the journey so far -

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well finally we´ve made - apologies in advance - we´ve yet to get any photos on here. We have had a rather adventurous journey to get here!! We boarded an early flight to Madrid which we thought would leave us with a couple of hours to spare in Madrid - wrong (this was a sign of things to come!!). As we were flying on to Quito we had to leave via the back of the plane down the steps!!! Great the steps arrived but the bus to take us over to the international departures took a further half hour!!! Then we had to go through all the immigration and security checks all over again!!! By the time we got through we had about half hour left before we departed to Quito!! Anyway we got going and the flight took 10 and half hours to Qutio, that is, if the pilot hadnt missed the runway on the way into Quito - oh yes you read that right - he missed!!! No flies on him, no second attempt, we flew straight to Guayacuil (think that´s probably not spelt right) had to collect all our luggage and then board an internal flight back upto Quito. This in total put a further 5 hours on our journey and by the time we got through Quito and got to our hostal it had gone 11pm. The taxi driver could have charged us whatever he liked we would have agreed to the fare, we didn´t care!!!!

So the morning came and we woke early - how i don´t know!!!! We played with the shower and concluded we were going to have a cold one, which we expected but didn´t really fancy after the previous days events. But after a little patience and a little twiddling of knobs, we got it sussed and had a hot dribble of water for a shower but hey it was fantastic and we didn´t care!!! We had breakfast on the terrace overlooking Quito in the sun - oh yes - lovely sunny and warm!!! Sorry!!!!! And then we headed over to the Old Town, exlplored the area etc!!! Everyone is really friendly and helpful, we are going everywhere by taxi because it is so cheap!!!! Considering the evident poverty everywhere is very clean, there are lots and lots of people about and police. There is no ´keeping up with jones´that is so apparent in the UK. No one cares. There are women selling fruit on the corners of the roads. I saw one lady selling mistletoe. There are shoe shine boys. Baskets of mangoes, cherrys, apples, bananas. Lots of cars but no traffic jams. We then headed up the cable care to 4100metres and surveyed the surroundings!!!! This is a modern gondola with a funpark at the base, which his sort of a little out of keeping with the immediate surroundings. The scenery is stunning, we are surrounded by very green mountains which are full of houses packed into any space that can be found!!! Unfortunatley David is suffering a little with altitude whereas Sherpa Godby is bounding around with no ill effects whatsover!!!! Hmm methinks I´d better stop bounding, perhaps I´ll bounce instead for awhile!!! We finally headed back to the hostal and whilst deciding where we were going to eat last night promplty fell asleep, guess we kinda needed it!!!

So this is being sent after having breakfast again on the terrace in the lovely warm sun. We had a bit of latin excitment last night. Latin tempers flared and there was high drama!! Unfortunatley not having a too tight a grasp of the language we didn´t understand what was happening. That is until this morning when we were stood on the balcony when we noticed the owners carrying a large wrapped up parcel on a blanket to the car and subsequently placed in the car along with spades!!! The owners dog is now no more!!! Least it´s not on the menu for breakfast and hence the high drama last night!!!

We are now going to head north upto the Equator with plenty of sunblock on!!! Haven´t decided if we are going by bus or taxi - but hey the day is young!!!

So that´s it for now, apologies for any spelling mistakes etc the keyboard is a little different!! Not sure when we put the next update on, but will try soon!!

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Comments

[Jude and Mel]

Hi!
Well you finally made it then - although the journey sounds like an adventure in itself!! Hope the rest of your travel plans go a little more smoothly, how much is a taxi around the whole of South America??!! Dave, you should have done a bit more training (what am I talking about - some / any form of training) before you left! Look after him Sherpa Godby! Enjoy your travels, we look forward to some photos if you get time x