Ecuador and footie fever

Ola All

Well here I am on the final (bar a few days in California) leg of my travels round the world. Can't believe that it is almost over, it is making me depressed just thinking about it! So I won't!

I am writing this in Guayaquil, which is my base while I am in Ecuador. To be more precise, I am at my friend Gaby´s cousin Sonia´s house. So, since I have been remise at updating my blog over the last 10 days, I had better zip through my time here for you all.

OK, we arrive on Monday night (5th June) at Guayaquil airport, where I hung on to our baggage trolley for dear life, fighting off the swarm of porters that all wanted to "help" us. Fortunately we were soon surrounded by the huge contingent of Gaby´s family that had all come to meet her at the airport. It felt like there were 100s of them, although there can´t have been more than about 30-40.

We were taken by Sonia and Haskel to their house, which is gorgeous! Felt like I had arrived in an exclusive spa hotel. It is really really lush. Very nice base for a scummy old backpacker like me, I can tell you. Unfortunately they don´t speak much English and I don´t speak much Spanish (although my vocab is growing fast) so poor old Gaby has to do a lot of translating.

As we arrived quite late after a long trip, it was off to bed for us and our ecuador adventure started the next day.

So Tuesday we were taken to visit Guayaquil, walked along the boardwalk 2000 (was built for the millennium) which gives you great views of the river etc.., went to the rio grande mall and in the evening ate crab at the Red Crab, complete with hammers (I have had a training course on eating crab Ecuadorian style and I am apparently a natural at it, although do feel that I was wearing a lot of my dinner by the time we left). Sonia was a great teacher re how to dispose of a crab. It was a really fun night out

Wednesday we met more of Gaby´s family, so more people that I couldn´t communicate with very well, but they were very friendly, saw a bit more of Guayaquil and headed that evening to the artists quarter, which is a beautifully restored part of town. It is up a hill (444 steps to the top) which has a lovely lighthouse at the top. Got some great views of the city.

Thursday - Saturday we went to Banos which means Baths, is kind of like Bath in UK in that it has thermal and mineral springs there that are supposed to have healing properties. It is also right by a very active volcano and surrounded by mountains (kind of like it is in a basin) in the Andes. There we visited lots of beautiful waterfalls on a sort of tourist bus called a Chiva. Went up to look at the lights of the volcano at night (sadly was too cloudy to see much, but boy could we hear it complaining - so much so we weren´t surprised to find that our car was covered in volcanic ash in the morning). Plus of course we watched football and the atmosphere when Ecuador beat Poland, was amazing. Lots of Canelazos (alcholic local tea like drink - yum yum) to celebrate afterwards.

Also managed to watch the England v Paraguay game that next morning before we headed back to Guayaquil. Go for it England! Please, please for the love of all that is holy bloody well go for it! Sorry had to get that off my chest.

We were in Banos with an aunt of Gaby´s, her daughter in law and her chauffeur/brother of the daughter in law. It was really good fun.

Saturday we made it back in the afternoon, headed back to Sonia´s and had lovely local snacks (sorry am not going to go in the details of all the food that we have eaten, as lots of names of things that will mean nothing to you, but suffice it to say that I am trying everything and it all tastes good).

Sunday we met up with Gaby´s cousin Johnny and his family (who speak English) and were taken on a boat trip, to a church where they have the body of a girl that is in the process of being made a saint and had more local delicacies. After that we went to Gaby´s aunt house for dinner and a lovely walk along the boardwalk of Salado.

Monday we went out on more of a tour of Guayaquil with Gaby´s uncle Walter, having lunch at his house (following a spicy fish soup snack at 11 and ice cream at 12 - they could have warned me that there was going to be lunch as well! was fit to explode afterwards).

Monday evening was our really touristy moment as we went on a tour of Guayaquil on an open top bus. We went with Gaby´s mum, Jenny´, best friend and her husband. They took us for a nice meal afterwards, although how I managed to squeeze more food in is a mystery to me, similar to the mystery of how we manage to eat so much at Christmas! They were very sweet though and even negotiated me a free key ring as a souvenir from the restaurant.

To be honest it is impossible to give our money away here, as with the various friends and family of Gaby always insisting on taking us out, we are having to be quite sneaky in order to pay for anything! And even than our plots often fail and they beat us to it with payment for things! Obviously this is good news for my bank account, but I do feel bad being treated for everything by Gaby's family. They are far too generous.

Tuesday - Thursday we were in Cuenca (with 3 of Gaby´s aunties, her cousin Simon, her cousin Reuben´s wife Louisa and Louisa´s little boy Daniel AKA monster), which is again up in the mountains. We went to visit the Inca ruins at Ingapirca, which was great, as there were only about 4 other tourists there, so could really visit it in peace. We also went round some of the small towns around Cuenca, which are really pretty. Plus the scenery on the drive there was breathtaking (drive to Banos was also stunning although different kind of scenery, more rainforesty while Cuenca, more lagoons and llamas).

Of course we watched Ecuador beat Costa Rica on our last morning. Free Canelasoz afterwards courtesy of our hotel, as they were just so thrilled by the result! Unfortunately I was unable to watch the England game as I was trapped in a car to Guayaquil. Can´t remember the last time I missed an England game. I am officially a traitor! Consumed with guilt I tell you! Absolutely riddled with it! After the altitude in Cuenca I had a storming headache yesterday night, so I got an early night. That brings us up to today, which has only just started so you will have to wait and see what happens!

Love to allxxx