P1010346

im sorry sam but pocket did taste very good

Welcome to Quito

Hola! So here we are in Quito, Ecuador. To be honest it was pretty freaky to begin with and we sort of wondered what we had gotten ourselves into… big smoggy busy city. BUT after begining our spanish lessons (one teacher for the 2 of us), getting settled into our lovely accomodation, la casona de Mario, and having a bit of time to begin to explore Quito, we have discovered it holds some real gems!

The other day we went with a group from our Spanish school on a 45 minuite bus ride out of the city to a rural town and tried our first Cuy (guinea pig) and Chicha (corn beer). We both thought the Cuy was pretty yum but couldn´t quite bring ourselves to eat the parts that had little teeth and wee claws still attached. We´ve met some lovely people at both the spanish school and at la casona; next weekend we´re going to explore the Otavalo market (about an hour from here, up in the andes) with an Australian girl we´ve meet. I was shown around the neighbourhood where we are staying by a German girl who´s also staying at la casona which was nice, and there are some cool little bars and a tiny cinema too.

Today we went to a big open-air market at a park about 10mins walk away, and scored some sweet rosary´s and pendants, very exciting. We´ve been able to explore “New Town” which is where gringo´s tend to hang out, and eaten grand cheap food. Tommorow we´ll be checking out “Old Town¨” which is where all the beautiful old churches and building are.

Spanish lessons are going pretty well, although we both find that our heads are pretty full by the end of the 4 hours – our understanding of english grammer is getting better too (I mean come on, how many of you can even remember what an adverb or adjective is?). Oh and they have free coffee there too which is a highlight! Our teacher Ruth is so nice, and she´s told me some names of bread and stuff sans gluten yussss. She´s going to take us to a market on Monday where the people from the country come to sell the food they´ve grown.

Thanks to the people who told us that despite first impressions, big cities do have hidden treasures. Here´s to discovering many more!

Hasta luego xox

P1010339

exciting first meal at la casona, rice and beans, yea boi!

P1010331

¿PepSi? PepNo