Tea of what?

Here I am at 2700 m sipping my tea of coca leafs and trying to stay on? fight? 'the Andean High'. Walking up a hill here makes you feel like you climbed a mountain. At the cathedral today they put steep open iron ladders to climb one of the towers. A literal tourist trap - I only went half way and then shook my head laughing on the absurdity of it all. 

But Quito turns out to be a stunningly beautiful city with the most magnificiant churches I have ever visited. They are all build on top of an ancient Inca city and one can still feel the energy of the place.

It is a very lively town and full of interesting faces, shops, sounds and foods. It reminds me a little bit of Barcelona. Even the nightlife is a little crazy. Tomorrow it will be up into the Andes for 5 days, even higher up...