Quito, Ecuador

Buenos Dias a todos!

So we left Mancora, its beach, its sun, its warmth and its numerous tuk-tuks to make our way into Ecuador, which will be our last country before heading back to Peru for our return flight...
The trip up to Quito, the capital city, was a rather interesting one. We had purchased "direct" bus tickets, which of course implies a change of bus at the border. The person who was meant to meet us there to provide us with our tickets for the rest of the journey was actually there, but he then explained to us that we needed to get into a taxi with him to the office where the tickets were ... we didn't know about that bit, and thought that maybe getting into a taxi with a stranger at the border which had earnt a reputation as the dodgiest crossing in South America wasn't the brightest of ideas. We didn't have many options so we followed him, he took us to the agency, paid for the taxi and gave us our tickets... maybe we are getting a bit too suspicous these days....!
We hopped on the bus with several Ecuadorian families including a few crying babies. A guy passed his cockerel to the host so he could place it in the luggage hold ; later I realised, after having passed several cock fight arenas (cock fighting is a popular "sport" in Ecuador), that the bird in the hold was probably a famous fighter.
After an hour or so we had noticed that the police presence on the road was very heavy. That's when we got stopped for the first time. An officier from the drug squad in a military uniform got on board and asked us to get off while he searched the vehicle. As we got back on we were asked to show ID and the men were submitted to a body search ( Pete can apparently testify that it was a very thourough one at that, including in the groin area...!)
An hour later, second control. This time a female officer was present to ensure that the ladies didn't feel left out and got their body search as well. But I also noticed that some passengers had just chosen to remain on board, therefore avoiding the search altogether!
The third control took place around 3 am, so I tried the "I'll just stay on the bus" technique, which seemed to work just fine, as a policeman looked at a random page in my passport before giving it back to me, while Pete was undergoing his third frisking of the night.
We are well and trully in banana country : for hundreds of miles we seemed to be working our way through a giant banana plantation. The local speciality is plantain and cheese empanada, which may sound odd but isn't too bad.
Then we reached the Andes (one last time) to get to Quito, which is nestled between volcanic craters, at an altitude of 2800 metres . It is a pleasant city, and has a quite relaxed feel to it, considering it is the capital. The old town is spectacular with its whitewashed colonial buildings and numerous churches (one of them is intricately decorated using 7 tons of gold!).
We intend to spend a few days here before slowly making our way back down towards Peru and Lima, where we need to be in about two weeks... it's nearly over for the monkeys!