Day 2: Quito and Yacu Amu

I sleep very well and decide to get up at 5:30. I can´t tell if it´s light outside as I have no windows. The hotel has not yet woken up so I make use of the time and wash my travelling clothes. I am so glad I bought a travel plug (for a sink) as opposed to electricity (I have one of those too thanks to a colleague - you know who you are - though I haven´t used that yet!). My bathroom sink has no plug and if you have ever tried washing clothes without a plug you´ll know how impossible this is.

I take an hour to faff around getting my daysack ready for the day and I write in my journal to divert my attention from the headache that is fast developing. I remember this intense pain from my trip in ´06 to the Andes. I need to drink more water but I´m almost out. I use just a mouthful to down a couple of strong painkillers and hope...

I go to breakfast and am surprised to see the dining room full of the Americans. They are so quiet they are almost comatose! Turns out they didn´t sleep so well! They mention a dog barking and some other noise. I know I wore my anti-snoring device and wonder if it maybe didn´t work. In a way, I hope it didn´t as pay-back for all their noise last night!

When the Americans leave, more food appears as they had scoffed the lot - coffee, croissants, white bread, jam, scrambled eggs and deep yellow butter like I remember from my childhood. There is plenty of herbal or black tea and frothy pineapple juice which has been freshly made in a juicer which is maybe why it´s so frothy rather than because it´s fermenting!

Being situated so high at just under 3,000 metres, Quito sits amongst the clouds. The surrounding volcanic mountains peep in and out of view giving them an enigmatic appearance. It is warm and muggy outside so I choose appropriate clothes for the day. I wear a thin shirt, leave the fleece behind and pack my rain jacket.

I have to find the offices of Yacu Amu which are close by but I don´t know exactly where. I have a map with very small writing even with my glasses but I give it a go.

I set out at 08:15.

An hour later, I am hot and thirsty, and though I found the road easily I just cannot find the offices. I have wandered up and down Juan Leon Mera twice, asked several people for directions and finally go into a typical local cafe, "The Magic Bean", where I order coffee and hope someone there can help me.

While I wait for my coffee, a shiny red fire engine whizzes past, siren blaring, except it´s just the shell of a fire tender. There are no guts to it and I wonder how they´re going to put out a fire. Maybe the hoses are hidden inside and they won´t need a ladder?

I check out the menu and realise it was a mistake to have ordered coffee especially as I´m so thirsty. They have a very extensive list of freshly blended juices with nothing added (whatever that means) but as most of the customers are drinking very impressive tall glasses of fruit concoctions, I think I´ll return here another time and try out one or two. A large mug of black, filtered coffee is $1.35, with milk it´s $1.60.

I remember I need to buy a large bottle of water but I´ll have to wait until the shops open in 15 minutes. For a city where they have daylight so early (I assume) I´m a little surprised that only the cafes open from 7 am and the shops don´t open until 9 but at least they apparently stay open until about 8pm most days.

I go to pay my bill and ask for directions to Yacu Amu. Nobody knows where it is. I briefly wonder if this is all a scam and the offices don´t exist and I´ve paid all this money for a return flight to Quito and Galapagos isn´t happening and I´ve been left to fend for myself for nearly a month and...and...

Suddenly, peeping out from behind a building in the side-street opposite me, I see the sign "Yacu Amu"! Annoyingly, if I had kept walking when I first got to Juan Leon Mera instead of turning left, I would have seen the building in front of me. The waiters are happy for me and I am very happy for me.

Soledad greets me and hands over my e-ticket for Galapagos (yes, I really am going there) and ticket for my boat trip, and ID card which gives me permission to be on Galapagos, some instructions and a list of useful Spanish phrases.

I ask her about the briefing session I am supposed to be getting today but she knows nothing about that. That´s via Jatun Sacha. I´m confused. She rings them up but nobody there knows about me. I panic again. She sends me away for about an hour so she can make a few phone calls.

I find a nearby internet cafe and type up yesterday on my blog = $1.25 for 1.5 hours.

I should have brought more smaller denominations of dollars. Nobody has change. I give the cashier $5 and she can´t change it. I give her $2 and she can only just do that.

I return to Yacu Amu and Soledad tell me they are expecting me tomorrow. I must go to their offices at 3 pm for my volunteer briefing. This is not what I expected - I was planning on a free day tomorrow though I had no idea what I was going to do. That´s not the point. I now have the rest of today free which I had also not expected.

I ask Soledad the best way to get to the Centro Historico (Historic Centre of Quito) and she tells me to get a taxi as it´s too dangerous to walk. Not because of muggers but because of trolley buses and traffic. I decide to live dangerously and walk and see how it goes.

I´m glad I do as there are lots of shops on the way, so I suss out prices of souvenirs I may be able to shoe-horn into my rucksack. I am already 5 kilos under my allowance though 15 kilos is still very heavy when you have to lift it up onto your back. Items such as leather goods, traditional woven/knitted bags/rugs/blankets, gold jewellery (haven´t yet seen any silver), coffee, chocolate.

Soledad was right about the traffic - those trolley buses creep up on you so best not to step into the road without looking behind you. My headache has subsided but I take frequent rests and check out my location on the map and drink lots of water, wishing I´d brought my sunhat but glad I slapped Factor 15 on my face and neck. I take lots of photos of beautiful historic buildings.

I arrive in the City Centre at the Grande Plaza at about 1 pm.

I left my SLR camera back at the hotel as I stick out like a tourist as it is, height, colour of skin, clothes, daysack on back etc, etc without waving around a clunky SLR to tempt bad people. My old compact digital is annoyingly slow to fire up and I have looped it into my cheap digital alarm watch for extra security. All that achieves is to make taking photos even more awkward.

I´m just about to take a photo of another beautiful historic building when a short man on crutches, about my age, asks me in English if I can tell him the time. This question puts me on full alert but I tell him the time anyway. Then he asks me if I´m English and introduces himself as Marco.

This is when I should have walked away.

But I tell him my name...