Pat was feeling so badly this morning that we decided to book a room for two nights at the airport Wyndham hotel which is at a lower altitude. I have to admit I was not happy about leaving the central area with parks, museums and restaurants and heading to the wasteland of the airport surround. However, after Pat had a cold, then “stomach issues”, she declared that the problem was altitude sickness. I also had a headache and stuffy head; sleeping was difficult and largely unsuccessful. She was right about the altitude, we both felt better even on the ride here. The elevation near the airport is merely 7700 feet instead of the 9100 in downtown Quito. We will return to downtown on Saturday to rejoin our group coming back from the Amazon jungle. We will be taking altitude-relieving pills which we discontinued. Hopefully we will be recovered by then. We decided to keep our room downtown since the hotel assured us that we would be given the same room for another three days in Quito before we head to the Galapagos for six days on a small boat.

We hired a taxi to drive us to the Wyndham. The trip usually takes 45 minutes but took longer due to traffic. Our driver did say that traffic is this bad every day, so why the 45 minute estimate, I don’t know. He drove aggressively, but not frighteningly so. He charged us $20 (we agreed before leaving the hotel, a recommended strategy). Despite the fixed price and the longer time, he was relaxed and accepting of the slow traffic. On the drive I spoke with him in Spanish. We passed vendors who pop out with snacks, toys and drinks when the traffic slows. I asked him if these folks actually sold anything. He assured us that they did. He spoke a little English and I some Spanish. We passed signs for Danial Noboa, the relatively new and young (35 when elected earlier this year), president of Ecuador. The driver and I had a laugh when he told me in Spanish that they call him “the kid” as though the driver and his associates had little faith in him. He does paint nice signs, however.

Cumple translates to “meets”in English, but I think it means more like delivers.

This one means let’s not return to the old Ecuador. Naboa’s father, Alboa, owns an export company specializing in bananas; he is a billionaire. His father also ran unsuccessfully for president of Ecuador several times. Daniel was educated in the US and has a masters degree in business administration from Northwestern in Chicago.

He lives mostly in the coastal city of Guayaquil. As some of you may recall, Quayaquil is the city where armed narco gangs took over a television station while the station was on the air a few months ago. At nearly the same time, gangs freed two very high level gang leaders from two different prisons. The gangs did this to express their power. Point taken.

Naboa has taken a hard line and is using the military to fight and arrest the gangs. This is similar to the tactics used by the president of El Salvador who has been successful at aggressively arresting and imprisoning gang leaders and members, This approach does come at a cost of civil liberties for those who may have been imprisoned without good cause. The authorities cast wide nets often landing innocent bystanders along with the guilty. As I understand it, the El Salavadorians generally like the peaceful evenings that have returned to the country.

Guayaquil is some distance from the centrally located capital, Quito. We have a layover in Guayaquil on our flight to the Galapagos. I did see some police activity last night while taking a walk in Quito. Motorcycle police stopped at two different intersections holding traffic to allow a small motorcade through. The SUVs were packed with helmeted police. I saw nothing more than this drive by. On my walks around town, I saw no evidence of drug gangs or crime.

I enjoyed talking with the driver. He kindly spoke slowly so I could better understand what he was saying. We talked about children and grandchildren among other topics. I’m still puzzled by one remark. I think he said that his mubano was on fire, but I might be mistaken.

This is a view from our hotel. This is one of many volcanoes, mostly active, in the area.

Pat, true to her frugal style, booked us a “junior suite”. Not pictured is the kitchen, the large bedroom and spacious walk-in shower.