Last week Spanish lessons continued with rather less enthusiasm than we started off with, and I can still only speak in the present tense (slightly worried about this, as going to move in with an Ecuadorian family in 5 days time), but am nonetheless pleased with how much I can now understand. Hurrah! Last week was also slightly - although not much - more cultural too, with a trip to the Basilica, a wander round the market, and a visit to a museum of stuffed animals. Suprisingly, this was actually really good.

The Basilica is by far the biggest building in Quito, and has the most superb views from the top. Karen and I went and found it together, and afterwards came across a fantastic proper little Ecuadorian cafe in the old city, where we had gorgeous hot chocolate and shook hands when leaving with the owner. The market, which we took our Spanish teachers to so they could tell us what everything was in Spanish, which we could then promplty forgot, was amazing: completely random fruits unseen anywhere in England, a huge veg section with the most massive spring onions I've ever seen, whole pig heads sitting on the side of counters, etc. It was great.

And then at the weekend five of us went mountain biking in Cotopaxi national park for a day. Cotopaxi is the highest active volacno in the world. We started off at the base of it, at 4600m, and rode down to 3500m. It was a truly immense experience: the bike ride itself was huge fun, if somewhat dangerous (three out of the seven in our group fell off), and the scenery was simply amazing, unlike anything I've ever seen before. At the base of the volcano the landscape was incredibly barren, just hills of dark brown, but as we cycled downwards tufts of grass started to appear, with huge rocks dotted all over the place, clear streams, wild horses, forests, and snow-capped mountains in the background. I felt like I'd walked straight into Lord of the Rings. On the way back to Quito we stopped off at the house of 'The Biking Dutchman', to unload the bikes, and his wife snapped off a spiky leaf of an aloe vera plant from her garden, and rubbed it all over Emma's bruises. And to complete the day, I also saw my first llama: hurrah!

Next week we begin our month-long volunteer projects: 6 are going to the coast, to build a house, and 6 are staying in Quito to build greenhouses in some local schools, and help out with the children. I've decided to stay in Quito and am quite looking forward to getting stuck into the place. It should be good.

A few more photos also uploaded: http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/2526654