Carl Pearson Journal 6 June 1969 Quito Ecuador Quito We arrived a little after 7:30 am on an overcast but warmish day. The mountains and fields around the city are green; Fernando says this is the tail end of the local rainy season. Fernando arranged for us to stay in a hotel called Residence Florida on a few blocks from his own house, for $4 a day per person, with meals. After leaving our stuff, we drove (or rather, Fernando drove us) out Avenida John F. Kennedy north to la Mitad del Mundo, the grotesque monument on the equator. The road until right near there was pretty well lined with houses, but beyond that it is less populated. North of Quito is more arid, and there are is a scattering of bushes over the uncultivated places and often agave along the road. Whenever there is agave we look for Patagona zegas because it likes the large blossoms, and we saw one near the equator monument. While driving through this region we saw Zonotrichia capensis, sared laves, ground loves, Catameria, black streamer-tail, many sparrows hawks. This country continued for awhile up the mountain behind the Mitad. We drove up to the rim of the old crater of Pululahua. Pululahua The slopes of the crater had a fairly lush