Our flight from La Paz to Quito was with the dreaded airline TACA who had caused us to arrive in Cusco a day late earlier in our trip. We had to change planes in Lima and had only an hour connection time so we were very concerned that we might get another delay. We needed to get to Quito as from there we are heading to the Galapagos Islands.
On hearing of the news of disruption in Bolivia due to local people protesting against price increases by blockading roads, this added to our concerns and we really thought that we might have made a mistake by deciding to travel through Bolivia.
In the event the Bolivian protests had calmed down and TACA managed to get us to Quito pretty much on time and with our luggage. But just as we thought we were home free, Ecuadorian passport control intervened. Su had no problems but the police decided that my passport was a fake and wouldn't let me in to the country.
Of course they were only doing their job but it was frustrating and for a while a bit worrying. I got asked repeatedly the same questions about where I had come from and what nationality I was. I repeatedly gave the same answers and managed to stay polite. The good bit about having to answer the questions in Spanish was that l had to think more about what I was saying and therefore avoided the almost unbearable temptation to be rude to them.
After a few minutes I had the sense to mention that I was here with my wife and pointed Su out. This proved to be a turning point and the sight of a white woman who was prepared to admit that she was married to me seemed to help them start to believe that I might have a genuine British passport. Perhaps they had been watching the royal wedding and decided that I didn't look at all like Prince William! But after half an hour or so to our relief they decided to let me in and stamped my passport.
So here we are in Quito which has a beautiful old colonial centre and is set in a valley at around 2800m. It seems a pretty prosperous, busy place and a million miles from the more earthy La Paz. The US influence is very striking in the layout of the new part of town and the food on offer. We took a cable car up the mountain overlooking the city where you can get a great feel for the layout of the place.
All this high altitude takes its toll though. Symptoms of altitude sickness like minor headaches, nose-bleeds and insomnia are inevitable. We have been between 2500m and 4000m for most of the last two weeks and, while we have acclimatised well and coped with the Inca Trail, going upstairs can still have us out of breath.
It will be nice therefore to return to sea level for the Galapagos trip as we will be on a boat for the next week. Fortunately as Galapagos is part of Ecuador there won't be any passport control this time!
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