Lunch is the hour when people meet. Plates pass along shared tables, neighbours pull up another stool, and a quick meal stretches into stories. The same generosity runs through a country that climbs from warm eastern lowlands to cold, thin air in the Andes.

The climate is varied, tropical and humid in the lowlands and cold and dry on the high plateau, with a warmer, wetter season and a colder, drier one. Pack layers for the road uphill. A Local Friend turns a list of places into a day that makes sense, with the long lunch placed exactly where it belongs.