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Published: November 7th 2009
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Back in Quito, and having been away for 2 weeks, it was time for our first trip to the lavanderia (laundry). Having paid as much as £30 in India to have laundry done in hotels, we decided to venture out to one of the lavanderias we’d seen in town. We had a whole bundle of washing done for $5 and were quite satisfied with the result, so this is definitely the way to get clean clothes in South America. (I know, laundry really isn’t that exciting, but it’s important when you’re travelling - so a small excitement for us!)
We were due to start Spanish school on Monday, and with a weekend to kill and weekends in Quito being pretty quiet, we decided to head out of town to the famous Cloud Forest. We snubbed all the tour operators in Quito city who were selling trips to Bellavista, and decided to make our own way there, so we got up early on the Saturday morning and headed for the bus station. All went smoothly, we purchased our tickets, got our seats and settled into the journey. After an hour or so, we arrived in the nearest town to where we
were going, got off the bus and found ourselves a ‘jeep’ taxi for the last 30 minutes of the journey uphill on a steep dusty track.
The Bellavista lodge was, as descibed in the cloud forest, dense vegetation and trees, on the steep hillsides of the Andean foothills, at about 3,000 metres, where the clouds hang low over the forest, providing a moist and rich habitat. There were many species of tiny, pretty coloured hummingbirds all around the lodge.
We had a walk around on the Saturday and then spent Saturday afternoon in the bar, with all the Ecuadorians, watching the national football team being beaten by Uruguay, drinking beer and eating popcorn!
On the Sunday, we went on one of the guided walks through the forest to a beautiful waterfall.
The Cloud Forest wasn’t amazing, but was a pleasant way to spend the weekend before we headed back to Quito, and STUDENT ACOMMODATION for our week at school!
We arrived at the school to find a drab looking room and a pretty minging-looking bathroom, which didn’t impress Sarah much, but we decided if we could put up with it for 5 days, we would treat ourselves
at the end of the week and check into somewhere nice again.
The weather decided to take a turn for the worse for most of the week and although it was bright and sunny most mornings, by the time we’d finished school, it was cold and rainy. Unfortunately, being as we were so close to the equator, we’d presumed it would be really warm. Thinking we haven’t brought enough cold weather clothes and wondering when we’ll actually get to wear our summer clothes! (I suppose the altitude of 2,800m doesn’t help the temperature!)
It turned out to be a busy week. Up by 6.30 every day to go out for breakfast (no breakfast provided at the school), then lessons from 8.30 till 1.00pm. Back out for lunch, afternoon doing homework and then out for dinner and in bed by 9.00pm! It was a great change to have a routine and we felt a bit more like locals, travelling about on the bus. It was an intensive week of lessons and we learned loads of spanish. We didn’t realise until we started learning spanish how similar it is to french and how much french we know! We graduated at
the end of the week with a certificate each to prove that we had completed our lessons. Now we need to keep practising! We think we might sign up for another week of lessons in Buenos Aires when we get there in December.
Our last day in Quito, was another laundry and admin day, with a celebratory dinner at our favourite eatery - Uncle Ho’s - Vietnamese food. (Random, in south America, I know, but makes a nice change from fried stuff!)
Early on Sunday morning, we left a very misty Quito and said goodbye to Ecuador - off to Country 2 -Peru.
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