One concept I need to follow more often is not to settle. For the past two days I walked about 10 blocks to the only restaurant I thought was open nearby. So for two days I ate disgusting fried chicken. The kind that is so greasy and fat you just want to vomit it up afterwards.

Naturally on the third day I was more curious and walked a few more blocks to find dozens of better choices open, including restaurant’s overlooking beautiful colonial plazas and also KFC. I settled on a filet minon that day.

I met Carolina on Tuesday night in the new town for some dessert. We drove to a café in Guapalo, a bohemian little section of Quito with cobblestone streets and cafes. It was a strange and terrifying night as some of the street lights and traffic lights were not working. As we drove past broken traffic lights it felt a little like playing Russian roulette. We drove down Guapalo but it was not worth the risk of parking the car in the dark because there is a good chance it will get stolen.

Instead we settled on Crepes Y Waffles, a Colombian restaurant chain I have written about many times. It’s that good. We had a nice time piecing together my birthday night. I learned how great Carolina is to go out with. For example, in the last place when I was dancing with one girl Carolina blocked each guy who wanted to cut in by telling them to back off because it was my birthday. Haha!

On Wednesday afternoon I traveled. I went to a tourist town, Banos,  with an American (Arielle) and a Dutchman (Richard). The Dutchman even had the Richard Von in his name making him really, really Dutch in my mind.  On the way to Banos we passed an overturned truck that spilled bottles of some liquid all over the side of the road.