Missed Cuenca, but celebrated my B-Day

This morning, I was supposed to wake up really early to fly to Cuenca. I don’t know what happened, but when I first remember having opened my eyes in the morning, it was 7:30am and already two hours late. So I ate breakfast and took a cab to the Quicentro, I worked there all morning for lunch I had called Patricio Jr., we were suppose to meet at 2pm, but as I called him he asked me for an extra hour and an extra and an extra, so I met a girl owning a stand at the Quicentro to get time to pass quicker. But at 5:30pm, I was really starving, so fuck Patricio, I went for lunch on my own at Burger King. After lunch, I went to a videogame centre in the Quicentro and played for an hour before meeting up with Leny.
With Leny, we went and have a couple beers, in a very nice little Italian restaurant and around 8:30pm, we went to her home. I got introduced to her three sisters, her father and her two kids. I played basketball, soccer and baseball with Sebastian and Alvaro-Eduardo until 10pm when I headed to the Tavu, a nightclub where I had decided to invite my friends to celebrate my birthday. I was served free drinks from 10:30pm to 11:30pm so I got quite wasted. By midnight, Carolina and Eduardo came with a bunch of friends and then came Raul with his girlfriend Maria-Rose, I was quite disappointed because nobody else came, but I had a great time. I’ve spent most of the night trying to keep my balance and dancing with Carolina and her friends. The music was great and the party was going on, it’s going to be a memorable birthday in a third world country. By three O’clock, when I had exhausted my energy dancing by the rhythm of the music, I took a cab back home. Unfortunately, by midway the cab had broke his wheel protector, and couldn’t go further, so I’ve done something I was highly discouraged to do, I hitchhiked backed home. Lucky as I am, I must of waited a total of 2mn for a car driver. As I got back home, I called Carolina to tell that I was safe and sound heading for my bed.

Job appointment and nice afternoon talk

I woke up quite late this morning, but drove down town to see Leny for a while before going to an interview for my next Job.
At 1:30pm was my appointment, I met up with Christian Wally a Swiss dude that has been working for Nestlé and who now works for the chamber of commerce of Ecuador. We spoke for over an hour about the Ecuadorian culture, development, market strategies of companies, and so on before finally getting to the most interesting point which was to know what I was going to be doing working for the them during the next month. I’m not quite clear in my head about that, so I’ll only tell my blog after I have started on Monday.
After the meeting, I took a cab straight to Lourdes and Patricio’s house to have lunch with the whole family and also a cousin and aunt that where special honor guests, because they now live in Florida and where in Ecuador for just two days.
After lunch, everybody left but I stayed with Patricio Jr., Pablo and Andy until 1:00am. Unbelievable, but time flew really fast. I had a great time speaking to all of them about absolutely everything, from politics, to love, through philosophy and sciences, business and relations, we spoke and spoke all day and night until the three of them took the car and drove me to Diego’s home where I’ve spent the night.

Wired break up!

This morning I took the bus to the Cinemark. Once I was there I decided to call several of friends and family, so I’ve spent the entire morning on the phone over the Atlantic. At lunch time, I met up with Leny, not to share food with her but to have a drink before meeting Carolina. At about 2:30pm, I met up with Carolina, we headed to Quicentro to have lunch in Crepes and Waffles. It was quite a nice lunch, speaking about my w-e in the Amazon and all kind of other stuff. By desert, I had found enough determination and courage to do what nobody likes doing, finding the words to break up. But the fun part is that as soon as we broke up, she invited me for a dance, she finally wanted to give my first dancing lesson. So we drove to a very touristy but full of bars quarter, picked a Cuban bar, and I finally learned a couple steps of meringue, salsa and flamenco. I felt like a fool being taught how to put one foot in front of the other, but never mind because if there is one thing the Latinos should teach our Western society, it definitely is how to dance. At around 6:00pm, when Carolina headed off, I met with Diego for another drink at the same place. Diego then dropped me for 8:15pm at the Polytechnique Theatre so that I could attend a Spanish dance show in which was participating Toya’s nice of 11 year old. There only were young children participating, from 5 to 15 year old people. I loved it especially seeing the youngest dance in such a disordinated manner. But it was absolutely beautiful, with beautiful dresses of every possible flashy color.
After the show, we went for a drink with the entire family, but I was really tired because of my flue and even though I was having a nice time speaking about Paris, I was happy to go back home for a nice sleep.

Wired hook up, but an extra experience

I woke up this morning for a normal day of work, I took the bus from San Rafael to Quito centre I went to the CCI mall.
For lunch I met up with Leny, the girl from the Corpei. Hooking up with her was an easy task and an enjoyable task even though she is a thirty year old woman which just made it more fun for me. After lunch, I got back to work until 6:00pm when I met back with Leny. She was supposed to go to export classes at the chamber of commerce, but in stead of that we took the bus until el Jardin and had a drink. For a good hour in a half we spoke about ourselves and the relation and guess what? Leny has been married and has two kids, Sebastian 7 and Alvaro-Eduardo nearly two. So I really am going to half a relation with an experienced girl.
I then took the cab to Diego’s place and drove back home with Toya. We had a good laugh together at the dinner table about the relation I was having and then headed for the news and in bed for a nice and long nice sleep. This day had totally pumped me out.

B-Day

This morning the wake up call was really hard, but I went for breakfast and tried to recover from last night intense party in the Amazon. There was no way a breakfast was enough; I have been hung out all day and you know what I think that I have by far not the worse hang out. After breakfast, I quickly packed all my belongings, gave a tip to the crew and hoped for the last time on that little boat. This time it was no more going to take us on an excursion, but it was only going to take to our starting point, the city of Coca.
As Christina and Daniela left straight away, because they were taking the preceding flight for Quito, we decided to go for a little and quick city tour before hanging out at the airport for our flight to leave.
As we got to Quito, Toya was waiting for me at the airport. So quick goodbye to everyone and then big hug to Toyita. She offered me to have lunch wherever I wanted, so we went to Burger King for my B-day, that’s what I was asking for. After lunch, we went to the post office, the hospital (Toya went to visit a friend), to the pharmacy because I was positive I had forgotten my toiletries which I actually had not and then home so that I could take a rest and recover from the night before.
My father woke me up with an adorable Birthday call I wasn’t expecting him to call me so late, but he did and I loved it. We then went to Blanche’s house to celebrate my Birthday with the Izurieta family, a little later Carolina came with a lot of candies for me and a very nice letter. We all had a nice talk around some chips and olives, speaking about movies, past events, my trip to the jungle and a lot of other stuff. For dinner we had Chinese food and for desert my Birthday cake. Then Blanche played piano for me as Carolina sung, I really enjoyed having Carolina sing a high pitched love song with her beautiful voice just for me. After that people started to leave, but I wasn’t ready for that yet, so I had a seat on the sofa with Raul.
He is suppose to be a ping pong champ and wanted to have a ping pong game with me, but not unless he could bet money. So I offered an amount, he thought it was ridiculous and didn’t want anything under 20 dollars. Ok so lets go for it! By the end the two set game I was US$20 dollar richer. Nice and easy money.
After the game, we all left. Toya, Fabian and I drove back home and had a good night sleep.

