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We´ve been in Quito for 2 weeks now and it´s been emotional...
We touched down on a Sunday evening, it was pouring with rain and I saw the runway just below us as we left the clouds. Alicia (who was to be our ecuadorian Mum for the duration of our stay) picked us up at the airport which was a welcome treat.
We began spanish lessons the very next day and the 6:30am start was a shock to our systems. Once in the zone though we relished (ha!) the early starts. After two weeks our spanish isn´t quite what you´d call fluent, but we do know a lot of words, it`s just stringing them together that´s the problem...
The weather here has been wet, like a dingy day in Britain. As Quito is nestled in the Andes there are some spectacular views on offer, it´s just that we haven´t seen them! We´ve explored the old town, been to a couple of museums, but with homework and school it´s been difficult to cram things in.
As our first weekend in Quito arrived we thought we´d make the most of it and visit Otovalo (an indigenous market, thoroughly recommended). Another early start we settled into our seats for the 2 hour ride. Strangely a couple of locals sat directly behind us despite the bus being empty. Still, our bag was in view, locked up and tied around Russ´ leg. Not good enough, the guy crawled under the seat, broke the zip and stole both our cameras, my sunglasses and strangely two bottles of water. We noticed an hour into the journey by which time the blokes had got off the bus. Angry and thoroughly dejected we listlessly strolled around the market before returning an hour later. That was a good two months of photos gone (yep, we have kicked ourselves often and with force).
We managed to pull ourselves together and spent a fortune on another camera (they are more expensive here than at home), no more SLR practice for me! Our second weekend in Quito was marginally more successful. We tackled a 5 hour walk around Laguna Quilotoa and returned soaking wet having experienced, sun, snow dense cloud (we were at 4000m) and a couple of dangerous landslides. Oh, and we were hit by lightning twice, which was a shock!!! Sunday was an enjoyably touristy day with a visit to the equator, Balancing eggs on nails (it´s easier at the equator), watching water drain in different directions and zipping between hemispheres.
Managed to bump into el Presidente Rafael Correa yesterday just by chance would you believe - there was a parade in the main square and he stood on a balcony waving at us. Nice chap.
Our Ecuadorian mother has been great and we have eaten almost every typical Ecuadorian - everything that is apart from 'cuy', or as us Brits would know it, guinea pig. Still looking to get a good photo of one of the skinned little fellas on a spit roast on the side of the road, but we'll do our best!
Off to Galapagos on Thursday (yep, so far Russ has won the argument...).
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