Hostal Sunrise Quito

... about it and achieve nothing. In the meanwhile, the lady has sold hundreds of empanadas and still gets enough to survive. Maybe not enough to live comfortably, but just to live to the next day.<br> <br>It was nice to ponder. But I think idealism kicked into place that night, rather than realism. And then I was struck by how as a psychologist, I can try to change the world, but I´d rather just make a difference with my clients and let them improve the world.<br>

After a long and arduous day of travelling we finally reached Quito. We left Popayan at 530am and got to Quito at about 10pm. Not nice. The border crossing from Colombia into Equador had to be done during the day - talk of bandits and roadside robberies etc in the hostel so we decided not to risk it. We took a bus from Popayan through the countryside,up, down and around various mountain ranges until we reached Ipiales. The scenery ...

Sunday 20th September<br>Ok, all I had been hearing about Quito on my way here, and since I got here last night was about how dangerous it was and how many people get robbed. Im writting this now after beening here three days without being robbed, but in that time 4 people from the same hostel have been robbed. I dont know, but I seem to have this luck as Im booting around everywhere with my SLR camera hanging out. I mean thats what travel insurance is for, isnt it?I dont know, but I ...

... we asked to take a picture of her climbing a ladder so that we could capture the moment. She consented, and insisted that we take a series of beauty shots with different combinations of people, situations, and hair positioning. She was into it. We wanted to get down. Badly. <br> Fast forward to the other tower, the bell tower on the opposite side of the cathedral (which we reached by crossing a shaky wooden bridge over the ...

... Ambato and do a bit of a scenic loop that will hopefully bring us to the Manta road, and down to the coast for some well earned beach time. At the moment we intend to follow the coast down to the south of Ecuador and into Peru, probably bypassing Guayaquil altogether. We will, however, definitely be going to lima which is where we will pick up post. This can all change in a moment though, so you'll need to keep reading to see where we ACTUALLY end up!<br><br>laters

... re going to have to learn how to say "**** off" I think! <br><br>That´s what I needed to know how to say when a street kid tried to steal my pizza off my plate one night. He came right up next to me, as they always do when they are asking for money or selling stuff, but then he started pointing at my pizza and his dirty black finger was getting very close indeed. Clearly I was a dog in a previous life time or something as my first reaction ...

... her seat next to him owing to his incessant poking and prodding around.<br><br>When we eventually arrived in the city, we immediately headed out with the hostel crowd to Finn McCools (you guessed it) Irish pub for food and, more importantly, a table quiz. We somehow lost the hostel folk, however, and ended up with some random central European folk. They turned out to be absolutely useless at table quizzes, however, contributing a grand total ...

... family has been making helados de paila (ice cream that´s been handmade in big copper bowls) here for over 140 years. so, by the end of the night, i had 5 scoops of ice cream...but to be fair, the ´ice cream´ is more like sorbet here, so i consider it to be like i had my five servings of fruit. (photos to come...)

... what to do with the next 5 days of the trip. The plan for the day was to get tickets (plane or bus) out of Quito for when Justine gets back from Galapagos, and also get a bus ticket to the remote coastal town, Canoa, to hang out and surf for a few days. I spent the whole day running around the city and wasting money on taxis only to come home not completing either task. Everyone was just getting out of work for the 3 day weekend and the bus ...

... that I had taken on the journey was stolen.<br><br>Retrospect is a fine thing, but it doesn't help much when you've just fallen for the oldest trick in the book. We were sitting at an outdoor table, drinking cold drinks and watching the throng of people hustling along the busy pavements as we waited for our bus. I was tired and dirty and a little off guard, thanks to the two beers I'd drunk. In fact, I was settling into the 'vibe' of the place, feeling safe in my position as an observer ...