fh_trips | Quito, Ecuador, Friday, October 18, 2019

We're back to our hotel, the Dann Carlton Quito, located in the financial district and is a five-minute walk to Parque La Carolina, a 165.5 acre park in the center of Quito.

Students are in Superior Twin or Superior Queen ~~whichever is funnier~~ rooms, which come equipped with a mini-bar, wifi, and soaking tubs. The chaperones are in suites, with either a king-sized bed or two doubles. The teachers also have access to the executive suites' courtesy room where they can pick up snacks and coffee and complain about students without them overhearing.

[OOC: Room assignments are here and as always, NFB/NSFW posts go in personal accounts.]

There are a few to choose from in the hotel: The Ópera Restaurant in the lobby offering a Mediterranean menu from noon to 10pm, The Luxemburgo Cafe (which will also host the breakfast buffet) is open tonight for a buffet, the Europa Cafe is open until 9 if you're just feeling like a sandwich or a pastry, and the Liverpool Bar has snacks to go with all of the booze they serve.

[OOC: Tag where you are in the subject line so we can find you!]

While the hotel doesn't have a spa, it does have an indoor pool that the hotel gym overlooks, plus a jacuzzi and a sauna.

[OOC: Tag where you are in the subject line so we can find you!]

Not into eating at hotel restaurants? Quito's food scene is on the upswing, with lots of offerings from an indoor market that's been open since 1843 to a chocolatier using the cocoa beans that Ecuador has been harvesting for 5000 years and everything in between. Just...maybe skip the section the locals call "Gringotown", okay? The food's generic and way too expensive.

From Irish pubs to generic nightclubs, Quito's got you covered but c'mon. We all know you're heading to a place called Dirty Sanchez, right? We'll see you there.

If you have something else in mind.

There'll be one more trip post tomorrow, then we're back in Fandom late afternoon on Saturday.

Edited 2019-10-18 18:59 (UTC)

It would have been a shame if Beau and Karolina went this entire week without going on at least one date, and a 24-hour district full of restaurants, independent shops, performing arts, and a Friday outdoor marketplace seemed like a good place for that.

“Oh man,” Beau said, running a hand (the one that she wasn’t reaching out with to take hold of Karolina’s) through her hair and laughing, “I think we might have too many choices here.”

Karolina's eyes were wide as she tried to take in practically everything spread out in front of them all at once.

"Maaaybe," she agreeed, drawing the word out as she accepted Beau's hand and gave it a squeeze almost by reflex. "But we can always just make a game of how many things we can cram into a single evening!"

“Are we making up for all the times we kinda failed at leaving the room?” Beau teased, smirking unrepentantly. “I'm down for it. What are you feeling like first, food or, like, a movie or something?"

"Food?" said Karolina, who was rarely inclined not to put something tasty in her mouth. "But like maybe more of a snack from the market? Maybe fruit or something?"

She'd read that the local produce was supposed to be amazing. Also, yes, that was a lot of questions that weren't entirely questions.

"Fruit sounds good," Beau agreed, already glancing around to see if she could spot the nearest produce stand. "We could do more of a grazing kind of situation all night instead of one big meal, sample a whole bunch of different things."

She paused.

"Is this just our vacation thing now? Trying out a fuckton of different foods?"

Not that she'd mind.

"Maybe?" Karolina said before chuckling a little. "I mean, it's better than just not making it out of hotel rooms at all?"

Because that was a very real problem they had.

"And, it's a more sustainable choice than going around buying souvenirs, at least."

Wait, that was a problem?

"I want to at least get something for Fjord," Beau said with a little half-smile at her reasoning. "Since he missed out on getting to be on a ship and stuff and I kinda feel bad about that. Not gonna go overboard -- heh -- about it, though."

A couple of piles of fruit on top of a table at a nearby stand caught her attention and she tugged lightly at Karolina's hand.

"Hey, Kar, this way, come on."

. . . okay, as much as she was discovering that she liked exploring new places with Karolina, maybe that hotel room thing was a little bit of a problem.

Karolina followed along easily. And happily, too, craning her neck to see what Beau had spotted.

"I mean, a few souvenirs as gifts is a different thing," she mused, as she did. "It's not just us bringing stuff home like we're not gonna remember we were here otherwise."

