, a seasoned and roasted slice of potato, and a steamed medley of zucchini, hominy, broccoli, and slices of leeks.  On the side , I had a salad with tomatoes, lettuce, another darker green, carrots, onions, and an avocado dressing.  Dessert was a small bowl of sliced strawberries in syrup.  It came with a warm fruit-flavored drink.

Unfortunately, I still had sinus drainage for the third night in a row last night.  Also I found my body feeling weak and tired as I wandered around town today.  In addition, my neck felt warm as if I might have a slight fever.  I stopped by a pharmacy near the restaurant and described my symptoms.  The lady sold me antibiotics to take for 3 days.  She also said to take Advil 3 times a day.  I started the regimen at 13:30, so I will finish it Friday afternoon before leaving the apartment for the airport.  I am hoping this will make me well by the time I get home.

I finished reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan today.  It won the Man Booker Prize a few years ago and tells the story of Australian POWs during WWII who were used as slave labor by the Japanese army to build the Siam-Burma railway project.  It is very well written and includes stories of the lives of men from both sides both before and after the war in addition to the war story.  I rank it almost as good as Atonement which is one of the best stories I have read.  I gave this one 4 3/4 stars out of 5.