We Accept American Dollars

Monday 22 February
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Lima, Peru – Quito, Ecuador

I wake up at 4 and get my taxi to the airport. I’ve got two flights, the first to Lima and then to Quito after an hour’s wait. I’m flying with TACA which I’ve never heard of before but have since found out that it’s Latin America’s best airline, and the service is pretty good too. Also Lima airport is pretty good – despite it being situated in the middle of an industrial wasteland and favelas – as is Quito, although signs in the airport say that it’s being rebuilt over the next year or so.

When I get to Quito the hostel said they would have a driver waiting for me, but there’s no one there. Though a process of confusing discussion the guy in the tourist information booth calls the hostel and eventually I find out that he’s running late, and it all ends up fine.

What’s the Ecuadorean currency? US Dollars. I had no idea until I withdrew them from a cash machine. Some countries use dollars as a black market or second currency. Here it’s the 51st state. Craziness.

The hostel is really nice, in fact it’s essentially a hotel. It’s nice to have a bit of comfort after some of the random places I’ve stayed. Also even though Quito is pretty much on the equator, the temperature is around 22 degrees. So it’s trouser time again. And the reason it’s cold is that it’s slap bang in the middle of the Andes, and a fraction short of 3000 metres high. The scenery as we came into land was outstanding.

Oh yeah. Altitude.

Commercial plane air pressure is equivalent to around 2500 metres. This is higher. And boy, do I get a headache from it while adjusting. I feel pretty tired anyway from the early start, but now I get the added bonus of a headache. Thankfully the hostel is so cosy and nice I find myself gratefully going to bed not long after 9.