Villcabamba and Cuenca Christmas 2008-9

Mum and Dad came out to stay with us for Christmas. They arrived from Peru whist we were still working so they spend the first few days wondering around Quito on their own. When we finished work, we flew to Loja in the South of Ecuador. From there we drove to Villcabamba and stayed in a great hostel called Izhcayluma, with hammocks and great views of the valley. We hiked and went horse riding around the town which is known for the longevity of its people. We had a massage and generally relaxed.



After Villcabamba, we caught a local bus North to Cuenca, the largest town in the South of Ecuador. We had to stand up on the bus for 3 hours amongst lots of locals and chickens crammed in! We arrived in Cuenca and checked in to our lovely hostel, which was walking distance from the main square. The town is beautiful and it is somewhere we would love to go back to. The architecture is amazing, the people are warm and friendly and it is the home of the panama hat! We were lucky enough to be there on Christmas eve and saw a wonderful parade. All the children were dressed up for the festivities, I was able to get some great pictures......

Amazon Lodge - December 2008

Whilst Mum and Dad were visiting we went to an amazon Lodge near Tenna, 3 hours south of Quito. We stayed in a Lodge that was recommended through school. It was lovely but very very over priced. We went on a jungle walk through secondary and a little bit of primary forest. We then went to a local village where we watched some traditional dances and rituals. We also visited a wildlife rescue centre. On the way back Mum and Dad went to Papallacta for the night and Tommy and I returned to Quito as we had spent a lot more than anticipated at the lodge!

December 2008

At the end of November we went round to Rosie's house for Thank's Giving. She is an amazing cook and we ate way too much. It was a lovely evening with great food and great company.


We went to see our first live football match in Quito. It was Liga versus Deportivo. The atmosphere was electric and definitely an experience, the photographs say it all!


We have found a lady who owns a corner shop who fixes our clothes for us. We took a whole load of Tom's trousers to be fixed. He then decided she might as well fix the ones he was wearing too. So, he proceded to take off his tousers and leave them with her to fix. he walked out of the shop wearing my coat as a skirt with socks and his work shoes. I have never laughed so much, neither had the owner!

We went out for the day with Sally-Anne, Orlando, Dani and Debbie. Here are some pictures of their lovely dogs.

BSQ Chrismas Appeal 2008

I helped to organise the BSQ Christmas Appeal 2008. It was lots of fun, we helped lots of poor communities and our children got lots out of it. All the Primary kids brought in gifts which we distributed to different communities. We took some presents to an old peoples social club in Lumbisi, some to an after school club in Tingo and some to a some nursery school children in Lumbisi. Each child in KS2 made a shoe box for another child which was filled with gifts. All the children in KS2 were then able to give their shoe box to another child. Tom also got to dress up as father Christmas, which was hilarious! I have never seen a father Christmas in Ecuador with such white skin. It was a nightmare to organise, but well worth the effort.

Luis Enrique Primary School

At the beginning of December we were approached by one of our cleaners, Rosa, at the British School Quito who has worked for the school for a number of years. She knew that Yvette and I are interested in charity work and told us about the state of her children's school. Her children attend Luis Enrique Raza Bolaños School in the South of Quito. Rosa was particularly concerned about the state of the school toilet block and the classrooms at the school and asked us to come and visit the school.

The school is situated in the south of Quito and is in dire need of funds to provide a healthy, safe and stimulating learning environment to its community of about 600 students and only 18 staff. We were moved by both the poor condition of the school. The main area of concern is the toilet block, which was in an unbelievably bad condition. Out of the 4 toilets in the block, only one actually worked and this was for over 600 children to share!

Over the next few months we will be trying to fund raise to build a new toilet block as well as help do up some of the classrooms that are in desperate need of repair.

Liga club

Enrique, our Spanish teacher took us to his private club to play some football and tennis with his family. It was also the practise ground of the Liga football team. Tom was loving it!

