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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 but Quito isn´t the best place to get around on foot - it´s 30km in length and 5km wide and everything is quite spread out. Having looked at the map I decided to walk to the ´New Town´ but gave up after getting lost and began to feel completely exhausted, so made my way back to the house. The air is very thin here as it´s up in the Andes and I find myself getting short of breath from time to time, but no sign of the dreaded altitude sickness that I read about in the guide books. The lack of sleep caught up with me and I was in bed by 9:30pm, not to emerge before 11am.
Today Mercy took me by bus to show me her own family´s house in what seemed to be a very poor run down area but her family and neighbours were all very friendly and hospitable. Then finally got to the New Town which is where I am now, with plentiful cheap Internet access, beer and live music blaring away across the road. So on that note, hasta luego mis amigos!
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Simon
non-member comment
Settling In
Hi Paul, Glad you're settling in over there. Those three year olds can be nothing but trouble! Bet the music sounds a bit different from my limited experience of altitude and the sky is a bit darker blue. Looking forward to seeing your first pictures of the place. Sounds like a set of sprawling villages all connected.