Vieja Cuba Quito

... our mounts and continued on foot. It was very hard going, walking up sheer slopes of volcanic sand (S:¨it's hard enough walking on sand on a beach never mind this high on a 45 degree slope!¨) but well worth it. The horse ride was great too, albeit slightly terrifying on the way back as we traversed ridges with a width of less than 2 metres where the horses seemed to enjoy walking right on the edge! And, of course, we are now rather saddle sore - we ...

... the way back we saw an iguana eating a cactus greedily &#8211; they are very prickly! <br><br>That night it was Joanne&#8217;s birthday so we had another mini party and a cake. Jimmy pushed Joanne&#8217;s face in the cake a little bit which he said was an Ecuadorian tradition, and a chase around the boat with some icing ensued which made everyone laugh.<br><br>The next morning was an even earlier start for what was unfortunately our last day in the Galapagos. We were on the island of ...

... whole park was deserted (it was a tuesday)<br><br>Left Quito on Wednesday afternoon to Latacunga (the bus is such a bargain - in Quito town it´s $0.25, and the long distance busses are roughly $1 per hour of travel....so far we´ve spent about $4.40 in total!<br><br>Will follow with a few pictures later<br><br>x

... benefit the most. That is, a soul that would best live with a plenitude of guidelines might be placed in a body born into Islam or Judaism, and so on. The only true church, he insisted, was our own bodies; one only needs one´s heart and mind to pray, and if we did so in times of peril or when lost, we´d be served well. <br> Reincarnation played a significant role in Luis´s beliefs as well. Denying any death or world of the dead (heaven, hell), he ...

... in between Temba and some shady Ecuadorian guy who tried to smoke on the bus. Now, I honestly don't know for sure what happened here. Either I was extremely negligent and left my wallet on my lap and later dropped it... or I was skillfully pickpocketed. Regardless, when we arrived at our hostel in Quito, it was entirely gone.<br><br>And so. Here's the steps one must follow after the "OH ****" moment of realization.<br><br>ONE: Call your bank and cancel your ...

... itself interesting. We passed sprawling markets where locals hopped onto the bus carrying bunnies in a bag and a rooster. Unfortunately, we got to listen a bad version of Celine Dion's Titanic song (is there a good version?) played on a sax, rather shrilly, and pan flute. Can't say I was encouraged to purchase a CD from them. We spent our remaining time together taking it easy so they could ...

So after the epic flight from London, Liz and I finally made it to Quito, accompanied by no small amount of trepidation given than the less than favourable press the place receives.....<br><br>Quito is fun but to be honest there isn´t a huge amount that differentiates it from a whole host of other places. We wandered the Old Town, which has some great architecture, and headed up the huge cable ...

... traders with mostly Kinder eggs, and of course the manic traffic are the order of the day. In all it's quite an experience, one made all the nicer by the fact that it's brilliant sunshine and a perfect temperature. We've been to a slightly dodgy waxworks museum, a monastery, cathedral, and basilica. The latter was by far the best part of the day. We climbed to the top of a church spire and were rewarded with incredible ...

... that I didn´t miss my connecting flight to Lima. The Aerolineas Argentinas is a completely different terminal - small and old. But once I had realised this, I did manage to find my way to the big and bright International terminal. Was hit with an $18US tax and also told that I couldn´t direct check my baggage all the way to Quito. I needed to go through immigration both times. I pretty well rushed straight to the terminal and walked straight onto the ...

... 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 ...