I'M AT: Hostal Oasis, Quito. It's a knocking shop. You can get a room for one hour, there are all sorts of unsavoury types hanging around, and things go bump in the night. But it's a good room for $5 a night and the Secret Garden's full.
I've got a sunburnt nose for persistent suncream avoidance but otherwise things are cool in Ecuador.
I've been doing Spanish for four hours a day, wiped out by the end. Too much really. But I did learn a bit, I think. I'm going to do more but not until I get to Cuenca.
Was in Otavalo at the weekend, a place with one of the biggest markets in South America - it's a couple of hours North from Quito by bus, bought a couple of hammocks, I don't quite know why, but they were only six quid each. Really beautiful. I spent this morning shipping them home to my folks.
Also got up at six in the morning to go the 'big animal' market. There were goats for sale... the Otavalenos wear their hair in braids and dress beautifully, but they're so poor, unbelievable. Saw a woman dressed to the nines grappling in the organic waste bin for a bit of dirty watermelon. There were loads of women begging, faces the colour of mahogany, sharing a tooth between them. No men begging, though.
I'm now in Quito again sorting a couple of things out before moving on after the weekend, I'll be going to Latacunga next to check out the huge crater of Quilotoa volcano. Then I'll do a trip into the jungle. Also hope to go to Mindo for a couple of days this week, it's not far from here - it's a nature reserve with plenty hiking, waterfalls, birdwatching and hummingbirds, by all accounts dead beautiful.
I am sort-of in the ghetto at the moment. A room with private bathroom is only $5 a night or about three quid so I can't complain. And they sell big beers in a shop just over the way.
On the football front, Liga de Quito were beaten 2-0 by Sao Paolo in the Copa Libertadores, in that match they talked about during the World Cup (turned out it was in Brazil, not here) and they went out 2-1 on aggregate. River Plate were knocked out as well and the riots lasted for twenty minutes, the TV showed everything. 'Welcome back. Now we're going straight back to the violence.'
The big derby game took place here yesterday afternoon, Liga de Qito against Deportivo Quito, Deportivo thrashed them 5-1 and set a new record for the fastest goal, 24 seconds. Things are not well at Liga. How quickly things can change.
They show ads during the game on a horizontal strip at the bottom of the screen here. The game carries on but all you can hear and basically see are the ads. Not pleasant, but at least I don't have to put up with Clive Tyldesley.
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