A week and a half ago we split into two groups of six for our month-long volunteer projects. My half stayed in Quito, to build a greenhouse in a local school and to experience living with an Ecuadorian family, while the other half went to the coast to build a house. Moving in with our new families was rather daunting, especially given the level of our Spanish, but thankfully it's turned out alright - we´re all within a couple of blocks of each other, on the same road as our hostal, so we've still got some sense of direction, and I´ve even got an ensuite bathroom. Hurrah!

I'm sharing my family with Becky - she´s living in the downstairs apartment with the parents and their two kids (both our age), while I´m upstairs with the Grandma. The family´s really nice, but it's quite an akward situation - conversing would be hard enough even if we could speak Spanish. We haven't seen that much of them either so far, just at some of our mealtimes, so I haven´t been practicing my Spanish as much as I'd like to either. In fact, if anything, my Spanish is becoming more unconfident since most of what I say is greeted with blank looks. But oh well. The food at least - proper Ecuadorian food - is fantastic. In particular I've become quite attached to fried bananas. They have a number of different types of bananas in Ecuador - tiny sweet ones, normal-looking banana ones, and big green ones called platains, which are always cooked. Ecuadorians are also very fond of fruit juices, of which we have tried many - I think we may be working our way through every fruit in Ecuador - so far there´s been strawberry, melon, sweet tomato (grows on trees), a number of things I can't pronouce, and pineapple - which I've become completely obsessed with. Mmm.

The primary school we're working in is on the Southern outskirts of Quito, about an hour away on the bus. It's a great little place - each classroom is it's own separate small hexagonal building, brightly painted, and then they've got a grass football pitch, a few swings and things, and a veg patch. It's a lovely and chilled place to work, and the children are so sweet - there are a few in particular that hug each of us every time we arrive and leave. Our greenhouse is progressing well too. Building in Ecuador is extreme and completely un-saftey concious - hard hats have probably never been heard of, ladders are balanced against other people instead of solid things like structures or walls, measurements are more guessed than measured, and logs are dropped on people´s heads. It's good fun though. It's great working outside all day too, in the sunshine, and I love being able to look up and see the mountains - my favourite thing about Quito, I think.

We´ve just got back from a long weekend - 4 days - in Puerto Lopez, the town on the coast where the other six are volunteering. Yet another place that's so different and new and exciting from anywhere I've seen before, but I'm quite glad I'm not there for a whole month, because the humidity is awful, and for 4 days I just felt sticky and dirty and full of sand, even after I'd had a shower. The 12 hour bus journey there and back was also like hell, largely due to the unrelenting Latin American pop music that accompanied us there, and the lack of air-conditioning on the way back, but the scenery just about made it worth it. We left the mountains and passed through the cloud forest to gradually see more and more jungle-esqe greenery and flowers, wooden shacks on stilts with piles of bananas stacked outside, and people swinging in hammocks in their doorways - what I loved the most about Puerto Lopez was that there the distinction between outside and inside was hardly there - it made it such an open place.

We helped work on the house with the other group for a day and a half, swam a fair bit, chilled quite a lot, and took a boat trip out to a couple of more secluded beaches nearby, to snorkel and fish. The fish were then turned into our lunch - the costal speciality of ceviche, which is chopped up raw fish, tomatos, peppers, etc, soaked in lime juice. It's not bad. And we were also in Puerto Lopez for Carnival. Carnival I found quite frustrating, because aside from the water throwing, of which there was much (gringos make such good targets, we were water-gunned by nearly every kid we passed), it was simply filled with thumping Latin American dance music. Everywhere. Quite amusing really, I suppose - to come half way round the world, for the major Andean festival of the year, when there's garaunteed to be some great traditional fiestas on all over the place, and that's what I get. I probably should have tried harder though, I guess, and am going to do my best for Easter.

Which pretty much brings me up to date. Quite a few more photos here: http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/2526621