Reunion In Ecuador, The Magic Bean
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
110
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Quito,
Ecuador
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Kate is back in action, look out world, we are on the road again and it feels terrific.
I managed to score a cheaper, at short notice flight on a LAN Chile airbus that flew from Brisvegas to Sydney then via Auckland, Santiago and Guayaquil and eventually on to Quito in Ecuador where the reunion was to take place at a venue called the Magic Bean in the New Town. The Magic bean is the name of a hostel that serves good coffee...... that is the magic bean and all this time we thought the magic bean was in fact the clitoris). They have awesome vegetarian food and you can´t beat a freshly blended double shot frozen cappucino frappe for $USD1.65. We are onto using US dollars in Ecuador.
B and Margs´s Magic Stalk plant springs to life
Mum had the horrendous task of driving me to the Brisbane airport at 3am in the morning, nice one mum.
The airbus i flew on was small, slightly mediocre with a strange fish meal accompanied with gnocchi?? served, seats that were not really bolted to the floor, no attractive flight attendants and dodgy inflight entertainment. There was rain delays at two airports that made me in for a long journey. I devoured two Krispy Kreme donuts at the Sydney airport, na-na-na-na-na Alison!!! (these two chocolate coated, custard filled hole-less donuts made the whole surgery palava seem worth coming home for). I had fun wandering around the kiwi airport and was very close to buying the plastic, retro snowdome that featured fake snow falling on sheep. I actually saw a whole island of little white dots that were sheep from the plane window. It is moments like these that i take the window seat for. For some reason they did stock the Wayne Dyer spiritual books that had been eluding me for some time. I played a game called Invasion that really was a glorified version of Space Invaders. Next i took some chemical helpers and my new fold up luscious travel pillow (thank you Anaconda) and slept until we hit Chile. The last leg of the flight was crazy time. I had pulled my "Away With The Fairies", block out the light, sleeping eye mask down over my eyes and fallen asleep before take-off. I awoke later to all the fluoro lights on above us, all the Ecuadorians out of their seats in the aisles dancing, chatting and ordering drinks from the hosties at the back of the plane. There was a hard core duty free shop set up. Also, it was damn hot in there so i pushed my way through to the drinks trolley and stole a bottle of water. I have never seen anything like this on a flight before, people yodelling up and down the aisles really made ne quite nervous
From the diary Kym gave me
. I would not have been surprised if a DJ started on some decks, party streamers dropped from overhead and the captain came bouncing down the aisles on a pogo stick. I was completely surprised and grateful when i saw my two pieces of baggage that i had checked in way back in Brisbane with the hope that they would last the distance to Ecuador. I cabbed it to the Magic Bean and then walked to a flashy restaurant with Scott no friends to dine alone.. I had wrongly ordered a meat dish from the Spanish menu so ate the very good side salad and sipped away on Glamour Martinis whilst watching Ecuador play Mexico in soccer. The three martinis i had actually trolleyed me a bit and then i remembered that Quito is at altitude of course and i was bound to feel the effects straight away. The martinis were in fact delicious, being served in a pristine glass with a glazed cherry garnish. The contents consisted of a peach liqour, vodka and small amount of cranberry juice, shaken over ice. Nice one bartender and not what i expected from my first night in Ecuador. I dedicated the drinks to Carrie Bradshaw and the opening of the "Sex In The City" movie in Australia today. This is one of the only TV shows i ever liked and Charlotte reminds me of my best grrlfriend Alana. I have decided that Alana is a mixture of Charlotte from "Sex in The City" and Elaine from "Seinfeld", how lucky am i? We have vowed to stay in the old town of Quito when we return to see the city. This is way too trendy.
Back at the Bean I set up a chair with all of Nadine´s gifts and goody bags filled with Australian things she would be missing like Chuppa chups, Caramello Koalas and a new knife. I was dead tired and started singing the Spray and Wipe works faster television advertisement ditty before i realised that the words i was singing were aimed at the copious amounts of mould plastered onto the ceiling
Flying LAN back to South America
. I snuggled up in a Jaguar skin print doona that seemed to match my new tattoo... strange one that. I went to sleep smiling in the knowledge that he team would be re-united the next day.I woke to the noise of a ´Backyard Blitz´ style reno job going on next door, so loud that i thought it was someone banging on my door. Tranquillo Por Favor!!! It was best i got up anyway, it was 4:oopm in the afternoon! I discovered this after i ventured dowstairs to enquire about breakfast onlt to be told by reception that there was no chance of . I was well and truly involved in the jetlag and altitude game. I suffered the full wrath of the very vocal and brazen machismo society that exists in Quito when i went for a casual walk on my own down to the internet. I was taunted with come-ons and whistles and felt like the female pied piper with the lads on my tail. the other observation, mid-calf pirate boots are the fashion of the season for the ladies and i am keen to get my feet into a pair.
I ate one of those scrumptious half avocado shells filled with guacamole that i had become so fond of in Peru and a ´Fiesta fruta´ 100% juice. I also went for the magic bean coffee and it was quite magic because soon after this Nadine rocked up returning from The Galapagos Islands with a sun tan and some great stories. We spent the next few hours catching up.
Three things are certain, the Australian Big Brother house is filled with fools, the ladettes will never become ladies and it´s definitely great to be back in South America and on the road again.
