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Quito is a beautiful capital. We enjoy our stay here even though we can
feel insecurity around which isn't as strong as in La Paz or Lima. Diego, the beetle club president, contacts us before our arrival and invites us to the weekly meeting. It's a pleasure to meet them because of their interest, their curiosity for our odyssey. Diego offers to give the car a thourough check the following day. In the meantime, Serafin, another member of the club, organises interviews with the TV (RTS, an important national channel!) and a few magazines.
We make the most of a more or less good internet connection to update the website and add a few pages about statitics and air contamination written by Mema. It looks easy to say but we spent a few days just working on it and without leaving the hostel!
We meet Buda, another member of the club who we knew at Diego's garage, who offers to be our guide for a full day.We take the offer and this is how we find ourselves up on the roofs of the cathedral, down in its catacombs, in the 7 crosses street or eating at the Presidents' favorite restaurant. We will however fail to try the morocho empanadas but Buda will revenge himself in a local shop on some burgers…
The car is ready: new springs (softer), 2 new tyres (wider and more confortable), ignition point reset, a few bolts tightened up, the roof-rack completely reinforced by "Santa Mara", the man who can do anything with his welding torch, oil levels (gear box was still leaking) and other few minor adjustments… everything done in a good atmosphere, kindness, humanity and for free! Thanks again Diego and everyone involved!
On the day of the interview scheduled at 09.00, I feel a bit tired but Mema makes it up and manages to get the message through. People start gathering on the street, their attention being called by the TV cameras. The publicity for the H2 Project is good and the experience interesting. In the evening, another interview before a meal at Serafin's. The conversation is frinedly and detailed. The day ends with a tour by night of Quito in Serafin's beetle: as cute by day as by night!
We now have to leave Quito and pay a last visit to the garage that has now become a second family.
We follow the road to the North, cross the equator and spend the night in Otavalo where we are invited by Global Vision International, a tour operator who we are in touch with through my previous work. I'd like to thank them for their hospitality even if I'm highly dubious as to their "humanitarian" initiatives organised by a private company. The "volunteers" (the clients) are charged a lot of money to bring the civilization to some remote places in the world (they are often of anglo-saxon origin, Canada, Australia, USA, Uk,…). In other words, the intention is defendable but the means definitely arguable.
We decide to cross the Colombian border the following day...
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