On the 28th we left the Galapagos islands on a 'Tame' flight back to the mainland. Our next destination was to be Quenca, a small city of cobblestone streets and red tiled roofs, with a strong Spanish colonial influence . We arrived by bus at 9pm, by this time both tired and hungry. After checking in at our hostel, Trevor being the hunter gathering male that he pretends to be, set off into town to look for something to bring back to eat. As it was now quite late, few paces were open and he eventually appeared on the doorway with two 'Subways'... Not quite the traditional Ecuadorian food he was looking for, but we still enjoyed and devoured them nonetheless!

The next morning we explored for the first time, wandering through the colonial style streets and admiring some of the murals adorning many of the buildings throughout the city. We have since discovered these are a common sight throughout urban south America, often used as a form of protest or an outlet to illustrate various political, often left-wing views. We also walked along the picturesque river running through the city before heading to a small restaurant for dinner, eating traditional sausage arepa's, followed by not so traditional cream doughnuts for dessert! The next morning Sophie skyped her family, wishing her dad a happy birthday. The only other event of significance that day was the quest for foam packaging for pottery we were hoping to send home (how adventurous). Eventually after much searching we walked back to our hostel with enough foam to wrap a fully grown man, sadly only to discover that some of the pottery that we had been lugging around since Cusco had broken (we meaning mainly Trevor who moaned about it constantly).

After a relaxing couple of days we caught a bus to Quito, Ecuador's capital, which we had recently read was a must see city in South America. The bus journey took us around 9 hours arriving at the city quite late. We took a taxi to our hostel in the 'oldtown' district and on arrival were quickly warned by staff that the area surrounding the hostel can be dangerous for travellers at night and muggings are fairly common only occurring streets away from the hostel... Once again arriving late and hungry we decided to head out nearby to see if we could get some food. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake... We soon discovered that the hostel staff weren't exaggerating about the crime in the area. Only 200m from the hostel a suspicious couple headed in our direction, the man suddenly splitting off and shadowing us far too close for comfort, only backing away at the last minute when some other people walked around the corner of the all but deserted street. Taking this as a lucky escape and warning, we decided to eat in the restaurant directly opposite the hostel that night.

We had kept in touch with Zach (the crazy, dancing biologist from Colorado) whom we met during our tour of the Galapagos islands, and on our second day in Quito he joined us and our traveling duo became a trio. We all moved into a cheaper hostel and went out exploring Quito properly for the first time. Quito is officially the highest capital city in the world sitting in the foothills of the Andes, and in the shadow of several active volcanoes. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site due to its many unique colonial buildings dating back 500 years. On our way we stopped first for breakfast and then a tour around the famous gothic 'Basílica del Voto Nacional', still considered under construction since the first foundations were laid in 1888. The basilica includes several sets of perilous steps, that lead over the main vault and then up the highest tower, offering sweeping views of the city below and the 'Virgen de Quito' statue in the distance. The tower climb turned out to be too much for Zach, whom having a fear of heights, couldn't face the rickety stairs and nearly too much for Sophie, who eventually managed to overcome her fears and make it to the top. After surviving the Basilica we headed to the nearby telefériqo (a kind of ski lift) that takes you up the flanks of 'Volcán Pichincha' to the top of 'Cruz Loma', towering over the city at over 4000m towering. We had already had one close shave with the criminal world by this point and on our 2nd day Zach followed, feeling someone's hand slip into his pocket searching for his wallet. He managed to ward off the thief but didn't make a scene, resulting in an awkward bus ride with the criminal still standing opposite us looking rather sheepish! The telefériqo offered great views of the city and Cotopaxi volcano in the distance, although it was quite cold from the top. Afterwards we battled our way through yet another protest, this time by opposers to the current president, filling the streets with crowds of people, although in a typically South American way there would often be spontaneous music and dance along the way, turning the protest into a carnival atmosphere instead! That evening we returned to the safety of the hostel and spent the evening playing pool and enjoying several beers, while randomly wearing strange hats and receiving slightly odd looks from the other guests...

