Hostal Charles Darwin Quito

... we were excited about thing one. The jeep dropped our group and bikes at the base camp of the volcano, around 4,300m, we put on all our protective gear, saddled up and we were off zooming down the mountain. It was great fun and an amazing view but was fairly bumpy, the road had grooves and little bumps throughout and therefore there was severe jarring of the bike during the downhill where you are trying to hold onto the handle bars and breaks for dear life ...

... toast! That stuff never gets old. Does it? I mean you don´t want to eat it every day. Unless you like to carb load, then it might be helpful. I don´t know, I think I could eat it every day. You need syrup though. Syrup is crucial.<br><br>I came to the conclusion the other day that blueberries are the bacon of fruits. They make everything you put them with or on, better. Think about that and get back to me.<br><br>So back ...

... One of the girls from canada is a certified yoga instructor so she led us in a yoga practice at the crater wall and then we blew the yoddling horns and flutes that the locals were selling. We watched as the fog came shooting over the edge of the crater like a smokestack and enveloped the valley on the other side. We got cold and walked back to the bus. On the way home we stopped for a combo dinner: soup, salad, rice, a huge piece of chicken, and a ...

... to another platform about 10metres away and queued for another bus. We got on the next bus that arrived and about five stations later we were in the old town at Santa Domingo.<br><br>The trip made us a little nervous mainly because it was our first time on it and we weren&#8217;t sure about the route, the stories we had heard also made us nervous but in the event it was fine, cheap and quick, and used, obviously, by ordinary Ecuadorians going ...

... out. A friend from upstairs turned up at the house about 9pm with the smallest cake ever (slightly larger than a cupcake, but no-one ate it anyhow so I guess it didn´t matter). We sang Happy Birthday and they all drank copious amounts of sweet black coffee. At that point I was thinking ´how does one sleep after skulling 3 cups of coffee right before bedtime???´... when a microphone materialised out of Mabel´s ...

Finally left Argentina after spending a lot more time in BA than I had originally planned! Currently in Ecaudor for a week-ish before heading up to Columbia/Venezeula on a group tour.<br><br>My last week in Argentina conisted of visiting Mendoza, the wine making region near the Andes. Here you can hire a bike for the day and you´re given a map to cycle around the vinyards tasting wine. Health and safety isn´t at the top of their list of priorities so it´s quite amusing to by ...

... in the taxi and decided looked pretty cool) and thanks to my sacred Rough Guide found a nice little restaurant called Mama Clorinda serving Ecuadorian specialities. I had a steak with fried banana, rice and some kind of bean stew which was lovely. Having not slept properly for about 36 hours however, we were too knackered to properly enjoy ourselves! We promptly shuffled off back to the hostel and went to bed.<br>

... a little weird to "unplug" myself, I didn´t bring a phone or an iPod with me. Not going to lie while waiting in SFO I definitely was feeling a little bit of withdrawl. I arrived in Quito at 3am and although my planned transportation wasn´t there to pick me up I hopped in a cab and made it to my hostel safe a sound. I met up with Andrea this morning after a shower and 7 hrs of sleep. We have our ...

... up to reach the peak, but we decided to go back into town instead. On the way down the hill, we got our own car, which was good, but there were hundreds of people waiting in line to come up the hill (only 11am) so we were very happy that we got up early (9ish). They also have a kind of tourist tax. Adults are $4, but if you are a tourist it´s $8. Next was the Panecillo. Which is a huge 30 metre high statue of ...