So I am at the end of my first working week here. It got better after the first day,,, dont get me wrong, it is still incredibly boring, but there have been a steady trickle of patients, so while i still have yet to do anything useful at least its something to look at! The doctors are friendly but as bored as me,, its the unlucky rotation to get from guayaquil mainland. But i actually really dont mind, strolling down the hill to sit in a hospital for three or four hours trying to teach people a little english actually isnt [View Full Entry]

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Hi from Quito again, We just finished our volunteer time at La Hesperia. We really enjoyed the time we spent there, but are excited to move on to new and different things! Such as going to the Galapagos Islands on Monday for three more weeks of volunteering! We heard from some volunteers at La Hesperia who knew people who had volunteered there who said it was absolutely amazing. I´m really excited, but am enjoying the few days we have off from work. At La Hesperia we met another couple from Canada (Kelsey and Matt) who are traveling Ecuador and Peru. They [View Full Entry]

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We have entered Ecuador! And here we go for our first extreme experience in this country (more than “Extreme Sommer”): the Volcano Avenue. The Volcano Avenue is a valley (near Quito) surrounded by several active volcanoes. There we would start our tour mountain-biking one of the highest volcanoes of the area: the Cotopaxi volcano, which reaches the very modest altitude of 5,897 m !! We would start from the refuge where snow begins and we would go down to the valley. Imagine that this mountain is so high that despite being on the equator, it has eternal snow on its top. [View Full Entry]

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Hi again Fast and furious since Quito, so here goes. Left Quito and went to Riobamba, which is a small town in the mountains, and amde friends with some Italians who owned a resturnat there. Spent a few days drinking red wine in the afternoons there (my first since England) and having some qiet beers in the evening. Then to Guayaquil, a hot sweaty port city, where i only stayed a night. Then got a bus to a fishing village, Puerto Lopez, further north. Bought some dodgy cakes in the mourning, so by afternoon i needed a ´comfort break´. The bus [View Full Entry]

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Hi - this is the last of the blogs from the rainforest (slightly out of order). Flora and fauna. First the jungle was very green but there was little other colour which was unexpected. (I can hear Neil sharpening the keys of his keyboard for an acerbic comment along the lines of what an idiot I am, but I did expect a flower or two.) All the flowers etc. are up in the tree tops and so you only get to see them from the river (sometimes). Whilst treking through the jungle you can sometimes smell a sweet scent and that [View Full Entry]

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One of the things that has made the biggest impression on us this adventure to Ecuador has been the children — Ecuador's sweet, beautiful children. If children reflect the soul of a country, then Ecuador's soul is both gentle and kind. Again and again, we have witnessed happy children playing, brothers and sisters showing genuine care and affection for their smaller siblings, and a sweetness of spirit that permeates all. The Ecuadorian children we've observed live in cities, towns, and villages. Many times, they are working along side their parents, or playing patiently while their [View Full Entry]

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So, I haven´t been updating this thing and I had forgotten about my visit to the Pantanal Brazil...so here goes a blurb on that. I had been on the road by myself for a while..meaning I had left behin Kat back in El Calafate Argentina...I went back to South Chile...got sick...got better...hung out with Piero and his family for a while....flew back up to Santiago CHile...visited Adrian´s Parents..then meanered my way from West ARgentina (Mendoza) all the way to Buenos Aires..where I ended up being suckered into staying for a month...After that month Kat and I decided to meet up [View Full Entry]

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Ecuador Quito Spent nine days in Quito to learn Spanish, It is the capital of Ecuador and is just a big South American city. Polluted, a bit dangerous and at 2,900 metres extremely high. It's the second higest capital city in the world and lies between a volcano and a set of smaller hills forcing it outwards to 50km in length. The Andean City is located in a valley at the foot of the active volcano Pichincha. Although Quito lies only 13 km south of the equator, it always has a springlike climate so Aileen had to ditch all the thermals [View Full Entry]

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(Best accompanied by singing "A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh"). The new "must have" item for your Bucket List is... le Jungle Trek. No visit to Ecuador can be complete without it. In fact, President Correa just signed a law decreeing that if you don't go on a Jungle Trek while you're in the country, theyll stamp your passport "WUSS" on the way out. No wusses we. On to the jungle. No problem finding a guide to lead the way. The streets of Baños have more adventure companies than the Amazon has piranha. Selecting the outfit to go with is somewhat confusin [View Full Entry]

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Four weeks in Ecuador and I am one week away from home. I am writing this in my Hostel in Quito, waiting to fly off to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow until I return to Quito on Saturday, This has been an unsettling experience in some ways, Ecuador ties with Mozambique as the poorest country that I have been to and the project I have been on is the only one where the conditions I have stayed in have reflected this. After an 11 hour long and very confusing flight to Santiago in Chile, I had a four hour wait for my [View Full Entry]

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