Day 1 - Quito, Ecuador

No, not day 1 but day *4* in ecuador. I've been SO rubbish at blogging, but it'll pick up from now.

so, how's it going? after a tearful couple of flights, we landed in Quito International at 4 in the afternoon, and were greeted with a mass of smiley, happy Ecuadorians. We hopped in a cab, and arrived at the beautiful and highly recommended Secret Garden. Its stunning. The terrace bar has the most awesome views over Quito, and the people there we're all english speaking (luckily) and amazingly friendly.




We kinda bummed around for a couple of days. went to visit the basilica (same as every other city basilica, no?) and saw an real ecudorian band play. I tried some salsa steps, but gave up after about 10 minutes because it was getting tricky.



The dorm was pretty nice. Nice people too. Loads of brits, americans, europeans. Its been awesome. But its been up and down. There are times when I've felt scared at the scale of our undertaking (I mean, what the hell am I gonna do for a year? play uno and drink beer and take buses?). There are times I'm missing home, especially the boy. There are times that I feel overwhelmed by the language and culture barrier. And times when I fear for my life in a city I know nothing about. But all in all, its been pretty good.

So sam and I talked it over, and we thought the best thing to do was get out of town. We befriended this wicked Iranian guy, Joubin, who was heading in the same direction as us, towards this crater lake in Latacunga, south of Quito. 90 mins on a hairy bus ride, we arrive in this dusty town with NO gringos, nor any foreigners for that matter.



2 hours later we were booked on a trip to the crater lake. Some empty bar crawling later and a good night's sleep, we end up in a 4-wheel-drive heading up 2,000m into the mountains. We stopped at this amazing Quechua market, where we were (again) the only foreigners. The people here are kind and friendly and colourful and amazing. Its so beautiful.





The air is thin, its hard to breathe, but the views were breathtaking. The crater is massive (we think about a square mile). we trekked down for an hour, sat on the banks of the lake, then I had the hardest trek of my life back up. Literally at one point my heart was beating 180 times a minute (I timed it - is that even possible) and I had a bit of an out-of-body experience. But it was amazing. Lunch later, then home to catch up on emails and the blog.





This place is unreal. Its not scary at all - accessible and easy to travel. but its like we've stepped onto another planet. we met some quechua indians in the mountains who had never heard of england. They live to 110 years old because everything is so clean up there. The landscape is stunning. The people beautiful. Its been so nuts. Not like I expected at all. And my spanish is coming on leaps and bounds. still not as confident as I am in class, but getting there. Sam and I are both thinking about spanish classes in Quito in a couple of weeks when we return.

So tomorrow Sam is staying at the hostel and Joubin and I are heading up Cotopaxi, Ecuador's highest volcano. Then we scooting down the country an hour to Baños, which is currently on amber-alert because its neighbouring volcano is erupting (alebit safely). Don´t worry though, we won´t take any chances.

You can check out new photos here all the time. so get on it. Missing the special ones (you know who you are), but secretly wishing ALL you were all here seeing this stuff with me. xx