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Ecaudor 1 - Quito
Well we arrived safely in Quito, after a bit of a palaver with Immigration when both leaving Mexico and entering the US. As I related in the Mexico blog, we didn´t get our passports stamped on entering Mexico because there were no border guards in Tijuana. Nor did we get exit stamps for leaving the US, and our original entry visa was intact. Boy, did this cause a problem! When we were at the departure gate to leave Mexico, the guard there checked our passports before allowing us to board the plane. She seemed very puzzled by our lack of entry stamps, and called a colleague, who in turn called another colleague. As we were the first in the queue. This was beginning to cause a problem with the other people waiting to board. Of course, no one there could speak English until eventually someone arrived who could- the fact that this was a sub-machine gun toting, fully uniformed person did worry us slightly. For some reason they all thought we had entered Mexico illegally, and it wasn´t until Lynnette remembered that she still had the bus tickets from San Ysidro to Los Mochis in her bag that they finally believed us, stamped our passports and allowed us to board.
Once we were on board the flight to George Bush International was uneventful, but of course on the plane we were told that we did not need to complete a visa waiver form because our prvious visas, issued only a week or so before, were still valid. WRONG!! There was a great deal of alarm and despondency amongst the US border guards when they realised that not only had we not completed visa waiver forms, we hadn´t handed in our EXIT visa form on leaving the US - so their system was telling them that we were already in the the country, so we couldn´t be let in again! Bizarrely, even though we were transitting to Quito, we still had to go into the US first (unlike any other airport, where international transits don´t usually have to go through immigration to enter the country, then through imigration again to exit).
However, again after calling a supervisor, and going through the same sdtory as we had with the Mexican authorities, we were allowed through - though it took over an hour an a half for that stage of the journey.
GBI airport for us, was a disaster. we tried to phone ahead to Quito to confirm our hotel arrangements, but the phones didn´t work - we kept getting a voice saying Érror 56´or Error 41, but no explanation about what these codes meant, or how we could correct whatever the problem was, so we decided to email instead - again usual problem, plenty of wi-fi hot spots, but no where to use a proper PC! Took us ages to find out how to get to use a PC, but eventually OK.
Uneventful flight to Quito, and we were through customs, collected our bags, in the hotel and in bed in about an hour!!
First impressions were that the streets were deserted- OK, it was afyer midnight, but when the taxi pulled up outside the hotel, he beeped his horn, but he wouldn´t get out until an armed security guard popped out of a little box situated just outside the door. He verified that we had a reservation in the Hotel San Francisco de Quito, before calling the night manager to let us in. In the mean time a small gang of youths had appeared from nowhere and were watching us all (the driver, the guard, Lynnette and I) very closely indeed.
However, Quito Old Town is a lovely place (the New Town is just a new town, could be anywhere).
We booked a tour on 2nd July and took in a number of cathedrals, the Midi del Mundo (centre of the world) and saw the Quito Angel up close, as well as going on the TelerifiQuito, a 2.5km long cable care which takes you up to over 4700 metres above the city - great views. During this trip we met Steve and Melinda, a couple of Mormon missionaries, and Doonal, an Irish lad travelling on his own. At one point, we had an Englishman, (well Lynnette), and Irishman, (Doonal) and a Scotsman (thats me) in the cable car, swaying about making jokes about who was going to jump first!!
The following day we changed to Hotel Chicago on the border of the New and Old Towns. Was a much better room and a better atmosphere too. More people in it to start with, and we met Igor, a young Swiss man.
A word of caution - Quito has lots of security guards, mostly armed, and for good reason. It is a dangerous place, especially at night. We were never out after 9pm, and more usually back in the hotel by 8.30pm. We just felt too much of a target.
Sadly, on our last day in Quito (5th July), Lynnette was targetted by a youth who ran up behind her, and snatched the gold chain she had around her neck. Fortunately, she wasn´t hurt, but was quite shaken up. Though not priceless, the gold chain and dragon charm had some sentimental value - so be warned. Although I counted 9 armed guards in the immediate vicinity within a few minutes of the robbery, none of them saw a thing or took any action to stop the youth running away.
Anyway, tommorrow, Sunday 6 July, we head to Latatunga
Once we were on board the flight to George Bush International was uneventful, but of course on the plane we were told that we did not need to complete a visa waiver form because our prvious visas, issued only a week or so before, were still valid. WRONG!! There was a great deal of alarm and despondency amongst the US border guards when they realised that not only had we not completed visa waiver forms, we hadn´t handed in our EXIT visa form on leaving the US - so their system was telling them that we were already in the the country, so we couldn´t be let in again! Bizarrely, even though we were transitting to Quito, we still had to go into the US first (unlike any other airport, where international transits don´t usually have to go through immigration to enter the country, then through imigration again to exit).
However, again after calling a supervisor, and going through the same sdtory as we had with the Mexican authorities, we were allowed through - though it took over an hour an a half for that stage of the journey.
GBI airport for us, was a disaster. we tried to phone ahead to Quito to confirm our hotel arrangements, but the phones didn´t work - we kept getting a voice saying Érror 56´or Error 41, but no explanation about what these codes meant, or how we could correct whatever the problem was, so we decided to email instead - again usual problem, plenty of wi-fi hot spots, but no where to use a proper PC! Took us ages to find out how to get to use a PC, but eventually OK.
Uneventful flight to Quito, and we were through customs, collected our bags, in the hotel and in bed in about an hour!!
First impressions were that the streets were deserted- OK, it was afyer midnight, but when the taxi pulled up outside the hotel, he beeped his horn, but he wouldn´t get out until an armed security guard popped out of a little box situated just outside the door. He verified that we had a reservation in the Hotel San Francisco de Quito, before calling the night manager to let us in. In the mean time a small gang of youths had appeared from nowhere and were watching us all (the driver, the guard, Lynnette and I) very closely indeed.
However, Quito Old Town is a lovely place (the New Town is just a new town, could be anywhere).
We booked a tour on 2nd July and took in a number of cathedrals, the Midi del Mundo (centre of the world) and saw the Quito Angel up close, as well as going on the TelerifiQuito, a 2.5km long cable care which takes you up to over 4700 metres above the city - great views. During this trip we met Steve and Melinda, a couple of Mormon missionaries, and Doonal, an Irish lad travelling on his own. At one point, we had an Englishman, (well Lynnette), and Irishman, (Doonal) and a Scotsman (thats me) in the cable car, swaying about making jokes about who was going to jump first!!
The following day we changed to Hotel Chicago on the border of the New and Old Towns. Was a much better room and a better atmosphere too. More people in it to start with, and we met Igor, a young Swiss man.
A word of caution - Quito has lots of security guards, mostly armed, and for good reason. It is a dangerous place, especially at night. We were never out after 9pm, and more usually back in the hotel by 8.30pm. We just felt too much of a target.
Sadly, on our last day in Quito (5th July), Lynnette was targetted by a youth who ran up behind her, and snatched the gold chain she had around her neck. Fortunately, she wasn´t hurt, but was quite shaken up. Though not priceless, the gold chain and dragon charm had some sentimental value - so be warned. Although I counted 9 armed guards in the immediate vicinity within a few minutes of the robbery, none of them saw a thing or took any action to stop the youth running away.
Anyway, tommorrow, Sunday 6 July, we head to Latatunga
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John&Lynnette |
Latest page update: made by John&Lynnette
, Jul 14 2008, 6:11 PM EDT
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