A life in Colombia
There 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 […]
MoreMany people assume you need to be brave to be a journalist. That is absolutely not true. To be a journalist, you need to be a professional. If you are put into a potentially scary or dangerous situation you do not think about how potentially scary or dangerous it is. No. You think about the […]
MoreMy days in Quito have settled into an easy and surprisingly enjoyable routine – I am already feeling sad about swapping this city for the Galapagos (I know!) and even considering re-enrolling at the school again afterwards. This is how my day goes… 6.40am – Wake up. 7am – Say hola to Maria and devour her breakfast. 7.30am […]
MoreIt occurs to me that with all my ramblings about my life here, I haven’t said one word about the lovely city of Quito. I’m not sure which bright spark decided to build a capital city in a valley surrounded by volcanoes, but it’s beautiful. I love walking out of Ruth’s house in the morning and seeing the […]
More“Who here has their boyfriend?” Silence. “Who here has their girlfriend?” More silence. “Excellent,” beams Edi, our short and slightly rotund middle-aged dance teacher, who is atonishingly fluid of the hip. “In my classes we make romance. Sometimes we make marriage.” Fat chance Edi, fat chance. The warm up for his salsa class was not […]
MoreI am today recovering from one of the most excruciating dinner table conversations I’ve ever endured. The nine of us (seven volunteers plus Monika and her son) went out for dinner to a lovely Ecuadorian restaurant. I was seated near the end, next to Pippa, beside Monika and opposite Pa-ool (his name really should be […]
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Banana Skin Flip Flops 