Fancy a game of sh*thead?

Yes folks the universal game of sh*thead that I never knew existed has filled every quiet gap I´ve had and successfully managed to breach language barriers with practically every person I´ve met. I now know that in Denmark they call it Arsehole and in Spanish its called Burro (Donkey...so basically arsehole too!). Its funny how a card game can be so universally known, although I´m pretty sure that since I didn´t know it before I came travelling, none of my closest friends do either, but anyway, once you´re out, don´t be offended if someone asks you the above!

So, how am I? I am fanbloodytastic and once again aching from crazy activites! Although this time, I have no complaints and nothing but praises! Yesterday I went to a place called Mindo which is a small town in the Amazon side of Ecuador known for its funventure type activities. We had a 35 minute trek through the jungle, albeit through a well trodden and safety roped path down to the most fantastic waterfall. I´m not a great swimmer but even if I was, I still wouldn´t understand why people would jump 20ft down into a waterfall, but they did! It was quite fun to watch. Because of the humidity its almost always raining in some shape or form in that area and that means mud and lots of it which is all part of the fun. The amount of times I and friends almost fell into mud is countless and needless to say at the end of it, we ended up looking like we´d purposely tried to get as muddy as possible....nice!

So after almost 2 hours of doing that, what did we do? We rented quad bikes ofcourse! Now that was fun! Firstly because it was my first time, but secondly because when I was allowed to drive, I faced my own death a couple of times (that´s an exxageration mother dear don´t worry!). First time was breaking too hard down a very muddy and stony hill, second time was trying to overtake on a thin part of the track with a never ending drop on one side! One of the most fun things I´ve ever done, and I came back from that with a second coating of mud to add to the first!

I must say major thanks to my newest sweetheart Dany (and therefore thanks to Deji and Jamesito too for putting me in touch with her!). The first place Dany took me to was to watch the Easter procession of the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the old town. It was amazing, there were tons of people there, not unlike the Notting Hill Carnival. And I also found out something new! When I finally get to catch up with uploading my pix, you´ll get to see and awful lot of people wearing purple Ku Klux Klan outfits!!! Now obviously that´s not what they actually were, and I´m pretty sure the Klan took the idea from them, but it was hell of a scary to watch hundreds of hooded men in a procession! I kid you not! The idea is that they are repented sinners, many of them were also carrying crosses and wore chains on their feet, a few were self-flagelating and I have it on good authority that they do it for real!

Dany then took me for a nice lunch with the family, which was lovely, she was also the one who took me to Mindo as well as taking me to an amazing Cafe in Quito from which there were the most amazing views of the whole city! I´ve had a fantastic time with her and to think we only met two days ago!

I must say that Ecuador has been a proper activity location for me, on Thurday I walked 700m up the Cotopaxi volcano. Doesn´t sound like much until you factor in the fact that we started at 4100m above sea level and ended on 4800m! I never knew it could be so hard to breathe and that was with me walking like an old lady! Plus it was absolutely freezing for which to be honest I was ill equipped (I had envisioned spending months in sunshine, shows how good my research was huh!). However, at the end of the hour it took me to get up there, bringing up the rear behind everybody else!! I was chuffed as hell! The views from up there when the clouds cleared were amazing and when you think that its still a live volcano which they think will errupt again soon....well, I´m glad it didn´t happen the day we went up!

I also went to see the Mitad del Mundo, or the monument at the Equator. Wanna hear the funny part? When GPS came in, they found out they had built their monument 240m out from the real line! lol! Now isn´t that a bummer when you´ve built a whole mini-city with shops, restaurants and museums in the wrong place! The upshot is that they won´t publicise that fact at least not once you´re inside the city. Just outside it however, you´ll find men in yellow shirts who will point you to a project called Quitsato.

Quitsato was explained to us by a Fox Moulder wannabe (complete with melodrama) as an attempt to recognise a pre-Inca monument that was built on the exact correct line of the equator over 1000 years ago, but obviously without GPS! Currently its at risk because the moutain is being used as a quarry and the government already have their equator monument...but anyhoo, I shant go into it too much, google it. Its actually very interesting and worth having a read about!

So Ecuador is over, if I have any niggle its about the cold which I didn´t expect, they are having the worst wet season ever in a long time and it goes from hot to cold and wet very quickly. But it hasn´t taken away from my amazing experience!

I´m off to Peru tomorrow to be welcomed by the loving arms of the Cruzalegui family! Can´t wait!