Thirs day in the Jungle

This morning we didn't need to leave too early because our day wasn’t to booked up.
In the morning we went to a very small city that had a museum for local art that was from the 8th to the 13th century. We could see kitchen jars, body remains jars but some tribes would eat the ashes of the dead in order to live with the help of their spirit. We then tried out sarbacane that locals would use to kill animals like monkeys or birds, it is a huge tube of at least three meters. There was one little shop in the village that was selling drinks, so we decided to stop for a little beer before going back to the Manatee. We then had a delicious lunch, our usual two hour break and then headed off to see some local indigenes in there house.
Local people cultivate a lot of yoca for their daily personal consumption and other plants like banana and cacao that they trade in order to earn a little money. They live in homes built with local wood, no walls and with a roof made of a special bamboo leaf that supposedly could last eight years.
At night as we got back to our ship nobody was brave enough to take a dive, so everybody went canoeing for half an hour, but I wanted to go swim in the middle of the Amazon. I thought it would be a unique experience especially that the river I dived in is the black Coca river reputed for its high yield of piranhas. After the swim, the diner was served and at the table we’ve been introduced to the boat crew that has been so good to us, and we’ve been given the program for our remaining time in the Oriente.
After diner we watched a couple pictures of animals that we have or could have seen on our tour, with explanations made by our guide. We then took our little boat and headed for the island in the middle of the river to make a fire camp. It was quite fun and we even had booze.
As we got back on the boat, I bought myself the only whiskey bottle on board so that Christina, Juan Pablo and me got very drunk. As drunk as having posed for pictures and not remember having done it. I remember breaking, I remember singing, talking, laughing and urinating and even going to bed but there just is some stuff I can’t recall.

Second day on the Manatee

We woke up at 5:15am this morning, took a quick breakfast and all left for an hour trip downstream on our little boat in order to reach one of the Napo Wildlife Center spots that was suppose to have a lot of birds. It sure had a lot of birds because we could hear them, but unfortunately we have just seen a far away flow of birds for the first fifteen minutes but we stayed until nine hoping to see some more and closer, but we didn’t. So we took our little up for fifteen minutes upstream, walked through puddles of mud, up and down hills, across rivers and finally arrived to our second Wildlife spot. There we have seen thousands and thousands of parrots up in the high trees, but for over forty-five minutes, they flew down in a little cave and we could literally see thousands of green parrots with blue wings on the inside no further than thirty meters away from us. I was a superb ballet of colorful green birds. We then walked back our way to the boat and drove our boat back to our main ship where we have once again been greeted with a welcome back cocktail. We then had a twenty minute rest before getting lunch, after lunch we had a good two hours rest and as everybody was exhausted they all locked themselves in their respective room, but I went at the bar and spoke with the crew for a good hour before heading to my room to write a couple lines before leaving for the afternoon excursion. We then boarded again our little boat and headed upstream this time for a very different vegetation type of high grass. We walked through this green for half an hour before reaching a paved path that led to a village that was built around a petrol resource and for a petrol industry, what a shame! But we didn’t actually see the village but only the school that was on the way to the lake. We waited for a good half hour speaking to military that were trying to fish before we got on a small wooden boat for a lake tour. On the tour, we saw birds of course, a couple monkeys, I tried to fish piranhas unsuccessfully and when night occurred and obscurity was ruling over the evening we took the spotlight out and searched for caiman alligators. It’s absolutely incredible the eyes of the caimans reflect red light as if they where cars breaking, it’s unbelievable. We also saw loads of glowing mosquitoes, some fireflies and others that wouldn't fly, but in such quantity, that we could guide ourselves by their light. You’ve got to see it to believe it. We then headed back to the port where we embarked, took a cap to another port of the village, took our little boat to cross the Napo River and stepped on our Manatee boat for dinner. After dinner I had a little talk with Christina to settle some small issues and started chilling at the bar with everyone. Had a nice and musically chilled evening.

First day in the Amazon

I woke up early this morning, had breakfast with the whole family. I left at 815am with Lucy to go to the chamber of commerce for an interview for my new job. I think the interview went OK, but it was really fast, no more than fifteen minutes.
I then changed in Lucy’s office and took a cab to the airport. I met up with people going with me on the trip in the Amazon 4 Californians of over 49 years (Karen, Chet, Richard and David), a Quitonian (Juan Pablo) and Alejandra and David who are the son and daughter of the owner of the Manatee boat.
Great to leave, but I was hopping for some better female company, but we can’t always get it all.
The flight leaves and for the 20 minutes it lasted until the city of Coca, I spoke to Richard. As we land in Coca, the rain falls but quickly the sun makes an apparition and as we get to the port we were embarking from, I see two astonishing Latino girls, God only knows how much I wish they were to come with us on the tour. But everybody knows how lucky I can get and these two girls (Christina and Daniela) had just taken the previous flight and are going to embark the Manatee with the rest of the group. I walk through the city of Coca before getting on the cruise, buy a case of beer for the cruise and embark with a smile on my face on a small motorized boat that is going to take us for a half hour trip down stream until the Manatee.
As we get on our three floor boat, a welcome cocktail is served to us followed by a delicious lunch, I must say the service and food on the boat were first class. After lunch we had a two hour break before going on our first Amazonian expedition. So I settle in the bar drink my first beer with Juan Pablo. As I’m drinking this beverage, I see Christina smoking a cigarette by her self on the terrace. I think her company might be more profitable so I run speak to her, I’m able to get her smile and even laugh, I’m on my way! Then her sister Daniela comes up to us and Christina heads off for her turn in the shower. I speak for a little while with Daniela, head for a card game and start playing forty with her, Christina gets out of the shower and decides to take the winner. So by “gallantry” I decide to loose and have them play one another. But I then get to take the winner Christina and beat her so that we all are winner with one win each. At four a clock, our guide comes up to give us several rules to follow on the boat, a brief overview of what is ahead of us for the next three days and hand us each a pair of boots in order to adventure ourselves on the muddy paths. Yes, it is quite usual that the Napo River rises by three meters in a night. Then first excursion, we embark a small boat that takes us through an affluent of the Napo. First deep insight of the Amazon, outstanding landscapes, incredibly dense vegetation and tons of different types of colorful birds.
As dawn hits the Amazon around 645pm, we are guided by a spotlight of our guide (Raul) and the incredible sight of our boat driver. We listen to the beautiful melody that birds are offering us and drive back to the Manatee. I grab Christina’s hand in the most perfect secret and this becomes the first step towards out three day relationship in the depths of the Amazon.
We then got back on our ship, had a delicious dinner and headed off for a night land based expedition through the forest. We could hear a lot of different animals, owls, monkeys and so on, but we actually just saw bats, a viper snake and lots of different insects.
We walked in a circle through a muddy path and an outstanding diversity vegetation, they were plants of all size, with leaves of all shapes and different colors we might even have seen insects that are unknown by scientists and this just seemed unbelievable to me.
We then got back on the Manatee and as most adventurers headed to the sack, I had a couple bears with the staff in the bar before as well going to my bed.

