Rincon Escandinavo Quito

... half awake. Great company.<br> <br>The airline food is also bringing me much joy. I have been very pleased with the meals given to us (and on the first flight we were served a good 30 minutes before anyone else on the plane - vegans for the win!). Each time the meals come around I feel like I´m getting a xmas present - cant wait to open it![<br><br>Our 4 hours in the Santiago transit lounge was also pretty uneventful (Kaela slept most of it ...

... three thousand meters altitude is making breathing difficult, watching the crowd I see mostly indios whose small and stocky frames I remember so well from last winter during my trip with James in Central-America....no latinos here but full blooded indios...<br><br>Getting my act together and my lungs full with thin air I walk into the Gran Casino Hotel - aka the Gran Gringo Hotel - for a free room...

... to that island and which are red from the algae they eat. Down on the beach, several gorgeous little sea lion pups with huge brown eyes were calling for their mums who were probably off fishing &#8211; they sound like gurgly little lambs. We followed the trail between two beaches and saw a Galapagos mockingbird, the famous Blue-Footed Boobies, including several chicks and about which there were lots of jokes and innuendos. <br><br>Further on in our walk we saw some Waved Albatrosses ...

... only $8. Back to the taxi, they know gringos and our taxi driver wanted $10 for the short trip to the Teleferiqo. Since our Hotel clerk told us it should only cost $3, that was my starting price. We ended up paying $5 but only after he stopped and I openned the car door to get out. Negotiation 101: Be ready to walk away. The views from Pichinchu were amazing.<br><br>Day 2 sent us into the Historic Center of Quito. There is a ...

... bear the thought of yet another night in<br>Pifo, so we had to soldier on and on, and on. Up, actually, it was<br>up all the way to the 4000 metre pass and 28 kms. The gradients were<br>sometimes very steep and the road although better than the Pifo road,<br>was still a little bumpy. When we finally reached the summit, the<br>road definitely felt much worse, impeding any idea of a rapid<br>descent.<br><br><br><br>We stopped frequently, I even lay ...

... restaurant. There is a lot more chinese stuff here, like egg noodles, wontons and even suey choy (I have even seen chinese car dealerships in the city). So I am very happy to have some good chinese food again. The downside? It is very dusty in Mitad Del Mundo. I heard they do a lot of mining here, so the dust is very prevelant everywhere. It´s a good thing the condo we have is small, it means less cleaning for me!

... Many of these children come from shattered, broken homes; in some cases, parents do not have resources to provide; in other cases, the children have experienced abuse or neglect. Attachment and trust are most likely contributing factors to behavior. I also think I am beginning to understand what it means to love; to love someone although you hardly know them; perhaps that is what unconditional love is. You love them just because.

... chance for me to view the city and have a look into life in a Quito house. After a heap of stairs he let me into his 2 room house. No windows and very low ceilings just furnished with his bedding. There was a lean-to kitchen and then it opened up to a little balcony which had a really impressive view. It was certainly worth it. We had a cup of tea and then he made me a silver necklace. It was fascinating watching him work. I could have stayed longer. I felt ...

Time to leave Costa Rica behind now and begin the next leg of my travels, namely, teaching English at a school in the jungle town of Tena, Ecuador. To get there, I'd booked a flight from San Jose to Quito for this morning. The price was an extortionate $450 for barely a two-hour flight, but it was the only realistic way of getting down to Ecuador - land crossings would involve crossing the notoriously dangerous ...

... a taxi to take us to a guesthouse somewhere out in the concrete hinterland between the Old and the New towns. All South America cities, we were to learn, have an old and a new part. For 'old' think Spanish Colonial, narrow streets and tourist muggings, for 'new' think concrete, shopping malls, the utterly destitute and private security guards.<br><br>An English couple with mountain bikes shared the taxi with us. They were just starting on a road trip down to the tip of Chile - but weren't ...