October 30th : Phew - made it to Quito!

Yesterday at 04:00 the alarm(s) went and over the next 45 minutes three bleary eyed people got themselves showered and changed. The taxi ride to Heathrow was uneventful although approaching T5 in the half light with it all lit up was quite an impressive experience. Apart from Gill have her bag pulled (what, again) by security. Usually it's all her hearing paraphernalia that causes the problem, this time it was a tin of talc that looks like fluid on the scanner.

Flight to Madrid on time and the time passed away quickly and even the in flight omelette was good. Through Madrid airport where poor Gill had further problems with their security. This time they wanted all her bits and pieces out of the bag and no interest in the talc - I wish they could be consistent.

The lounge at Madrid was very pleasant and just as well as there was a delay on the flight. This eventually reduced to 30 minutes. I was impressed by the business section on the Iberian A340-600 and seemed to have more room or maybe I'm starting to shrink! We took off about 40 minutes behind schedule, but were informed that this would translate into about 10 delay on arrival.

In flight the service was good and the food more than acceptable. The selection of wine was all Spanish (no surprise there). We all managed to get some sleep with Tamsin fairing the worst with just over an hour. As expected we arrived into Quito about 10 minutes late. As I was in an inner seat I can't comment in what it was like coming into land, other than you could see peaks through the clouds and it was a bit bumpy.

The airport is new and looked very slick (as best as airports can) and immigration took very little time. We had expected to have to pay $10 for a tourist visa, obviously our info was wrong as there was no comment at any point. Going through customs we had to put the bags through another scanner, fearing the worse we did as requested. I don't think they even looked at the screen as we sailed through. Walking out into meet area we instantly saw our contact. He was very informative and helpful and whisked us off to meet the mini-bus. Along the way he told us about Ecuador, Quito the economy, the weather (there are two seasons here wet and very wet)  and gave us helpful tips. I don't think much sunk in as we were very tired. However, he said that the journey into Quito from the new airport would take about an hour at that time of night. The airport opened in January this year, but the road to Quito will be open about a year later.

Church of San Francisco from the roof terrace

Coming into Quito it is a cross between African city outskirts and American ones. Every so often you come across a KFC or some burger place (no Golden Arches spotted though) with the occasional hispanic looking fast food joint (think burritos, chimichangas). As we turned for the historic centre (the first UNESCO site) things started to turn for the better with impressive buildings, churches etc. We pulled up outside our hotel the Gangotena which is situated on San Francisco plaza, next to the church of San Franciso - an impressive location.

The hotel is a former private house of one of the grand families of Ecuador and the apparent wealth is obvious. Our rooms are wonderful and the beds really beckoned, but Gill had suggested that we have a drink downstairs before retiring. Tamsin suggested a second one (simply because Mum was being so slow at drinking her huge glass of sparkling wine), but the lure of a comfortable bed was too strong and so after almost 24 hours of travel with only some sleep we went to our rooms for a well earned sleep.

An important church as yet unidentified!

When we were being shown around the hotel, the very helpful receptionist mentioned a roof terrace with stunning views, so after settling into our rooms, and before our night cap, we went up there to explore.