Nice family dinner

Today I woke up with a phone call of Lucy that was telling me that I am expected on Friday at 9:00am to have an interview for my new next job. Great!
I woke up and chilled in the morning, around 11:30am Fabian drove me to the city centre, I had to go to the central bank to change some 100 dollar bills before I fly to the Oriente tomorrow morning after my interview. After that I went and buy several toiletries stuff for my trip and headed to the Corpei where I had a meeting with Marco Vernoj for getting extra information for my reports.
I waited for Marco for over 45mn and during that time I spoke and listened to music with the young (~28) and good looking secretary, Leny. Two hours later as I stepped out, she asked me for my email, so I gave it to her. As I opened my mail to send some information of my meeting to David, I had a really nice surprise. Leny had written me a very enjoyable mail telling me how much she appreciated the time spent with me and how good of a man I am. As you can imagine I responded straight and asked her out for a drink or something of the kind.
I then got a call from Toya who told me that tonight’s plans have changed because she was ill and couldn’t take care of me. So I decided to go home and have a little talk with her which I think she appreciated, but as soon as I left the room, she was fast asleep, so I went read in my room and packed to sleep overnight at Diego Izurieta’s and for the w-e in the Amazon on a tour trip.
At 7:30pm, a taxi driver was waiting for me on the door step to take me to Diego home. I got there, played cars, danced and laughed with Felipe until Lucy and Diego arrived from there day of work.
Around 9:30pm, Lucy, Diego and I left for a family reception that has been organized by Raul Izurieta to celebrate his nephews’ graduation. Andreas Izurieta has just graduated from high school and Raul Bermeo just finished his bachelor degree for Economics in Cornell.
It was a very formal reception with suit and tie. We had a cocktail and a delicious dinner with one of the best steak meet I have ever eaten. For desert, Raul handed over to the graduates plates on which was written down their achievement, followed by a serie of speeches and finally Raul handed a little gift, a keychain to welcome me in the family so I had to go on with a little speech, but my neck got swollen with the stress and after 30 words I was able to spite, I was chocking in my tie and had to end my speech.
But what an adorable gift and a nice thought it was. After the speeches Lucy, Diego and I headed off for a good night sleep in Quito.

Meeting with David and Movie

I woke up and drove to the office to meet up with David, but on the way to the office I receive a call telling me that I better meet him at 3:00pm at the Corpei. So Toya nicely dropped me in the Cinemark. I worked the entire morning and for lunch I surprised Carolina in front of her University, University of Las Americas. We drove together to the mall el Jardin for lunch where we had a fast sandwich before I left her to go to the meeting with my boss.
I showed my boss the results of my work, he seemed quite happy considering the fact that he had not really given much directions to follow. I then drove with my boss to yoghurt restaurant that sells delicious fruit yoghurt, miam miam! David then dropped me in the Cinemark, where I met up for the second night in a row with Diego for dinner. Once again, we talked about all kind of different stuff, it was really nice. I then met up with Toya and Fabian to see a movie called Something Like Love, it was a good laugh and with a great soundtrack, great to kill time and change your mind. We then drove back home and had a good long night sleep.

Nice lunch and dinner

I woke up this morning and drove to the Quicentro, where I worked all morning. For lunch I met up with Daniel and had a wonderful in Crepes and Waffles. I then went back to work, met up with my girlfriend and had a drink with her in a touristy hippy place. She then dropped me back at the Quicentro where I had dinner with Diego Vallejo. We talked of all kind of stuff, his job, my ambition, the state of actual economy and so on. It was very interesting especially to see and understand the culture of educated Ecuadorian. We had dinner for over two in a half hour. He then drove to Diego Izurieta’s home where I played for a while with Felipe and then drove home with Fabian.

Work

I woke up late this morning and drove the office where I met with my boss that handed over my bag with my working material, I had left it at his mother's home over the w-e as saturday night I had gone to a night club with my bosse's brother Daniel. I then took a cab to the Cinemark and have spent the entire day in front of my computer researching for additional information that could be of use for my market analysis report. By 7:00pm I took a break and played Counter-Strike in a video game arena, I kicked ass and met a couple people and Enricke, the arena manager who wanted to have a one to one game against. I kicked his ass and therefore he offered me the last hour of gaming. I got back home at 10:00pm and had dinner in front of the TV set as I watched the news.

Lether clothing and drive back

We woke up around nine in the morning and met up in the breakfast lounge at 9:00am.
We played mini-golf that of course I won by only one shot before Fabian and last Toya.
We then drove off for the village of for Cotacachi, a small village reputed for its leather work.
I bought my first piece of leather clothing that is neither belt nor a pair of shoes, it’s actually a jacket. Never did I think I would be carrying any leather, but this jacket is outstanding combining three different leather colors. After this enjoyable shopping morning, we went for lunch in a delicious and beautiful restaurant. I had a delicious national fish called corviche.
We then drove back home, I waited to see a little of the beautiful landscapes that the province of Imbabura offers before falling asleep for all the rest of the car journey. I woke up as we reached home, I’ve spent all the rest of the evening in front of the TV set.

W-E up North with Toya and Fabian

This morning Toya Fabian and I leave at 9:00am for a w-e up North together to the Imbabura province. I slept the entire trip until we got to Otavalo. There is a very nice colorful and indigenous artisan market in the city which especially animated on Saturdays. We wondered around bought a couple things that we had to bargain every time for half the required price.
Sometimes for them to lower the price, we even needed to say that we weren’t greengos (US Americans). Yep, the province is touristful and the locals take advantage of it, absolutely normal. We then drove to Ibarra, which is a neighboring city to see statue Toya’s grandfather, he has been an eminent figure for the small city and a nationwide famous lawyer. But we didn’t only go for that, we also had a delicious pailla ice cream. It’s called an ice cream, but there actually is no cream, it’s only the juice of the fruit that is frozen, delicious!
After what, we drove a little further to the village of San Antonio which is reputed for its handicrafts on wood. We visited a couple shops, and left, no more. We once again drove to a rally racing track which actually goes all around the San Pablo lake.
We then drove to our hotel where we were going to stay over night, a very nice hotel with water-skiing facilities and a mini golf. As we arrived at the hotel, a band of mariachi was playing local music. We just chilled out until dinner time and then had a very nice dinner, not only the dinner was delicious, but we had a very pleasant talk that lasted until the dinner lounge closed. We then headed to bed for a very peaceful night sleep.

