Good news. After a painful early wake up and our goodbyes to the grandparents, we had a good flight via Miami to Quito. All backpacks made it in one piece. Flights connected and were on time.

Quito, formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador, and at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2850m), it is the highest official capital city in the world (though La Paz, Bolivia seems to claim this as well).

It derives its name from the Quitus, who inhabited the region even before the Incas, way before the Spanish came.

Pickup awaited us at the terminal, and we got to our hotel 60 min after arrival. We met up with our contact Jorge, and made appointment for evening tour.

We had a quick (very late) lunch in a local restaurant, lots of taco’s, corn chips, rice and beers.

A bit light headed because of the altitude we saw the sited of the city at night. Spanish, colonial, and many churches. At the Calle de la Ronda we tried some local foods and local drinks.

The last stop was at La Vírgen del Panecillo. She is a huge ‘winged virgin mary’, is made out of aluminium and stands on a large hill on top. Evidently one should not walk the hill as it is gang controlled and thus dangerous.

Back at the hotel we crashed, and Leendert predicted he was going to do some ‘extreme sleeping’.