Howard Johnson La Carolina Quito

... the cheapo material was making G's hair stand on end with static. Uruguay won deservedly in the last minute and having endured another long bus journey as we thought it was going to be a carnival in the capital we went home a bit disappointed.
Bought a excellent copy of Series 2 & 3 Family Guy on dvd on the way back for 2 quid to help cheer G up :-)
Mindo tmrow for Cloud Forest antics.
P&G

... erloschenen Vulkan mit einer riesigen 4 km grossen Caldera.
Morgen fahren wir nach Coca, von dort startet am Montag unsere einwoechige Dschungeltour in das Amazonasgebiet von Ecuador. Von Coca gehts 1,5 Stunden mit dem Auto zum Rio Aguarico und von dort dann nocheinmal 4-5 Stunden mit dem Aussenboardkanu zu unserer Lodge. Von dort dann mehr wenn wir zurueck sind.
Bis dahin,
juergen und Heiko

... point, we not only had a view of all of Quito, we also saw several Andean peaks poking up from behind the hills in which Quito is nestled. After the requisite pictures, we began our descent, thankfully arriving on terra firma safe and sound.
What we expected to be a 20-minute climb for some nice pictures turned out to be a 5-hour adventure.

Stay tuned for our next death-defying adventure! Next time, probably not in a church.

Hasta luego!

I have found my way to the Spanish school, which as it turned out was only about 2 blocks from my initial hotel, and they have found me a local family to stay with for a couple of weeks...

My first impressions of Quito come directly from the transport infrastructure and based on this its quite an orderley town relatively speaking. The cars all drive in their own lane, the taxis are reliable and there seems a pretty organised ...

... 4 other people from the school, so we decided to all go together.
Once at the top you can choose to do a 3 hour hike to the top of the volcano. The group decided to attempt this. I only made it about 1/3 of the way up before I decided I did not want to do it anymore. Tamra made it about 2/3 of the way while I waited for her at the bottom with another guy from the group. The view from the top of the Teleferico was pretty cool although it was not a very clear day.

... REAL equator which is in a private museum just down the street.
the private museum also had some crazy shrunken heads from old tribal ceremonies. crazy.

on the bus to otavalo tomorrow to chill out in a smaller town, get some fresh air and at last we will be able to walk around past 8pm. and not have to haggle every single taxi driver we encounter.
sweet sweet otavalo (i hope).

Hey all,

I canīt write too much bc internet costs here...BUT I will say this: Ecuador is beautiful. That is probably the biggest understatement ever, but, due to a lack of vocabulary and costly time constraints, I think it will suffice.

So, hereīs what Iīve done:

-Landed at the airport and encountered a line full of people walking around with face masks,all covering their mouths and noses. Hmmm...sketch, eh ...

... Virgin of Quito. It is situated on a hill (little bread loaf) overlooking the Colonial Centre and once again offers a great view of Quito. Lunch was a burger, chips and drink for $1.60. Also found an electrical store that sold international adapters Yay! The one I brought with me doesnīt work everywhere in South America. They also have 2 straight up ones as well as the 2 round. Next back into the Colonial ...

So after travelling in relative style (ie not by bus - but by plane!) we arrived in Quito. It wasn't all fun and games though - we had a little scary time in the border crossing in Esmeraldas, where having just got through security, there was a call over the radio "Seņorita Carolina Matos to the security office". ****, we had been told there was some friction between Ecuador and Colombia, but since she had entered with a British passport they wouldn't know anything right?? We were ...

... large and was much more attractive than either of us expected.

The inside of the church was cathedral-esque, but when you've seen one...



After wandering around inside we walked out the main ...