Welcome back! Lovely couple of days at home with the folks. Enough time to catch up with family and friends, upload photos, send insurance docs, replenish supplies (chargers mainly, I have my Canon back, bliss!!) and get stressed about work - tell me how that happens.....I was back for 3 days!!!!

Anyway, onto more important things ........last continent for my adventures! Hold onto your hats, this is a long one!! Jane and I set off for Heathrow at 3.30am, we were dreading the connecting flight for Quito as we had 55 minutes between one plane landing in Amsterdam and the connecting plane taking off. Quickest I've been through an airport terminal in ages, made more exciting by the Mission Impossible theme tune I had playing in my head....As it happens all was fine and we made the flight with plenty of time. The journey itself lasted what seemed like a lifetime, however there were several highlights - they fed and watered us pretty much every 45 minutes, provided hot lavender scented towels, and I was able to pass the time in the company of 3 delectable gentleman by the names of Depp, Gyllenhall and Grylls (the last 2 were especially accommodating as they stripped off.....Men vs Wild....I highly recommend it!!!)

Within an hour of arriving at Quito airport, we started seeing great examples of "How they do things round here". The first was a small dog arriving on the luggage belt, obviously in a container, but just randomly arrived with the suitcases on the carousel (made funnier by the Magic Roundabout theme that sprung to mind as it passed me). No idea how it actually travelled, seemed fairly un phased by the whole thing until the owner grabbed the container and balanced it precariously on top of a load of cases. I honestly thought at one point he was going to put it through the security scanner, but luckily not (although that would have been amusing, not for the dog perhaps.......especially if it was carrying a knife or liquids). Got our taxi and started to make our way to the hotel. Stopping at traffic lights our next entertainment came in the form of two boys of about 10. One was standing on the others shoulders holding 2 lit batons (sticks, but batons sounds more impressive), they walked in front of the traffic (thankfully they had stopped it by using the pedestrian crossing, so the lights were red), whistled to get attention, then proceeded to do a double juggling act in the middle of the road. 10 out of 10 for effort and the novelty factor, but to be honest, juggling was rubbish, so unfortunately, it's a no from me, but best busking effort I've seen in a long time!!!

We arrived at the hotel shortly after, pleasantly surprised with the room (double bed each) and spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Bit off putting however was the sound of the wind whistling outside the room (sounded like a horror movie, yes, I'm back to thinking about horror movies), took my mind off it by looking at Janes lonely planet and discussing what we could do with the spare 24hrs we had in Quito before leaving for the Galapagos Islands. The book did point out that we were 2850m above sea level so altitude sickness may kick in, therefore drink lots of water and avoid alcohol. On that note, we went up to the restaurant and ordered a couple of celebratory cocktails (with a bottle of water, so healthy compromise). Again, great views of the city, looks like a mini New York, or Vegas, or London.......ok, looks like any major city, at night, which has ample street lighting. Pretty cool (easily pleased I know). Great meal accompanied by the dulcet tones of Careless whisper, but not any old version, a pan pipe version.....

Good nights sleep, dreamt about a shark in a stable with its mouth closed up with masking tape and also dwarfs, not sure what that means, anyone who wishes to hazard a guess send a message.... We had decided to take a tour of the city and a trip to the Equator with our free day, so went to meet our guide Freddie. Sightly disappointed that Freddie wasn't a blonde guy in a white suit and red neckerchief, but settled for second best which was the complete opposite, a stereotypical Mexican looking man, with long dark hair - (I know we are not in Mexico, but don't think there is such a thing as a stereotypical Equadorian looking man, or if indeed that is a word. Learnt some history on our drive, did you know Equador used to be called Quito, meaning centre of the Earth, but was renamed by the French Mission who found the Equator in the 18th Century (the indigenous people had actually found a spot 3 degrees from the actual Equator 100's of years before, close but not close enough) First stop was the Pululahua volcano, a live volcano which is home to a number of people who have settled in its crater. Great as the land is so fertile, bad if it erupts.....very beautiful region, got some good pics. Next stop was the Equator, which was pretty cool. Our guide talked to us about the indigenous people and some of their customs, like shrinking heads (have pictures of how it's done, plus they had the head of a 12 year old boy which had been shrunk) and eating guinea pigs. Also had lots of things in jars like King Cobras, and a Penis fish (can't remember the proper name, let's face it, it's irrelevant, no one will ever call it by its real name). Basically you get them in the Amazon, and as you take a pee they swim up the urethra and then anchor themselves by opening up like an umbrella (pretty big as well, so rather uncomfortable one would imagine). Hmmmmm, now there's an idea for Dragons Den, surely there would be a huge customer base of disgruntled ex partners in the UK willing to buy a few. Beats sewing fish into someone's curtains or cutting up suits (NB. Source of information in last sentence taken from trashy magazines, NOT previous experience). Last cultural learning was regarding a traditional Shamen burial, where the deceased are put in a pot in the foetal position (ready to be reborn into the next life) and then items are buried with them, including their wife and servants, who are still alive. Although, unlike the poor Indians who were cremated alive, these individuals drank a heavy sedative so were knocked out before being buried alive... thoughtful. The theory went that if you were "crossing over", who best to have with you in the next life than your wife......not sure that theory would work nowadays, don't people spend most of their time trying to get away from their spouses????

Last hour was spent doing some experiments, like seeing how water goes down the plug in different directions dependant on which side of the Equator you are, balancing an egg on the Equator line (you have to keep turning it) and seeing how gravity on the line impacts your strength (basically b*****s it up) and weight (you are 1kg lighter (hurrah!). Last bits of info were around the seasons, and the fact they have none. Here it's either sunny, cloudy or wet and all year there is exactly 12 hours of sun and 12 of night. Really great visit :)

After the Equator, we spent the afternoon visiting Old Quito. Really pretty, reminiscent of San Francisco with its steep roads, just needs the trams! The houses are a mix of old and new and come in a multitude of different colours and eras, many with their original features still intact. One of the most defining elements is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary which stands on a hill overlooking the town. Our first stop was the cathedral, probably the best thing worthy of noting was the gargoyles, or lack of. The architect took the decision to have animals of the region in place of gargoyles, so when you look up you can see turtles, iguanas, heron and crocodiles amongst others. Great idea, looks fantastic!!! After here we took a walk towards the main square passing street vendors selling bags of apples, oranges, toasted corn and coca (good for altitude sickness apparently, so if you feel ill, find yourself a "coca" seller pronto!), once at the main square we visited a few of the numerous churches, all pretty much the same, but quite spectacular in that inside they are elaborately decorated in gold, a lot of gold, would raise a fortune if they went to gold4cash.com.

On the way back to the hotel, we went for lunch with Grant and Kinjal who were on the tour with us and were also coming to the Galápogas islands, having just completed the Peru trek we will be going to next. Kinjal is a vegetarian and opted for subway rather than the local food after spending 12 days in Peru (hmm doesn't bode well!). The rest of us went to the restaurant opposite for some traditional food (Braz, take note!!). We all had variations of llapingachos, which conveniently for me happens to be fried potato, cheese and white corn (yum) After, took a walk round town (shopping, not for me, so got a taxi back to hotel)

The evening we met the rest of the group for our briefing and then pretty much back to our room where I proceeded to fall asleep at 7pm, although early start in the morning so not a bad thing! Very excited about what the next few days will bring.