Chalet Suisse Quito

... for where it is on this earth. Once it is set, you can name it (say, Camera, Passport, Dog, Snowboard, Eyeglasses, etc.) You put these now on anything that you don´t want to lose (like how many tourists lose their skis they´ve rented to theft every year). And when you do lose it, you have a gps device that was synced up with these coordinates and the labels and helps you track them down. So you can go through the street, use ...

... the next day. Bus journey and connextions went surprisingly well and we found a nice cheap hostel, we were a bit worried about sharing a broken toilet with nine other rooms but fortunately it was quite quiet!<br><br>The next day we started our much-needed spanish course and opted to do a ´home stay with a local family. our visions of staying in a two room shack with thatched roof and family of ten were dashed when we actually ended ...

... 8217;t have any more food with us as that would have been a good solution &#8211; its catch 22 as you don&#8217;t want to encourage them to beg from tourists.<br><br>Dylan headed back to the hostel and Nath and I continued to the beautiful Plaza Santo Domingo for a look. We decided to walk under one of the town&#8217;s ornate arches and loop back to our hostel. We were part way back when it became obvious we were in the red light neighbourhood, as there were a few ladies of the ...

... collected our bags and walked about three blocks to the bus terminal. As we arrived, yet again a bus was immediately available for $2 each, $6 in total as again Jody and Niamh shared. The journey was uneventful and we arrived 3 hours later in Quito. <br><br>Quito is at an altitude of 2850 metres, or 9252 feet the old way. It's apparently the second highest capital city in the world second only to La Paz in Bolivia. The elevation was not noticeable to us because ...

... the initial problem with her directions earlier. We made it into the condor park and talked to the nice Dutch operators who are running the whole park. Not quite as much a bird person as Andy or Jen, I didn&#8217;t have a whole lot of expectation going into the park, but it was actually quite good. We missed the live condor show (which is apparently pretty good) because I guess the condor who performed in the last one that morning hadn&#8217;t come back yet - whoops! Otherwise the park had ...

... where we would get off but it was not at all intuitive. So we jumped on one, cramming ourselves in the door before it shut on us and clinging to our bags so as not to lose anything. People are so friendly and about 2 minutes in an older guy offered me his seat. I declined but gratefully sunk into one when a woman got up a few stops later. After a while it felt like we were seeing ...

... come botanical gardens in Parque Carolina, which is in downtown Quito. There were tons of huge, beautiful roses. Semi-interesting fact: ¼ of roses in the U.S. come from Ecuador. They grow well here because of the rich Andean soil. We also saw lots of amazing orchids. There was also an exhibition of carnivorous plants. Some looked as if they were big enough to eat a guinea pig! In another part of the gardens they had a medicinal plant section. It was funny to ...

... on a hill and three people walked up there against peoples advise and were accosted by 15 boys with knives so their stuff was taken. Others were walking alone and had sauce squirted on them, then someone tries to 'help' you and pickpockets you. Its really really prevalent and unfortunately it seems being here a month its likely to happen but for now if I go walking I walk with direction and kind of look irritated with something on my mind and so far people have kept away from me. I ...

... sure how i could possibly damage. but whateve´s. i bought a small book in the gift shop that has the paintings, i will have to scan them in or something! ricardia came back from her vacation to the bird observatory and marianna is leaving tonight, so we went the open square near our hostal for a good bye dinner :(