Whinge warning! I am having another attempt at posting a blog. I have to say that the internet connection here is painfully slow. And it's not just that I have been spoilt by ADSL. Whinge over!

Today we went up to the old town of Quito. The buildings are in amazing condition and I can see why it is a world heritage site. Apart from the smog which seems to lie over the city the streets are very clean and there is no graffiti. When I compare it to London I am ashamed to say that the streets of London compare very unfavourably to the streets of Quito. And this country is considerably less well off in terms of economy.

We got back to our hotel yesterday and wanted to extend the stay. Unfortunately we could only extend it one night and then after that it is all booked up. The first challenge of our unplanned style holiday! But we went around to another hotel that we had been umming and ahhing about booking into way back in November and have got it at a much cheaper price than we were quoted then. I had been planned to do a bit of haggling but in the end didn't need to (phew!) So the lesson is to just chill out.....

We have pretty much got everything planned until we get back from the Galapagos. Then we are heading South and hopefully doing two or three days of hiking. We are going to get the bus to Riobamba and organise it (and the accommodation) when we arrive.

We have been getting up very early and going to bed early (up at 6:30 and in bed fast asleep by 9pm). This has meant that we have been up and about doing stuff early in the morning. It is quite strange to be up and about so early without having to make such an effort. It has also meant that we have crammed quite a lot of sight seeing into our days.

We only had one moment of nervousness today. We had been walking in the old town and seemed to have taken a wrong turn. We were the only people about and I suddenly felt very vulnerable. I practically sprinted to the top of the hill with poor Steve wondering what had happened! I can also say with certainty (after the sprint) that the altitude does affect you :-)

That's all for today.

Quito is a smoggy city. You can see it in the dense plumes of smoke that trail behind the buses, lingering long after the vehicles have gone, that coalesce into high fog banks obscuring the views of the mountains surrounding the city. You can feel this fact in your eyes which are sore and red at night. Even your snot takes on a denser and more interesting colour and texture.

The new town is bustling and anarchic. The roads are bad and the drivers just a little bit scary. But everything is very clean, most taxis are new and spotless, and the parks are beautiful. The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site - and you can see why: it is beautifully preserved with colonial churches, monastery and other buildings. We wandered into the Monastery of San Francisco this morning and it has the most fantastic red and gold chapel (off to the rightof the main altar). It also has the most absurd chapel that looks like it was designed by Jeff Koons, with a plastic Jesus and flashing fairy lights.

We have booked a trip out to the Galapagos for the 4th to 11th of February, and we will be out of touch during that time. Current plans are to move hotels tomorrow, go to the Mitad del Mundo exhibition tomorrow (the equator museum - Linda is desperate to see toilets flushing in different directions), spend Sunday pottering around and then fly out to the Galapagos on Monday.

Well we are now actually en route and are currently in Quito. It seems like months ago since we left London. Quito is very smoggy but the streets are clean. It is much warmer and more humid than I had imagined it would be and I think that I have a touch of sunstroke from wandering around in the sun this morning without a hat on. We have just organised our Galapagos trip and should be departing for that on Monday. We have managed to find a tourist superior boat for a reasonable price although I think the flight there is a bit of a rip off. But seeing as the airline have a bit of a monopoly on that route there isn't much that one can do about it. We were a bit overwhelmed at the airport yesterday and a bit paranoid walking around the city this morning but we seem to have got a bit more into our stride this afternoon. I am going to post a more detailed blog later in the week as the computer is very slow and the connection frustrating. But to anyone who gives a damn about our welfare we are safe and well!

Obsessive overplanning Pt. 93 ... There's a couple of problems with the itinerary below. Firstly, we can't break the return journey from the Galapagos at Guayaquil, because we want to leave a lot of our luggage in Quito at the South American Explorers clubhouse when we go out to the islands. We'll be a lot less cramped in the cabin that way. Secondly, we hardly spend any time actually looking at the countries - we're always flying around and not actually seeing.

So here is a revised route, overland from Quito in Ecuador to Lima in Peru:

• Riobamba
  1. 4 hours from Quito on the bus ($3).
  2. There's a fantastic looking train outing. Here's a description from the Footprint South American Handbook: "Shortly after leaving Sibombe the train starts climbing the famous Noriz del Diablo (Devil's Nose), a perpendicular ridge rising in the gorge of the Chanchan to a height of 305m. This almost insurmountable engineering obstacle was finally conquered when a series of switchbacks was built on a 5 1/2% grade.

     Next comes Alausi. After crossing the 720m long Shucos bridge, the train pulls into Palmira, on the crest of the first range of the Andes crossed by the railway. One by one the great snow-capped volcanoes begin to appear: Chimborazo, Corihuairazo, AItar and the burning heads of Tungurahuo and Songay, all seeming very close because of the clear air"

  3. Near the Sangay National Park
• Cuenca
  1. 6 hours from Riobamba ($5)
  2. This is another World Heritage Site
  3. It is possible to visit the jungle from here, including "Shaman trips"
• Loja
  1. 6 hours from Cuenca ($4.50)
  2. A"friendly, pleasant place"
  3. Near the Podocarpus National Park.
• Macara
  1. A much less hassled border crossing into Peru than the main route via Huaquillas

Once in Peru, the idea is to work our way down the Pacific coast to Lima, stopping at:

• Piura
• Chiclayo - many archaeological sites and a large witchcraft market.
• Trujillo - more pre-Colombian sites, including Chan Chan
• Huaraz - for the Chavin de Huantar site and the Huascaran National Park

Looking at this, we seem to be planning our route based on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This is completely unintentional, but we're going to all four sites in Ecuador, eight out of 10 sites in Peru, yet only two out of six in Bolivia. Although it's a bit underplanned, we're visiting half the sites in Chile (there's only two there).

We've been very lax in updating this log - all I can say is that a lot has been going on and we've been distracted. Since the last entry it's been my birthday (managed to get to 40), we've had Christmas and our wedding anniversary and moved most of our stuff out of the flat we're renting in London and into the, much smaller, flat we've bought in Norwich.

Anyway, enough excuses - what's been happening with the adventure? We've had the last of our vaccinations (although we need a Hep B booster when we get to New Zealand) and we are on the trial of our chosen malarial prophylaxis. We've both selected Larium - you take it weekly instead of daily and some of the areas we are going to have doxycycline-resistant malaria. Unfortunately, the list of possible side-effects and contraindications is a bit scary. I mean, who hasn't ever been depressed? So far we've managed to avoid any psychotic episdes, although Linda seems to be very dizzy in the mornings. Still that could be caused by getting up at 6am every morning to work out for two hours after having shared a couple of bottles of white wine the night before.

We've received our membership cards for South American Explorers which I think will be our place(s) in the first few months of travelling.

Linda is working hard at the moment - but still manages somehow to fit in some research for the holiday. Here is her latest opus:

Time Differences in hours from GMT
Country	Time Difference
Ecuador	-5
Peru	-5
Bolivia	-4
Chile (mainland)	-4
Chile (Easter Island)	-6
Tahiti	-10
Samoa	-11
New Zealand	+12
Fiji	+12
Australia (Sydney)	+10
Vietnam	+7
Hong Kong	+8
Thailand	+7
India	+5.5