27/07/04- 29/07/04 Quito

We flew into Quito really early in the morning and my first impressions were very good. It is set in the valley and surrounded by huge mountains and volcanoes but also makes the town look absolutely massive. We checked into our apartment and after a nice cup of tea decided to head out and investigate the town.

Because of the limited time that we had here we decided to head straight for the Equator, which was fascinating. None of us managed to balance the egg on a nail but we did get to finally prove that water does go down the plug hole in a different direction in the different hemispheres.

The following day we took a trip up to the statue of Mary that supposedly is guarding the people of Quito. She is in a strange position and looks a little like she really needs the loo, but I am sure it is sacrilegious to say that so I wont. After that we wondered around the town until we could find a decent cafe to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. I spent the rest of the day stealing items of clothing from mum´s bag and offloading a whole load of crap on both mum and dad so that we didn't have to carry it around for the next three months.

The next morning it was up very early for another tearful goodbye at the airport. Managed to get to Panama city without any problems other than my bag getting robbed somewhere between Quito, the very brief stop over in Colombia and arriving in Panama. It is to be expected I suppose but rather annoying as they left the bag open so everything in that pocket (including our treasured washing lines) went missing.

Can't believed we got robbed in Colombia like so many people do and we didn't set foot in the country proper. Mind you many have had it worse but we didn't even leave the airport and FARC haven't started loitering around duty free yet.