Blogs from Ecuador, South America - page 625

Well I haven't left yet, but I'm beginning the packing stress...and I probably wil continue this chaotic challege up until the day of my departure. Yay! :)... read more

As if one session of mud climbing was not enough we went on Ali´s waterfall walk! Basically, he owns a huge plot of land and has 3 waterfalls all of his very own and it´s about a 3ish hour round trip to see all of them. Feeling that we had more than recovered from the Rum and Coke hangover 4 of us (Hannah, Andrea, Ren and me) decided to do the waterfall round trip. We took a bit of a map with us and had a great time walking up the river (those of you who have done Prevelli gorge in Crete know exactly what I´m talking about here) and traversing vertical mud slopes. Got a bit lost but that´s what happens when you put an American in charge of map reading Ren! Still we managed ... read more

Got to Quito safely yesterday morning after a long flight via Amsterdam, Bonaire (Dutch Carribean) and Guayaquil (Ecuador). Didn´t get a lot of sleep because I was directly in front of a 3 year old girl who kept kicking my seat and slapping my head just as I drifted off to sleep! Staying with a family in Quito but haven´t met them yet because they are away for the weekend, but their friend / housekeeper called Mercedes (Mercy) has been looking after me, feeding me plenty of Ecuadorian cookery, largely based around meat and potato. She doesn´t speak a word of English and it´s been a real struggle to communicate - the accents here are quite different to those in Spain and my Spanish is very rusty anyway. Went out for a good look around yesterday ... read more

May is drawing to a close, and to mark the end of the wet season the white egrets from the coast have migrated to the mountains, making an odd sight perched on the cloud forest trees near our house. Another month is almost over, and my Galapagos holidays are rapidly approaching... I can't believe the time is passing so fast. The week has been as action-packed as usual, with a few amusing incidents along the way, including one of the volunteers cutting through our house's water supply with a machete, and Tuesday's volunteer weeding rebellion...but all has worked out well in the end. The work this week has been very physical, with lots of macheting, clearing and hoeing in the reforestation lines (we might have heard a bear in the forest on Monday afternoon...maybe...), so there ... read more

Hey guys and gals Finally I have chance to write a bit about what I´ve been up to since I left good old Blighty. After 15 hours or so of flying I landed in Quito and promptly went off to the Secret Garden - my first hostel. Was really nice there met loads of nice people and the next day headed off with a girl I met called Hannah to Las Palmas - 3 hours from Quito on the bus. Before this I committed a mare and decided it would be a good idea to leave my card in the cash machine!! I know doom! Combination of rushing for a bus and 15 hours of flying the day before so I had to leg it back to the bank see if my card was there (luckily ... read more