South America Day 61 - Quito

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Another interrupted night due to:
11 am – old man returning from his trip.
4 am – text from daughter number one. Both my daughters have A level maths but neither seem able to calculate time zones.
2.30-6.30 am – getting up to check on daughter number two’s progress on Barcelona Marathon App.
Regular intervals all night – neighbours using the hairdryer. Either they have some weird hairdressing fetish or they’re holding it under the smoke detector so they can smoke in bed without evacuating the hotel (again).

In the morning we head for the airport for our flight to Quito, the world’s second highest capital. We’re going 800 miles further north and 2850 metres higher in altitude. It’s been a long trip so it feels good to be flying 800 miles closer to home.

Once checked in, I attempt to go souvenir shopping, until I realise they want £10 for a fridge magnet. I’m tempted to ask if the decimal points are in the right places on the price tags, but then I knock a rather nice nativity set on the floor, breaking its intricately carved doors. So it’s time to beat a hasty retreat.

I try to log onto the WiFi but it sends me an access code to my email, which I can’t access without WiFi. And that about sums up our trip to Peru. More patience is required than I possess. Time to move on to Ecuador.

It’s our 9th LATAM flight and for the 9th time, it lands bang on time. Someone from LATAM needs to come to the UK and give the likes of EasyJet a few lessons.

We get a taxi to our hostel in the old town. The hostel is OK but the area is a bit rough - the hostel steps appear to be a meeting place for winos.

We have dinner at a rather pretentious restaurant in la Ronda; a cobbled street with colourful 17th century houses. At la Casa de los Geranios I have chicken in orange and teriyaki sauce with a chocolate glaze (with chips of course). The old man has steak and a flambé which looks like it will burn for ever. Then we return to our hostel and lock ourselves in for the night.

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