Yesterday night was one of the most random nights of my entire life. We spent it making our way round the whole of Quito by dancing on top of a bus with our Spanish teachers and a brass band, dressed up in our Otavalo baggy bright stripy trousers and hats. It was completely insane. The drinking began before dinner, at 6, because the Chiva bus is the sort of thing that you can't possibly do sober. By 7 everyone was outside dodging the water bombs being thrown at us by the hostal owner's youngest daughter. Shortly afterwards the tiny double-decker bus turned up, and we all clambered up on top of it, having first been given a flag, a whistle, and a plastic cup attached to a bit of string, which we wore around our necks. There was just about enough room for us all to stand up, but no more.

The bus moved off, we started blowing our whistles (a form of entertainment I didn't tire of for the whole hour we were moving), the brass band started playing, and bottles of some kind of really sweet hot alcohol were passed around. We tried to pour the drink in our plastic cups, although mostly just sloshed it down ourselves. Nobody fell off the bus, but a lot of people fell over on each other. We had to duck while going under a couple of low bridges, and Nick scraped his head on the bottom of one. In the main plaza in the old city we all got off and had a dancing competition. The whole experience was absolutely hilarious - attempting to dance to a brass band on top of a moving bus while drunk and in the possesion of whistles is so much fun. I don't know why people don't do it more often.

And the night before was pretty good too: Karen and I went and found some live jazz in one of the plazas in the old city. A quintet with a fatanstic flautist and saxophonist, nothing particularly special, but nonetheless pretty cool. Hurrah! Afterwards we found an Ecuadorian fast food restaurant (although at least it wasn´t McDonalds), where rather bizarrely everyone was eating their food with latex gloves on. Interesting.

To continue with the cultural experiences, also on Thursday our Spanish teachers took us to a little cafe for hot chocolate and cheese - and the cheese, small lumps of it, actually gets put in the hot chocolate. Then you fish it out with a spoon once it's gone a bit soft and gooey. Not as bad as it sounds, but maybe something I'll pass on the next time round.

I'll stick with the Ecuadorian chips though. Mmm.

More photos uploaded too, same address as in the last couple of entries.