Our last day in Quito sadly followed the pattern of the previous days with regards to close brushes with street crime. It all started normally enough with Trevor skyping his sister and her fiancee to wish them well before they flew to get married in New York , after which we headed into town for some brunch (the beers from the night before meant we didn't rise all too early). Sitting outside enjoying traditional pork and picanti sandwiches we became the target of cunning thieves. During our meal Trevor felt like something wet had landed on his back, and guessed it was bird poo. Suddenly a 'helpful' lady came along with a tissue and tried to wipe it off, while in the process smearing in more of the nasty smelly substance she had thrown on him in the first place. Still unaware Trevor headed to the nearby toilet to clean it off, at this point stinking to high heaven. In the meantime the very 'helpful' lady then noticed that Zach also had some on him, pretending to assist by smearing the foul smelling concoction into his t-shirt. Joining Trevor in the toilet, Sophie was now on her own with our bags... With both men away a quick distraction tactic enabled an accomplice to grab Trevor's day bag and try to make good a run for it (little did he know the bag only contained pottery to send home at this point). We had read about similar scams, and while embarrassed to be caught off guard, it was so cunning we just simply fell for it at the time. Luckily our waiter and a nearby policeman gave chase and managed to rescue the bag, without any items being stolen. Sophie was left shocked but mainly angry, and by this time the female instigator had slipped away in the resulting confusion, and Sophie was left with around 20 old local women shouting at her on Spanish about not watching the bags eell enough...somehow she had got the blame rather than the thieves! Trevor spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around in a wet t-shirt, smelling of a mix of dog poo and vinegar...still, things could have been worse considering! So over 3 days in Quito we had come close on 3 occasions to either being mugged, pickpocketed and conned! Quite a record!

That evening the 3 of us enjoyed some rum over a game of drinking Yahtzee. It turned out not to be the best drinking game ever created as it involved far too much mental arithmetic, and became increasingly difficult to carry out after a fair amount of rum. We then headed out by taxi to the generally safe 'New Town' area of Quito, enjoying a few more drinks and trying to prove (and failing) that we could dance just as well as the locals... Our presence seemed to clear the dance floor pretty quickly! Zach however did manage do show off his questionable salsa skills to a girl who asked him to dance, while Sophie tried to avoid a persistent local who also wanted a dance!

The next morning, sore heads in tow, we hopped on and off a string of buses to get to the town of 'Otavalo', famous for its large traditional handicraft market. We arrived in the afternoon too late for the market but just in time to grab a giant pizza at a nearby resturant and watch the final of the Cup America where the hosts Chile beat Argentina in penalties. Pretty tired we all bunked in our a pokey hotel room and fell asleep watching TV. Hitting the market the next day with renewed energy we discovered that it was nowhere near as impressive as our guidbook had claimed, mainly full of the toruist tatt that we had become quite accustomed to seeing throughout our travels! It was interesting however to see the traditional dress of the 'otavaleños', with the men wearing long single pigtails, calf-length white pants, rope sandals, reversible grey or blue ponchos and dark felt hats. The women meanwhile wear highly detailed embroidered white blouses, long black skirts and shawls, and folded head cloths. We did also find a tiny shop that sold great blackberry pie and ice cream though, so it wasn't all bad news! That night we headed by bus for the Colombian border.. It was dark and pouring down with rain when we arrived, with several armed Ecuadorian troops guarding the customs checkpoint. After getting our exit stamps we crossed over a large bridge to the Colombian side, rain beating down on us and looking much the part of weary immigrants!!

Our experience in Ecuador was fairly mixed. The Galapagos islands were without a doubt one of the highlights of South America thus far, and though architecturally quite stunning we felt we had to be on our guard permanently in Quito. That said we only had a short amount of time in Ecuador and so there was plenty more to see on a future trip...