Hostal Casapaxi Quito

... Spanish has progessed. As many of you will know I have a natural flare for languages with a grade E in GCSE French; chateau oeuff de papes mon ami! German is of course my forte (language not looks, b4 anyone makes that wise crack!) and with a grade D GCSE followed by a 1yr module in business German at uni I have recognised a small chink in my armour - and thus have not only set off to discover south america in a darwin stylie....but also master the Spanish ...

... to throw accurately, to get it to the box on the other side with that distance. I think this game is strictly a Colombian affair, maybe just Salento. Really fun, if you like explosions. And you do.


The Godfather of Popayan and the Tombs of Tierradentro
From there we headed out and down to Popayan. Deemed sketchy at first, by us (it was raining alot and no one was in the streets and there was some anti-USA ...

... there in the town of Tonsupa, build by FEVI, where volunteers can work.

On my first day in Esmeraldas I relaxed, cooked a good meal and went for an afternoon swim at the beach. It was so nice to see the ocean again after a month in the mountains. Maria, the students and Emily arrived late in the evening and we all went out for dinner. I had eaten though so I settled for a fruit juice. The next day I got up before six for a morning swim. One and a half hour I spent in ...

... rhythmically with flashes of lightning. Our plane cut in between tow of these mountains of clouds and I got closer than i had ever been to such powerful electricity. The lady sitting next to me was terrified but i assured her that if the pilot was not worried, than she had no reason to be either. She finally turned off the TV in the seatrest in front of her and enjoyed the view.

When we arrived in Quito we found a guy to take us to the ...

... monument so I don't get over excited for the first and the second one is lack luster. I can only have fun jumping from the northern to southern hemisphere once. The second time it just feels stupid. Thanks a lot. We next moved to Marco's aunt's house in Quito and got shown around the colonial parts of the city. Despite my aversion to colonial-ness which I have expressed in previous posts the colonial city in Quito did have its own grunginess and ...

... first meal again, and you have bundles of energy and feel like a human being again. That was Friday for me. And so i finally emerged out of my hibernation, found myself some friends (it also coincided with the hostel getting completely full and some cool people being in my room), made some plans for dinner... ah indian food. Sounds strange in Ecuador i know, but after six months with only one bad indian meal, this was fabulous! Well it was great anyways. I´m ...

... together).
After lunch Tamra and I took a city bus to the "Old City" of Quito, or Quito Antigua, that is one of the main tourist areas in Quito. It was quite amazing and beautiful (see pictures). We did a walking tour that took about two and a half hours. The narrow streets and colonial edificios (buildings) reminded me a lot of parts of Europe.
Nothing more of interest to report for today. I am also posing a picture of the building where I am living and the street.

... I am sure not a week will go by before Jon starts emailing me about possible destinations. Will my next blog be from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or Everest base camp in Nepal? Only time will tell. I get butterflies just thinking about it.

Safe Travels,
Michael

"Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be."

Pink Floyd "Breathe"

... were so empty for a Saturday night.
While driving down a narrow one-way street, we saw some hombres looking in the windows of the rows of tightly parked cars. This sent our already buzzing sense of culture shock into overdrive as the few people observing this did nothing to stop the guys who were blatantly looking for things to steal. When out of nowhere and certainly not near anything that resembled a place we would want to spend our first night in South ...

... himself from us.

After filling our stomachs with fast food, we made our way to a very popular nightclub that was close by. Apparently earlier in the evening when the club first opens, only women are allowed to enter when they can immediately have happy hour drink specials. A couple of hours later, men are then allowed to enter. By this stage, women that have already been there for some time, are extremely ...