Tambo Real Hotel Quito

... the Equator - in the afternoon. Let's be clear, the original equator attraction is rubbish. Probably the worst tourist attraction either of us has ever been to. Pathetic. But tucked away down the road is the 'real equator' as determined by GPS, and that's lots more fun. It looked really odd as we approached with lots of weird and wonderful thing dotted around apparently randomly (see shrunken head picture). A fab guide took us around, explaining all the ...

... Jimmy cranked the salsa tunes and we had some dances with him and the engineer Andreas, who were teaching us how to do the merengue. <br><br>The following day we visited Santa Fe Island, where we saw about seven juvenile hawks, roosting in the low shrubs, including one that had been eating sea lion placenta and still had blood on its beak and talons. Nothing goes to waste in nature. The new pup (about an hour old according to Diego) and mother were resting nearby. We saw more sea ...

... Gestern haben wir das Ecuator Denkmal besucht, Mitad Del Mundo, dort ist die Nulllinie eingezeichnet, man kann mit einem Bein auf der Suedhalbkugel und mit dem anderen auf der Nordhalbkugel stehen. <br>Ein Versuch auf dieser Linie zeigt, dass dort tatsaechlich der Equator verlaeuft, ein Becken mit Wasser wird genau auf der Linie positioniert und dann ein Stoepsel unten gezogen, dass Wasser laeuft ...

... to communicate with non-English speaking shop owners surprisingly well. Wild gesticulation has been vital, however. When buying a replacement wool sweater and wool hat in the Basilica, our pathetic attempts at Español so ingratiated us with the couple running the store that they gave us complimentary bracelets. Muy bien. <br> Next, our lunch today. Near our hostel, there is a central market, where tons of produce and meat comes into the city for ...

... is a residencia, probably<br>cheaper than where we are staying, but when we found out the price<br>here we couldn't be ***** to cycle all the way back up. The price at<br>the Costura began at 12 usd each (15 with breakfast) but when we said<br>it was too much he dropped to 8 usd each. We are in a basement room<br>(not as nice as the original room he showed us, but fine for us) and<br>we have boiling hot water AND a plug in heater, luxury. The tv ...

... flight to galapagos has stopped somewhere (no idea) and is about to get going again for the final bit of the journey - very excited about getting to the galapagos! NEWS FLASH - danielle officially has the smelliest feet and boots in south America!

we took a bus to banos, a little chill town with a bunch of hot springs and lots of outdoor activities. in hopes of finding a jungle trek. it looks like we may have to go back up to quito to get the jungle trek that actually goes into the primary amazon. doh! but it´s pretty nice here, very relaxed and lots of stuff to look at.<br>3.5 hour bus ...

... stunning dark grey mountains. The threateningly dark sky seemed to merge with the peaks that met us. No less threatening was the journey to the hostel during which we learnt that Ecuadorians certainly don't share our values on road safety! It really is something to behold and I still can't understand why all drivers insist on beeping their horns every 2 minutes. The hostel is fantastic, and I was much relieved to find a nice ...

... teacher was much better, stable even. we studied for from three hours straight, it sucked. but half way through we played memory with cards that had body parts on them. so i would have to turn over the card, say the body part and match it with another card with the same body part. i won. i don´t know if she let me win...but either way, i won!

... in the pub for a couple of years afterwards. We hadn't seen each other for roughly a decade. After we had got over the initial surprise we caught up shared a couple of beers. He was now an artist living in Paris (just about the only ex-school mate who wasn't 'in IT'). Both of us had changed almost beyond recognition from our former selves. After a while the talk grew a little stilted and Louis' girlfriend was sneaking him glances. We had nothing left to say. I said I'd leave our email address ...