AspiringNomad

I set off as early as I could manage this morning as I wanted to make the most of my one full day in Madrid. I was out of the hotel at around 8:30am. I feel like I have walked about 100 miles today but I have squeezed in a weekends worth of sight seeing into about 8 hours!

To name just a few things I have done; I walked through Parc de El Retiro as the sun came up over the high rise buildings, I walked through the Main Square, I have visited a Hispanic Fayre, I’ve been to the Cathedral and witnessed some kind of Catholic celebration (classic tourist, not knowing what’s going on), I went to an observation deck to see the city from a height, I got on the wrong bus, I spent way too much on a cocktail (my €20 from Arron was well spent), I went to an art exhibition, I saw the main palace and about 3 other churches and I even had chance to nip into a McDonalds to use their toilets! I feel like I have this tourist lark down to a T!
Once I walked as far as my legs would take me, I headed back to my hotel to recharge before getting ready for some food and the Flamenco show that I booked a few days ago!

The Flamenco was a great way to finish off my time in Madrid, passionate, energetic and entertaining sums up what was a short but sweet visit to the Spanish capital.

It was a long and grueling 12hour flight to Quito. After getting excited to finally land after 10hours, the plane started to gain altitude again and over the speaker the captain announced that the weather was too bad to land in Quito. Assumingly because we were low on fuel, we had to land in Guayaquil (a city 400miles south west of Quito)
Everyone patiently waited on the plan for further instructions and after another 1.5hrs we were told that the plan was ready to head off to Quito again.
Another 45mins and finally we touchdown in the original destination. Perhaps the only time I wasnt cringing when everyone on the plan applauded as the plan landed.

Unfortunately about 3 flights landed at the same time so I waited another 1 hour to get through passport control.
I had arranged for someone from The Secret Garden hostel to meet me at the airport but as the only confirmation I had of this was a few vague emails. I wasn’t hopeful. As expected, no one was to be seen in the arrivals area for me. I waited around for another 30mins trying to ring the hostel until I saw a driver with ‘The Secret Garden’ on a bit on paper entering the airport.

Although he had actually come to pick up someone from a different flight, he was happy to take me too and so I waited again with him for ‘Cindy’.

Cindy came from a flight from Washington with a stop in Atlanta. It wasn’t long before we realised that not only did we have the exact itinerary as one another for the rest of the week but we also got on really well. By the time we got to the hostel and checked in, we had decided to change our reservations so we could stay in a room together.

We were both overly tired at this point went for a shower and headed to bed. Too excited to sleep we sat up chatting for another hour or so before eventually (at 4am english time) fell asleep.

It was karaoke night at the hostel last night and it didn’t take much (if any) persuasion for everyone to get up and sing a few songs. Teenage Dirtbag was a hit, Adele made an emotional appearance, mine, Caleb, and Ben’s rendition of American Boy by Estelle went down a treat and of course, ABBA was blaring through the speakers! There was classically an English man who was way too drunk in a poncho, who I think was removed from the ‘club’ across thee streetp last night because he was asleep on the chairs and is now sleeping on the sofa outside my room in the hostel. His flight to Bogota today at 2pm is going to be fun! I say ‘club’ because it was as small as someone’s living room with a tiny toilet in the back corner and the dj was also the barman! As basic as it was, it was perfect for a dance before heading to bed.

After a blast of a night, I was rudely reminded that drinking doesn’t come without its hangovers and I lay here, jetlagged and wide awake at 5:30am with Cindy asleep next me thinking about how amazing the last 24hrs have been. Maybe it’s the beer, maybe it’s this travel bug that everyone has been talking about but I have almost lost my voice from the laughing and talking I have been doing and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

We started of yesterday morning with breakfast on the terrace. The views of Quito were breathtaking! Cindy and I had agreed to join the walking tour at 10am from the hostel. It was 3 hours and our guide, Chris, took us round the city giving us so much information about the indigenous people, their rituals and different POI around Quito. In-between chatting to the other people on the tour, Chris told us about how the Sharmans use Guinea Pigs to diagnose health conditions and even got us all dancing on the top of a church! We ate Empanadas and learnt about tsantsas all while acclimatising to the altitude, just a casual 2850m above sea level.

A group of us agreed to carry on with a tour-filled day and jump on a shuttle bus to the ‘center of the world’ or more accurately Latitude 0°0’0”.
After grabbing a beer for the journey, we set off for another educational trip to the Ecuadorian center of the world.
Heading up another 1000m above sea level, we were getting increasing short of breath but still able to admire being at the only center which is possible to visit, as all the others are in the middle of the ocean!

The traffic was really bad on the way back in to Quito. In fear of missing happy hour, we asked to get off the bus and walked very quickly back to our hostel!
Drinks we flowing from very early on and everyone was in good spirits for what turned out to be a great night!

After a fairly ropey Wednesday morning, Max, Cindy and I managed to get up and out of the hostel at 1pm to explore Quito. We went to the top of the Basillica, had a very odd experience in an English bookshop and we even had chance to try ice cream and cheese (I won’t be having it again!)
To complete our day in Quito, we decided to eat at an authentic restaurant near our hostel. It was here that we were threatened by a man with a rock (We now refer to him as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson). We think he was asking us for 20$! The waitress tried to ask him to leave but in the end, the chef had to come out from the kitchen waving a machete knife and shouting something in Spanish! After a bit of a kerfuffle, Dwayne left. You can’t get much more authentic than that! After finishing the mountain of food that was on our plates and paid a small $3.50, we decided that not having learnt anything from the night before, we would sign up to the Party Bus night organised by our hostel.
The bus departed at 11pm (we had time for a nap before heading out). Our plastic cups stayed full for the ‘All you can drink’ trip around Quito before we were dropped off at the club.
We eventually managed to tear Cindy away from the dance floor at about 4am and head back to the hostel!

Unfortunately, some people leave today and some are going to continue on with Cindy and I to Cotopaxi on Thursday.
All in all, I think its safe to say that I am not going to want to come home!