Quito

I´ve arrived in Quito! The trip was long (21 hours total) and I sat next to a guy to Seattle who seemed to want to cuddle, but other than that it went off without a hitch. The stop in LAX was actually kind of nice. I had a chance to stretch my legs out for a few hours, get some reading done, and have a few brews. In order to get over to New Mexico for Christmas on my way home, I basically just purchased three round trip tickets with LAX as my centerpoint. It was the cheapest way to go and the only downside is long layovers there and I´ll have to pick my bags up and check them back in three times. Not a problem.

I´ve been looking forward to this trip for nearly a year and it´s finally here. This time next week, we´ll be in Galapagos. We´ll be touring Quito and Guayaquil until then, hoping and praying that no one gets mugged! Not to be too negative, but apparently it happens alot down here. Don´t worry - we´ll take all the right precautions! We´re staying at a B&B here in Quito, and it´s not exactly... ummm... well, Scott called it ¨Spartan Living¨and I think that sums it up. It´s clean and cheap, though, so I´m not complaining. And they offer tours, too, so I´m planning on taking advantage of that.

more to follow...