Party with Danny

Early wake up call this morning, so that I could get a fill day of work at Cinemark.
I worked all morning and all afternoon, before I got a head ache because of having focused on my computer screen all day. So I decided to take a break and I met up with Carolina. We had a beer and then I accompanied her to her flamenco dance lesson. What a disaster, I was expecting her to master the dance, but she dances as a beginner. After her dance class, I headed back to the Cinemark to work a little more in an internet café. I got to meet another person named Diego Vallejo who is law student in the University Catholica. We had a little talk and then he dropped me not far from Daniel’s home. I walked till his place and then we went together to a night club where several of his friends where having a party. We got there around 10:15pm and there was free whisky and vodka until 11:30pm. You can imagine, we drunk and drunk as much as we could before the “T time”. I was having a lot of fun, there was a lot of hot girls and good music, what more do you expect in a night club? But at midnight, a bouncer grabs my arm and tells me that somebody is waiting for me outside. No mistake, that somebody was my girlfriend, shit! She came in and wouldn’t let me go of the whole evening, so we danced together all night and there was no way I could get my eye on some other girl. It was a great night, but it could have been so much better without Carolina. Whatever, I got to assume my acts. At 3:15am I took a cab back home to San Golqui. I had a short night sleep.

Not much interest, but finished my first report

Late wake up call, but I finished my banana report, I only need to go to the embassies to gather the final information. I then started watching another Al Pacino movie, Devil’s Advocate. Toya then came back from her busy morning and drove me to the Cinemark.
I worked for the whole afternoon on the next report, wondered around and finally got back home with Fabian.
On the way back, we bought movie of Jet Li to fill up our evening schedule.

Nice working day and boring movie

I got up this morning a little late, to much movie last night. Toya then dropped in front of the Quicentro, so that I could get settled to work in an internet café, I worked until 1:00pm and had lunch in crêpes and waffles with Daniel. It was really nice to spend lunch with him, we talked about his first day at work for Coca-Cola among a lot of other things. I then headed back to work for a small while before meeting up with Carolina in the Cinemarkt. By pure chance we met up with two other of her friends had a lovely very heavy in calories desert. I then accompanied Carolina to her flamenco dance class and got back to work. Toya then phoned me to organize a movie session with Fabian in the Cinemarkt for 7:50pm. I worked till then and we went and see Mr. and Mrs Smith, what a bad movie if it didn’t have Bradt Pitt and Angelina Jolie, it would be worth absolutely nothing. But whatever, if you want to see good movies, you will definitely cross some crappy ones. We then went for dinner together and coffee together in the same place I had taken my desert with Carolina and her friends.
By the end of the meal Toya realized that she had lost her cell phone so we called it and luckily some body answered, it was the movie theatre manager. So I rushed down stairs to get a hand on her phone and I was told that she had also lost her car key set.
After that, we were able to drive home for a nice and peaceful night of sleep.

Not much, but exhausting day

Got up and went to the small neighbouring internet café in San Golqui, I worked there for two good hours before Toya picked me up and headed to the city. She dropped me in Quito centre where I continued with work, phoned my family and a couple friends. I then went for a sandwich and back to work. In the late afternoon, I met up with Carolina and two of her friends for a beer, those girls talked to me about there presentation they had to do on some coffee product. We then headed towards the hotel where they had done their presentation to get the results and to pick up all the tools they had used for their presentation.
Carolina then drove me to Diego’s home where I met with Toya and drove back home. I was totally exhausted, I fell asleep as we watched the news on TV. I woke up for a very light dinner and sat back down in front of the TV set to watch again Scent of a Women, I had bought the DVD. What a great movie, I put this movie on in case I fell asleep again, but this movie kept me awake until the very last second.

Work, painfull banks and Carolina

Got up to go work. Yes, back to week day!
Toya drove to one of if not Quito’s biggest mall, el Jardin. I was supposed to work there, but there was no convenient internet café. So I walked around until I found the first internet spot and worked for the entire morning. Around 1:30pm, I stopped working and looked for a bank to make some change because here in Ecuador most stores do not accept $US 100 bills, thus I had to make some change, but no bank either will accept to make some change. I went to at least 4 different banks before one of them would accept giving smaller notes. The good point is that I crossed a DVD shop that had a big choice, so I bought to movies of Al Paccino.
After having filled my wallet with small banknotes, I jogged back to el Jardin because I was late, I had given an appointment to my girl friend for lunch. We had a delicious lunch in a Japanese restaurant and then wondered around the mall before meeting up with one of her friends with who she had to set up the last details of a presentation she were to give tomorrow.
After that, we walked to a cloth store where she met up with her mother and another friend. She had to buy some black and red cloth to make a flamenco dress she would use for a show in which she is participating in two weeks.
I got bored so I decided to go by my own for some more work around a coffee and a tomato mozzarella. Then I took a taxi and drove to Daniel’s home where I was suppose to meet up with my boss. As David arrived late, I had a good 45mn talk with Daniel.
I then got to see David who specified what he was expecting out of my work, I then went with him to a MegaMaxi (mega Tesco or Migro MMM) where he showed me around and pointed out the products that were his. We did a little shopping and I bought two bottles of Bordeaux wine and a CD player as a gift for Toya and Fabian. We then drove back to Daniel’s home for diner.
After diner Toya came and pick me so that we could go get Diego, Lucy, Alegria and Felipe at the airport. They were gone for a week vacation in Chicago to see Mauricio. We then dropped them home had a drink at their place and drove back home. As we got home I handed Toya and Fabian their present, figured out how the CD player works and headed to bed for a good night sleep.

City centre tour and nice suprise

This morning, I layed in the sun with a nice book. For lunch Toya Fabian and I drove to Quito’s old historic centre. We had a delicious lunch in a museum that has been turned into a restaurant. After that, we went for a tour of the old city, we first went to the historic museum to have a little background of the Ecuadorian history from prehistoric times to the XVIII century. Then went to visit a couple churches as I told you there are over 40 churches in the old city only.
After all these interesting visits, Toya and Fabian drove me to the Cinemark shopping centre where I was suppose to meet the girl I had hooked up with on Friday evening. What a wired apprehension I had, I didn’t know what kind of girl I was to expect. But what a pleasant surprise, the Carolina was actually quite pretty and above all, we had a very nice time together. We sat in a restaurant to have a chocolate fruit fondue and discussed about all kind of stuff. We discovered that her grandfather actually worked in close collaboration with Toya’s brother Santiago. Lucky me! You never know what you awe to expect when you hook up in the dark and in a room where communication is impossible because of the high decibels.
Then I drove back home in a cab with a smile on my face, had dinner watched TV and got a nice night sleep.

What's happening? Ok for a bull fight

I woke up a first time at nine this morning, it was already over three hours after the supposed wake up call to catch the flight for Cuenca. So I didn’t bother much and fell back asleep until 1:00pm. Then I got up and wondered around the flat I was in. Nobody, the flat was empty, the only living element in the flat was an unattractive tiny little dog.
So I called Toya and Fabian to know what was going on and what I was to do. But I was not going to Cuenca anymore, Toya was going to some and get me to go to a bull fight. So I waited and looked in the fridge if there was anything to breakfast, but in that fridge there was a lot of dishes, but all empty. So as Toya came, we drove to MacDonald and I took the biggest possible menu to take away on the way to the bull arena. Once at the bull arena, I got to meet another family member of my age, Benjamin. A really nice youngster that explained all about the corrida de torros. There has been six bulls, and one of the corrida was with a horse, very elegant show and a very nice first experience.
As we drove back home, we stopped at Toya’s father’s house, because it’s been a week that he is sick.
Then we drove back home and I sat in front of the TV set for the rest of the night. By the way I saw a movie of Al Paccino that I advise to everyone of you: Parfum de Mujer.

