The first of 2 travel days saw me back at my nemesis airport… Santiago Chile. Those of you who have been reading for a while might remember that back in 2022, when I was on my way back from Antarctica, I missed a connecting flight at 1AM because of too many people going through security at the one time.

I was a little nervous going through there again…

At the gate for my flight to Lima Peru, my boarding group was asked to check in our carry ons.

I wasn’t happy…

… with good reason.

I got to the baggage carousel in Lima and OF COURSE my suitcase wasn’t there.

I’m catching a flight to Quito Ecuador tomorrow morning. There’s not much time for my bag to follow me.

I raced to the “lost baggage” counter for LATAM. A nervous half an hour later and:

THANK GOD!!!

Mt Cotopaxi. Impressive , isn’t it? Quito, Ecuador, is lucky enough to have an active volcano beside it.

I took this as we were coming in to land at Quito, Ecuador, the next morning.

After the flight, I met 3 lovely New Zealanders called Val and Liz, who are travelling together. Apparently most of the group arrived here yesterday.
When we got to the hotel, I suggested that we split the cost of an Uber and go to stand on the equator.

A quick double check of the itinerary later, to make sure we weren’t going to be doing this next week, and we were off.

Mt Cotopaxi again. Its last major eruption was back in 1887, then it decided to lay low, clearly in a metaphorical sense. Until 2015. The guy who drove us to the hotel from the airport said that it was a scary time. For 6 months everyone had to wear masks. Even today, it’s under intense study by volcanologists.

First I saw these cars in China back in 2018, then in Africa last year. South America is the third continent. This isn’t our Uber, by the way…

By the way, Google Translate is wonderful. Our Uber driver didn’t speak a word of English.

Here it is. I have a foot in each hemisphere.

This reminds me when Deana and I went to Greenwich and we stood like this on the Prime Meridian.

On the way back to our Uber, I saw this sign. By the time I finish this tour, I’ll have been to all 4 of the signs.
Ignore the blurry 5th one. That sign doesn’t count. 😂

Quito is an incredibly hilly place, with buildings edging right up to cliff faces that fall into deep ravines. I’ll show you next week.

Tomorrow… the Galápagos Islands awaits!

Dad joke of the day: