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One salsa class later and I am ready to take on the locals...or maybe not...the natural rhythm they build up over the years is just impossible to learn overnight! Ohh well, was good fun nonetheless. Headed up to the Mariscal after for dinner at Mongo- a mongolian all you can eat place for $5, can´t go too far wrong really!! Had a few more drinks before jumping in taxis home. Lessons on Thursday were uneventful, although only 2 girls turned up to the later class....do we think my lessons are no good? Think I may be making them work too hard, but they´ve gotta be able to talk in the past tense!! Its essential!!
Ohh well, Friday Paula, Kirsty and I headed up the Teleferica, which is basically a big cable car up one side of Quitos mountains, with some stunning views at the top, had the perfect day for it, no clouds and lots of sun, good fun. From there I met Hannah in the Mariscal to pay off the outstanding balance of my galapagos trip- it hurt, it really did...but it will be worth it, and to generally mooch around in some bars and cafes.
Friday night
on the recommendation of Magdalena the 4 of us went to La Ronda restaurant..... it was very nice, however a little pricey for Ecuadorian standards....the cheapest bottle of wine on the menu was $6, reaching the dizzy heights of $250. Ouch! We settled for house suffice to say!! They had live music on, which was cool, and it turned out that it was the 25th birthday of the restaurant, so the vibe in general was really good.
Paula flew out to the Galapagos Saturday morning, and Hannah & I caught a bus out to Mindo, a tiny village-town west of Quito, located in the cloud-rainforest. We were soon to find out what that means!! En route I got off the bus at a petrol station for the toilet, only to have to run after the bus practically as it pulled out of the station....could have been abandonned with absolutely nothing in the middle of nowhere....humdhum!!!
Arrived in Mindo, finding a hostel was to prove interesting...there were no street names, no maps (i almost didn´t know how to cope!) and the locals all tried to persuade you to sleep in their converted spare room for $5.....humph!! Eventually found a
reallllly nice hostel, Hostal Jardin de los Pajaros, with a swimming pool not far from the main street...where we bumped into some Canadian folk we had been on the bus with earlier. Went for lunch before organising to go "Tubing" with the Canadians...$4 each, and omg, it was the best $4 of my entire life!! It was similar to White water rafting, but consisted of 6 big black rubber rings being tied together in a circle, and the 6 of us sitting on the joins, and holding on for our lives....our friendly guide, Juan swam around the outside pushing us in the right direction, over rocks, and around rocks and picking up speed. The river was absolutely wild and it was fantastic!! Wanted to do it again and again!!
The weather however did turn at about 2pm and we were tubing in the rain....but to be fair we were wet anyway so it didn´t make much difference!! Anyway, post tubing it was time to jump into the swimming pool, which turned out to be a lot warmer than the rapids of the icy cold river!! Love it!
Anyway, the rain kept raining, and we sat around on our
deck playing cards and drinking some very questionnable wine (well I was at least, no one else was foolish enough!!) Went for dinner in yet more rain a few hours later, pizza with Mario (we wish that was his name!) before more cards and hammock time, and yes, more rain!!
Woke on Sunday to sunny skys once more, and we headed off to meet Juan to organise that days activities, but of course, Juan being on Ecuadorian time didn´t show up until we were half way through breakfast on the other side of the street....but we still love him!! Anyway, a lot of debate later we bought tickets to the butterfly house (figured we had to see the butterflys as thats what Mindo is famous for...kind of!), for a zip wire across the top of the canopy and entry to a waterfall where there were jumps and slides and rock pools. Unfortunately we didn´t quite anticipate the distances between these places....arghh, and we almost missed the last bus home....
The butterfly house was a 45min walk, and was full of butterflies suprisingly enough! Only it turned out Hannah wasnñt so keen on the butterflies, in fact she refused
to pick up the big Owl Butterflies (which were amazing) and she was often seen running away from a flapping butterfly!! Comedy stuff!
From there we caught a lift back half the way on the back of a locals truck and hiked up to the zip wire....which seemed to take forever...honestly I have no idea where the time went on Sunday, we just seemed to walk lots! Anyway, the zip wire was cool, we went across a 300m one and back across a 400m one, the first one was a little dull for me, but I got to go across with one of the guides the second time and i did a fantastic flying superman pose as we whistled across, muchos fun!!
Then up to the waterfall, which seemed to be at the end of a black hole, we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and then it was 500m to the entrance, then it was another 15mins walk, then at the entry 500m to the waterfall....ohh and of course, the rain broke mid zip wire, if not before, and by the time we actually arrived at the waterfall we were absolutely SOAKED!! Not too keen on
the idea of jumping into rock pools from 10m without any guide I lay about in the pools with some other girls, Matt (one of the Canadians, being absolutely insane) was jumping off anything that resembled a jump- that boy was insaaanee!) Totally drenched through we decided 90mins til the bus left was cutting it a bit fine, so we headed off, up the steeeeeep ascent from the waterfall. Thankfully we managed to hitch a lift back to Mindo, but my god, we were absolutely soaked, I honestly don´t think I´ve ever been more soaking, not on D of E, not in Manchester, not when I went out on pedalos on the Dee without a brollie.... never!!! Arghh!
Jumped in the pool when we got back, suprisingly warm, before packing up and jumping onto our bus back to Quito. Upon arrival in Quito a friendly taxi driver let 6 of us jump in his 4 person cab, very cosy!! But a fun weekend all in all!
Monday however will not be forgotton lightly.....up in the morning at about 10, get a shower, go back to my room...only to find the door is locked....and my key is inside....and Magdalena
doesn´t have a spare key.....Ohhh sh*t!!! Magdalena whips out about 5different things of keys, on one though there were about 50 keys.....I tried them all....to no avail!! Down to the key place to see if they have a skeleton key, but it would appear not, that doesnt work!! So Magdalena packed me off to my class in the afternoon....no jacket, no board pens, no lesson plan....ohh yes, and I´d been sick from something I ate so i felt like death. The bus ride wasn´t fun, almost fainted en route, and to be honest, the lessons weren´t much better....but its amazing how long it can take 10 year olds to copy down ten fruits from the board and colour them in, rounded off with "I like" and a game of hangman and the first lesson had passed. The second wasnt so easy, but I survived. Anyway, got home, praying the locksmith had come out and I could collapse into bed, only for Magdalena to be still trying new keys she´d found in various cubbie holes in her house! Goddammit! So her idea, is me, sick ill and tired to climb out of one window and to force the window of my
room open....thankfully there´s an outside shed thing which was stable, but it still was interesting!! So with a trusty screwdriver, hammer and pliars I dismantled the window, pulling the glass out enough to open the lock, get in, and then reconstruct the window...mon dieu!!! Absolutely knackered after that, but somehow I didn´t feel so ill, so off I went to the Mariscal to meet Hannah for the most amasing piece of chocolate cake n hot chocolate ever, for $3.50....mmmmm!! (Unfortunately I was to see it again later that night, but nevermind, it was worth it!!)
Tuesday I felt lots better, and its so good being able to have access to all your stuff!! Possibly my best lesson ever I feel....the older class understand the past- I have achieved something- hurrah! Went to the cinema after dinner to see Spiderman 3, with spanish subtitles----i went so i could see the translation and improve my spanish honestly, not because I wanted an easy night of English trash!! (and it was indeed American trash!!)
Anyway, is all for now, pub quiz has come around again, so hopefully we can improve on our second from bottom place last time!! Hope alls well
back home, keep me updated.
Miss you all
Ciao, xxxx
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Trica Owen
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Gosh what an adventurer you are tubing, zip wiring, breaking into your own room. Do you remember the Butterfly House near us that we all went to at Syon House? Probably the butterflies are larger in Ecuador. I'm tired after walking the dog, swimming, going to London and a reading group today. Your days sound even more action packed!!