Tuesday 3 April 2012 I think I was scammed (or an attempt was made on me) this morning in Old Town. I was just finishing off the last bits of my sightseeing in Old Town that I hadn't managed to do, like Plaza San Francisco, which my Spanish teacher had recommended and which the guidebook said was arguably the prettiest square in Quito, as well as the mercado central. Well, I got onto the Ecovia (after trying to use the Trolebus, but the problem with the T...

Monday 2 April 2012 I got up at 6:00 to try and catch the birds before my 7 am breakfast, after which I took a lot of photos and videos of the hummingbirds! I also managed to get some photos of some tanagers, barbets and a squirrel at the front of the lodge. You could get so close to the hummingbirds, you could easily touch them (20 centimetres or so thereabouts). If you stood or sat still long enough, you would even get a few almost "investigating" you ...

Sunday 1 April 2012 I got up early, checked out and made it to the bus terminal in time to get the 8:15 am bus to Quito. In addition to the usual vendors coming onto the bus, this time I had a guy with a recorder who proceeded to play (after, of course, first introducing himself). His first tune sounded very familiar, until I realised it was the theme tune to "Popeye, the sailor man," followed by part of what sounded like some national anthem. The rest of ...

Saturday 31 March 2012 I got up a bit late-ish, having gone to bed late (had the cable TV on loud to try and drown out the party downstairs, even if I was doing my Spanish "homework"), even though I was tired well before I actually lay down to sleep. I had breakfast in a nearby cafe and had a fairly easy conversation with the lady there about how difficult it was to learn Spanish, to which I had said yes and no: pronunciation was easy but the conjugations o...

Friday 30 March 2012 I bought a ticket for the El Nariz del Diablo (the Devil's Nose train ride) for 11am this morning, not being able to summon the energy to make the 8 am trip, with the train ride (including return) taking 2 ½ hours, and it should only take 2 hours to Riobamba, so that I didn't have to rush out. It seemed a lovely example of bureaucracy, buying the ticket, or a case of job creation (a bit like all the security guards in Ecuador guarding al...