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Archive for October, 2007

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Cotopaxi National Park

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

It´s crazy the things you can be talked into doing while sitting in the Secret Garden in Quito. While enjoying a quiet meal with some people, I met some Dutch people there who were telling us about this hostel up near Cotopaxi volcano that has no electricity or any of that high-tech stuff, but it does have scenary and a cheap mid week package. The owners are the same people who own the Secret Garden in Quito and to get the word out about the new place, they were offering a week´s trip there with all meals included, a hike, and a trek to the glacier for $99! News of this spread fast around the table and soon enough we had a gang of 6 ready to head off the following morning to the big volcano.

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The Quito Times

Friday, October 19th, 2007

I left my two travelling buddies Sharan and Marco on our second day in Quito and headed off across the city, rocking back and forth from the weight of my luggage. First I headed to the Marsical district, the area the Lonely Planet is most often frequented by tourists because of it´s hoard of hostels, restaurants and bars. Annoyingly enough, the book didn´t have a single hostel listed and after walking around for 45 minutes I didn´t come across anything that even smelled like a backpacker´s hostel.

So after a quick juice, I headed off again. This time I decided to try the historic old town and maybe see if the Secret Garden, the award winning hostel I´d heard of, had any space for me. The hotel I´d stayed in the previous night had overcharged us and I was determined not to get ripped off again. So I told the taxi driver to keep moving when they saw me coming and headed for the trolley bus (what any other country would call a tram).
It never occured to me that maybe I was lugging too much stuff for over crowded public transport. At that stage I had my massive backpack on my back, my schoolbag full with books and a laptop on my front and a power converter cradled in my arm which weighed as much as either of the two bags.
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The Great Ecuadorian Road Trip

Friday, October 12th, 2007
Didn´t want to put this up without photos, but these computers are slowly killing me. I´ll shove some photos in when I get to a better connection (could be months!) After we finally got across the border into Ecuador we set ... [Continue reading this entry]

Border Fun

Sunday, October 7th, 2007
I had great plans to have this entry with photos. But these computers have yet again got the better of me. All the photos I would have used are available here http://clairecanning.smugmug.com/Travel/380032 Four days after arriving in Mancora I was packing ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mancóra Take Two

Monday, October 1st, 2007
On my second day in Mancora I moved to the cheapest Lonely Planet recommended hostel. Not because I’m a cheap ass, but because I knew there would be lots of backpackers to follow around and try ot make conversation with. ... [Continue reading this entry]