So far so good…

Just on the off chance anyone was thinking about visiting me out here, you need to know… it’s a very long way and will take you hours and hours and hours.Left home at about 4.30am yesterday. 4 airoplane meals, a couple of snoozes, and a lot of anti DVT excersizes later, I got into Quito – and it was 4.30 GMT.

Sally and Anne met me at the airport and we got a taxi for about 15 minutes back to the apartment which is near to Quito Hotel a little South of Mariscal area. It was dark when I arrived, at 10.30pm local time, so I haven’t really got my bearings yet.

Have been religiously drinking lots of water to ward off any altitude sickness, and so far it’s worked a treat. No real symptoms as yet and I don’t feel the air being thin or anything yet.

So far all I’ve done is look at a few local maps with Anne and make some lunch of local cheese, salad things and tortilla wraps – which was really lovely. Staying awake and eating airoplane food for 24 hours kills your soul. The flat itself is the  ground floor of a 3 storey concrete and stone building. With a drive and garden to  2 sides, which is good for Fraser the boxer dog to go pootling around in.  There’s some high fencing all the way around and it’s not very photogenic, despite the sunshine and very tall trees waving the wind. Inside it’s roomy, 2 bathrooms, large lounge, kitchen and breakfast bar (gas hob and an Ecuadorian version of a Baby Belling), an office, a outhouse where the washer is, Sally’s room and the twin bedroom I’m sharing with Anne. The matress on my bed is a travesity of the trade descriptions act… it’s like sleeping on a rock with a hump. I had to wedge the pillow under me at one side, to stop myself rolling off and kind of cling onto the hump. But after 24 hours of being awake I managed it. Tonight may be a little different, I may at some point just give up and sleep on the floor. The locally made wool rugs that are over the sheet are very very soft and warm though.

So tonight we’re going out to a tapas and wine place (on the corner Reina Victoria and Mariscal Foch, Emma), I think a few other friends of Sally’s are coming too. Most of them seem to be international of some sort, so Swedish, German, Israeli etc. Incidentally from what I can gather Sally (39), Anne (24) and I are all single and having asked Anne what she’s spent most of her cash on since being here, the answer was booze and cigarettes, so I’m guessing the social life won’t be too bad. Anne’s also got some crush on a guy called Roberto, who guides some of the rides for Sally. Haven’t met him yet, but as he’s 25 and happily girlfriended already, it doesn’t sound like there’s much potential there. Incidentally Anne’s currently loving my hair straighteners… it seems you make better friends with striaghteners than chocolate.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to be going for the day to Pintag where the farm is. So that will be an increase in alitutide. If the traffic is good it should only take an hour in Sally’s Mitsubishi 4WD. I’ll try and get some pics too. And then Monday it’s the Spanish lesson at 9.30am and probably a trip down the supermarket in the afternoon. High excitement eh.

So far so good…

Weather: It’s the dry season, so warm and sunny with a nice breeze and some white clouds high up.
Agricultural news: Farming is hard here too. Small farms struggle to be profitable and don’t get good prices for their produce.

Random fact: The fruit looks ‘natural’ ie mis-shapen and not supermarket perfect. Had passion fruit for breakfast.