Alston Inn Hotel Quito

... have been much shorter lived had the language have flowed better!). <br><br><br>Quito airport sits in the middle of the city and the city sits in a long, narrow valley in the Andes mountain range - so not much room for error upon descent! The capital is quite breath taking - literally - set at a dizzy altitude of 2820 metres (9252 feet). The guide books warn of fatigue and headaches - but they mentioned nothing of the ...

... we have definitely seen our fair share of colonial buildings. We decided to head into one of the 100´s of churches in Quito, it was called La Compania De Jesus and it was absolutely amazing. The Church is dazzling and is considered the most important religious colonial building left by the Spanish. It was constructed by the Jesuits in 1605, this church took some 163 years to build and was finished just two years before the Jesuit order was expelled by the ...

... and so it was my absolutely final chance to do an interview with her.<br><br>To conclude on my scientific endeavors so far; I feel I have been able to combine participant observation, introspection and informal interviewing (everyday conversation) to come up with a semi structured interview which held what I had conceived of being the key points of interest in regard to the volunteering experience. I can add that the interview went very well and both Emily and I learned lots ...

We were up at 5-45am, packed the last garments, grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal which was on the outskirts of town, cost us a whole $1.<br><br>The bus was to leave at 7am, and so it did. The pricely sum of $1.80 each for adults, half price for children. We stopped at the Canal between Santa Cruz and Baltra, caught the ferry to cross the 200metres of water to Baltra, for $0 ...

... precipice. It still took an hour to negotiate the path to the cold waters of the lake where Chasqui announced a 5 minute break; we managed to eke it out to nearer 15 by throwing our clothing and equipment around the place and being generally useless. The lake is very large and green. The wind flattens parts of it and whips up white horses elsewhere. The water is not drinkable being full of whatever middle earth coughs upwards.<br><br>We then walked across to the tourist trail for the ...

... Quito is. I, with 5 other students, decided to attempt the hike to the top. The day was not super clear unfortunately but we got decent photos. Most of the trek was grassy and hilly. When you get to the point where there is about 30 to 45 minutes remaining it turns rocky. At this point because it was freezing and beginning to sprinkle all but one of us decided to turn back. We were almost in line with the clouds. Very fun day ...

Just a reminder to all that Rach and I will be jungle-side, potentially without internet access for 5 days. That´s until Wednesday next week your time. So if you don´t hear from us, dont´ worry, we are mostly likely not dead, just having heaps of fun in the middle of nowhere. Full update upon our return to civilisation. Nos vemos mas tarde!

... has been proven by GPS. They were only about 300kms off, so it was kindof interesting.<br>They had different little experiments to show the gravity difference while on the equator... russ got a certificate for being able to balance an egg on the head of a nail.<br>Catching the night bus and heading to Puerto Lopez tonight...

... an old man with a killer mustache. I often default on the classic barber, Max Fischers dad. This guy wasn´t speaking a dialect of Spanish i was familiar with, and my Spanish didn't wasn´t seeming to make much sense to him either, but through hand motions and fumbled Spanish I explained that i wanted a short hair cut and a straight edge razor shave. All is well. So the guy goes about trimming my locks, shaves the back of my neck and then goes to work on the ...