Chatting with Alfonso

Chimborazo from the house this morning

Back at 2700m, I could tell immediately that there was less oxygen and I felt quite uncomfortable walking upstairs. We unloaded the cars, Tom put several loads of washing in the machine and Julia went back to Quito with Nidia and Emilia.

Lucy was feeling pretty rough after yesterday’s long journey. Sitting in a car for nine hours, being bounced around bends and over chapas is not what you want at her stage of pregnancy.

I’ve been quite worried about her this time. She seemed to cope with pregnancy so well with Julia and Aureliano, and I expected her to be the same this time. Margaret also found the third pregnancy much more uncomfortable, so maybe it’s something to be expected. I’m worried about her on the long leg of the flight from Mexico City to London. I had booked myself premium economy with the thought that Lucy could have my seat on the flight and I’d help with the children, but premium economy isn’t that great, and so I suggested we upgraded her to first class, so she could have a lie-down bed. We’ll see what can be done.

Carlos’ brother Alfonso, who everyone called Guaco, is now up and about. I’d met him at Tom and Lucy’s wedding and when I met him in the hospital lounge, we had a little chat. He was keen to speak English and that suited me very well. It meant I could have a conversation without running down dead-ends when my grammar/vocabulary ran out.

He was quite chirpy, and told me that he had learned English when he was a teenager and had spent some time in Buffalo on an exchange visit. He said it had seemed very strange and he’d learned to make his own bed. I asked him who’d done it before – his mother or their maid (I assumed they had one). He told me that his father had owned a large house in Quito and had employed a chauffeur, a couple of gardeners, a cook and a couple of housemaids. They were clearly a bit higher in the social strata than merely middle-class. At some stage, the money had been lost (I don’t know how), but Guaco seems to have had a good life.

He worked as a company agent and had connections with Europe and the US. One of his contracts was to procure spare parts for the Ecuadorian air force when they were using UK aircraft, including the Spitfire and the Shackleton.

He’d been to England, he loved British pubs (I think he enjoyed his drink) and particularly remembered a pub in London where you could buy 100 different types of whisky. During his stay, he sampled them all, but (not surprisingly) could not name his favourite.

He also very much enjoyed a visit to Soho and the Windmill Club. There was nothing like that in Quito at the time, although no doubt there were a few Nihgt Clubs.

In the afternoon, Tom and I went to the Parque del Flores in Ambato, a fairly new park where the planting up had only just finished. There were dogs everywhere (Tom wondered if there had been a dog show earlier) and Aureliano had a good time on the climbing frame, slide, rope-bridge combo. Some people asked what his name was and they couldn’t get their heads around Aureliano. It caused some laughter, much to Tom’s annoyance. We finished off with an ice cream at a nearby café.

The day had been clear first thing, offering a good view of Chimborazo and in the evening, we were treated to a view of Cotopaxi with the setting sun lighting up its western flank.

Cotopaxi with the setting sun on its western flank