Wow, we are just south of the Equator, but at 2800m and stuck between two mountain ranges, the weather is not that tropical. Flying into Quito the countryside looks lush and green. The houses are more modern than in Lima, the air is cleaner and the traffic much better. The hotel is in one of the main streets in the new city and only a short walk to a large park that had a handicraft market in it.
On the way to the hotel, our transfer guide Jorge, told us that a referendum was being held on Sunday and for three days before it the sale of alcohol is forbidden. Most bars in the city were closed as there was no pint in opening, however, we were able to buy beers in our hotel and drink them in our room.

Tonight we went to dinner at a place called “Spicy”. The “i” in Spicy is a stylised chilli and I think it was the only chilli in the restaurant. When Sue told the waitress she was allergic to garlic, the reassurance came back that no item on the menu had garlic in it. The meal had been cooked in a way that managed to remove every vestige of flavour from it. I am now in the situation where my stomach says it’s full, but my mouth hasn’t registered anything going past.

Our tour officially starts tomorrow with the activity being “Arrive Quito”. In the evening we should have a meeting with the tour leader. Tomorrow morning we shall try and find what pleasures Quito has to offer.

By the time our transfer to the airport arrives, we will have been in the hotel for only 13 hours. Our 1515 flight eventually left the ground at 1715, stopping at Arequipa on the way. Arequipa sits at the bottom of two massive snow capped mountains in the middle of what seems to be a desert. It is the stop-off point for Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world and the next stop for the rest of the group we left in Puno, although they were going by bus.

We are back at sea level now which would make it easier to breathe were it not for the additional oxygen being matched with additional levels of pollution. It was another interesting ride from the airport, with the driver at one stage requesting Sue to take her bag off her lap and put it out of sight. I had tried to give Lima a second chance, but my first impressions remain. Sorry to all the citizens of Lima.
The room in the hotel is huge and easily 3 times the size of the room we had on our first visit and features a king-size bed. However it is at the front of the hotel, above a busy intersection with only a thin pane of glass between us and the mobile cacophony. Diagonally opposite us is a modern looking office block belonging to a government ministry. Across the street we look down on the unfinished rooftop car park of a bank where a woman is doing her washing in a plastic tub. It is somewhat of a contrast.