Quito

Day 263 – Quito, Ecuador

I was driven to the airport last night by the hostel staff to the sound of Indochine, apparently the French band is popular in Peru. Quirky.

As usual I was early, but I did the checking in by kiosk, got the tag for my backpack, and in due time dropped it at the counter.

I was left with too many soles, so I spent a bit on chocolate but kept some to change them for dollars, which Ecuador uses as currency. With one dollar coins, which is really strange.

Since I was upgraded, I had a luxurious seat -well, mainly, leg room and no neighbour, the middle seat was left free. 

The flight attendant thoughtfully asked me if I wanted to be woken for the meal -no, if I’m asleep at 2am, I won’t be hungry if woken up!

I got a spectacular view of the moon over clouds and land, it was amazing.

So everything went well, we prepared for landing shortly before 4am, I fell back asleep… to be woken by the turbines revving up and the plane pulling up sharply while I could just see the runway lights through the fog!

I thought the pilot missed the landing and was going to circle around before trying again. But we finally got an annoucement (in Spanish!) where tlI vaguely understood something about adverse climatic conditions and another airport. 

Yes, another airport, as in the one in Guayaquil, 260 km South of Quito. There I finally got explanations from the flight attendants. And orange juice. In a real glass, because upgrade.

So we refueled and took off again, and landed in Quito without further ado. 

I got some more sleep and to land at a descent hour of all that. I also missed the taxi booked for me, but when I asked at the infirmation center about the airport shuttle and mentionned my quandary, the guy called my hostel and they sent the taxi again. That guy was amazing!

Of course the hostel said they couldn’t follow up on my flight information because I hadn’t given them my flight number… which I had. Oh well. 

They allowed me an early check in, which was wonderful because I was falling asleep again on their waiting couch. 

I went for a short tour of the city this afternoon, short because I found an open supermarket and since I have a kitchen open to use, I bought a few groceries.

All the ham have a nice label, “contains transgenics”, yummy!

Do you know the power of Ritz, the snack? I have found their product everywhere, from Asia to South America and the Pacific in between. They are more cheesy in Asia, here, they have garlic.