Hello, I’m
in Quito.
Sitting in a very funky little internet café eating a huge bowl of fresh fruit,
muesli, yogurt and honey, to be precise. Yum. I got here just fine yesterday;
everything arrived, departed, took off and landed on time and a nice old man
called Pedro took me to my hostel in his taxi without trying to rip me off. Bargain.
I was, understandably, completely pooped, but still tried very hard to stay
awake. Only made it to 8 o’clock though, as every time I try to do anything, I
get really quite out of breath. Quito
lies at an altitude of around 2850
m and, aside from in aeroplanes, I’ve never been up this
high before. It literally takes your breath away! That should all stop in a day
or two though and until then I plan to take it easy and try and adjust to the
time difference. I’m going to head into the old town today and do all the usual
touristy sightseeing stuff, try out the local cuisine and that kind of thing. I’m
staying in a small hostel in the Mariscal Sucre district, also know by the
locals as Gringolandia, where I’ve got my own en-suite room. It’s not what I
expected, although I was very grateful for it yesterday. It’s not so good for
meeting other gringos though, but I’m sure I’ll meet some other travellers soon
enough. Am meeting up with Jim from school (who I haven’t been in contact with
for 11 years!) for the pub quiz in the Reina Victoria – yes, the Queen Vic –
tomorrow evening, so that should be interesting. Anyway, there’s not much more
to say at the moment, so I’m off to nose around the old town – hasta mañana!
