• Among the shops you can find every consumer good (home appliances, clothes, furniture, shoes, glasses, beauty aids, etc.) that you would at a Wal-Mart, only they are spread among intimate, distinctive, small boutiques, not lined up in the long isles of a box store.
• People are well dressed; cloths are clean, no rips, mostly leather shoes, plenty of suits and ties for men and skirts and nylons for women.
• There are a lot of restaurants and small eateries so enough people have disposable income to keep these establishments in business and don't have to eat at home or carry their meals.
• The are plenty of service sector business as well, like copy centers, banks, internet cafes, travel agents, hair dressers, and photo studios.
• The streets are filled with traffic, mostly small sedans and pickup trucks.  The expensive car of choice is the out-of-scale oversized Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).  The sidewalks  are also full and buses are crowded with people heading to work, school, markets and recreation. But there are almost no bicycles.
• There is a lot of construction around the city and money is being spent on good design and architecture.  This is complimented by a good deal of contemporary public art.
• On weekends there is original art for sale and live music in one of the major city parks.  The parks are well maintained and around the city, both the parks and streets are generally clean.

Contradicting this image, the favorite local topic of conversation seems to be how bad the economy is.  It may be weak, but it hardly has the hallmarks of being bad.  Here are a couple indicators of not everything being rosy for everyone:

• Street vendors with small stock and inexpensive goods or food wait for the next customer, often women with small children at their feet.
• Guards at the door of most commercial properties.

Quito is worth at least a couple days of exploration.  One of its assets is its natural history and dramatic setting.  From various vantage points, to the west is the Volcano Pinchincha, to the south is Volcano Cotopaxi, to the east is Volcano Cayambe and to the north is Volcano Cotacachi.  Periodically some of these still come to life.  From Parc Metropolitano there are not only great views, but also excellent bike trails and walking routes.

The cultural and human history can rival the natural beauty.  On a walking tour of the old town it seems like it takes a half hour to tell the story of every block, building and plaza -- twice as long for every church, of which there are countless.  There are a lot of  stories about dead people, but the district is still alive today.  It is packed with Ecuadorians and in many of the plazas there is entertained by local performers.  The city is made more interesting and has more texture and color because a lot of people still wear traditional cloths.

There are a number of good museums and galleries in town.  One with a particular Ecuadorian flavor is the Guayasamin.  Besides having an excellent collection of his paintings and sculptures, it has pre-Colombian pieces and art from the Spanish Catholic colonial period.  In Parc El Ejido, a large number of artists sell there paintings along the walkways on the weekend.

Cycling into the outlying neighborhood and reading the signs over the shops and looking at the street life is full of contrasts and curiosities. Besides of the geography of the city, Quito has what looks to be very basic housing with million dollar views.

Even without expending so much energy the streets of Quito can keep you amused.  One of the prime menu items is Quito is a wide variety of succulent fresh squeezed fruit juice drinks.  Find the right restaurant with outdoor tables, order a fresh fruit juice and watch the parade of beautiful faces that pass.