Mission Aborted

Well Dad, at least you'll be happy to learn that I didn't end up doing Cotopaxi this weekend. Though maybe the reason why isn't so reassuring!

Most of the group planning to climb Cotopaxi did an acclimatisation hike on Thursday afternoon on the volcano I climbed last weekend. My extra afternoon lessons meant that geeky me had to miss out. There were about 6 of them, but they got tired at different stages (or developed blisters, if you believe them) so they split up. Two of them (Sam and another American called Mary), it turned out, were robbed by a lone freak with a machete. From what I understand, but it's patchy and I forget exactly, they were separated, tied up, taken further up the mountain and robbed of everything they had - except their credit cards. I don't think he did them any physical harm, and they managed to get back okay in the end. But on Friday morning, when we met to depart for Cotopaxi, we didn't know what state they were in - all we'd heard, from the incredibly anxious director of the school, was that Mary was at her house and Sam had been found in a park on the other side of Quito really early in the morning by the police.

I thought I'd had a scary night - I went running into the posh housing estate in the north of the city, which I figured should be safe. But it seems that wealthy people have really aggressive dogs, and I ended up being chased by a pack of about 8 of them all barking at me all the way down the street. It was terrifying! And I thought it was just the men I had to be scared of in Ecuador! Anyway, hearing about what happened to Mary and Sam kind of put it into perspective. Meeting at breakfast, we were all really shaken up. I think the three others were feeling guilty for splitting up on the volcano - one of the girls was especially upset because she'd seen a guy hanging round suspiciously on the mountain and hadn't thought too much of it at the time. We weren't really in the right frame of mind to do the climb. Fortunately the company were great about it, and we promised that if we wanted to do it another time we'd use them. A few of us are hoping to do it in a fortnight or so.

People are, or a least were, really panicky at the school. Another one of the students was robbed twice this week, and one time she was floored in broad daylight. And there are riots going on in the centre of Quito about the political situation. It's a little scary I guess, but to be honest, although I'm definitely going to be more careful from now on (like by always using taxis at night, trying to do things in groups, and avoiding dangerous situations) I'm not going to let it stop me doing things. I don't think Quito's any more dangerous than normal, there has just been a spate of random incidents lately. In particular, everyone has said how safe the mountain usually is. I suppose Thursday night is a quiet time. I went up the volcano yesterday with Marlilyn again and there were loads of tourists so I felt totally safe. On a slightly more optimistic note, it was so much easier the second time. I was still wary of the steep bits but not petrified like last time, and I could feel that I was more acclimatised or fitter this time - we were much faster. I really do want to try Cotopaxi.

Once I heard that Sam and Mary were okay, I could enjoy the weekend. I bought a phone on Friday, and if anyone wants to send me a text or anything any time my number is 00 593 88571196. I feel a little more connected with people now. On Friday night one of the Danish girls was leaving, so the Danes cooked a Danish meal at the hostel in the school. It was great fun, we even had an exciting blackout for 10 minutes or so. Afterwards me, Marilyn and a guy called Brad (who was also part of the Cotopaxi group) went out to a salsa bar, mainly so Marilyn could practice her moves. Brad got lucky and attracted the advances of a 47 year old male tourist. Shame he's not gay. Apparently if a guy talks to another guy in a club in English, it's a sign they're gay. He knows this now! I practiced my Spanish chatting to some of the locals.

Yesterday, whilst I was out hiking, I acquired a new housemate. Alex is 28, pale-skinned, and Dutch, and arrived at 9 in the morning. By the evening he was as red as a lobster, underestimating the strenght of the sun at the ecuator. I invited him to come out with loads of the students last night. We went to a salsa party we heard about from the dance teacher at the school, held to raise money for a guy who broke his leg really badly and needs an operation. It was really fun, but the standard of dancing was way too high for me to risk embarrassing myself, so I just sat and chatted. There were a few performances too, which were very impressive. Really wish I knew some good moves! Alex is really nice, but I'm not going to get to speak as much Spanish at home since he's dependent on English at the moment. I'm not special any more! This morning we said goodbye to Alvaro, who left to go out into the jungle again. I'll miss him, he's been great to me and is really good fun. Hopefully he'll be back before I leave, but I don't know.

I'm at a bit of a loose end today. Some of the girls have gone to a little place with hot springs, but I wanted to say goodbye to Alvaro, spend some time on the internet, and study my verbs! I figure I've got six months over here, I should concentrate on learning the language first since I've got plenty of time to visit exciting places. I walked past the park, full of people being sporty, so I'll probably do some running myself later. It's the Superbowl later, is that American football? Most of the Americans are going to Gringolandia later to watch it. I'm not overly excited by the prospect, but maybe it'll be better than nothing. I shall see!