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...

We arrived in Sangolqui (about half and hour drive SE of Quito) on Saturday 19th in the afternoon and have been made very welcome by the Hotel owner, Rodriguez, and the representative of the Spanish School, Maria. The hotel is one of the oldest buildings in the town and overlooks the town square and church, and in the distance the mountains. We have spent time on the balcony watching Ecuadorian life unfold before us. Until this evening we were the only guest...

Back in Quito preparing to start Spanish School tomorrow. Have spent ages in the Internet Cafe downloading some of our photos. Hopefully by the end of the trip we'll be experts in this Blogging lark! Signing off now because the beers gone and we need some food - but not more rice!!!!!!!

Just returned to Quito after 5 days cruising around the Galapagos Islands in a group of 15 - American, Canadian, German, Australian and English - 3 men and 12 women! On our cruise to the first island lunch was interrupted by dolphins off the starboard bow. They swam with us for a while until the whale shark appeared. We were greeted by the beachmaster (male sea lion) and his harem on the landing steps of Plazas Island. Here we saw land iguana, marine iguana, se...

Arrived in Quito after a very long journey yesterday evening. After a good night's sleep we have explored the old town travelling there by bus, which was interesting as we did not know when to get off! The architecture is very attractive and we have visited a couple of museums and some beautiful churches. Unfortunately there is not a lot of english translations and as we haven't started the Spanish school yet we had trouble with the descriptions! However, we have...