Firstly, so sorry I've not written on here for sooooo long been very busy!!

Secondly, I want to pay respects to the girls that died in the bus crash. It was really very terrible and shook us all. The newspapers over here have no respect for peoples privacys and unfortunately we were bombarded with pictures of the girls dead bodies. Was horrific and sickening.

Thirdly, Abi and Nige so good to finally here from you!!! I began to think you had forgotten me:(! Hope you both had lovely birthdays...nige did you like center parks?!?!?! HA! I tried to call you but wouldnt connect to your mobiles.. Also just quick question...are you engaged?!?!...quote 'future brother inlaw'...?!

Ok so weekend of the 11th I went to Atacames. I had the best time ever!!! I LOVE THE COAST!! I went to work on the friday morning and then after quite a bit of disorganisation and faffing around we just managed to cath the 3.10 bus to atacames by begging the driver to hold on for five minutes for Emily and Alex. Had a slightly eventful trole ride to the bus station... When we got of the trole we stood waiting to cross the road and I turned around to see a fairly well dressed man in his mid thirties, undo his trousers infront of me and start masturbating!! Was somewhat a disturbing experience...I informed stef who claimed he was only weeing and then came to realise infact that wasnt wee....! It haunted me for quite a while!!

Anyways...we eventually arrived in Atacames after a fairly uneventful rest of the bus journey, at 11.30 pm. We caught an eco taxi (sortof a bike with a wheelbarrow on!) to a hoste mentioned in the guide book...only to find dirty sheets, lots of mosquitos, no luights, no hot water, and to be quite far out of town, when the woman ddnt budge on $5 we went on a hunt for aanother. We found a hostel with a room for the 6 of us, and an ensuite!! which had a glass door right infront of the toilet!! Nice. The shower was powerful but cold...which was actually rather refreshing as it is soooo hot on the coast(love it!!)...Jamie and Alex managed to break the sink between them which meant we had a big muddy ppuddle in it and had to use the shower to brush our teeth..but all for $3.50 a night...who can complain!!

Atacames is a party town!!! We were situated right on the front with all the bars...the music continued well into the night 4am to be precise and began again at 6am!! The bars were wicked with swings for seats and circular bars in the middle where the male bar staff sung and rapped danced. It was brilliant! People are so nice on the coast, we spoke so much Spanish it was unreal. Everyone chats to everyone. I met so many colombians who have assured me Colombia is safe and if I was living in Quito then I had nothing to worry about as Quito is more dangerous than the whole of Colombia! (YAY!) We made lots of new friends (god I sound about 6!) Including Romano (stefs new boyfriend...oooooOOOooo;)) After a night of cocktails, singing, dancing and speaking spanish we managed to get to bed at about 4.30 the next morning. Woken again at 6 by someone singing tragically on the karaoke...Stef and I were up, ready and down the beach for 8!! No way were we missing out on the only sun we've had since we've been here! We got approached about 10 times within five minutes wth offers of cocaine and other various drugs!! We got asked by a guy if he could have a photo with us...after 20minutes of him sitting with us and not begging us we eventuallly gave in...after all really what harm could be done???...however he then disappeared and came back with all his friends who took it turns so they could each be in the photo!! Couldnt believe it! ...I came to the conclusion they were infact playing Charlie and Stefs game of 'pull the minger'!! We drunk some lush coco milk from a litlle boy...only later to be told never to drink it because its dirty water!! ooopsie! Luckily we managed to miss the s***s! Me thinks that our stomachs are hardening!!

The sea was a warm bath!! Stef and I spent majority of the day swimming.

We spent the early evening in the hammocks, with piña coladas, listening to The Bob....so relaxed....just my kinda lifestyle. In the bar next door we spotted a guy with a surfboard and he was heading to the sea..I thought about asking if I could have a go on his board...however after watching him in the water he was amazing! and I thought otherwise!! We went swimming in the sunset that night...Alex convinced that his money belt was waterproof decided to swim with it on despite the rest of us putting our things in the hostel!...however..it wasnt and he ended up with an MP3 player that no longer worked and a lot of soggy money!!

The same guy who was in the bar earlier was surfing again when we were in the water...we watched him for quite a while, I havent seen someone that good in a long while!!

That night, we were in the bar and the guy from the water came up and spoke to me. I asked him how long he'd been surfing for and he said 10 years, I was like awwww cool same as me!....then his next sentence was o you surf? I'm the surfing champion of Ecuador you should come surf with me tomoro morning...my answer was "ummmm....I think I'll pass on that one!..."...He then mentioned that he was competing in the surfing championships next weekend in Montañita...so yet again our plans for Otavalo were postponed!!...so that was Fey.

That was another sleepless night of dancing ad cocktails, we danced on the beach and chatted lots of spanish, we also witnessed a tragic but o so funny dance competition...which consisted of men on a bar dancing like women!...see pictures...the guy in the white trousers was really good...butt oh so arrogant and greasy..and yeh he did split his trousers!!! HAHAHA!! QUALITY!!

Sunday, Romano and his weird friend who insisted every time that a wave came that he'd "fall on to me" and wrap his legs round me in the process...took us on a banana boat!! Was good fun! Imogen and I fought to sit as far away from this guy as possible however on the last couple oçminutes when we plummeted off the boat we ended up landing on him in a kind of sandwich formation!! Somewhat painful!

Sunday nights Atacames comes a ghost town. sunday is the day of rest. All the bars are closed at 8 and no music is played. This was a bit of a hiccup as our bus didnt actually leave til 11.30 that nigt and we were planning to party until then!....but we claimed an empty bar and sat there chatting until we had to takeour small walk to the end of an amazing weekend. To make things worse, we arrived off the busat 6.30 the next morning in our flipflops to the pouring rain and cold of Quito. Stumbled our way bakc to mine to have a shower and go straight to work..needless to say we struggled to stay awake in our classes!! and it was a relief to finish at midday.

Ok...so I will update you on Montañita when I am back in Quito (I am currently in Otavalo)

Much love to you all. Missing you muchly x x x

P.S Maggie...sorry to Bob for the result...we did actually manage to find an Irish bar an watch the game!! Was a bit of a shocker!! Lots of love x x