Our first visitors, Debbie and Timmy

Deb and Timmy came to stay with us in November. They stayed with us for a weekend before they headed off to the Galapagos for 8 days and then to the jungle. As well as showing them round Quito old town we went up the teleferico which goes up Pinchincha and overlooks the whole city. We also went to the 'Midad del Mundo,' where we had a go at all the different experiments and enjoyed trying to kick the world (look at the picture of Tim's toe!) There are 2 middle of the world museums. The first one, is the famous one where the monument is, where everyone has their photograph taken. They then realised that it hasn't been built on the equator at all but that it was 50 metres out. So, another smaller museum was built in the correct location further up the road! Here it is not well advertised and not many tourists go so it is much much better. You can try and balance an egg on a nail, see water going different ways down the sink either side of the equator and get more of the history of the country. It was great having them to stay, they were grateful to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel for a change!

Rio ICT conference

I was lucky enough to go on an ICT conference to Rio de Janeiro in November as I am ICT coordinator for the Primary school. I went along with Andy and Claire, colleagues from BSQ. Apart from 3 days of workshops, we managed to see a bit of the city. We were staying in a hotel off Copercabana beach. The beach front was lovely but not as busy as I would have expected because the weather wasn't great. As it is the capital for haviannas, I managed to buy 10 pairs! I also tasted the best ever caipirinhas at the British School Rio, they made them out of whatever fruit you fancied, the strawberry ones were the best. We add meat in one of the famous restaurants where they come along and slice the meat off in front of you, we also went to a samba club in Lapa, I did not even try to dance samba, they move so quickly. We took the cog train up Corcovado for stunning views beneath the open-armed Cristo Redentor, I forgot my camera though and was not happy. We went up the cable car to admire the Cidade Maravilhosa from atop Pão de Açúcar, otherwise known as sugarloaf mountain. It was lots of fun.

Half term - road trip to the coast

We decided to hit the coast for the October half term. We ended up turning back and sleeping in Quito for the first night because I had followed what I thought was a road on the map (it turns out it was the border between two provinces!). I used to love navigating but absolutely hate it here because there are no signs and the roads are awful! When we eventually set off, we stayed at a beach called 'playa escondida' in Esmeraldas for the first night. The place was an eco-lodge. Our room was great because it was kind of in the open. We were sleeping with a shelter above us, but no walls and only a mosquito net. It was fun for one night but I wouldn't like to stay there much longer with all the insects every night. The beach was nice and there was no one around so we had it all to ourselves. The following day we had another disaster with the roads - this time it was not my fault! We followed the coast road south west instead of heading inland to the busy main road. We had travelled for about 2 hours only to come to a complete halt because the road had stopped and there was a river!! We could see the road that we wanted continuing on the other side of the river but could not get across the water! We had to turn around and retrace our tracks, to make it worse, the petrol light was on red! All fun and games. We got back to the main road and headed south to Canoa. The weather wasn't great so we were not that impressed. The coast in Guernsey is so much better! We also got stopped by the police for going through a red light that we did not see! Was quite scary as they put you in jail here for things like that. Luckily we just flashed our British embassy cards and went on our way. All in all, we spent a lot of time driving and were not that impressed with the beaches so we are not going to return to the coast in a hurry!

Quilatoa Loop

We headed off for a long weekend with Sadie and Leo in October. We drove to the Cotopaxi National Park and drove around the Quilatoa Loop, so called because of the beautiful Quilatoa Lake that is formed in the crater of a volcano. We drove around the loop from Latacunga. The first night we stayed in a great hostal called 'Mama Hilda's' which cost us $12 each including breakfast and an evening meal of lots of meat - Tom was happy. We hired horses and went riding in the hills and hiked along the beautiful roads. I was in my element snapping away at the incredible scenery. The second night we stayed in a hotel right next to the lake. We got up early and took some photos of it first thing in the morning. It was absolutely freezing! I have never been so cold. Luckily Sade had mentioned the fact it gets so cold and we had packed some extra blankets. I slept in my joggers, 2 pairs of socks, t-shirt, fleece and wooly hat as well as the extra blankets. The drive back was lovely and I got some great pictures of some local children wearing traditional costume.