Today we carried on with more reflexive verbs and was then introduced to the three groups of irregular verbs! Which, of course, I am recommended to memorise! (I've probably swallowed around a hundred verbs or so, with about 5 - 10 in the first couple of days, but then shown about 60-odd later and expected to know how to use them. Of course, the first few that you get taught and use regularly tend to be the irregular ones…

Anyway, in the afternoon, I decided that I needed to get to the old part of Quito (el centro historico or antiguo), but after finding out from a fellow student that it would take $20 by taxi, I decided to walk it. This compares unfavourably to most taxi rides costing about $1.50/2 - although admittedly, they are probably shorter. (Night time taxi rides are a bit more expensive - just like home then! I have noticed, though, that at night time, taxi drivers don't seem to like using their meters...)

However, after walking about 30 to 40 minutes in the warmth (it's cold early morning but can warm up about midday to early afternoon - if it doesn't rain!), I decided that it was taking far too long and that I'd seen enough blue buses passing by and even if I didn't know the destinations, they were all heading along Avenida America (which goes to the old quarter) and if they diverted, I'd simply get off. I picked the bus that said Estadio Olimpico, which I thought I might be able to find on my map (which although it fits into my little purse, you need a magnifying glass to read), to get my bearings and hailed it down (cost - $0.25!!). After getting off at the terminus, and seeing a sign saying El centro historico, but not having no clue where I was and not wanting to spend too long looking, I hailed a taxi (and was glad to see that it had it's meter on) and asked for the Plaza de la Independencia (also known as the Plaza Grande).

I was able to have a conversation with the taxi driver - okay, it was fairly short sentences and may have been a bit stilted - but I managed to answer questions about where I was from, how long I was here for, whether I was a tourist (I lied), where I'd been and whether I'd come with friends and why they hadn't come with me (again, I lied!), etc. I managed to get him to stop trying to give me a tour of the old town. I'd asked for the Plaza de la Independencia, also known as the Plaza Grande (where most of the important monuments, etc, are) but as he passed the Basilica, I decided it was a good place to stop - he asked if I wanted him to wait and I said no. I was quite pleased, anyway, to be able to manage a short conversation with someone other than my Spanish tutor, who I am finding is the person I understand the most - her enunciation, cadence, etc. I find it a bit difficult with other people to get what they're saying although I'll get the gist - but that's not enough when you get asked a question! - as I've got used to her (or maybe my brain switches on for her more than for others!)

I looked around the inside of the Basilica and walked around and managed to stumble onto the Plaza, where the Palacio de Gobierno, the Centro Cultural Metropolitan (where I got out onto the rooftop and took some pictures), the Catedral and of course, the baroque-decorated La Campañia (of course, no photos were allowed). La Campañia is highly decorated inside, even for a baroque church. There seems to have been no expense spared if they did indeed decorate with gold-leaf as myguide book says. When you look down from the altar, the gold-embellished roof shines so that it almost has a misty cloud about it. The reader's stall (for want of a better description) at the side of the central aisle (nave?), is decorated with small busts of figurines that have more heads coming out at the shoulders. The outside columns (grey) are also highly decorated but it's the inside that holds your attention. You do have to pay to get in ($3). I wandered around a bit more, saw a few "croc"-type shoes (again, too large - didn't even try them on, already done that elsewhere) as well as a shoe shop, where a pair of court-type leather shoes (Ecuadorian leather, the shop assistant told me) costs $40. There was a posh shoe shop along 7 de Diciembre which cost about $50 or 60, if I remember. I'm thinking that at the end of my trip, some shoe shopping might be on the cards…especially, as I'm pretty sure they'll have my size in Ecuador.

Anyway, I figured I could stay till 4:30 before I had to head back to for my one-to-one private salsa class. Fiona, Anya and I booked them last week after we'd had so much fun at the merengue class and when Anya found a recommended place, we all trouped along last week and booked a class for today at 6pm. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get back so wandered down towards Plaza Domingo and didn't think anything looked too interesting there (although there was an arts museum) and saw the green trolley bus and decided to see where that went (there is a green trolley bus stop near where I live and where the school). So I waited for a convenient moment whilst lots of people trouped past me to pay, so that I could ask if the bus went to La Mariscal (my area) and whether it went near the Foch (my street) - in Spanish. So I paid and queued up, and then thought I'd better be sure I was pointing in the right direction (not that I'm sure there were two queues for different directions) and asked the lady behind me if I was in the correct direction to get the bus to La Mariscal. We couldn't get onto the next bus there but she was kind enough to give me the nod when the next appropriate bus came along. I squeezed on (and I mean, squeezed on) and it got pretty tight in there - just like the rush hour on the tubes, but this was the bus. I made sure that my (large) shoulder bag that I bought Monday was in front of me the whole time. I got off after I thought I recognised a stop (the conductor called out various things from time to time) but I can't congratulate myself that I got off at the right point, so I ended up walking a bit (in the wrong direction!) before hailing and taxi and getting off at the Plaza Foch, about two blocks away from where I live ($1.50).

Salsa class was great - my teacher was a woman who acted the man's part and she had good English too, which really helped me to learn some moves. We enjoyed it so much that we've booked another hour's class ($10 for an hour) tomorrow at 3pm.

It's really good exercise too, because after the first 15 minutes, where I was urged to swing my hips (and not to bounce around so much and to bend my knees less!), I could feel a tightness along my waist (must be good for the waist, I think!) and a bit of a stretch on the inside of my thighs and hamstrings.

Of course, I've not been able to have time or appropriate space to do much of my personal yoga practice, in recent times (and possibly not until I get back home now - I'll probably have to have remedial practice because my abs and core strength will have vanished. I remember 10 days in Vegas put me back about 4 months in being able to do headstand, my most personally challenging pose - because it involves conquering my fear of going over and just managing to stay there).

Salsa was really warming though - you felt yourself get breathless doing as you can really move fast. Well, there's another salsa class tomorrow, so it'll be hasta manana!