Memorable day

This morning, I still hadn’t got a response from David. So I still was with no concrete directions, still not knowing what my boss was wanting me to do.
Never mind, I decided to go to an internet café and gather the maximum possible information on the banana market. At noon, Fabian called me and tolled me that I could go to Cuenca (3rd city of Ecuador) with a cousin, Daniel Bermeo. He is actually one of my bosses brother.
Daniel was going to Cuenca for a challenger tennis tournament.
I obviously accepted the offer and ten minutes later, Fabian and Toya picked me up in the internet café and drove me home (not even 2km) so that I could get packed for the journey.
We then went, the three of us, to a delicious Italian restaurant for lunch and drove straight to the airport where I’ve met up with Danny. As usual in an airport, we waited in the line, registered our luggage, passed the security checks and boarded the plane.
But something really unusual happened, as the plane got to the take off slope, we got a message from the steward saying that there is a plane blocked in the middle of the slope and that for the next half hour, we would not be able to take off.
What do you say to that? Ok captain, we will follow the orders! You actually don’t really have much of a choice.
But when the captain come back up to you to tell you that we are going back to the gate and that we shall unboard the plane.
You really start to wonder why the plane in front of you doesn’t get the hell out of our take off ramp.
As Danny and I get off the plane, we are bombarded by all kind of different information. I plane shall leave in an hour, two hours, not leave before the next morning, actually it shall leave in an hour in a half.
What to believe, nobody had an idea. But I took advantage of this opportunity to speak to the cute girl of our aircraft, no not a steward, a plane passenger. Cecilia is actually a girl living in Cuenca, who actually came to Quito for her younger sister to get a very serious operation.
We’ve chatted for over an hour and have exchanged details before we got a final piece of information from the company airline telling us that the flight would definitely not take us to our final destination before the next morning at the first hour, 7:15am take off.
As everybody started to leave the airport, Danny him went back to the departure hall, because he was desperate to go to Cuenca for his tournament, as I stayed to look over our baggage and talk to Cecilia.
Cecilia left and Danny came back with one single seat on another airline that would be boarding any minute from now. He was going to leave without me, but I was going to attend Riccardo Jr.’s big party celebration for his doctorate graduation.
I first went to the Bermeo’s house where Raul, Daniel older brother and by little younger than David, lend me one of his blazers ties socks and pans. It all was a little small, but it definitely looked smarter than my polo and jeans.
We then drove to Riccardo’s place but we were two hours late, at 9:00pm. As we got there, it was the family speech session. What an embarrassment to get there so late, but whatever, I was starving so shoved up a couple canapés that were going around.
As Riccardo father and son had finished their speech, the party could go on.
What a lot of fun, I have never seen such a celebration, everybody was drinking from 7 to 77 year old. There wasn’t a minute to get bored, everybody was really social, I got to meet a small part of the family I still hadn’t met and got to meet some of the family’s business partners and so on.
Never have I ever seen anything like that before, not even in bar mitzvahs is there a drinking culture like this one, I was loving it.
By midnight, the people left at the party were mainly the family members. Several of them were over joyful but I was starting to feel a daisy step and an unknown constant smile hanging on my face, but drinking didn’t stop it just intensified before we headed off.
We are David, Raul and his girlfriend Maria José and Riccardo (not the new doctorate) and his wife Veronica. We went to a bullfighting ring that was turned into a nightclub. It was an overloaded nightclub, but that was not going to unplease me, because if it wasn’t loaded, people would dance the salsa style and I don’t know about it. So this was perfect, I could dance my style. I danced for a good 20’ with Veronica as we were on our own in the middle of the dance floor, but as the others got back, I decided to dance the “podium”, and so I went and made a fool out of myself.
But as soon as I dropped off the podium, Pablo came up to me, I didn’t even notice he was in the night club. He took me through the night club towards his group of usual friends that were here with him. But I didn’t stay there for long, because another person I didn’t know this time took my hand and took me towards one of his group of friends, I started dancing and in no more than ten minutes, I had hooked up with Carolina, my first novia here in Ecuador.
I stayed with her until the nightclub closed which was actually no more than half an hour, but I got her details. Then I met back with the initial group I had come with, but when it got to leaving, we still had to pay our drinks we had taken while dancing. What a mess, everybody was pushing to get through and pay there share before the others. Luckily I am tall and I’ve been able to reach the counter quickly, but seriously that system was a disaster.
Riccardo and his wife drove me back to the Bermeo’s home where I was suppose to spend the night, but I actually only had one hour left before the wake up call to drive to the airport for Cuenca.

What a great day, full of unexpected experience, but definitely unforgettable.

Sport club

After I have checked my mail to realize that David had not yet sent me an answer to my question, I left with Toya for a beautiful sport club which is an hour away from their home.
We had a very nice tennis game, had a delicious lunch, I hit a couple golf balls in the practice while Toya was at the hair dresser and we went back home.
On the way back we stopped in a mall in San Golqui, the closest village around the Izurietas home. As Toya went for a couple copies of a document she had Fabian, I went for a tout in a mirror maze and then I went for dinner in a fast-food.
It has been a great day, the privileged time I spent with Toya was more than enjoyable, we had a lot of various talks with a couple laughs especially over lunch when I was picking on two girls at the neighbouring table no older than seventeen but already over sophisticated.

Work, but not really

This morning, I went to the Corpei, which is one of the company’s market study offices.
I spoke to a person to try to clarify what I am suppose to do for work, what is exactly required in the reports I will be handing in. But unfortunately, the person I met seemed as confused as I was, he told me to ask directly to David and helped me with another couple useful links that may come in handy for my research.
So as I left the office, I looked for an internet café to write a mail to my boss David. For the rest of the day I went shopping (I now have the official shirt of the Ecuadorian soccer team) and surfing on the web. At 5:00pm, after the soccer match between Colombia 3 and 0 Ecuador that I followed in the Catholic University of Quito, I went home by bus and as I had taken the wrong bus, I had a 30’ walk before I could chill and do nothing more for the rest of the evening.
I haven’t done much over the day, because I hadn’t much to do but also because I still was exhausted due to yesterday’s sickness.

Sick sick sick all day

As a wake up call, I ran to the toilets, I was so sick. I’ve spent most of my day in bed with an awful stomach ache. Today I just got up to sit at the table for lunch with three other women (Alejandra, Mariesol & Christina).
The meal was a lot of fun, especially Christina who has been a very joyful girl. The lunch was filled with laughs and ended with a photo album look and explanation.

