Tuesday 16.09.2014

Tuesday already and we`ve survived our first classes though whether the same could be said of the children enduring our language skills is another matter.

And if things have gone a little quiet on the social media front since Sunday (see Susan Cassie on FB) it`s because we`ve either been in transit to Puerto Lopez

or working hard to prepare our classes. :)

To back-pedal though, we had a quiet day in Quito on Saturday having experienced our fist minor earth tremor - oh, wait, that was Susan descending from the top bunk in our very nice hostel(she said I could write that)......
The city is big and bustly, full of colour and music and mad traffic and, as our lungs testified, at a high enough altitude to make every incline hard work, and there are a lot of inclines.

We searched out the essentials: good coffee (not hard to find)

and purchasing opportunities

and then did a bit of sightseeing round the old town, climbing, breathing hard, to the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which is, as the Rough Guide tells us:
the tallest church in Ecuador, thanks to its two imposing 115m towers, plainly visible throughout the city"

Perfect for people watching and getting your breath back.

Come Sunday it was pack up and head for the airport, meet Fernando, the representative for BookBus in Ecuador and make the short flight to Manta where Arturo, the project leader was waiting to welcome us.
Lunch in a busy fish restaurant and then a bus trip further along the coast to Puerto Lopez and,topping it all off beautifully, arrival at the house that is to be our home for the next fortnight courtesy of a tuk-tuk - the only way to travel really.

And then it was time to do some work...........