Actually managed to be on time today and we set off walking from the school to Quito old town. We´re heading for the Panecillo (literally translated as ´little bread roll´!) which is a hill in the old town with a giant statue on it. ´The Virgin of Quito´statue lines up exactly with the Basilica we visited on Tuesday and can actually be seen straight though a heart shaped window in the centre of the church. No idea how they managed to be so exact! Took a rather interesting local bus part of the way where the driver´s aim seems to be to throw as many people off the bus as possible by taking every corner way too fast. I honestly don´t know if it´s more dangerous being in the path of a bus or actually inside ... read more

Another day at school and we were up and out on time having just got used to morning lessons starting at 8.30am. Got to school to find we were going straight back out again (they could have told us and saved us walking up to the fourth floor). It is some celebration in Ecuador today which seems to translate as ´Flag Day´. As far as I could tell with my limited Spanish it´s something to do with the end of the war with Peru however long ago it was. Anyway, the teachers took us to the local school where all the kids were dressed up in uniforms that looked like sailor suits. Basically, it was the day to show off what we have heard them practising every morning since we arrived. Drumming and marching bands just ... read more

Well, it seems silly to have been in Ecuador for a week now and not have seen the equator (although we have crossed it several times without knowing!) so our Sunday trip is to Mitad del Mundo. Apparently it is completely ´touristic´ (have heard that word so much here I can´t even decide if it is real English or not!) but it has to be done. We´d seen the buses go from across the road form our house all week so we managed to get on one ok after stocking up at the bakery for the day. It was a lot easier going places with just the three of us instead of the whole group - less people to get lost! The bus was reasonable comfortable allowing for Ecuadorian roads and bus drivers that seem to ... read more

Woke up really late (well 7.30 anyway) and were supposed to be at the school for 8.20. That was never going to happen and as usual we turned up late (about half an hour late). Set off for the weekly school trip, today to Rio Pita - waterfalls an hour outside of Quito. Feeling crap and managed to be sick on the bus. Sophie delightfully pointed out that I could have got my drink spiked last night but I think it´s just something I ate as I was horribly ill the whole day and couldn´t even drink water. Turned out to be a two and a half hour walk to the waterfalls once we´d arrived - not fun when you can´t drink anything. Cooled down by wading across the river and squelching through ankle-deep mud on ... read more

We woke up horrendously early due to the time difference but lucky we did as breakfast is at 7.30 every morning(!) The three other students living with us (Silvie from Switzerland and Elisabet and Louise from Denmark) have lessons in the morning so they have to be there at 8.30. We took a taxi to Quito old town which was really gorgeous and made up of plazas full of fountains and flowers where people indulge the national pastime of sitting in the sun doing nothing. I think I could get used to living here! Really random place. There was one guy with a machete selling coconuts out a wheelbarrow which he peeled with said machete and then stuck a straw in. Also, another guy just standing on a street corner with a saw - we gave ... read more