The results of the rains, which of course did not stop at the border to Ecuador, are also visible on the way north.
Sometimes you get the impression of being on a moving island. To the right and left of the road flooded meadows and fields, houses up to the first floor in water, paths barely passable.
Driving through a flooded country
Everybody who remembers the Miyazaki movie Chichiro's journey to the magical land knows the wonderful scene towards the end where a train is moving on flooded tracks and everything is under water on both sides of the rails.
That's how you have to imagine it.
Huts and houses and wet paths
There is not much to see, except for an occasional house, a hut with a canopy, slowly drying, but still steamy with moisture. For us it is difficult to imagine how to deal with such a natural disaster. Many people lose their belongings, others face their furniture dripping with water and become useless.
There is no insurance, at least that's what I imagine in a poor country like Ecuador, no money for nothing. So the person has to pull himself up again, start over. The always amazing thing about people is that they are actually able to cope with even the worst disasters.
[This - 4 years later - reminds me of the Corona crisis, which supposedly hit us hard in our rich countries; yet we have long forgotten what it means to experience a real catastrophe!]
Back to the cold
The bus rushes north, still in the lowlands, still in the warmth.
But I suspect that this will change soon. Goodbye warmth, goodbye sweat on the forehead. Once again I go to places where it's cold and almost a bit inhospitable.
After a few hours, the ascent begins. Curve after curve, along rushing rivers, through deeply cut valleys, but on a perfect road. At some point, quite far up, we reach the top of the pass and now dive down into the valley where Quito is located.
And finally Quito
I don't know exactly where Quito begins, because the city is over 40 kilometers long, stretching along the entire valley, always in a north-south direction, because to the east and west the mountains, most of them volcanoes, block the expansion. The rows of houses become denser, the speed decreases, the first red lights stop the traffic. We are long since in the middle of the city, but still in the southern foothills, and there is also the south terminal, where the bus stops.
My idea that it can't be too far from here to the city center turns out to be grotesquely wrong at the latest when the price for the cab is announced. We drive and drive, along terribly ugly buildings, and the first disillusioned thoughts creep in. This is supposed to be Quito? After almost an hour (!) we actually reach something like the center (as it turns out later it is one of the centers), in the middle of an area that looks like the Langstrasse area in Zurich, and there the cab driver dumps me. "Es la direccion correcta?" He nods and drives away.
It's true, there we have the Yellow House, the hotel where I will spend the next few days. It's Friday evening, party atmosphere, the sidewalks full of young people, music, a festive mood. And one more thing - Ecuador against Paraguay, an important match for qualifying for the next World Cup in Russia.
I'll join them later, cheer and feel a little bit of disappointment after the 0-2 defeat ...
Mileage: 6578
Matching Song: Coldplay - Yellow
And here the journey continues ...
