We´ve made it! In Quito and getting out and about!

Trip Start Jun 01, 2008
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Trip End Jul 27, 2008


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Where I stayed
Hostel Cayman
(Quito hotels)

Flag of Ecuador  ,
Friday, June 6, 2008

Left on Sunday 1st from Hobart and arrived in Quito 11pm on the same day!  Not off to an illustrious start being fogbound in Hobart and then flight delays in Melbourne. Made it to Auckland 1.5 hours late and knew we were in trouble when the flight attendant on the Qantas flight to Auckland said we had 2 minutes to get to the gate for the next flight. Unfortunately, the departure gate was at the opposite end of Auckland airport to our arrival gate so we bolted from one plane to the next - made it just as the gate was closing and held the flight for the remaining 15 or so pax transferring to Santiago. It was like something from the Amazing Race!!!
Hotel in Quito is great - friendly people - helping us with our Spanish. We wish we´d made more of an effort with the Spanish lessons. Very little English is spoken which makes for some interesting negotiations! We were up in 3am in the morning (still adjusting to local time...) and decided to practice our spanish - learning to count to 10 Goverment procession at Quito
Goverment procession at Quito
 . It certainly doesn´t come easily for Pam!!

We´ve checked out Quito Old Town -beautiful old buildings and saw a government procession with guards horses etc.  Everyone here seems to have a uniform - for something... So many different types of police and security and military and parking and.........!

Went to Mitad del Mundo - the equatorial line and did some amazing experiments to prove that we were actually on the equator. Balanced an egg on top of a nail - yeah, go on, try that one at home! Caught a cable car up to 4100m and found ourselves out of breath for a while. Acclimatising has been interesting - no appetite is the big one which would be fine at home but the energy levels need to stay up!

Highlight so far was yesterday - went mountain biking down a volcano. Yep, sensational! We took a tour with the Biking Dutchman (thanks Lonely Planet for the recommendation). Went up to Cotapaxi (highest active volcano in the world) in the back of an old Toyota troop carrier, bikes on top. Fantastic people in our group - poms, Canadians and yanks. Went up to 4500m (and the altitude didn´t worry us so we must be acclimatising), set the bikes up and off we go...!! Mitad del Mundo
Mitad del Mundo
 ! It was bloody cold and the road was ´basic´. Wore knee and elbow pads for protection (it´s a great look!). But it was great and we had a ball! Some uphill sections at 4300m and we didn´t do so well on those - very tough going with no oxygen!

Joined our tour group last night - diverse is probably the word. The Tucan guide seems good and well organised. Age range is 76 down to about 18. At least we´re in the middle. We´ve got poms, Swiss, Irish and a bucket load of Aussies.  Off to Otavalo today to check out the craft and animal markets which will be great.

Catch you soon amigos!

Chaio
nic & pam
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Comments

get_up_n_go
get_up_n_go on Jun 7, 2008 at 05:06AM

hola! saludo
Great to hear from you both! You are really getting into a few adventures. The pics looks fantastic - who is the photographer?...she knows a thing or 2 about good pics.....but where are the trees and grass on the mountainside? LOL

Can't believe the holidays are going so fast (for some of us) and before long we (some of us) will be back at work!...while (some of us) will be having heaps more fun.

hasta la vista!

Janet

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