We have arrived! Albeit rather bleary eyed after near 20hrs of travelling! Our first sight of Quito was in the pouring rain, shortly after meeting Mic and Rob at the airport. We had all met up, (excluding Alice Carson, coming from Argentina) at Heathrow en la madrugada to say our goodbyes and finally meet the whole team - TEAM TEAM!

Already lacking in stamina and somewhat overcome by jet-lag the majority of the group found there rooms/dorms in Hostal Tutamanda and were fast asleep by 9pm! The girls are in bunked bed rooms and the boys are sharing. It was very nice to find a comfortable bed and good company after all the travelling.

Thursday morning saw the start of our lessons, for most, a big shock to the system with an early start followed by 4hrs of lessons and for many, including an exam to asertain our level of spanish.

That afternoon we took a tour around Gringolandia, where we´ll spend much time, and took in a good few coctails followed by a salsa lesson to break the ice!

Friday, after lessons as per and shopping in the afternoon, we went out to supper, thw whole group plus many of the proffes, to a nice restaurant in Gringoland, from where we took our CHIVA bus around Quito. Apparently a tradition around here, we all climbed aboard our party bus to be given whistles, flags and a hot, alcoholic drink with some mysterious ingredients. We were entertained by a band of small children playing the trombone & drums and by ducking under bridges, telephone and electricty lines across the streets!

Half way through our tour of Quito, whilst in the Old Town we were treated to a dance off between Emily, Mic and Fred, to become Reina de la Chiva, which ... Fred won! (and with it a bottle of some strong liquor!) For many of us this was the first taster of the altitude and thinnes of air up here after running around the plaza wasn´t as easy as we´d thought!

After the party bus, the group also experienced their first (of many) nights out in Gringoland, starting with Bungalow 6 where we danced the night away to salsa music and European pop music.

SF-D