We landed in Quito after a bit of a layover in Bogata at about 1 AM, Security and Baggage added another hour so we were hitting the uber rank for close to 2 in the morning (Which if anyone has met me at 2 in the morning is well aware I am not in the best form at that time!). We were struggling to understand how our Uber was taking so long to make it a couple of kilometers but all became apparent when we seen just how hilly the city is and the relatively low horsepower of the cars here (the city basically picked a year of car they liked and stuck with it, unfortunately the year was 2004). Meeting an equally blurry eyed volunteer at the hostel we checked in and hit the hay!

We had a lie on to catch up on the missed sleep and went for a walking tour of the city with the hostel's guide (the altitude was making this walking tour particularly challenging). We learned it was the highest capital city in the world (at approx. 2600m above sea level) until Boliva changed their capital to La Paz! We sampled the variety of fruit at the local market (I had never seen or heard of half of these, a yellow dragonfruit which was about 10x better than the normal, tree tomatoes, long passion fruit, crazy stuff!). Inevitably the tour turned to chocolate and I can sense the tension between Mexico and Ecuador on who made the chocolate first!

We got our breakfast in the hostel (downtown Quito is a bit rough so weren't venturing out just for a wander!) we got an uber out to the Teleferries and up into the Andes we went, if the altitude wasn't hitting us before at 4100m it definitely was with a struggle to climb a flight of stairs! We got some nice pictures had a laugh and just being general tourists! The big challenge now was getting money out to pay for our hostel and the trip we had booked (Cash only!), which saw us needing to make 3 separate bank trips and then ubering back to the safety of our hostel! Dinner and Bingo with another set of Irish (we are cropping up everywhere, and its nearly a point of any other traveler that they will tell us the last time they sited an Irish person).

Our last day in Quito we headed out to the Middle of the world, there is a lot of Middle of the world but apparently this part was one of the highest (not sure what difference it makes but Hey our guide told me I weigh 1 Kilo less with the gravity there so I will take it!). About an hour bus and we are on the line standing on 2 different sides of the world (Sarah got the north, I got the South!). We had a great tour with essentially a magician who was performing "experiments" and blaming the equator as the source of power but really I just need to google his witchcraft, but with that being said I did get a certificate for balancing an Egg on a Nail (so he wasn't all bad!). We had a long night ahead for getting an overnight bus to the Jungle!