After what was really just a?quick flight from Santiago in Chile up to?Quito in Ecuador, I arrived totally shattered. I?d had to get up at 2.45am to get to the airport in time for my plane and after a three hour stopover in Lima and then a short delay it was almost 17 hours later when I finally reached my destination...

My first memory?of Quito will be of the rain as no sooner had I left the airport than the heavens opened and it rained as if?it had never rained before. In about 20 minutes the water was so deep on the roads that in some places it was halfway over the tyres of the cars. But despite that we made it through and I arrived safely at my new home...with an ecuadorian family in one of Quito?s main districts.

The plan for Quito was always to study spanish before I travel around the rest of South America, so before I arrived I had found a spanish school in the city who could also arrange for me to live with a local family rather than just staying in a hotel or apartment. And I was picked up from the airport by a representative from the school who drove me to meet my family. As he dropped me off at the door I wasn?t feeling too apprehensive as I managed to at least communicate what my name was, but there the communication stopped. As I watched the car drive away my new host babbled on and on at me in spanish to which he was greeted by a very blank face and a hastily garbled "lo siento, no entiendo", or for those with as much knowledge of spanish as me, "I?m sorry, I don?t understand!".

So we had "un problemo grande"...I could speak no spanish and he and his wife could speak no english...so it was over to plan b - their grandaughter, who fortunately lives in the apartment downstairs. She can speak English so was drafted in to act as interpreter for a few of the basics, like what time is breakfast, what food do I not like etc. Once she had gone though we were back to lots of polite smiles...until that is we discovered that we both had a small understanding of french. Now I have hardly uttered a word of french since I left school about 14 years ago, but somehow we managed to get by in a combination of spanish, english and french for the first few days - very bizarre!

As I had arrived on a Friday and my classes didn?t begin until Monday I had visions of this becoming the longest weekend ever. I didn?t even know where I was living in Quito but nor did I know how to ask....?! But my scepticism was all in vain as on Saturday morning (after misunderstanding what time breakfast was and getting up?an hour and a half too early!)?my host family took me to my school so I would be able to find it myself on Monday morning, and then we caught the bus into the old part of Quito for a look around.

The city is split into two sections. The new part is where most people live and where the offices,?shopping centres, bars and restaurants?etc are. The old part, in contrast, is as it sounds, old and full of wonderful old buildings and churches which are absolutely beautiful. We went inside some of the churches and I was blown away by the colour and beauty of some of the pictures and icons. And the whole city is surrounded by mountains and volcanos which make for the most amazing backdrop. In general the mornings are hot and sunny and the afternoons can be mixed, sometimes sunny but sometimes wet.

After listening to my spanish cds some more that evening I managed a bit more conversation although it was a struggle. On Sunday we went to another district, Guapolo,?where the family go to church. Ecuador is something like 90% catholic so religion is very important here. When we arrived there were so many people both inside and outside the church, there must have been at least 400 people, if not more. We tried to get inside for the mass, which happens every hour, but the problem was no-one was coming out of the church so no-one else could get in. Eventually we had to admit defeat and return home, where I spent the next few hours learning all about ecudorian music, although I didn?t dare show off my dancing skills!

The food in Ecuador is although worth mentioning...I wasn?t too sure what to expect, although I had heard that guinea pig was a particularly interesting local delicacy?! Fortunately it hasn?t yet appeared on my plate (or not to my knowledge anyway?!) but in fact Ecuador has an abundance of fresh fruit which means I get freshly sqeezed juice with every meal. They also seem to like their soups, which also appear with amost every meal...well actually I am spared soup at breakfast, but for both lunch and dinner there is soup - hmm, good thing I?m not a great fan of soup then?! And added to this is the strange things I?ve been offered to eat with my soup, such as a banana for instance. I did manage to force it down but can?t say it?s a culinary experience I?m overly keen to repeat. Otherwise it?s lots of rice or potatoes in various forms with meat and salads which is all fine. I haven?t yet discovered a typical Ecuadorian dessert, although I have been offered a piece of dry bread to eat with my coffee after dinner, which is apparently the done thing?!

So after my first weekend it was defnitely a case of bring on the spanish lessons...