Que chévere...

It's been two weeks today since we left the UK, and we have settled down very well in Quito. It is a great "little" place (well, it has 2 million inhabitants but you see what I mean) with plenty to do, nice sunny weather (although rather cold, what with the altitude) and very welcoming people. Here is a (partial) view of the city:





It's been great to have a place where we are staying for a bit longer than usual (we intend to spend four weeks here in total), and we've got into a routine of getting up early, going to Spanish lessons in the morning and in the afternoon either doing salsa classes or visiting the town. We are staying in a hostel with cooking facilities so we are making all our meals from scratch and, besides the fact it is economical, it's rather enjoyable to be able to cook again.

Last week end, we joined other students from our Spanish school on a trip to Toisan, a "cloud forest" in the North West of Quito. We spent most of the week end completely drenched as it involved a lot of outdoors activities, from trekking in the rain to "tubing" down the river (tubing is basically sitting on a big tyre and going down the river through all the rapids... pretty good fun). We had the opportunity to taste good Ecuadorian food and practice our Spanish as well. Here's a couple of pictures, including how to cross a river in style...





We also went out to "salsatecas" a couple of times, they played good salsa music whether live or in the hands of a DJ. The intention was to practice our salsa steps but I have to say it didn't quite go according to plan due to a) the fact that the dance floor is so packed you can hardly move your feet, and b) it's a bit embarrassing to have a go in front of all the locals, who look like they were born to the sound of clave and basically dance like gods.

We're thinking of attempting to climb a local volcano this week end (starts at 4,000 meters and ends at 4,600 meters - the effects of altitude should be interesting!).

On Monday, we are leaving the city to spend five days in the Galapagos islands - the opportunity of a lifetime! We will be based on a boat, going around the different islands to see the wildlife and doing mostly trekking and snorkelling every day. I keep on telling Gary that we are going on a cruise, therefore he has achieved his lifelong dream of being exactly like his dad ;)

I will try to take as many photos as possible and post an update when we are back at the end of next week. Until then, take care!

C.

Airports and plane journeys

We have made it to South America! After a gruelling 42 hours on the road (plus 3 flights, a lot of hanging around at Heathrow, Buenos Aires and Lima airports and no bed to sleep in for the past two nights), we are now in Quito, Ecuador.

We are both shattered (especially Gary who has had a bit of food poisoning. First meal in South America... better to get it out of the way now) but really excited to be here. We are going to base ourselves here for a while while we do Spanish lessons. Quito is also located at an altitude of 2,850 metres, which means there should be plenty of outdoorsey things to do at the week ends. And of course, Salsa lessons are also on the agenda (God save us...).

Partly because of the lack of sleep, food poisoning and flying straight to this high altitude, we are taking it easy today. It should hopefully not take too long to get used to it. Today I was thinking that the weather is rather cold for a country located on the Equator (around 10-15 degrees Celsius) but then remembered how high up we are! Anyway, compared to Britain it´s really not that cold :)

Right, I don´t actually have anything of real interest to say since we´ve done nothing but board and unboard planes in the past 2 days, so I´ll just go now.

C.

El viaje continua...

It has been a rather long time since our last post, and this is due to the fact that we have been in Britain for a month - rather longer than we expected due to the joys of finding new tenants and having to wait for them to move out in order to check the flat is looking alright and to fix a couple of bits and bobs.

It has been great to catch up with family/friends, chocolate/cheese eating and wine drinking in the past four weeks. We have also had the great privilege of being in the country in time to watch the final of "Britain's Got Talent" and "The Apprentice" (although we feel slightly impure now we have done so). We have been to France and spent the last week driving around Scotland both to do some sightseeing and to visit Gary's family. Gary's parents Joyce and Graeme have nicely put up with us staying at their house in Southend on and off throughout the month of May... but it is now nearly time to go and give them some space (with regrets - it's very comfy out here!) and continue our travels, this time going out West to South America.

So - if everything goes according to plan, we should be off at the end of this week or the start of next week. Watch this space and get the Spanish dictionaries ready - la primera cosa que vamos a hacer cuando llegamos en America del Sur es ir a una escuela durante 3 or 4 semanas para revisar nuestro espanol. It has been quite a while since we have spoken Spanish so it is all a bit rusty!

C x