Day 7 31/03/06 Yesterday's flights went well i.e. we made it although we did have some huge turbulence at times. Met a lovely South African couple on the flight from Santiago, they had a great sense of humor and had traveled the world and we just laughed and laughed. It was great to have some company and laugh so much. For what was meant to be a hostel at $10 a night the room was massive and the person I was sharing with hasn't turned up yet, so loads of space and great view of the mountains from my room. We are at just under 10,000 feet hear, so really short of breath, but good preparation for when I do the high Inca trail at 12,000 ft. I had an excellent guide to take me around the New and Old town of Quito. The people are very similar to Peruvians and there is a lot of poverty and the town as a whole is very run down, but are very friendly. It really does make you appreciate how lucky we are and how easy we have it where we live, as some of these people have very hard lives. They are very religious and have some beautiful churches. We went to one that had a Mass going on and it had a very powerful atmosphere. It has been a real adventure walking the streets, going to the market and seeing food and fruits I didn't know existed, catching local buses and taxis that are Ladas and barely running, through all the back streets. Went to the Equator line and saw the demonstration of how the water goes down the plug hole clock wise in the Southern Hemisphere, Anti clockwise in the northern and when he put the bowl on the equator line it just goes straight down. That all happens just by moving it a few meters. The local food here is really tasty and loads of stuff I have no idea what it is, although I did give the guinea pig a miss on the lunch menu today and pleased I did because another guide said that they are used to diagnose illness by the local Sharman's {doctors for the indigenous people} Went up one of the local mountains by cable car to 4,000 meters and felt really light headed so had some of the local Coca Tea which definitely helped :o) Sorry there is no mobile phone coverage here so can't answer any texts at the moment - Grae