I havent done anything at all for the last 6 days.

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Hello

Last night out with the group was really good fun, Corina the witch was on superb form dancing with Carlos the hamster of a tour guide and there was some very enthusiastic karaoke singing and shape throwing generally (my first peruvian worm).

Next morning was interesting, and didnt really happen for me, until check out at 1pm and the official end of the tour.

Checked in to a hostel in town called the flying dog with colin and the three girls, then went to get some food, before retiring to bed to lounge and read. The next few days were to be dedicated to rest and relaxation so that i was enthusiastic about getting to a new country...

Ended up going for a meal that night that involved the hottest bowl of soup ever created, involving onions and lava. was a very sweaty affair, and being so hot also made me very nearly kill Corina, who just kept turning up and sitting near me and talking a lot in an annoying (quite loud), constant monotone. I´m not very good at dealing with this for very long, and was ready to attack her with my lava-soup. Thankfully i restrained. Souper.

Next day involved some lounging, a morning of reading and a bit of wandering around, located cinema and faffed a bit, had a pizza hut (very good) then went to see 300 (also good) befoer early bed. Also in aftrernoon investigated the possibility of getting a cheap tailor made suit.... Didnt get one in the end as am still entertaining the thought of trying to get to the iguassu falls. Took most of the day though.

Next day involved getting up a bit late, and popped into town to post some stuff home (this took a very very long time and involved a lot of pointing and standing in the wrong lines), before heading back to the hotel wed been in to chace up some missing headphones.

That night was our last night in Lima, so went for nice food, cerviche to start (raw fish in lemon and coriander) and then steak and chicken followed by cheesecake. bed early, sensational.

Next morning Colin and I flew to Quito after a reasonably traumatic taxi ride, having had a dunkin donut and coffee at the airport (its these important details that make this diary special) mine was vanilla flavoured icing, with chocolate sprinkles.

Flight was uneventful, read current books, Brave new world (good) and Brothers Karamasov or something (long).

Landed in Quito, got to hostal (nice) went to find team norway, then went out for ribs and chips (2 pounds) before retiring gracefully to bed. The next morning we began sightseeing in earnest, going up a big hill (Quito is in a crater thing) in a cablecar, however we were rewarded for our endeavour with crap weather, so we couldnt see anything and it was really cold. Came down again, and noticed a funfair. This was far more entertaining, and I won a small cuddly camel on the basketball game. FYI I still have the camel and have no idea what to do with it.

We also played a lot of stupid games and Oystein and I got very far on Time Crisis II. this pleased me. I ate KFC for lunch. that afternoon we didnt do anything, and celebrated by going firstly to the mall near here to buy jeans (mine are rank now) and then going for a decent meal as was last night of the four of us, Colin going to the Galapagos the next day. Before this (forgot), Henrik and I went for a salsa lesson, which was hilarious. We were rubbish. By the end of the hour though we knew some pretty sharp moves... We also went to an English pub that had a dartboard, decent food (none of this foreign muck) like shepherds pie. Also looks like a normal pub, which was very exciting. After this shut we ended up heading out to a bar that had a pool table, where we proceded to play pool until 3am. this is quite late, however we´re on holiday. Couldnt find anywhere to practice our new moves though which was disappointing.

The following morning was bad, as we ended up going for breakfast in the hotel (free) which consisted of deep fried stale banana slices and rough coffee. Felt a bit sick. Ended up going to the mall again, with the intention of going to the cinema but had seen the films that were on, so instead went to burger king. Had a double whopper. Headed back to the hotel for a little snooze, read some book, then went to meet Norway for a beer, Colin had gone to new hotel ready to go to galapagos, and wasnt well, however managed to struggle to the english pub (again) for more darts (this time with locals who were rubbish), then got forced to talk to some old local witches by the pretty barmaid, which was annoying. Got bullied into going to "No Bar" by Henrik, which turned out to be quite good fun, and we got to dance salsa, which was entertaining.

Following morning was relaxed, met norway again and had lunch in their hostel (nice), before going to the centre of the earth (the equator, not the actual centre, that would be more complicated). There was a big line there and a terrible museum, and we took some HILARIOUS photos jumping over the line between the north and south etc. These will be available soon. HILARIOUS. Honestly. Had a really really bad lunch burger at restaurant there, then headed back to town (ie the english pub) for dinner (shepherds pie), cokes and the pub quiz. the pub quiz was quite difficult, and we didnt do very well. We werent aided by Monika the annoying german, who didnt know very much and was quite boring and annoying. Germans appear to be that way over here... Also annoying was the loud American man two tables away, who i very nearly killed. He was very loud, and shouting "funny" things at the question person. They werent very funny, and made us not hear things. Was quite tired at this point and didnt like him. After pub quiz Stein and I ended up going out for a cheeky beer in a place called bungalow, which again resulted in a relaxed day on Thursday, however because I{m good, i got up early, got a taxi to the old part of town and went to a museum (turns out to be an art gallery for some bloke called Miro as well), and had a look at all the churches (there are lots) and ting.

Met Norway at 3, planned the next part of the trip (Quilatoa loop or something), then went to the english pub to play lots and lots and lots of darts. Quite badly. This was just me and Stein as Henrik was on a date with a lovely equadorian lady hed met on tuesday through the medium of salsa dancing. Result...

Went home after the pub, result. Saved ourselves for the "last night in Quito" which was last night as im writing this on saturday 20th.
Im getting ahead of myself...

Yesterday (Friday) was an exiting day, where we went to the old town for lunch to a restaurant which is very high up, so that you can see the whole city almost from the little balcony, this was nice. After luch we headed back to the hostel (was now staying in the same one) for reading and lounging, which decended into happy hour g&ts, which decended into the english pub and darts, which decended into bungalow again, where we bumped into Kim, the most boring 18yr old in the world again (was on the peru trip). This was at first surprising because we were in a different country, however mostly was surprising because we met her dancing in a nightclub. In the whole time we'd been in Peru she had not come out once, and here she was shaking her booty (in admittedly a very boring way) on the dancefloor. Remarkable. Also remarkable was a jug of caprhiña for 5 pounds.

This morning started with a leisurely brunch of omlette (good), juice (fresh orange) and coffee (also good), and have now finally written this, and we're going to get a bus in a bit to go down south to actually start doing some stuff. Hooray! Going to the galapagos in 10 days. Am excited. lots. Laters....

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