This particular stand had what appeared to be guavas and prickly pears, and some kind of thick purple beverage.

"As opposed to a small army of giant plushies," Beau said with a mischievous grin. "That's different, though."

"That is completely different!" Karolina replied, immediately, with a mock-scandalized gasp. "Because I will love those until I die."

"Good, because I busted my ass to get those for you," Beau told her, in between little snorts of laughter. "Worth it, by the way."

Especially if they took up enough room on the couch that it made snuggling kind of necessary.

"Hey, can I get one of those purple drinks?" she asked the vendor, who started preparing one for her, then turned to Karolina. "What looks good, babe?"

"Everything," Karolina sighed, peering at what was there. But, the prickly pears caught her attention, and so she pointed to them after a second. "Ooh! I don't think I've eaten one of those before!"

She was not bouncing in place, but she might as well have been.

“You’re the fucking cutest and I’m mad about it,” Beau informed her in a lightly indulgent tone that was the furthest thing from sounding mad, as she handed the money for the fruit and her drink over, took the drink, and squeezed Karolina’s hand as the man cut the fruit up for them. “I’m kinda super into this being a thing we do, you know? The food adventures, I mean.”

Karolina beamed at her. Not making herself any less cute in the process, no.

"Me too," she said, swinging their joined hands just a little bit. Just lightly. "It's fun and it's different. Plus, it makes memories, for just us."

Beau looked down at their hands for a moment and smiled. "Of things I want to remember, even. That's a nice change. You know, Liam said something like that to me last night? About, like, finding things like this that're something special that just you and I share."

She took a sip of her drink and made a thoughtful, kind of surprised noise; it tasted like sweetened corn and spices and while it wasn't what she'd expected, it wasn't bad.

"Speaking of which, I'd ask if you wanted to try this," she added as the fruit vendor slid the sliced prickly pear over to them on what looked like a piece of banana leaf in lieu of a plate, "but I think there's some kind of cheese in it."

Karolina eyed the drink with mild curiosity for a second, her head tilting a bit at Beau's reaction. "It looks really tasty, but I think I'm good," she decided, right before smiling over at the vendor and thanking him as she accepted the leaf-plate of fruit.

Also:

"Wait, you talked to Liam about us?"

"Yeah, should I --" An uncertain frown flashed across Beau's face for the briefest moment. "Should I not have done that?"

And yes, she realized he'd been a weird choice to go to for advice, but there weren't that many people she trusted.

"It's not that," Karolina was quick to reply, with a gentle little shake of her head. "I'm just... maybe a little surprised that you did?"

Karolina loved her, but she also knew she wasn't the most open about that kind of thing.

Edited 2019-10-21 15:33 (UTC)

Beau smiled sheepishly at her, and started heading toward a vacant bench under a nearby tree so they could relax a bit while they ate.

“He gets like super sappy at me about Verity a lot, so it’s only fair, right?” Which was to say that yes, in her own awkward way she got just as sappy at him about Karolina. “I mean, there’s not a whole lot of people I trust enough for — I might have been, you know, soliciting ideas on what . . .”

She laughed, a little self-consciously.

“What I can do to show you how I feel about you.”

Karolina was back to letting their hands swing a bit. Maybe because she knew they would probably both need both of their hands for the eating in just a moment.

There was a slightly wry tilt to her little smile, now.

"You don't think I know?" she asked, although she knew it probably wasn't that.

“I mean, I don’t want to assume or anything,” Beau said, still a mixture of sheepish and nervous. “But I don’t want you to think I don’t care, either.”

There was really no danger of that, Beau.

Yeah, she should've been able to tell that just from the way Karolina immediately said "Babe..." after that, all gently amused but also warmly. "Do you think I would've started calling us girlfriends if I didn't think you cared?"

She snorted, but that was soft too.

"Oh my God, Beau."

"I'm sorry, I don't know how feelings work," Beau said in a bit of a whine, equally playful and in earnest. "And I'm not great at telling you how I feel."

As evidenced by her current hesitation to tell Karolina she loved her, never mind that it was probably completely obvious anyway.

"I just wanted to make sure. That's all."

