Solo Amigo…..
Quite the change in the two days. I have taken my 15th
flight and I am in the 7th country of my travels so
far. I have upgraded my accommodation
from an 8 bed mixed dorm to a room at the Hilton where my bed is wider than it
is long! But the hardest change has been the departure of my friends and having
no one to talk to, despite having done a
lot of travelling by myself already it is lonely. But I shall try to remain upbeat and
hopefully there will be some nice people on Galapagos tour.
Welcome to Ecuador, they have just had their Presidential
Elections turns out the guy was speaking at my hotel but more weirdly they do not allow alcohol to
be drunk (or maybe just sold) either side of the election so a lot of places
were very quiet yesterday or closed.
However, I still managed to mooch about a market trying to find my fluffy lama toy to take home
and then I wandered off to find dinner and stumbled upon a place called La Boca del Lobo. Quite the funky restaurant
and really good food. Finally I got very
excited when I got back to my hotel at the prospect of having a bath……
Today I have been
greeted with British weather, grey overcast drizzling but then I am up at 2850
M pretty much in a cloud in the second highest capital city in the world
(behind Le Paz in Bolivia) of Quito. The weather I am informed is crazy like
the women or stupid like the men, your choice. I would say changeable!
A self guided walking
tour was on the cards only I did not have a lonely planet, so I it was more a
self guided guessing tour
I have learnt my lessons from my previous tour guide (aka
Sarah Gawthorpe) of how to negotiate with taxis…
Step 1: hail a cab, tell driver where you want to go, ask
how much, suggest a lower amount have a short discussion and watch cab drive
off without you
Step 2: hail a cab, tell driver where you want to go, watch
driver leave again (not sure quite what she said to him!)
Step 3: hail a cab, tell driver where you want to go, ask
how much, negotiate to pay a higher price, get in cab!
There may be some bending of the truth but no lies there! My taxi experience was far less traumatic and
I am pleased to say that unlike Peru where indication was only required if you
were a hazard, and you were only a hazard once you had swerved across several
lanes and decided where you wanted to stop, then apply hazard lights!
Today I almost repeated my tour of Peru in Quito. I scaled
up the mountains to 4100 M – well I caught a bubble up and as the NO’s won out
on Facebook I caught the bubble back down. At the top some mild confusion, dizziness
and feeling of nausea kicked in….only kidding… I was surprised at the initial
shortness of breath but otherwise there was nothing like the altitude sickness
of before.
Some pretty fantastic views over a very long and narrow Quito city- I was back up in the clouds.
Following this I wandered off to the historical part of town
and went to the Presidential Palace (no changing of the Guard this time like
Lima) and then popped my head in a few rather impressive churchs- but they
still creep me out. Also I went to the San Fransican Monastey…oh no wait that was
Lima……and here – that dude got around.
I did a slightly better job at surreptitiously taking photos
but not much. It was very very similar to the one in Lima- complete with choir
balcony and organ – carvings of all the saints two rows of seats and even a
roof made out of ceder. Cooler than that though was the art gallery/museum
underneath it (kind of….no catacombs this time) where there was some really old
carvings from 1000+ BC. I have to say the people back then were a little weird
in the head (and that is coming from me!)!
I then toddled back to near my hotel and tracked down my
washing which I had left at someone’s house from what I could work out. But
when the Hilton hotel was charging $2 for knickers let alone all my other
clothes I figured the persons house was worth a punt. For a grand sum of $2.30
I got all of washing done and I didn’t even have the embarrassment of some
bloke counting all the pieces out in front me. Though I haven’t checked I have
got them all back!!!
I then returned to my hotel to the room I am sharing with my
new Galapagos touring buddy. Sharing with someone you have never met before you
start to try and guess what they will be like, how old, what country, chatty or
annoying (hmmm where do I fall in that category), snorer or not.
Well…….Her name is Rebecca (Becky). She is German from just
outside Frankfurt, I reckon she is probably 5 years younger than me. The
annoying thing about that statement is that I am old enough for someone to be 5
years younger than me and not be a child! She is really friendly, speaks pretty
good English, has a fairly similar Gawthorpe India near kidnap story, coped
well with me having a bad chicken moment, but…….yes there is a but…….she
smokes.
Anyway here is to Galapagos……that is the last from me a long
time
Comments
Post a Comment