DAY 7

After getting back to the hotel around 1am from samba dancing the night away, we were picked up from our hotel at 2.45am. Shane and Steve were still so drunk, we were all a little worse for wear. \240My eyes have never been so tired. It was such a struggle!

Our flight was 6 1/2 hrs from Rio to Lima. As soon as I sat down on the plane, I was asleep straight away and slept the whole flight. We then had a connecting flight from Lima to Quito but luckily was only 2 hrs.

We got back to our hotel, freshened up a bit and dropped our laundry off. It ended up only being $20 for the both of us and we it was ready at 12pm the next day. It was in the afternoon and after a day of travelling and not much sleep we went on a walk to find a place for a late lunch. I was a bit weary walking the street so Kat and I suggested the nearest place. We all ordered a cappuccino and nachos with guacamole. The nachos were original plain corn chips with a sprinkle of cheese, Shane was so disappointed with them but I loved it. Shane ordered chicken stuffed with ham and cheese and I had this meat patty with an egg on top. The patty tasted a bit funky so I didn’t eat much.

Everything is so old fashioned here, we are staying in the rich part of town and it doesn’t really feel like it. The city square has seats that you sit on and put your feet up for your shoes to be polished and you look the other way and there’s a police man on a Segway. Quite the contrast.

We headed back to our hotel, showered and crashed. We did only want to have a nap and then head out for dinner but the four of us all stayed in bed and caught up on our sleep.

DAY 8

After a longgggg catch up sleep we had breakfast at our hotel. Probably the best breakfast so far. I had strawberry yoghurt with granola, a side of fruit and a wholmeal piece of toast with egg. We were picked up from the hotel at 8am for a tour we added on as an extra.

We visited Pululahua where locals live in the crater of an old volcano. It was amazing, because it was so long ago everything was all regrown and it looked like the locals lived in the valley of the mountains.

We then made a stop off at The middle of the earth. It was really informative, we learnt so much. They took us around the old traditional huts, there are always two doors one to enter and one to exit. We did a few experiments about being on the equator. Shane and I got a certificate for being able to balance an egg on the equator. They asked me how it was and Shane was pretty impressed with my response; ”it was egg-cellent!” The boys all lined up on the north side of the equator, put their hands up straight and the guide tried pushing their hands down. When they stood on the line because of the energy, on the equator the guys couldn’t push their hands back up. It was crazy. We also walked in a line on the equator with our eyes closed and it looked like we were drunk.

The traditional men of the Amazon would pin their pecker up on their chest with a piece of string so a fish wouldn’t swim up there! It’s a small skinny white fish, and if it swims up, you need surgery to have it removed.

Protejamks La-Tierra is the cactus that tequila comes from and they were everywhere!

Just before we head back to our hotel we stopped off for lunch. Shane and Steve shared a guinea pig 🤮 I had beef ribs with BBQ sauce, rice, salad and chips. I couldn’t even look over at Shanes and Steve’s dish, it really creeped me out.

At 2pm we had a meeting with our group before we went on a 3 hour walk around Quito city. We seen a lot of churches and buildings. I stocked up on sunscreen because I got burnt on our tour and some sea sick tablets because the Galápagos Islands is going to be rocky.

We went to a really nice place for dinner, with view of the Virgin Mary statue on top of the mountain. The little town was called La Ronda meaning Patrol in Spanish.