Colombia bound...
Trip Start
Jul 06, 2005
1
6
31
Trip End
Mar 10, 2006
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Quito,
Ecuador
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Work
Hahahahaha.....ok, so working the 7 am breakfast shift straight from the bar sucks a wee bit, but seriously this job is a lot of fun and for the most part pretty easy going. It seems that there is ALWAYS a reason to go out with so many people coming through, and the rest of the staff are a lot of fun too. Mathias and Lucien are both around my age and working as managers at the hostel as part of a tourism program they are studying at home in Switzerland, while the other volunteers are Simon and Chloe, a young couple from England travelling essentially the same route we are. I wish I could do justice to the crazy cast of characters we´ve had the luck to get to know, but the pictures above will have to suffice! Working has been such a good time its actually been kind of painful watching the new cast of volunteers take over MY hostel.
Play
For starters, salsa class is sooo much fun. I managed to finish 17 hours of classes in my time here and while I´m certainly not any good yet its enough to have a pretty good time at it. Even managed to drag our salsa teacher out for the final going away party on Friday and get a bit of public practice in! Finished all our spanish hours last week and we´re definitely getting into the flow of it, although Colombian accents are sure to throw us a bit.
01- Cliff jump in Mindo
The nightlife here is pretty nutty, although we´ve tended to only hit the town on Tuesdays and Fridays and inevitably bring a group of 10-20 hostelers out with us to show them a good time - its essentially in the job description! Still managed to get most of the sites of Quito in, including the new cable car they´ve put in up to one of the surrounding mountain tops (of course I did come straight out of a bar into the surprisingly bright daylight, go wake Mark up at the hostel and head straight up for the day). For the most part we´ve really just gotten to know the city though, which I think is pretty cool.The Escapes
We even managed to get out of Quito a couple of times, although not necessarily together. A couple of weeks ago Mark snuck off to the coast with a new friend fromt he hostel, while I headed back to Baños, tagging along with a couple of lovely dutch girls and later adding a fun couple from Vancouver to our little group. Managed to do everything I missed the first time around, including a 50 kilometer bike ride through the moutains towards Puyo, jumping from a bridge in some bungy jumping like sport they have (basically just jump and swing under the bridge on a 25 or 30 foot rope, cool but a short ride), and the hot springs, which were a fine way to start the day. Whirlwind trip though, only gone for two nights, then back to work to cover for good ol´Mark - 48 hours straight working BY MYSELF entirely as the others had planned time off, and well Mark just took it.
02 - Baños Bridge Jump
Worth it I suppose, word is he had a great time, we´re heading back to the beach next month so I can see what I missed. Also managed a day trip to Mindo, a little eco tourism town with some beautiful waterfalls and an amazing 40 foot cliff jump, essentially into the base of a waterfall. A great day, although we got drenched by a rain storm while completing the two hour hike back out from the cliff jump and spent a very wet two hours on the bus getting back to Quito. The Plans
So, for those who haven´t already gathered we´re now off to Colombia. The vague plan is to catch a six hour bus to the border tonight at 2 or 3 am, then another 6 or 7 hour bus from the Colombian side to get well away from having to stay in any dodgy Colombian border towns and to avoid travelling in the area at night. First stop is a little town called Popayan (sp?), then on to Cali and Medellin in the centre, Cartegena and Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast, and finally Bogota which is meant to be an absolutely amazing city. Plans always change of course but we´re looking at about a month there at the moment, before coming back through Ecuador for a couple weeks and FINALLY on to Peru and the rest of the original itinerary.
I´ve truly had an amazing time in Quito - I´ve met so many awesome people and really love the city. That said, its very much time to get back on the road. On that note, hopefully I´ll have some proper travelling adventure stories next time round. Until then,
--Shawn_in_Transit
Comments
lucky dog you!
Good to hear you're doing well and getting into the swing of things. Salsa dancing? and swinging with those dutch girls heh? LOL.. You must show me your salsa skills when you get back. I've only tried it once but it was soo much fun :) have a good time in Columbia and hope to hear more from you soon.
miss you!
Tam*