16 hours in the air and I finally made it to Quito!
Let the adventure begin...after some shut eye that is - 27 hours of sitting on planes, waiting in impossibly long immigration queues (I'm looking at you, America) and wandering aimlessly around airports really takes its toll. Managed about 6 hours of sleep until I got woken up by blaring hairdryers and truly terrible singing. Tried to get back to sleep but both of these equally outrageous things to be doing at 7am continued on their merry way, so I masked truly terrible singing with more of the same, getting ready to 1D (guilty pleasure) and making it out the door by half 9. Despite the BBC weather forecasts in the past few weeks heavily hinting I would need a waterproof, umbrella, wellies and enough wood to build myself an Ark, I was met by...SUN! Unfortunately I didn't realise quite how hot it was until I got back to the hostel...
It buuurns! Forgot that at high altitude the sun would be beaming mega hard...a dumb mistake with super sexy results. Come and get me boys! Naaat. There was lightning in the evening but no rain and it was still really warm - quite a weird combo but very cool to witness. Had been worrying about the wet weather for weeks but as one of the girls in my tour group said, if you worry about the weather you'd never go anywhere - so true when just one country has so many different climates.
Quito is eye-poppingly pretty - very green with loads of parks and plazas and lots of nice buildings, including the Basilica, which is gorgeous and reminded me of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia (one of my fave buildings) a bit. (Pics taking forever to upload so will put one of this up when I'm back.)
It's also one of the hilliest places I've ever been to - will never complain about hill starts again after visiting here; the terrain is SO steep in some places. Makes for some great panoramic views though - if you can make it up the stairs to these spectacular viewpoints. After about 10 steps I thought I was going to pass out - some may credit my famed and distinct lack of fitness, while I might argue it was more the altitude (apparently it can really slow you down and Quito sits at 2,800 metres above sea level. To put this in perspective, London is about 25 metres above sea level!). Anyway, puffed out, boiling hot, bright red and feeling about 90 years old, I finally made it (this is why I'm not trekking the Inca Trail in a few weeks) and here was my reward.
After all that exertion, I decided it was about time for a nap (90 year old woman syndrome strikes again) and then met my Galapagos tour group, who all seem really nice! Some from Toronto, Norway, Germany, Russia and weirdly one Londoner who's moving to Chesham in the summer...unbelievably small world. Went out for a steak (would have gone traditional but turns out that's guinea pig and other weirdo things) and was in bed by half 9 on a Friday night. Rock and rollington. Leaving for Galapagos flight at 6am tomorrow, wah! Can't wait - absolute dream destination and we'll be there this time tomorrow!
The weirdest thing is, I haven't felt nervous at all since waking up to catch my Heathrow flight. Really enjoyed walking around town on my own today and felt safe pretty much the whole time, people are really friendly :)
Right, the clock has struck 10, deffo past my bedtime. Over and out.
