After 4 hours, the remaining 14 chapters of the book His Lordship and hundreds of sweets we were in Ecuador's capital - Quito. The bus ride was fairly painless apart from Phoebe's Tourette's like twitch whilst she was asleep which saw me get a kick to the leg a couple of times. The bus terminal we arrived at was still quite the distance from the backpacking area of Quito so we all huddled in a taxi. Well the taxi was more like a van with four of us crammed in the trunk. It would take an hour to get to the new town where most of the hostels were located so we decided to pass the time with some drinking games in the back. Earl cracked open his Ecuadorian based liquor - Aguardiente we mixed this with a strawberryade making quite the decent combination whilst we played fives, the witch and word association. Before we knew and being slightly tipsy we had made it. The new town was full of bars, clubs, restaurants and more importantly a cheesecake café I vowed to go too. It was a backpackers dream. The next job was to select one of the many different hostels we had researched around the area. Phoebe took Abbie to look at some, then Earl, whilst Isabelle and I were designated bag captains and making sure no one nicked off with any of our stuff. It turned out to be a good fun, we had thee code word of Giraffe if anything dodgy was about to happen and then we would dive on the bags. I'm not sure if it was the Ecuadorian liquor or the amount of sugar filled sweets which were making me so hyperactive but it was a good laugh. Soon Phoebe and Earl were back with options of hostels and we decided to check in one called Las Galapagos and move across the road the next day when they had more space in a hostel called Vibes. We were all starving so decided to go out for food. I have huge admiration for all three of the girls we were travelling and think they are ace but when it comes to going out for food it's ridiculous. We walked around for around an hour, one didn't have chicken, one would have too much chicken, too expensive, looks like you'd get food poising there were amongst some of the reasons and we ended up back at the place which I suggested at the start - G-Spot. It was Taco Tuesday there and they were on offer for the bargain price of $0.99. I helped myself to six of the Mexican dish 3 beef, 2 chicken and 1 fish and they were pretty good washed down with a beer. We were all flaking a bit now though after our travel excursions so we all went back to the hostel and fell asleep watching The Inbetweeners 2.

Despite the hostel having a cracking breakfast - scrambled eggs on bread, a fruit salad and juice we still decided to check out. The problem with the hostel was it was more like an old people's home than a backpackers hostel so we went and checked in across the road at the more happening vibes. Where to my delight after months of hunting I managed to find myself the second instalment of the Games of Thrones trilogy - Clash of Kings in the book exchange. It proved quite timely to as I had just finished the book I was on our last bus journey. The girls had decided to go and check out the old town where Earl and I decided to go and get the hour bus ride to the middle of the world and look at Ecuador's real and fake equator line. The first one we arrived at and the most popular with tourists was the fake equator called La Mitad Del Mundo. There wasn't much there apart from a big brass monument with the world on top, souvenir shops and the yellow line marking the equator. We took a few snaps of us straddling the line, one in each hemisphere, a fight between north and south and other snaps and then headed to find the real McCoy. Approximately 100 meters further down the road was a small museum home to the real equator line. Here we got a tour where they explained various indigenous cultures and also did various experiments on the equator line, one was trying to balance an egg on a nail, one showed the way water drained in the north and south hemisphere as well as on the equator line and we also had a balancing act. It was pretty fascinating and intriguing. I'm not sure why the fake equator is more popular, probably because it is bigger and has a big monument or perhaps it's because it's a dollar cheaper and has a bull ring but for me the extra dollar is worth it at the real deal. After a $3 menu lunch which consisted of soup, pork and rice served with banana as most Ecuadorian dishes are and a tangerine we made our way back to the hostel to meet the girls.

It was ladies night at the hostel and between 8.30 and 10.30pm ladies got free drinks. I flirted with the idea of dressing as a lady to get some free drinks but ended up not bothering as we drank in the bar. Drinks were flowing as we were joined by an Aussie chick who tough us a new version to ride the bus and a English fella called Jack who taught us a game called Electricity. Things were getting out reckless people were spearing people over sofa's, sliding on floors, piggy backs and rock paper scissors caused me to have a face like a bumblebee even though I had requested a tiger. Things slowed down a tad though as I suffered a mild concussion as a gymnastic move between me and Pheebs went horribly wrong and I smashed my head against a concrete kerb. I'm still not sure what she was attempting to do as I write this. Being suitably drunk we decided to go out and the bar bloke / self-proclaimed owner though I think this is bees wax took us to a club called Bungalow 6. A great night was being had by all, dancing, drinking until the self-proclaimed owner decided he wanted a piece of me, he had already confessed to me at the club he was looking for a fight and it semt like his target was me. He called me a racist and a douchebag and was trying to get in my face. Of course having had my fair share of alcoholic beverages I didn't take these allegations lightly and began to be quite verbal back. In truth though a fight was the least thing I wanted he was a big fella, reminded me a bit of Tazz from the attitude era of thee WWE. He would have battered me and I would have woken up with far more than a lump on my head and concussion. So with him stalking me around the club I decided it would be best not to ruin everyone's night and head home.

My head was pounding the next morning, I was unable to deter if it was a result of my head injury of the alcohol consumption. I figured it must have been a little bit of both. Earl and I checked out and put our bags in storage as we were leaving for Colombia later that day and then went to meet the girls as we were going to go for breakfast and then up the cable cars they have in Quito. Breakfast turned out to be an awesome bacon and egg sandwich where the bacon was mixed in with the fried egg it was genius and just what I needed, until they gave me a bland fruit salad with natural yoghurt it was far too healthy than what I needed. We then hopped in a cab and off we went to the cable cars. Pheebs was very nervous about the situation; she is more scare of heights than me. I got a glimpse of this in Banos as when Isabelle did her bridge jump Pheebs couldn't even look over the bridge at her swinging. At the cable cars she worked herself into such a state she began to cry but she pulled through and got to the top where the view was nothing. Unfortunately the weather in Quito was not the best and as we reached the top all we were in was a massive cloud and couldn't see s***. It was a massive waste of $8.50. So not much longer had we been up there we returned to the bottom and headed for lunch The usual walking around for ages thing happened before we settled on a menu place with a very nice tomato soup, pork chops for main and bananas for desert. We then went to the local market, I got offered a magic carpet, I thought it might fly so enquired but apparently it's just a baby making carpet so I scarpered. I've also been in the market for a lama jumper for quite some time but none have had the size or colour I required and this market was nothing different as I tried on several but to no avail so we made our way back to the hostel to watch the film we fell to sleep to the night before - The Inbetweeners 2.

Dinner was an unfulfilling hamburger combo but it would to be get better as we were heading to the Cheesecake Café for a much awaited and anticipated cheesecake. Cheesecake is my favourite desert without question and I'd not had any since my home made effort in Australia. I was well due some. Noticing where we were on the street I began to run and jump to the shop only to get there and it be closed. Deflated would be an understatement as we made our way to another bakery where the girls and Earl got desert and I sulked about not getting any of my favourite pudding. It was harsh, and not a fitting way to end our time in Ecuador and Quito but that was it, we bided the girls' farewell and we were off to pastures new - Cali and our last country of the South American tour - Colombia

So until next time stay safe and take care

Adi

xx