A British couple stuck in Ecuador due to the coronavirus pandemic admit they may be better off there than the UK as they struggle to find a way home.
Desperate to return to Britain, grandparents Kaye and Margaret Larbi could remain stranded in the locked-down capital of Quito for several more days or even longer after planes were grounded.
They've had no luck contacting staff from Britain's embassy in Ecuador and haven't been able to get answers from airline KLM as up to a million Britons are trapped abroad due to the crisis.
Speaking from a hostel where other Britons are staying, Mr Larbi, from Ilford, north-east London, told Mirror Online: "In some respects we’re probably better off here than in England.
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"We’re not short of food, there’s tons of lavatory paper.
"It’s just that the place is very quiet and there’s not an awful lot to do apart from read, but at least we can go into a garden [at the hostel] and the climate is sunny and warm."
Mr Larbi suffers from hypertension - which makes him more vulnerable to coronavirus - and he is running out of medication.
He said: "I take three tablets and there are two that I can buy here. It’s not life or death, I can get by on the two."
The retired couple - Mr Larbi aged 72 and Mrs Larbi aged 66 - booked their trip in December when the new strain of potentially deadly coronavirus, known as Covid-19, hadn't yet emerged.
They left London on March 8 and were due to return on Thursday, but KLM had to cancel the flight, leaving them stranded.
Hundreds of Britons are trapped in neighbouring Peru and begging the Foreign Office to send a plane to rescue them after being told they could be forced to pay more than £3,000 to get home.
Israel sent four planes to Lima to repatriate its citizens free of charge.
A Manchester woman in Lima wrote online that one airline was charging more than £10,000 for a one-way ticket to Europe.
The Foreign Office had earlier warned that Britons may be stuck in other countries during the crisis as airlines cancel flights, airports close and countries close their borders.
For the Larbis, they began their trip in Quito and then moved on to Cuenca last Saturday.
Mr Larbi said: "When we went around the streets on the Sunday we were taken aback to see that the churches had closed and there were notices saying people could follow the mass on the radio.
"That was a but disconcerting. There was no sign of other measures.
"On the Monday we went to some thermal baths and on the way the taxi driver said he had heard that there was going to be a lockdown.
"So we got him to turn around and take us to the bus terminal where he contacted officials from the bus companies.
"They did suspect that the government was going to order a shutdown."
Taking drastic action, Ecuador closed its ports and banned all flights from Sunday to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Mr Larbi said the couple watched President Lenín Moreno's announcement on the measures, adding: "At that stage we knew the game was up, so we packed up and took our bags and caught the last bus to Quito on Monday night.
"It was a citizen lockdown."
At their hostel in Quito, the couple have been trying to contact KLM and the UK Government to find out if they can offer any kind of assistance.
KLM told the couple to book a new flight, but that proved "fruitless", they said.
Mr Larbi said: "We called and called and called the British embassy but could not get through at all, there’s only one line.
"I went to the embassy on the other side of town - it's not easy to get to [during the lockdown] and on their door there was a piece of paper saying staff are working remotely due to the pandemic and one should call a certain number - the same number we had called from the hostel."
Outside the embassy, he met other Britons in the same predicament.
Mr Larbi said: "One said they had managed to contact the embassy through the phone and their advice was worse than useless - contact the travel insurers or airline.
"Since the 17th we’ve been going on the KLM app sending messages - we’ve got nothing.
"Yesterday we tried the embassy again. We asked the hostel's receptionist to call and the line was out of order. At that point we gave up."
They have contacted their MP, Wes Streeting, for help.
It's not all bad, however.
Mr Larbi said: "The weather is beautiful, the hostel is great, it’s got a lovely garden.
"But we'd like to get home because we’ve got all sorts of responsibilities. People are looking after our home and our cats.
"As far as we know there aren't any flights out.
"We’ve just got to fill in our time as best as we’re able to until we can leave.
"If we can we are going to go out for a walk, but I don’t think the authorities really like people walking around.
"There are adverts on the TV telling people to stay home.
"We'll just stay in the hostel. We’re lucky because it’s a great place."
He added: "It is frustrating. If KLM would say 'it’s unfortunate, we can’t get you out until the 25th of March' or whatever, we would shrug our shoulders, but we just don’t know when we will ever get out."
A KLM spokesman confirmed a repatriation flight left for the city of Guayaquil - a seven-hour drive from Quito, where the Larbis are stranded - on Friday morning to pick up passengers in Ecuador.
It's not the first time the intrepid couple has been stranded abroad. They were once stuck in Ghana for weeks after a volcano erupted.
They told their story a day after the mayor of Guayaquil ordered trucks on to the runway to prevent Iberia and KLM planes from landing.
Spain said it was preparing new flights to the city to rescue its citizens.
Following the unusual incident, the European Union asked Ecuador to guarantee access to its airports to ensure it can airlift citizens out of the South American nation.
The Iberia flight which was unable to land was planning to repatriate 190 EU citizens. It ultimately landed in Quito.
Ecuador's government said it could take legal action against the municipality.
Ecuador has reported 260 confirmed cases of coronavirus and four deaths, and is desperate to prevent outbreaks similar to those in Europe and Asia.
In neighbouring Peru, the British Embassy said Colombian airline Avianca was considering operating a charter flight from Lima to London this weekend, but warned that tickets for the one-way trip were "likely" to cost up to £3,000.
Hundreds of Britons are also stranded in Egypt.
