Hostal la Posada de la Abuela Quito

... woosy colours by shaking nervously in the corners. The homework could wait.

With the routine of the projects and our ongoing Spanish lessons we are both starting to feel more accustomed to city life. Getting into the swing of things we have started to notice certain trends here in Quito. Definitely worth a mention... taxi drivers...

Firstly they always want to talk to us about fruit. Not quite sure why, but we always tend to reel off the same story ...

... rugzak ben ik dus kwijt, samen met mijn vliegtuigtickets, gsm, badges van het werk, ...
Gelukkig had ik mijn portefuille en paspoort veilig in een kluis in het hotel opgeborgen.

Ondertussen was het al tijd om me klaar te maken voor het etentje. Weer met een taxi naar de plaats van afspraak gereden. Ik was iets te vroeg en raakte aan de praat met een vrouw en haar 2 kinderen die iets kwamen eten. Kaartje gekregen met de uitnodoging om in de week iets ...

Its Thursday today and unfortunately I dont have any crazy stories for you. Iīve been sick as a dog from Monday till yesterday.

I managed to venture out of the house to the old city which didnt help me at all! I got gased out by bus fumes and got rained on. However amongst this I did find some amusment in the street vendors...It was a perfectly sunny day and they were selling fruits, water, sweets, etc...then all of a sudden the rain came ...

... it wasnīt one of our important bags. They got away with two lunchboxes with leftover smelly stirfried rice and a load of wrappers. Good steal!

We stayed in the old part of the city and didnīt venture into the new part at all.......the weather was too bad. The new part is supposed to cater mainly for backpackers, lots of hotels, cafes, restaurants, internet places etc but itīs also supposed to be very expensive and ...

... to future family excursions.
In regard to my study, the fact that there are and will be only few other volunteers raises a very problematic question: Can I continue studying the volunteer experience at all, or should I go looking for a new field? Briefly I thought I would change my focus to North American exchange students, as there are plenty of these, but after my trip to Mindo, though inspired by grounded theory, I found too few ‘anchors’ to keep my interest in this ...

... and headed back down. However, by the time we got back, it was well beyond the patience of Andy, Dany, and Maria. Luckily, a message they had passed to the doorman made it to us and we eventually caught back up with them at the man plaza for lunch.
Our next goal was to climb up to the statue on the hill - el pancillo (little bread roll). Not sure if the statue is called “little bread roll” or the hill that statue is on is called that. The hill ...

... 8220;old town” with churches on practically every corner. We learned the best way to get there would be by trolley. Somehow I pictured the San Francisco trolleys and imagined it would be a quaint and picturesque way to get downtown. In fact, the trolley was more like a bus and every one was jam packed. We looked at the “trolley” map to determine which line to get on ...

... in an old colonial church of the historic district. It was amazing and only cost $1! Stupidly, I bought some potato chips before the concert because I was so hungry. During each applause, luckily of which there was one after every song, I would shove as many chips into my mouth as I could. After the concert, we ate at a famous hot dog place. Ecuadorian hot dogs include yummy toppings such as onion, crushed up potato chips and even pineapple jam. Then Anna ...

... he gets out food for 30 people a night and its fancy and the presentation is really good.

I have had two Spanish lessons which has been good but there is a lot to learn! It does help SO much being here though as everyone speaks Spanish and more is sinking in as I work.

Our first Sunday morning we woke to what we thought was gun shots but Callum thinks fireworks as there seemed to be a few festivals going on that day. Apparently church is big so it could be to do with ...

... between the road and the distant high peaks that could have stopped me walking to them. No fences, no cultivated land, no human interference, as far as I could see. This was what you might truly call continental. I picked up a few rocks and examined them for traces of South Americanness. It is always so exciting for me to touch rocks and earth in a new place. My rational brain knows full well that these rocks are just like the ones you get in England and that originally they all came ...