A life in Colombia
The whole thing was so utterly ungainly. There I sat, legs splayed and groaning in agony as the 19-year-old boy opposite me chuckled softly to himself. Perhaps I should explain. Today was only my second day on the Galapagos island of San Cristobal and already I appear to be a treasured member of the Tae […]
MoreThe entire purpose of my three-month stay on the Galapagos is to assist with the teaching of the finer points of the mother tongue. Simple enough, you would think, for someone who has spoken a form of English for years. Except my new school, Pedro Pablo, had slightly different ideas. Monika (another one) teaches the four-year-olds […]
MoreWe were soon decamping at San Cristobal airport in the company of our Galapagos co-ordinator, Paulina. She hailed a cab. “When you get a cab round here you don’t need to give a street,” she advised. “Just say the name of the family. Everyone knows everyone.” There was a slight pause. “It’s a small island,” […]
MoreSome joker decided that the morning after the night before was the ideal time for an 8am sight seeing departure. (I can’t remember who it was – it may have been me – but needless to say we didn’t quite depart at 8am. We had to have our coffee and pancakes first.) Eventually we made […]
MoreI hate saying goodbye but sometimes, a little pampering can soften the blow. And our last weekend in Quito was great. Yes, it was a little bit girlie – maybe a little bit vain – but it was ultimately a very fitting goodbye. Our festivities began on Friday. Once we’d got out of school (I […]
MoreThere may have been a night out on Wednesday. Cocktails may have been consumed. Drinking games may have been played. The hours may have evaporated until Bryony and I ended up in a cab, unable to stop laughing even as we crept into Ruth’s flat. I may have walked into a chair on my way […]
MorePrison gates must look the same all over the world. Tall, steel and fitted with one of those imposing sliding grills. I was the first out of the taxi. I tapped hesitantly on the grill. “Hola,” I called quietly. The grill slid back and an Ecuadorian eye observed the four gringos standing on the pavement. We squinted back at him through […]
MoreWe have been hearing the odd horror story ever since we arrived in Quito. They are mostly tales of hapless tourists. There are tourists who let it slip that they are flying home the following day, only to discover some drugs have been slipped in their bag. Similarly, there are the idiots who think it is […]
MoreEcuadorian bureaucracy is a joy for which there are apparently no limits. It started at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where you need a mountain of paperwork, every ‘i’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed, to obtain your visa. Yawn. It continued today in spectacular fashion. Last week we successfully obtained our full visas via the […]
MoreAmazingly, the zip wire incident managed to unlock my dislike of all things adrenaline and I LOVED careering down a river in an inner tube. That may sound harsh on our white water raft, but that is exactly what it was – eight inner tubes tied together, flying through the spray and rocks. We wandered […]
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Banana Skin Flip Flops 