Spun out in Quito

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Made it to Quito in Ecuador in one piece. After almost two days travelling like a zombie in the plane, lots of unpredicted delays and two extra plane changes I am in South America. What a spin out after so much pretrip anticipation?

I arrived about 10 hours ago, about 1am local time to a crazy packed airport, found my sweet little transfer dude and jumped in the car. Everything really sunk in finally then and my first effective words in Spanish translated into "Excuse me Senor, can you please turn that music up LOUD?" It worked, and we screamed from the airport latin style listening to some hyper Bossa Nova Reggae. It was then I realised that I am totally free as a bird and I have an amazing 6 week adventure ahead of me. YEAH!

After my last night in Brissy spent doing some final loungeroom dancing and hardly any sleep I was so exhausted during the whole plane trip and wonder how we manage to catapult ourselves across the globe in such horrible cattle like fashion. Listening to Depeche Mode greatest hits and watching horrible Hugh Grant films did nothing to curb my disdain for flying - but here I am and it's now all worth it.

I've managed to spend the last few hours wandering around the National Museum - gorgeous clay figures, funerary urns, intricate gold jewellery, preserved ancient bodies and general history of this incredible culture. I was saddened by the sharp contrast in the earthy spiritual ancient art history and then the sudden gaudiness of the Spanish Conquistador religious art. More of that to come I'm sure.

Anyway, I've got my head around being away now and think it's just what the good doctor ordered. I won't be able to email for a while as I'm flying to Galapagos Islands early in the morning for an extreme nature injection. This part of my journey is what I am most looking forward to. Unique animals like giant turtles and blue footed boobie birds await me.

Some first observations: Everyone is cute and short and I feel like an Amazonian Giant. The coffee is fantastic thank god. Spanish sounds like the most beautiful language in the world and it's surprisingly coming back to me ( I know how to order food anyway 😊 ). It's poor, but there is a confident sophistication about the people. The music pouring out of every little cafe sounds great - everything from Reggae to funked up Latin to classic. The internet keyboard is all mixed up so excuse my typos. No altitude sickness so far so that's great!

Anyway, off to meet my little group of chiccas that are going to Galapagos with me so I'll be in touch post Nature High!

Kris
xxx

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