Day 4 for the not so Intrepid Explorers

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Day 4 in Quito for us and we’re having a great time. Still staying in The Secret Garden Hostal that is very nice. We started our Spanish lessons on Friday during a hailstorm on the Hostal’s terrace and the Ecuadorian match in the World Cup, needless to say these weren’t prime learning conditions! Our first day in Quito illustrated our dire need for some extra tuition when a lady from Cuenca (Southern Ecuador) came up to us in one the main Plazas and started having a chat. I assume she wanted to find out more about Gringos and their origins as we ended up having about a half an hour chat a lot of which revolved around what England was like and what sort of food we ate. I thought I was doing so well, showing off all my recently gleaned vocabulary and having my first proper conversation with someone in Spanish! The conversation turned to breakfast and what we ate in the UK and what she ate in Cuenca and after telling us what a local delicacy spit roast Guinea Pig was she went on to say she ate mice for breakfast! I told her we keep mice as pets in England and she looked at me pretty strangely but we continued the conversation. About an hour after we had said goodbye Mike said he was sure the word she used for mice wasn’t the one he had heard before, it turned out she had meant she had maize i.e. corn for breakfast. Thanks to me a lady in South America know thinks the British keep sticks of corn for pets. I hope you are proud of theis worthy ambassador!

We went on a daytrip yesterday to climb a volcano called Guagua Pinchincha which is one of the closest to Quito. It started off being a glorious day and we managed to see the first goal of the England match (we found out later it was the only one!) so we thought these were all good omens. We set off in a land rover owned by the hostal with a guide called Alex. After taking us to a local bakery in Quito and a couple of other little towns we started belting up the road to take us to the top of the volcano. Mike and I were sat in the back with no seatbelts and every time Alex came to a corner he accelerated, shrieking “Yeah baby come on!” it was pretty hair raising to say the least! Half way up the road we turned a corner and found a group of locals butchering a cow at the side of the road!!!! The smell was pretty bad and I won’t describe the rest! Apparently cattle often fall down the sharp drops on the mountainside and have to be dealt with pretty quickly in order to make the most of them.

Alex dropped us half way up the mountain with a predicted four hour walk ahead, we walked for about 40 mins when we caught up to landrover and he took us the rest of the way as the weather was turning bad pretty quickly. He let us out where the road ended and we made our way to the summit. It was tough going as we were walking at 4,800 metres so the altitude really affected us. An hour and plenty of curses and cries of I can’t do this (I’m sure you can guess from whom) later we prevailed!!! The weather meant we couldn’t actually see much but we got some whiffs of sulphur and it was enough to see how high we were! As the summit was covered in snow we had fun and games on the way back down. When we arrived back at the hut we had set off from the sky opened and a hailstorm began. It got worse and worse and by the time we got back to Quito it was a full storm- all we could think was thank god I wasn’t like that a couple of hours earlier.

Today has been pretty relaxed and we have just been walking around Quito looking at some of the local markets. I expect I shall have some more news soon as we are here for another 7 days. I will try and get photos on here as soon as possible.

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Photos

Rim of the Volcano
Edge of the crater on Gua Gua Pinchincha

Home sweet Home
for now... Me and Ski Bowles in the Hostal

In the Plaza
just before we spoke to the woman about her breakfast treats!

View of Quito
west from the hostal terrace

View of Quito 2
south from the hostal terrace

Quito At Dusk
south from the hostal terrace at dusk

Quito At Dusk 2
from the hostal terrace at dusk

Amy at the Top
4781 metres

Mike at the Top
4781 metres

Comments

[Holly]

WOW
AMY J what a wonderful time you must be having... Keep sending us your pictures can't wait to see what your next adventure is.x Love and kisses Holly J.x

[Bek and Tim]

Cuba Libres of death!
Amazing photos guys, especially of the volcano. I really wish we'd dared it now. Just to let you know that we are staying in a hostel called 'Plantos y Blanco'- yes, that means 'Plants and White!?' and it's really lovely. We await you in Baños for a rematch, but with slightly fewer Cuba Libres this time. See you soon, xx