Hola

Pues, we are now in Quito the capital of Ecuador.  After Cuenca, the location of our last postcard, we headed to the tranquil little town of Baños where we relaxed for a couple of nights.  Baños sits at the foot of one of the most active volcanoes in South America.  In fact there was a pretty big eruption as recently as August and driving in to the town you pass across the evidence of this eruption, landslides and destroyed homes and bridges.  Quite bizarre really.

We arrived in Quito a few days ago and are staying here until our departure to the Galapagos Islands this Monday (25/09), which we are extremely excited about!  Actually, we have realised recently that we really need a break of scenery.  We are getting quite tired from all the bus trips and noticing that after so long travelling we arent appreciating the new towns and cities as much as we usually would.  We both need a change of scenery, ie the ocean, wildlife, sailing etc, to kickstart the motivation and refresh ourselves a bit.  In saying that however, there is no chance we are thinking of cutting our trip short!

Quito is a quite beautiful city, though reputed for its lack of safety.  Cant say it has really bothered us but you cant help but notice the armed security on almost every door (including the fried chicken establishments).  For a big city with long established tourism we have noticed more people staring at us and showing a quite keen interest in our cameras!  We think however that they are more curious in our footwear (jandles/flip-flops/thongs, or whatever you want to call them) which obviously arent very common here! Quito is mainly divided in to the Old and New Town.  The Old being blessed with beautiful architecture and a Unesco rating, while the New Town is somewhat more leafy and blessed with the better restaurants and cafes.  On the basis of us being a bit tired of staying in the city centres we are of course in the New Town enjoying the food and coffee!

 Yesterday we celebrated Sarahs 31st birthday with a stroll around the beautiful Old Town and dined at one of Quitos better restaurants, shared with Sarahs good friend Tony who met us in Quito especially.  We even upgraded to a better hotel!

So, there wont be any further postcards or news from us for a week or more.  Our Galapagos trip includes 8 days sailing around the Islands so Internet will be the last thing on our minds!  Enjoy work you guys!

Hasta luego

Shane y Sarah

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