"Well, it's not like I'm gonna stop you," Karolina replied, smile turning slowly into a smirk. "I like it when you show me."

Like when she'd busted her ass to get Karolina the plushies, yes.

Did Beau look relieved at that? Yes, probably a bit more than she'd like to admit to. In any case, she took a seat on the bench and tugged very gently at Karolina's hand in invitation, looking up at her with an almost dopey half-smile.

"Good, 'cause I'm way better at action than talking." Which was not true; she was actually pretty good at talking, too, but only when she exercised more patience than she habitually did. "Is that okay? For now, at least?"

"It is," Karolina confirmed as she took a seat, still balancing the fruit on their leafon her other hand like some kind of off-beat waitress. "Babe, all I need you to be is you."

Which wasn't actually a promise that it might not start eating away at her at some point, maybe. But for now? For now, it was enough.

Beau — somewhat reluctantly, it should be noted — let go of her hand now, but that was mainly so she could reach out and run her fingertips along Karolina’s cheek, feather-light.

She was smiling, warm and unguarded in a way she never was except when it was just the two of them together. “Have I told you you’re amazing?”

You know. Sometime in the last hour or so.

"Mayyyybe a few times," Karolina replied, really drawing that first word out, there. She snickered, tilting her face into the touch a little bit. "Have I told you I don't mind hearing repeats?"

“You might have mentioned it,” Beau said, and leaned in to kiss the tip of her nose; she didn’t exactly pull away afterward, either. “Good thing I have no problem saying it a lot. I think you’re fucking amazing, Karolina. I’m kind of never going to be over how amazing you are.”

Karolina's nose scrunching up a little at the kiss probably didn't help her generally adorable vibe any. But she couldn't help it. It was a natural reaction!

The snicker that ensued was a little on the coy side. "I don't know, Beau," she murmured. "But I try."

It was the reaction Beau had been hoping for, in any case, so she was going to consider that a win.

"I know you do. You always do," she said, and pulled back -- though only because that made it much easier to take a piece of fruit off the leaf plate and try to feed it to her. "It's one of my favorite things about you."

The snickering got less coy and more flat-out amused again, at the attempted feeding.

Which then became successful feeding as she went ahead and caught the piece of fruit between her teeth, from where it then disappeared into her mouth to be chewed on thoughtfully.

Then her eyebrows went up. "Ooh, that's really good."

Beau let her fingertips brush lightly against Karolina's lips before she reached for a piece for herself and popped it into her mouth. You could give credit to her experience with fancy wine tastings for the deliberate way she was chewing on the piece of fruit, and the look of concentration on her face as she did.

"Oh wow, yeah. That is pretty good."

And then she took another piece, put one end of it in her mouth, and gave Karolina an inviting and slightly devious grin.

They might just kill everyone in the vicinity with too-sweet cuteness (as much as Beau would try to claim it wasn't, on her part) before tonight was over, really.

They were definitely going to do exactly that.

Karolina snickered again, and then leaned in with zero hesitation because hey, she wanted that piece of fruit! Or at least half of it! And the kissing that immediately ensued was just a side benefit.

A very nice side benefit.

The best side benefit.

"Kinda feel like that piece tasted even better for some reason," Beau mumbled against her lips. "Weird, huh?"

Surely no one could have anticipated that!

"Could just be me. Might have to test that again."

"Maybe we should," Karolina agreed, which no one could have anticipated, either. This time, she was the one who plucked up another piece of fruit and put one half between her lips.

They were insufferable.

They were the worst. And for all that Beau hadn't figured herself to be a particularly demonstrative person in public, it was so easy with Karolina, and she didn't care what anyone else thought.

So yeah, she had to set her drink down on the bench, because this time when she claimed her half of the fruit -- which of course, inevitably, turned into a kiss -- she also had to wrap her arm around Karolina's shoulders. Just because it seemed like the thing to do.

As far as finding out how many things they could cram into one evening went, it was probably not going to be a very long list. Not at this rate.

Quito, Ecuador, Friday, October 18, 2019

HOTEL

Rooms 10/18

Restaurants 10/18

Amenities 10/18

OUT ON THE TOWN

Restaurants 10/18

Clubbing 10/18

Mod Your Fun!

OOC

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