First day of work and due payed

I woke up this morning for my first working day here in Ecuador.
I m going to be working for a company which trades medicinal herbs and fruits to foreign countries.
My job will be to do market analysis of several specific fruits and herbs in order to best enter or exploit the US, EU or/and Canadian market.
The good part of this job is that I can work anywhere at anytime, I just need an internet connection and my head.
So I headed off for an internet café, I looked up several sites and several files that had been given to me, but I quickly realized that I could not start any concrete work before my task would be more specific, I have a list of over 30 different products and the EU market still is divided between all the countries that compose it. Whatever.
I decided to stop working and surf the internet until I would have more specific information.
After a while I got bored and went shopping, I haven’t found anything but a great pair of shoes to play sports wet grass, I’m sure they are going to be really useful over the coming year.
I then took a cab to Diego place to say buy to the family before they leave for a week in Chicago to visit his brother Mauricio.
For dinner I decided to pay my due to Fabian and went to a delicious French restaurant
with Fabian and Toya. It was a real fest. It had been a long time since I hadn’t eaten as well.
On the way home Fabian and I already fell sick, so we rushed to bed.

Resting Sunday

Woke up at 11:00am hung out doing nothing, went back to bed for a nap woke up and passed out again. As I sayed, resting sunday or even, lazy sunday.

Soccer Match: Ecuador 2 - Argentina 0

I got up this morning and drove to Pablo’s house. I was supposed to meet him to go with him at a very important soccer match opposing Ecuador to Argentina. It was going to be my first experience in soccer on the South American continent, the football continent. I got to his home at about 11:30am, but I didn’t see him before 1:30pm, he was taking his time in the shower as I was having a nice chat with his Mum and Dad. As soon as Pablo was ready, we left for the stadium, we got there by 2:00pm, met with his group of friends (the same one that had attended the barbecue) and got in the stadium. We got in at two knowing that the game was not starting before 4:00pm, but the stadium was already overcrowded and entirely yellow, representing the colours of Ecuador. As I said, this was going to be a very important match for Ecuador to be able to qualify for the World Cup 2006, which is going to take place in Germany. But Ecuador has only beaten twice Argentina over the past 45 games, so the challenge was going to be really hard. At 4:00pm, the match started in an absolutely great atmosphere. I must say that there was 40’000 Ecuadorian supporters for something like 200 Argentinean supporters. During the first half, Ecuador has been leading the game but Argentina had the most obvious opportunity to score. At the very beginning of the second half, Ecuador opens the score. The crowd went crazy and it started raining beer. The final score was 2 to 0 for Ecuador, this little country in the middle of the world had achieved an exploit and the stadium loved it.
After the game, we’ve spent some time at one of Pablos friends that has an apartment right near by the stadium. Once again, with Pablos friends I got bored. So I called Fabian and met him at Pablos house and drove home with him, had dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Soccer field 

A revolution has occurred

I woke up this morning and chilled at home, not much has happened before I left with Toya for lunch we were invited at some friends of hers why are in the tourism industry and who have a daughter of my age. It was quite a big lunch about 15 people had been invited.
I sat at a table, with the daughter of my age, her brother and three boring grand parents. Boring lunch, but after lunch I started discussing with a magazine journalist who writes reviews about his travels in magazines like National Geographic. This man was an expert about the Caribbean, so we talked about his experience and mine in the islands. We then derived our talk onto the sixties and the evolution that has taken place. The evolution that was driven by the music but that had an affect on women’s rights, on social rights, on drogues…
Very interesting talk.
After the lunch and the talk, Toya drove me to Quicentro, where I bought another couple CDs and then browsed on the internet for a while. I looked up the latest evolution in transistors.
That’s it a revolution has occurred, and not anyone, the nanotechnology revolution.
Researchers from the University of Alberta have developed the first transistor built out of one molecule. I was so excited, I researched for every bit of information I could find about this new discovery.
Then, Fabian picked me up and we drove home together. In the car, interesting talks about nanotechnologies impact on economics and politics.
When we got home we had a little dinner and watched TV. I decided to stay up until 1:30am to call my parents and share my emotion about this revolution that has occurred in Canada.

Bet and get to know

This morning, nice and descent wake up call. What a relief!
I spent the entire morning in Fabian’s mushroom factory. I first had a detailed visit and explanation every process that has to be taken in order to increase productivity. It actually is much more complicated than it seems like to grow mushrooms. There is a three stage process which has to be constantly checked, because any slight unpredicted event may have a huge impact on the result. Whatever, I’m not here to give you an economic nor an agriculture class, but it sure was interesting. After the visit I attended a seminar on positive behaviour when going to work given to the workers of the factory, some ideas in the seminar were very interesting, I had a good time listening to it for over two hours even though it was very repetitive.
Then I came back home for lunch. Over lunch I took a bet with Fabian that Airbus was a French industry held in majority by French stockholders. I now know that I was totally wrong European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company owns 80 percent of the stocks and a British Aerospace holds the last 20 percent. Therefore, I owe Toya and Fabian a nice dinner.
After lunch, Fabian dropped me in Quicentro, one of Quito’s largest mall. I went there looking for a CD that I didn’t find, but I ended up buying some other, malls are so attracting, I couldn’t step out with empty hands. I then met up with Alexis, her boyfriend Jack and her brother Adrien for a fondue in a tiny mall called Cinemark, it was a lot of fun we talked about all kind of usual get to know people rendez-vous. After a while, they decided to head off for a nap and I went to meet up with Toya at Diego’s home. I played for a while with Filipe, what a cute baby.
When Diego got back, we went home for supper, watched TV and passed out.

Seen better days

Worse wake up call of my life, whatever, no more details. You know how it can feel like waking up after having been wasted. Only I didn’t know it could be that bad!
At 11:00am I left home with Toya to go to the neighbouring police office to register the car matriculation for the year 2005. What a mess, the police had lost the files so it took hours before they could find it back. Then I went with Toya to Burger King, because my stomach didn’t feel like eating anything else, but I wasn’t even able to eat the entire Whopper menu.
After lunch we drove to the Guayasamin museum. Guayasamin is the most popular Ecuadorian painter, a surrealistic. He painted a little like Picasso, only he had a lot of sadness to express through his paintings. He was an Ecuadorian indigene who grew up in a poor family, and expressed through his paintings, the sorrow of his people and of a lot of other people throughout the planet. I personally like his paintings even though I don’t feel a thing for Picasso’s art.
Toya then dropped me off in front of the Iberia agency, so that I could try change my return ticket to go to Bordeaux instead of Paris. Worse service ever in Iberia, I waited for over an hour, and once it was my turn, the person that was taking care of me picked up the phone for another half hour and then told me in about five minutes that my route could not be changed because of the low cost fares I paid for my ticket.
Things were not going the way I wanted today, so I decided to walk to the closest mall to buy a couple music CDs and try to shove up another Burger King menu that once again I was unable to finish. At 7:30pm I met up with Toya to go to a classic music concert organized by Sofia, Fabian’s niece. It was absolutely unbelievable, 6 musicians of this five year old Franz List conservatory have won world wide price recognitions. One of the musicians was a solist piano player no older than ten and played like Mozart, what a joy to listen to relaxing music after the hard day I’ve just spent.
After the concert, I called Alexis, a girl friend of a friend from Geneva, to go out with her in a club called cien-ochenta. It was not a great party, but her and her girlfriends were really hot. So as you can imagine I enjoyed it. We stayed in the club for more less an hour in a half and then her chauffer, her boyfriend and herself drove me back home.

