3rd JuneWe travelled by truck to Banos yesterday. On the way down we got to know some of our fellow "overlanders" and David was devistated to find that he IS the oldest by only 4 days, so retains the title of Abuelo (Grandad).   We also saw large mushrooms of smoke billowing from Tunguahua (a very active volcano very close to Banos). We are staying two nights in a hotel near to the Spa, which Banos is famous (?) for. Today we we...

Saturday 2nd June Yesterday was International Children's Day and to mark the occasion a party was thrown by the church for the children at the volunteer project. We spent $150 on toys to give as gifts to the children - this was the donation made by Exodus (our trip operator) for our volunteer work. The children had a great time being entertained by a clown and all left with armfulls of gifts in true "CrackerJack" style! Afterwards we had a South Americ...

Thanks for all your messages - keep them coming - its nice to keep in touch. We may not have so much time for "blogging" once we commence our overland trip, but we'll do our best! Thursday 31st May We had a more relaxing day on Sunday after our trip to Cotopaxi. We watched traditional dancing in the "salon de la ciudad", town hall (?). It was the annual dancing competition between local groups which is part of the festival that has be...

Saturday 26th May We've just finished our first week of Spanish School and volunteering. We spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday at our Spanish School Co-ordinator's house, where we helped cook a typical Ecuadorian meal and watched a South Americian film which was partly filmed in Sangolqui (where we are staying). After trying our first attempts at cooking, our Spanish teacher and his wife joined us and he entertained us by singing some South American songs acco...

miercoles 23 mayo Hola Our lessons have begun, we had our third today! Hopefully by next week we may be able to understand some of the locals! We are being taught by Lorgio - I bet you can't pronounce his name correctly! The lessons are being held in the home of the Spanish School co-ordinator where we will be having Salsa lessons and cookery lessons on Friday. We are enjoying the volunteer programme too. In the afternoons we are helping at a centre for o...