Here I am again, having returned from a packed weekend in Quito. On Thursday night, after another hefty gym session, I got on the bus, at midnight, and headed off on the all too familiar bus ride to Quito. I arrived early on Friday morning and took a taxi to the hostal where I was to meet Maria, my guide for the weekend. Maria is from Ecuador but has spent the last 5 years living in Spain and will probably spend the rest of her life there, although she returns to Quito every year for a holiday. We met her last week at the coast and there she offered to show me about the capital that I still havn´t got to know.

On Friday we headed to La Basilica in Quito which is essentialy a really large Cathedral in the centre that splits the city in two. The interior was akin to any other large cathedral interior that I have ever seen but the tower was another thing all together. We scaled several sets of narrow staircases before reaching the first level, from where you could look over the interior of the cathedral and bump into many Americans...to my dismay. A few staircases later we arrived at the first balcony looking over Quito. The wall stopping one from plummeting to their death came to just below my waist line, which is always reassuring. However I was a fool to think that that was the dodgy part of Ecuador´s health and safety limitations. We re-entered the cathedral and walked alonf a rickety wooden gangway over some interior ceilings (very dusty). At the end of the gangway was a 20ft ladder and about 80 degrees which was necessary to climb. Once at the top, I left the safety of the building to come out onto the small pathways that catehdrals seem to have right up until the top. In front of me was another ladder, except this time it was vertical and below it was a healthy drop to the stone ground a few hundred feet below. A shaky Maria mad me lead the way and we eventually reached the top. However, it turned out that this was the small spire so back down we went, across the gangway once again and up some more stairs. After ascending a spiral green staircase for a while, we entered the main spire. From now on there were a series of vertical ladders to climb to reach the very top, which in itself only consisted of a weak mesh floor.

After my Basilica experience we went for what I would describe as Ecuadorian fast food: some form of bean/lentil, rice, fried banana, and meat (I dream about food from home everyday!). We then hopped ina taxi and went to see the statue of the virgin, the one on this blog´s photo. After winding our way around the hill we reached the top. The staue in itself is failr unimpressive but the view of Quito and the surrounding mountains is incredible, that was impressive. The statue itslef is meant to be unique in the sense that it is the only statue of the virgin with wings. In addition she is meant to be standing on a snake but I really don´t know what the sculptor thought a snake was, as that was most definately a dragon as far as I was concerned. Beside the statue was a long line of stalls selling what they call ´´artesania´´ made my indigenous people, but I prefer to call it overpriced crap. However, having said that, I was drawn by a t-shirt there which sported the profile of a climber in the Andes. It was too small though :( Maria, to make up for my ´´deep disappointment´´ took me to an even bigger market full of rubbish! This was the largest one in Quito and housed alot of tatoo artists wanting to pierce and tatoo me whereever possible. To give Maria her credit, I did actually find the t-shirt I was after for $5.

On Saturday, after the best breakfast I have had in Ecuador (involving pancakes with maple syrup) we headed for the main bus station in order to get a bus to a village called Papallacta. Papallacta is renowned for it´s natural thermal springs and it is high up in the mountains. We got on the bus and within 2 mintues a man came on and asked to see my ticket. I showed him my ticket only to be told that I was sitting in the incorrect seat and that I should move to the back immediately. I sensed something dodgy going on here and so turned around. As I expected, at the back of the bus 3 men sat there in hoods waiting for my innocent tourist camera and wallet. I told the man he had another thing coming if he though I was foolish enough to go and sit at the back, to which he became more and more furious. Luckily the bus driver came to my rescue and kicked them all off. About an hour into the journey, having forgotten my first attempted robbery, the bus suddenly stopped. Everyone started to file off and so I followed suit. Outside a large group of policeman started checking everyone´s credentials. I quickly whipped out the copy of my passport and handed it to an official looking man, donning all forms of weaponry. To my horror, he informed me that he was going to detain me and take me to jail! Apparently a copy would not suffice and I would therefore have to suffer the consequences. I couldn´t believe that this was happening so I quickly began arguing and hoping for the best. After a while he decided to release me, I think he was jsut embarassed by the fact that I had argued with him, and he told me that next time there would be no escape. I have now learnt that here in Ecuador, if you stand up to thiefs and coppers they tend to leave you alone as they don´t expect tourists to do it.

Anyway an hour later, having watched half of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, I got off the bus in Papallacta feeling slightly disturbed. We were in the middle of nowhere, high in the mountains, looking at a dusty road and a few empty buildings overlooking a valley. There were 2 signs directing us to the springs: one saying 1km and one saying 1.5km so off we went. 1.5km later is turns out, having got rather dusty, we arrived at the entrance to the springs. We payed our entrance and went in. Inside was absolutely packed, a far cry from what I thought I was going to find. There were several large pools steaming away. I had unfortunately forgotten my shorts and so had to buy some rather dashing orange ones there, which I am now rather attached to. I ended up spending almost 4 hours bathing in the boiling waters of the spring, gradually becoming more and more relaxed and tire. Some of the pools were incredibly hot and almost burnt. Trees laden with flowers overhung the springs... which rather annoyingly were laden with tourists. After a good amount of steak, and some bathing, I headed back down the dusty path and got the bus back to Quito. That night I went out for dinner and a chicken curry, I couldn´t believe my luck. It was the best thing I have tasted in well over a month. I am however bak to the gruel now.

On Sunday, I had another day packed full of touristy sightseeing. After another good breakfast we got a rather rickety bus to a town called Mitad del Mundo, which for those who know Spanish roughly translates to Half of the world. This is the town through which runs the equator. Here you can straddle the equator and have one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, so that is exactly what I did. There was also a museum which housed artefacts from the various indigenous groups of Ecuador. Having spent some time there admiring the mountains, the equator and the various museums, I grabbed an ice cream and headed back to Quito. Maria insisted that we stop at el teleferico which is a cable car.

We got off the bus and took a mini bus up to the start of the cable car. Having hopped on we travelled up to 4100m watching Quito disappear behind the cloud line. There were some truly spectacular views of Quito and as we ascended you could see the plant life change. At the top it was freezing and I was only wearing a t-shirt as I had not counted on doing this. We went for a fairly long walk at the top through the clouds and I soon warmed up. It was really fun being up there however it became pretty difficult to breathe and I had to start focusing on my breathing. By the end I was absolutely fine and could run about no problems, lungs feeling brand new. After a really nice hot chocolate we headed back down and went to a theme park that was located beside the cable car. I am not a fan of theme parks in general and the only thing that kept me going here was Maria´s constant banter and the theme tune to Men in black being played on repeat- I love that sone. That evening, after waiting on the side of a rather dangerous road for half an hour in the dark, we got a taxi back and went to have some dinner: pasta followed by pizza, I was really hungry.

The next morning, I had breakfast and said my goodbyes ot Maria. The bus was a long ride back as expected, ad played several rubbish films until the end when Red Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger came on- that made my day. It has a hilarious opening scene of him in a gym in a Russia sporting only a loin cloth. He soons ends up beating up a few naked stacked Russian men in the snow...its a good film. I got back to Macas at 9, it was pitch black, the stars were on display and lightning was flashing all about. I got home to find noone there, so I went into Macas to find them and as I thought bumped into them without having to try. It was la Negra´s birthday and her and Dani were taking to huge black guys home (my home as well!). Despite their formidable appearance, they were absolutely hilarious and were not scary whatsoever.

Today I did the usual hospital work and found out that I have lost 6 kilos since coming to Ecuador. I think I have parasites in my gut so off to the doctor with me today. Anyway, until next time!