Quito, Ecuador

The flight from Bogota to Quito left at 15.00 and took two hours. On arrival, David had problems with his Irish passport as the Ecuadorians wanted the same nationality passport as he had used when we had visited some years ago: we had driven through the country in 2015 and also ended a Silversea cruise in Guayaquil in 2018 . Happily he had his UK passport as well

We got an Uber to the JW Marriott hotel where the check-in was fairly good, but then we had to tackle the SilverSea desk where we were handed forms to fill-in, and we were informed that we only had breakfast for the two days here and the only tour they were offering on Friday was not until 5 pm not what we had expected. Also all our luggage had to be outside our room by 9.30 pm on Friday night in order to be inspected for bio security to enter the Galapagos. Anyway having filled in all these forms, we had a supper of sushi and went downstairs and had a cocktail. And the coffee machine in the room was broken but we had a pleasant soak in a large bath.

Fri 8 Mar. Quito

Chris had a swim in the large outside pool about 8 am, the water was warm but the outside temperature was cold. We then had an excellent breakfast.

We got an Uber into the old town later on and spent 2 to 3 hours there. There were a lot of police barriers preventing us from going down many streets.

Eventually, we stopped at a very pleasant café and had a drink. Getting an Internet connection to obtain an Uber back to the hotel took a little time. David bought a hat a a specialist hat shop, where the boys also bought themselves hats. In fact Pembroke believes this is the epitome of bespoke hats shops, and is the best he ha ever encountered anywhere in the world

Once back we read for a while and then Chris had another swim before we joined the Silver Sea tour at 5 pm again to the old town. There was a lot of traffic due to it being international women’s day and a demo of some sort. The participants were causing chaos. We stopped outside the cathedral and Chris bought a pretend cashmere shawl. But we were not allowed to venture inside the cathedral.

We then drove through more traffic to a boutique hotel where we had a talk about chocolate with tastings of various grades. From here we walked to the Plaza Mayor which had been barricaded off, but we were allowed to walk through it as we were foreign tourists. We did not enter the church there, but we did go into a precinct which had been the Archbishop's Palace once, and was very spectacular as the clergy know how to look after themselves

Back at the hotel at 7:30 we had a snack in the room and then went down for a Pisco sour: even here they seemed to be under pressure due to the international women’s day, and our drinks got lost en route.

Then we put the suitcases outside the door by 930 for them to be inspected for bio security for the Galapagos.

JW Marriot, your average 5 star hotel

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