Two big things happened in the last few days. One; I flew to South America!!

I arrived safe and sound in Quito in Equador on Friday. My bag made it on and off the plane too: And Two, Simon is back from Madagascar so we´ve talked lots and lots.... and lots. I´ll put up a link to all his amazing photos of his trip, when he gets the chance to upload them. Right honey?!

The first evening in Quito, I went exploring and came accross Finn Mc Cools!. It was funny to see, and very strange to hear the Irish accents of the people who work there. I had a plate of chips, propper chunky chips, with propper vinagar. mmmmm The toilets in Central and South America aren´t the best plumbed and you can´t put any paper down them. There are always signs in the toilets reminding tourists of this but the best was the one in Finn´s:

Im staying in a fun., lively youth hostel called Centro del Mundo (centre of the world). (Quito is pretty much on the equator) I guess to get everyone mingling, on weekends, they supply 12 litres of rum and coke... free:

On Saturday, I crawled out of bed and went into the old historical part of town. I got a great, but scary view of the city from the Basilica´s bell tower. It was really interesting climbing through and up onto the roof:

And here is one for Mam, the basilica had a really interesting cript underneath. Hundreds and hundres of these chambers that coffins a slid into:Today, I went on a train adventure! I was supposed to get an oldfashioned open top train, but it had broken down, and from the look of the grass growing around it, it wasn´t getting fixed anytime soon:

In the same station, there was a train that looked like ´MTV Pimp My Ride´ had gotten to it:

I had to settle for something inbetween. Here´s a photo of me in my new Al Paca jumper, on the train:

The train was full of Quitoians, going on a Sunday family trip, and it brought us to a forest park. I went off and had a nice walk, but got very wet.

I ended up sitting under cover, chatting to three very nice locals, in my broken Spanish.

Not much else to report. I´m planning a trip into the Amazon Jungle... THE AMOZON... which I´m looking forward to. So will probably be away from the internet for a while... then again you never know.. xx r

Map updated