Barbecue

I left home this morning for an internet café, for two hours I wrote a couple emails and updated my blog. As I was on the computer, I got a call from Jore who invited me for a party on Saturday next week and I also got a call from Pablo who invited me for a barbecue this afternoon. I accepted the barbecue with joy. I met up with him around 2:30pm, we did a little barbecue shopping (meat and alcohol) with some of his. And then drove to another of his friend for the barbecue, for the entire afternoon, we were six boys for two girls. The seven of them knew themselves since kindergarten, at first it was very hard to enter the group. But then Pablo and one of his friends, Alexandro, decided to get me waisted, which they have achieved because as of 7:00pm I cannot remember what happened, I was totally plastered. Supposedly, I met up with Fabian and Toya around 8:30pm and we ate at McDonalds, I can’t recall a thing.
But it was nice to meet young people to hang out with.

Trip to the coast and graduation celebration

This morning I woke up relatively early in order to go with Patrico Jr., Pablo and Daniel (a complicated Izurieta family link) for the first time out of the Andes on what Ecuadorians call the coast(Even though it's not on the coast, it's just on the west of the Andes).
They picked me up around 7:30am and we drove for hours to go to a hacienda which produces giant bamboo, a very new agricultural product.
On the road to the hacienda, we drove down the mountains through undescribably beautiful mountain landscapes.
Once at the bottom of the mountain, the landscape changed radically. I was surrounded by tropical landscapes. For the first time in my life I chewed cane sugar, it’s quite tasty but for two seconds. Once you’ve chewed it, you through it away.
Then, after a four hours drive, we got to the giant bamboo plantation. Patricio Jr. required a lot of information, because he wishes to start growing this kind of bamboo, so for over an hour he asked questions to blond Ecuadorian. A very rare specimen, but to tell you the truth, he originally was from Holland.
After the visit, lunch and long drive back home. As we got in the Andes, we had to drive through a very heavy fog, it seemed very usual to Patricio Jr. who was driving, but to me it seemed like we had entered a scenery of creepy movie.
As soon as they dropped me home, Toya, Fabian and I had dinner. While we were having dessert the phone rang. It was Ricardo who was calling us to tell us that his son Ricardo Jr. had just graduated and is know a doctor in law. So we all were invited at their home to celebrate. It was enjoyable to see the entire family celebrating such an event. For the second time in the evening I had dinner. I ate in the kitchen with the younger generation which included people up to thirty five. Patricio Jr. was a lot fun, for some time he was imitating some of his uncles as they fall asleep. After dinner everybody was drinking and laughing, the new doctorate was even trying to get everyone down a shot of whisky. Great celebration!

Riccardo Jr.'s graduation

Resting and family meeting day

Today, resting day. I've spent the whole day home.
This morning, I wondered with a book around the swimming pool which is in the garden!
For lunch, a few people from Fabian's family came over. Initially it was for me to meet the youth of my generation, but it actually was an all generation meal. Fabian's mother(Blanca) came, two of Fabian's brothers (Patricio and Ricardo), and two of Patricio's four suns (Patricio Jr. and Pablo).
After a nice and long lunch, Diego, Patricio Jr., Pablo and I sat around a card table to suprinsigly play some forty. Good thing Benjamin had taught me before yesterday how to play! It was a good socializing, we spoke about the involvement of futur technology in our economy. It was really interesting, but it only was speculation. After the card game, every body left even Diego left with his son and daughter, Filipe and Alegria.
So that's it, I am once again on my own with Toya and Fabian and tonight we are watching cowboy television serie called Deadwood. Boring but relaxing

Cotopaxi Park

Today was a big excursion day, we left home at around twelve for a long drive south. We (Toya, Fabian, Diego, Alegria, Filipe and me) drove towards the Cotopaxi Park. The Cotopaxi is the world highest active volcano which rises above 5'850 meters.
The tip of the volcano is all year long covered by snow, the flanks of the volcano were redish, most probably because of the iron.
As we stepped out of the car for a little walk on a plateau at the bottom of the volcano, the wind blew like crazy, we walked around a pond, but Filipe was really cold, so we headed back to the car and continued our sightseeing from the car window.
In the park, we saw a lot of wild horses and even an eagle that was no futher than a meter away from our car. What a beautiful bird!
After the park visit, we headed towards a hacienda (farm) to have lunch. The hacienda was beautiful, with an inside court yard field by colourful flowers. The volumes where really spacious, and above all, the food was delicious.
On our way back home, we decided to visit Toya's father natal city, but unfortunatly I fell asleep and haven't seen an inch of it. But what I did see, was the hacienda Fabian use to spend a lot of time in as he was younger. Fabian showed me quickly around and as I looked at the view form the hacienda, Fabian told me that his mother used to compare the view to Switzerland. She was quite right, from the top of the hill where the hacienda layed, we could see a small river flowing down in the valley, a couple cows walking around a field and all this in a decor of mountains.
Then we drove back home and for the rest of the evening, we rested in front of the television set.

Cotopaxi 

Felipe 

Family Day

Toya and Fabian's son Diego came with his two children Alegria(7) and Philippe(1,5) to stay with us for three days because today, Friday, is a day off to comememorate the day Ecuador took its independance from the Spanish colonial empire, on the 24th of May 1822.
So in the morning, Toya decided to take her grand children and me to the sport centre which is right by her house. It was a lot of fun, we all played together in a park, had a little snack and then drove back home around twelve.
On the way back home, I had taken a bet with Alegria that her father was going to be awake as we get home (her father just came back from a very busy business trip in the US), but as we got home, Diego was still fast asleep. So I lost my bet and I owe her an ice cream.
For lunch, Toya's father (Benjamin) had invited us all, and so we all went.
Benjamin still lives with one of his son named after his father Benjamin, this is quite usual.
As soon as I got there, Benjamin showed me the card table and explained me the rules of a game called forty. But he told me we would only play after lunch. So we went straight for the dinning table. During the meal, there have been a lot of national political talks in which I couldn't really get involved because it was far above my knowledge.
But after lunch, as promised, we sat around the card table and started playing forty. I had teamed up with Toya and Benjamin had teamed up with Diego. I came up with that usual beginner's luck and Toya and I have beaten twice in a row our opposing team. What a joy it was to win both those games. I made a little pocket money (75c), but as I've been told so many times, the most important is to participate.
After the card game, another of Toya's brother, Santiago, joined us with his wife for the rest of the afternoon. Gathered around the card table, the family discussed about the book that Benjamin is writing about his memories. Benjamin has been extremely involved in Ecuadorian politics, and definitely has a lot to say about his past experiences.
After that lovely afternoon spent with Toya's family, I drove with Fabian to the National Theatre to listen to a concert of classical Ecuadorian music which had been set up by Fabian's niece. After over two hours of listening to sharp and deep voices, I got to meet one of Fabian's brothers, Ricardo.
Then Fabian and I drove home. For the rest of the evening, we have talked about all kinds of economics and politics, once again what an enjoyable conversation and what a lovely day.

