Renato and Maïa pick me up at the airport. They are with Cecilia, Renato's cousin, and her husband Gabriel. I see the city for the first time behind the window of an big white car, on a fast road. Maïa gives me a nudge and points out the window. "Look at the cars. They are all so clean ! ".

 

We stop at Christopher Columbus Avenue,  in a chic area of the northwest of the city called the Barrio Alto. The big buildings made of bricks and glass, elevated in front of the Cordillera of the Andes, reminds me of Bogotà.