Day 3: Quito - Next time get a decent map!

It´s raining heavily as I go to breakfast at 06:30 but it´s stopped by the time I go out for the day. The temperature is much cooler than yesterday and maybe I should have worn a warmer shirt but I risk it.

I still have no plans for today other than get to the offices of Jatun Sacha by 3 pm. I find an internet cafe and spend the next hour typing up Day 2 and somehow lose the lot just as I am about to publish it. I swear a lot especially if you know how fast a typist I am. Still, second time around give me the chance to edit it. The only good thing about the first hour is I get to charge up my mp3 player.

I go to the Magic Bean for a consolation cappuccino and chocolate covered doughnut before heading back to a more reliable internet cafe i.e. the one I was in yesterday.

I appreciate the quality of Ecuadorian coffee and realise after the first taste that making it into cappuccino is a waste - this is my first and last cappuccino...in Ecuador, not in the world!

One of the attractions of travelling on one's own is being able to do what you want when you want and being able to change any plans at a whim. I wonder what to do today and decide to just wander and see where that takes me - sometimes it's the best way to explore - but might instead just chill out in a variety of cafes getting buzzed out on coffee. There are enough of them near the hotel. However, as the Jatun Sacha offices are a bit of a hike away but in the opposite direction to yesterday I have to be careful on the timing of my walk - I need to factor in the "getting lost" factor.

I spend nearly 2 hours re-typing the lost blog and finishing Day One that I couldn´t finish in Madrid, then conscious of the time I head out at 1:45 pm.
I find my way quite easily and it´s a pleasant walk...but no shops. I pop into a corner shop to buy 2 packs of tissues and get charged a total of $2 - the label said $0.40 cents. How do I challenge that when I can´t speak Spanish. Off the top of my head I can´t even remember the Spanish for "forty". I think I just gave her too much money i.e. $5 so she obviously thought "tourist who can´t speak a word of Spanish and has too much money - fair game"?

I put it down to experience...the experience list is getting rather long!

But I´m a relatively quick learner and further on I buy a 2 litre bottle of water and hand over a one-dollar note and get $0.20 change. That's more like it!

The map I was given at the hotel tells me I´m almost at my destination but I cannot see the road in real life. I´m find myself in a pretty poor area, and although I´m not scared I´m aware people are staring at me more than in the middle of the city. I try not to give too much eye contact but as I get closer I realise the Jatun Sacha offices are as elusive as the Yacu Amu offices were yesterday. The spot on the map where the road is supposed to be is covered with symbols of restaurants, shops etc, etc.

I have to ask somebody. Soledad said yesterday, "Just ask. It´s near the university campus - everyone will know this street," so I ask some students where the road is. Silly me! They´re students with their heads either in their books or their ipods or boys/girls. They are as useless as a chocolate teapot. Even a local taxi driver can´t tell me so what chance have I? He knows it´s "somewhere over there" but can´t help me more. He won't even drive me there before it's "that" close.

I'm getting desperate and go into the University book shop. After a bit of discussion with his colleagues, the assistant actually walks me there. It was just round the corner from where I'd been asking for directions but unless you went past the university you wouldn´t know it was there. At least I was only 10 minutes late.

I anticipate a whole room of volunteers sitting there waiting for me to turn up but there is only one person: Kate from Lancashire and later on an American girl arrives (but she isn´t noisy so I forgive her!). Kate and I are both going to San Cristobal and the quiet American is off to the highland rainforest on mainland Ecuador.

We are briefed about what to expect and it´s as much as I already knew. However, we are told we don´t need wellies as the project has them. That´s a relief as I´m not sure how I would fit them in my rucksack.

We are told the sea is warm and it will be "hot" maybe 23 to 30 degrees C and not as cold as Quito at night. There are a great many small mosquitoes (midges?) so a mosquito net for the head must be worn. I hope to goodness my insect repellent works like it says on the bottle.

We watch a video made by past volunteers and suddenly it´s all very real. I can´t believe that this time tomorrow I´ll be there.

Kate and I go with her driver (she has a driver? How come I don´t get a driver?) to a sports shop near her hostel to buy a mask and snorkel for $12. We were told it would cost $20 a day to hire these in San Cristobal so it makes sense to buy them now. Pleased with our purchases we find a restaurant on Av. Amazonas which serves authentic Ecuadorian food and I have a delicious cheese chowder (soup) with avocado which would have fed 3 people...but the waiter lied when I asked him how big the bowl was so ordered a main course too. When I have to leave half the chowder knowing I have another course to come I know I will be defeated even before it arrives: 2 fried eggs (runny) on corncakes with salad and chorizo. It looks like a face so Kate takes a picture and I will post it on here when I can work out how to download photos onto the internet cafe computers (they appear to have some sort of block on my card reader but I WILL NOT be defeated!)
I can´t even eat half of my meal and feel really bad at so much food going to waste - the waiter knew what he was doing of course - my bill, with a glass of quite nice red wine is $10.45. A lot of money compared to all my previous meals - if I´d known I would have only ordered soup. Another lesson learned! Oh dear!

I leave Kate at her hostel and as it´s now dark (7 pm) I walk with purpose without the aid of my map back to my hotel. Who needs a map when you know where you´re going?

I repack my bags, write up my journal and head down to reception to see if I can post this tonight. This could be the last time I can get to the internet before the weekend when I have my first days off. No such luck. The internet is down so I give up and go to bed. Maybe there´ll be internet at the airport??