Hostal Farget Quito

... starting to adjust. Our first entrance into the centre was greeted by at least 20 little children waving at us and throwing themselves around our legs and a chorus of eager īComo se llaman?ī(...in fact this happens to us every day so clearly our names arenīt THAT impotant to them. Geez). We were both amazed at how open and trusting the kids were, and despite the snotty noses, pooey pants, an even the odd caterpillar in mouth (little Cynthia every time) we are ...

... until the butcher noticed... and laughed. We think itīs great that the kids have so much freedom here, but perhaps this is crossing the line...

-Also...sidenote... Our host family are fabulous, Francisca makes us fruit smoothies every morning and really looks after us... HOWEVER... the only daughter that still lives with her-īMartelaī- es un poco estrangular. She enjoys singing to herself all the time, but that is pretty much the only time any noise comes out ...

... to English which was interesting. But whenever I replied, I tended to speak in Spanish and then it would switch back. And then the girl from Argentina would reply in English and weīd all revert. We got into a good Castellano rhythm once the hostel employees came by and were talking with us.

Eventually the conversation went to politics. Which itself isnīt very difficult to occur in hostels. The girl spoke of her leftist activism in Buenos Aires, the ...

... have any Euro on us. Brian told him īno only dollarsī and then the guy stands up and I begin to think maybe heīs not such a nice guy after all. Brian showed him the dollars he had on him and I swear I thought the guy was going to take it from us but in the end he didnīt and just waved us on to the immigration office. Brian told me as we were walking away that he didnīt know whether to tip the guy or not!!!!! Why??

Once our ...

... possible to bring a three-year-old kid along on this trip. We walked down the same way and were back at the house around 3pm where I had the best shower and chicken soup I can remember for a long time back. It was an amazing family trip and we all agreed to climb the neighboring mountain, which is a little higher, a day in the near future, though probably without little Martín.

The sole volunteer

For the remaining part of this my first blog contribution, I will focus on the ...

... geprobeerd (Sarah had het besteld), ik moest we er wel echt even over heen zetten, je zag ook echt die pootjes jakkes, sorry Kimmie moest het toch echt even proberen. Het smaakt best goed, erg mals, maar ik denk niet dat ik het nog een keer bestel, blijft een raar idee.
Ok ik ga voor nu stoppen, want deze computer is erg langzaam en daar word ik een beetje kriegel van, maar dan hebben jullie vast even een kleine indruk van hoe het mij hier vergaat.
Kusje!!!

... enough to deter Andy, Dany, and Maria. I was able to convince Jen, thankfully, to come up with me. After seeing a few churches in Europe, I knew that the climbs up to the top - belltowers, domes, roofs, whatever- were usually the most rewarding. It proved true again here in Ecuador. Andy and the other offered to wait for us as we planed to quickly run up to the top.
We went first up a set of 50 normal stairs, then took a hair raising crawl over a ...

Hello, all!

My first week in Ecuador has been jam-packed amazing! I thought it would take time to get used to life here again, but it feels as if I had never left. I am staying with my friend Felipe and his family. They are super nice. The only bad part about living with them is they are all dress better than me. I feel like a sloppy hippy most of the time, but I'm a gringa so I look weird no matter what I do.

My first day here Felipe and I went ...

... we take reservations, take people to their rooms, serve people food and drinks on the rooftop (luckily its all from up there with the view!) and cleaning up some dishes afterwards. Its not hard and heaps of fun (when the staff aren't sulking!) and though the shifts are long it goes by quite well! Definitely a great thing we have done and nice to be able to live pretty much for free for a month of our trip!

I would cry if we had to come home too early!

Looking out ...

... reception for them the next morning - but when I did, they'd already left.

It's so strange when things like this happen. Louis was the first person I spoke to in South America, other than service people such as cab drivers etc. The same thing had happened to me in Australia where the first person I met (in the bunk bed below mine) was the barman from my local pub back home. What are the odds?

We stayed in Quito for a few days, acclimatising and getting to know the city. We ...