Strange but great city tour

Thursday morning, no big rush. I left with Toya at around 10 am in order to go to Itchimbia Centro Cultural where was held an art exhibition of children no older than 12.
The children have been accompanied by famous Ecuadorian artists to make their chef d’oeuvre: The theme of the exhibition was the difference. Difference of identities, different kind of fruits you find in Ecuador, different totems indigenes use, etc.
The exhibition was very moving because the children are able to express feelings and mix colours in a very different way than adults do. And even though it’s very seldom to see details, children are always able to pass a message, sometimes even, much better than adults can.
Itchimbia Centro Cultural is a monument which looks very much like old French train stations. On top of that, it was on a hill. So once again, the views we had of Quito North were outstanding.
After that, Toya dropped me in the old city. I wanted to go for a deeper visit of the old town. Toya had advised me to visit two museums, but by the time I was over with the sightseeing, the museums were closed. I imagine I'll just have to go back again.
By the way, when I was in front of the Government Palace, surprisingly, I saw a group of women protesting for women’s rights. I was not expecting to see some thing like that in a third world country. But whatever, what I will remember is that I met a girl astonishingly beautiful. I must say there are a lot of very good looking and fit Ecuadorian girls (guappa), but she was the very top in breed good looking Ecuadorian. So I started a chat with her, but after something like ten minutes we came to a very decisive question: Where are you from? As you can imagine I answered Switzerland, but she told me that she lived in a small city far from Quito and that she was in Quito for two days only. What a pity, all my efforts to get along with her were "nearly" in vain.
What a disappointment! But nevermind it's only my first week, and I'm sure I'll get to meet other good looking girls.
After my tour round the old city, I started walking north to go to a shopping centre (mall), but I got lost. So I asked my way to a man, a man wearing a suite and holding a briefcase. I thought that a man of that condition would have a better idea of where to go shopping than any other ordinary man.
I was right, he knew were to go. He told me to follow him because it was on his way home, and so I did. We took the bus together for more than half an hour, he was very curious and was full of questions. As he knew everything that happened in my life, I barely got to know his name and where he was from.
When we got to the mall, surprisingly he stepped off the bus with me and showed me around the mall. I stopped in a CD shop for 10 minutes, he looked over my shoulder for the entire time. As I had to leave to go back home, we exchanged phone numbers after what I thanked him very much for the guide he had been and ran away on a bus.
I met Fabian, in a hotel hall where indigenes were playing melodious Ecuadorian music.
Then Fabian and I drove home and spoke all night about politics, especially the American higher educative system, it was very interesting. I hope it was only the beginning of many more conversations!

2nd day. City tour

Today I had to wake up quite early to go on a city tour.
I visited the old city of Quito, which is no very big but which hides 53 churches, only for the old city, isn't that incredible?
The old city is beautiful, totally full of colonial art and built with the rocks of the pre-Columbian tribes. Thus there is absolutely no vestige of the old tribes in Quito, zero vestige.
Then we went on a hill which is crowned by the Saint of Quito, it's a little like in Rio de Janeiro. There is a statue of a saint with wings standing on the planet earth.
It's absolutely beautiful and you can see this statue from more less anywhere in Quito.
After what I went to the Plaza de la Independencia, which is a beautiful square surrounded by the Governmental Palace, the Cathedral (which is the most important church in the country), the Archbishop's Palace and the city hall.
But that day was different, as you know, the Independence day of Ecuador is the 24th of May. Thus for one entire week, there are parades going on. People of all age, military, acrobats, and so on, come from all over the country to exhibit their talents on the public place in the very centre of Quito.
Parades, parades, parades, every body enjoys parades and the atmosphere around it always is festive!
Then we went on the Equator parallel to make several experiments. One of which was to look at the water fall down at tap clockwise in the southern hemisphere, anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and straight down on the Ecuador. Another on was simply realizing that people had less resistance on the Equator i.e. if I pull your arm down on the Equator, I will require less strength.
Then I discovered indigenous cultures that use to shrink the heads of their defeated enemies. They would start by cutting the head off, then taking the skull out, then burn the fat and put the remaining in very hot steam, the head would then shrink to become a head smaller than a tennis ball, isn't that unbelievable too?
After having been impressed by all I had seen, we drove back to the new part of the city centre where I have been wondering around for most of the late afternoon.

Center of the World 

First day, visit and sunburn!

This morning, I fell asleep in the sun and got a sun burn on my hands and on the neck, never have I ever been so red.
The sun hear is so different because Quito is on the Ecuador and in the mountains so you can imagine.
After waking up with those ridiculous sunburns, I went in the city centre for a visit of the Ecuadorian national history museum. A beautiful museum but unfortunately there was no guided tour, so I had to discover all by myself.
So if you want to know, people started living in Ecuador approximately 14'000 years ago after having crossed by feet the Bering Strait and headed south for several hundreds of years. It is only in the XVI century that the colonial Spaniards have imposed by force their culture and costumes.
Ecuador only exists since 1830 when the Gran Colombian Empire led by Simon Bolivar has broke into pieces.
After this very entertaining visit, I had a meeting for my future work here in Quito. I will work in a company named Terrafértil. David Bermeo, the company chief executive officer, enlightened me on the purpose of my internship. I will be analyzing the European, American and Canadian market and try to understand the trade tariffs with those markets.
Then I went shopping in a mall in the north of Quito, everything seemed so cheap compared to the price I am used to in Great Britain, so I decided to buy a couple CDs and a Spanish to French lexicon.
This has been a long day especially that everything is in Spanish and requires me to do a lot of efforts to understand what the hell is going on, but what a beautiful language and culture.

Tiring trip but nice arrival

So that's it, the beginning of my big trip in South America has started.
I flew from Paris to Quito via Madrid.
My grand father drove me to the airport at 5:45am this morning for a journey that has last more less 19 hours.
Luckily it did not seem as a too long trip because on the flight from Madrid to Quito I got entertained by some Spanish doctor from Barcelona. Conversing with him definitly helped the hours pass quicker!
At the airport of Quito, Fabian and Toya were waiting for me.
We then had a 45mn drive untill their home which is in a city just outside Quito, what a nice drive in those beautiful green valles.
On the road from the airport to my new home for two months, Toya and Fabian had all kind of questions for me to know how the family is going on.
As of that very first contact, I’m sure I’m going to be having a great time and that I’m going to enjoy the family I will be staying with.
Their home is absolutly great with huge volumes a swimming pool and huge room for me. What a change in comparison to the students accomodation room I have been having over the year. This room is no kidding 5 times the size.
Tonight, will not be a long night. I am exhausted, the trip has pumped all my energy away and above all last night I've bearly been able to sleep an hour because of the excitement.
I am just looking forward to take advantage of my new room, jump in bed and leave my inconscient imagination take over my conscience. I need a long and still night so that as of tomorrow I may be totally ready to take advantage of this very new world.
So I’ll jump in bed and keep you updated soon.