Just a few days after returning from Colombia, we found out The Pope was set to visit Quito on his South American tour. It became obvious that his visit would be slightly disruptive to day-to-day life as the barricades started going up and the news was released that on the two days he would be in town, 50% of private vehicles would be restricted from driving on one day, while the other 50% would be restricted on the other. That’s a lot of cars.

It so happened his motorcade would be passing two blocks from our apartment, so we walked down there and waited along with lots of citizens and what appeared to be every cop in the country (wearing neon yellow). As The Pope passed, he waved, smiled, and people cheered. Following him was the limousine of President Rafael Correa. Correa received a slightly different welcome, which included lots of yelling and many obscene hand gestures. He’s a divisive person.

We had less than a week before we were set to leave on our road trip to Peru, which we were very excited for.