Today was mostly a travel day.
Had to be at Lima airport 2.5 hours ahead of my flight. My taxi got me there with plenty of time and I was very lucky and did not take to long to check my bag in. I already had my boarding pass. Going thru customs i made the mistake of leaving my sun tan in my carry on bag, gone – now need to buy more because at this attitude i will burn – even on cloudy days.
now before i left Lima gate 24 – an officer asked us to move – we kept saying the board still says gate 24. then i pointed at a bag sitting all by itself – no owner. Funny thing – as soon as he moved people and turned his back – more people kept arriving. It was not until the police arrived that the area was cleared in no time. The bomb dog had a good sniff around , then the guy with all the amour on opened the bag and checked inside. once he was happy – another girl emptied the bag out and started going thru everything. Not sure if they found a name or address – but the police took it away and we could then return to gate 24 to await our departure.
Two hour flight followed by a one hour wait in the quene to go thru customs. They had 2 people on for two planes that arrived at the same time.
Not to worry – my driver and guide were waiting for me. Believe it or not – I have a 12 seater mini bus all to myself. Tomorrow I think I will sit in the middle row .
Quito airport is new and is now 40 kms from the city (over the mountain) the highway into the city is great – possibly the best road for this trip so far. We had a guided walking tour of the old part of Quito– this was slow because again I am back at high attitude about 3000 mts. Very interesting city – full of church and everyone we went into had mass going and one looked like a wedding. Managed to do 9400 steps today.
Tomorrow a visit to a volcano lake and a market – biggest to SA they claim – let you know tomorrow,
I need my bed.
chau