Hiya Went to the amazon at the weekend to a research and conservation place called jatun sacha. have never seen so many spiders and ants in my life! saw some amazingly huge trees! salsa-d the night away with a local called leni in a fantastic bar in the middle of the jungle. today was my first day teaching at the school. the age range in one class is 6 to 12 which makes it really difficult to teach! taught at an after school club this afternoon - those kids s...

Hiya yesterday afternoon i was asked to help Jessica (the daughter of who i�m staying with) and a couple of her friends with their english. i assumed i would have 3 15yr old girls but it turned out to be jessica and two boys aged 18 and 20! It was a long lesson (2 and a half hours) and they were really enthusiastic! this afternoon i was supposed to teach an after school club although again, no kids! i don�t blame them, i�d rather ...

Hiya I arrived in the town of Tena on the edge of the Amazon yesterday after a 6 hour bus ride from Quito. I am staying with a family on the outskirts of the town so to walk to this computer took 45mins! Listening to my father, i locked my case for the trip, however the key failed to open the padlock so the 12 year old daughter sawed it off for me. Today was supposed to be my first day of teaching but I turned up at the school after a 45 min bus ride to find tha...

hi went to el centro del mundo today (centre of the earth) where we did some wierd stuff playing with gravity on the equator and saw shrunken heads, graves, dead snakes etc. also met all the other volunteers. unfortunately most of us had to say goodbye this evening as we?re doing different things. went to a shopping mall this afternoon which seemed a lot smarter than the rest of quito! nearly got sandwiched between a reversing lorry and truck. i bought a mobile p...

Hi everyone! my first journal entry! well i arrived in quito late last night after flying from gatwick to houston where we were herded like cattle. last night i stayed will an ecuadorian family who seem really friendly considering they don't speak english! anyway i'll write more when i have time. i'm heading out to tena tomorrow. steph x