Per Santiago’s good directions, I walked to the roundabout, then down to Avenida Rio Amazonas and north. He pointed to a cross street where I could find many restaurants with authentic local cuisine.
Walking along I could feel the air change, and sure enough clouds were descending from the mountains. I kept getting a little bewildered even though I had a good map. When the main streets intersect at oblique angles I seem to get confused. I asked a store vendor, and a guard, and finally a bike store, along the way. They all gave me good directions to get me back on track, in spite of the language barrier. At the bike store, an english speaker said there was a pork restaurant around the corner, or seafood farther down. I was interested in the seafood, but getting kind of tired. I walked and walked and walked and didn’t see any seafood place. I was about to opt for the pork, but decided to go one more block. Across the street I saw a really nice looking restaurant that was completely jam packed. This was the second time I had seen it. When I got to the traffic light without seeing any seafood, I crossed the street and walked back up to where the crowd was.
I figured that if that many people were waiting that long, the food or something must be really good. I got in the back of the crowd and waited only a few minutes. Here I’ll interject that I had been walking around listening to Revival, Stephen King’s latest release. It is really, really good. Many times I either chuckled or smiled at something in the narration. People probably thought I was a bit touched.
Anyway, I signaled to the maitre’ d that I was a party of one, and he let me in. I told him I had no Spanish and he asked me to wait inside for just a minute. It was so crowded they could only let people in when a table was ready. A nice woman came by and also asked me to just wait a moment. They were mobbed - I was very happy to wait. I would have sat on the roof of the upper floor, even though it was beginning to sprinkle.
Then a man came to me and introduced himself, Peter, apologizing for his poor English. I said his English is much better than my Spanish. He went through the entire menu with me, explaining everything, and asked if I would like to eat. Oh yes, I wanted to eat. He took me right to a table and waited while I washed my hands. There was a short line and he had to wait quite a while.
Again he went through the menu, and I ordered the barbecue and a large beer. I had seen these tall bottles of beer in the cooler while waiting and I was thirsty.
A waiter brought me a “setup” and another waiter dropped a tray of dishes. There was a huge crash and the crowd stopped talking. Then everyone cheered, and the public address system started playing something like a bullfight song and everyone started clapping time. What a happy bunch!
And this made me happy!
Here is the view from my table - and this is just the ground floor:
Chugchucaras Tradicion Multirestaurant
Restaurante
Av. Amazonas N42-25 (Isla Tortuga), Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
I feel like the luckiest guy to find this place to rest and dine. But wait - there’s more!!! Here’s my lunch/dinner:
This barbecue was amazing. The middle shelf is full of hot coals, keeping everything warm and continuing to cook while I dug in. There was pork loin, steak, sausages, kidney sausages, cow intestine, cow heart, and other meats I wasn’t sure of. I ate some of everything, and brought about half of it home for tomorrow.
What a pleasant time! Good food, soccer (futbol) on the TV, a wonderful crowd, cold beer and terrific service. Partway through the meal, Peter came by to see how things were. He introduced his wife (the nice lady from earlier) who owns the restaurant. I think her name is Caterina but I don’t think I am spelling it correctly. In any case, Peter said she wondered if I would accept a glass of Sangria with their compliments? Would I?
A wonderfully nice couple!
The Sangria was terrific too!
Needless to say, I know where I am going back for dinner, lunch, anything I can try there will be wonderful.
Then I walked back up the 45 flights. The clouds had really crowded in, but I only felt a few sprinkles. As I neared the summit of my climb, I saw a bright flash of light, and a 2 count brought really loud thunder - 0.4 miles to the strike! And then another even louder strike, about a mile distant. But I made it home - another 6.3 mile walk for the afternoon, and done for the day!