Magic Bean Quito

... br> Yesterday morning I was due to get up at 4.30 to travel to Quito. However there was some sort of celebration outside in the town from about 1.00 onwards that night which I think was the students graduating and basically meant they had to drive around the whole night in big open trucks pumping out **** music, setting off bangers and generally making a racket. As our hostel was right on the road I literally didn't sleep. When I took the bus yesterday morning ...

... Ecuadorian cuisine - which I have to report is bueno!


After a few lonesome days with my `libroī I moved in with an Ecuadorian family to faster improve my Spanish, however I have found that I am doing far more conversation around the dinner table in English, too many other students!


Last Friday I left town and for a long weekend in the beautiful, tiny and safe town of Baņos - 5 hours south ...

... back of the bus, we saw it happening and sat with the bags on our laps for the rest of the journey. It is the first time anything dodgy has happened on the bus so we are pretty lucky. The bus zoomed to Quito and what should have taken around 6 hours only took about 4, there was some classic crazy South American overtaking moves and where Eugene prefers to watch the horror of blind corner overtaking, I prefer to just look away.

We made it to Quito and ...

... annoying about the good olī USA is the obsession with safety and liability. In the States, a big establishment like this, particularly one that is (I think?) at least partly government-owned, would make sure that safety was a priority. One wouldnīt really be able to get anywhere super-dangerous or risky. In Quito, no one really cares.
To get back on track, we arrived at the basilica (which, from what we can gather, is an extra ...

... to live. I had five adult butterflies and moths emerge in the last couple days before we left. How exciting! I raised those guys myself. Even though the majority of them died. Ahem. Caterpillars! Who knew there were so many ways for them to die? Many just shrivel up. Some explode in a spectacularly gross fashion. And the lucky few that make it to adulthood end up in the bug freezer. Alas.

Said goodbye to the Reno team: Jenn, Kirsha, and Temba... and ...

... itself interesting. We passed sprawling markets where locals hopped onto the bus carrying bunnies in a bag and a rooster. Unfortunately, we got to listen a bad version of Celine Dion's Titanic song (is there a good version?) played on a sax, rather shrilly, and pan flute. Can't say I was encouraged to purchase a CD from them. We spent our remaining time together taking it easy so they could ...

Itīs my last day in Quito and it occured to me that it was about time I write something of my time here, both pre and post Galapagos. I arrived here the Saturday before last to an inredibly dull hostel. When they said "It isnīt a party hostel", they werenīt kidding. I was the only one in my dorm and didnīt meet another traveller or living soul (under the age of 70) for my first couple of days there. I had been fortunate enough to be seated between two rather friendly ...

... the area, and we enjoyed visiting them with Mom and Skippy. The massive cathedral was impressive inside and out, and we particularly enjoyed the stained glass and gargoyles which were each unique and varied from birds to anteaters.

We stayed in a colonial-style hotel within the San Blas plaza with Mom and Skippy. The only time we were attracted to the Gringolandia district was for the food and the ...