Rachel's first football match

Simon is currently drinking beer on the terrace of the hotel (not as swanky as it sounds) with his dad etc and I'm about to head off to join them for food. I am also useless at football reporting, so this will be brief.

Our timing was terrible but Simon's adopted Ecuadorian team did well. They won 2-1. The first goal was scored just before the pitch came into view for us over the stadium steps - we arrived 20 minutes late. The goal by the opposition was a clanger by the goalkeeper, he should be ashamed. The winning goal for El Nacional was scored while I was turning around to see how much it cost to enter the ladies loo (15 cents).

The day was a scorcher and the fans went away happy. The drum was banging and the songs were going strong. We think they may be a little fair weather however as there were less of them there than for the Wednesday night game. Maybe now they've had a victory they'll come flooding back.

Additional excitement, and probably cause of the victory came from a sending off of a player in the opposition for no apparent reason. The whistle went for full time and there was a tussle of the pitch between the teams. The riot police came storming on for no real reason, probably because they never have anything to do, broke it up, without need of their riot shields and that was that.

Another point to note - the food is impressive. You can get anything from a chicken stew to rice and black pudding (ergh), ice-creams, beers and a salty/sweetcorn with salsa combination.

We're off to Machala on the coast next week to visit banana producers. They seem to get a good following and we're hoping to fit in going to a game.

Market day and John's birthday

Back from the jungle, on Saturday we took a bus for a couple of hours to the nearby market town of Otavalo. The journey was beautiful, winding and hurtling down a chiselled out road through the mountains - dropping into valleys and then groaning back up the mountains with overtaking on blind bends several times. We were reminded by John and Erica that just taking a bus for the first time in Latin America is quite an experience - a man hollers out of the bus for the first hour touting for passengers, people sprint after it and dive on with babies and bags, people come on the bus selling chicken stew/drinks/ice creams/fruit at every stop, travelling 5 minutes on it while they make their sales and then leap off. So much noise and energy compared to our average bus journey in the UK. Particularly memorable for them was a lady changing her baby's filthy nappy twice on the adjacent seat and then hurling the nappies out of the window, and a very violent film shown on the way back, dubbed in Spanish at full volume.

Otavalo is one of the largest markets in South America. People come from miles around to sell fresh produce, half of which we don't recognise, animals, and beautiful rugs and handicrafts.

It was John's birthday and we rounded off the day with Joan's delicious fruit cake back at the hotel.

Our trip to the rainforest

After a half hour plane journey, a three hour jolty bus journey in which we had to be dragged out of deep gravel by a digger, and a 20 minute boat ride, we arrived at our destination - lodges in the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Amazon Rainforest in the north of Ecuador.


The lodges were open to the elements and overlooking the river. As we lay in our comfortable beds we could hear the noise of thousands of insects, frogs, birds, monkeys, and even a cheeky sausage shaped rodent who we spotted stealing two of our biscuits in the middle of the night.


We set off with our guide on some jungle trails. We were urged not to stray from the path as we could quickly encounter poisonous spiders, frogs, plants, killer ants, camouflaged snakes etc. It was amazing how much all the wildlife blended into its environment.


A leafy-striped frog.


Spot the anaconda


Spot the backpack


This beetle didn't blend so well but maybe it's meant to be offputting


Apparently these are edible. Yum yum.


The bull frog - named after his horns. He was plonked on the leaf by our guide. He completely blended into dead leaves.


A handy bit of plant used by monkeys to groom themselves.


Shake the leaves on this tree and millions of ants come pouring out from under the leaves to protect it. They sound like falling rain.


On our second day we went off on the boat down the river to a lagoon, spotting lots of monkeys and birds on the way.


The lagoon disappears in the dry season and is yet to rise by another couple of metres in the rainy season to reach its peak. We went searching for an enormous anaconda which we eventually found hiding in a hollow tree like the ones above. Its body was as thick as a football and apparently it would have been between 8-10 metres long. We climbed out of the boat one at a time and peered in at it sleeping. Our heads were within inches of the mighty beast. After this, we headed to an indigenous village where they are well rehearsed at making yuca bread for tourists.


We had to squeeze all the water out of it. Surprisingly tricky after the first few twists.

The TeleferiQo

The TeleferiQo or 6-person cable car, transported us 1000 metres up a mountain to the west of Quito to reach a height of nearly 4000 metres above sea level. It certainly felt a bit draughty and airless at the top, but the views over the city were fantastic.

The TeleferiQo is a massive tourist hit for Ecuadorians and foreigners. It's pretty tacky at top and bottom - theme park with Chipmunk music at the bottom, and a Nescafe cafe at the top. Making a sharp exit from this, once at the top, we set off to the vantage points. At this point our party splintered as Simon and I decided to take on trying to reach the volcano Pichincha, further uphill and a couple of hours walk away.

It was a fantastic walk although pretty exhausting at this altitude - gurgling stomachs and light headedness. We made it to the rocky start of it where the track petered out and we hit the clouds.

Family visitors arrive in Quito

Here are the visitors (Erica, Simon's Dad John, Uncle Brian and Aunty Joan) in a lovely park in Quito. It's full of families on Sundays.

Quito Old Town is a lovely place to walk around, especially on a nice, sunny Sunday when the roads are closed to traffic.

We happened upon a local dancing event in a little shopping precinct.

As it was Erica's birthday, we decided to find a special place to eat. We found a $1.50 lunch special in this backstreet cafe.

At last! A football match. A real live football match.

The Ecuadorian national league has not quite begun but the pre-qualification stage of the Copa Libertadores is under way. As luck would have it, El Nacional, a Quito team, were playing at home against a team from Paraguay, with the slightly confusing name of 'Nacional'. I went down to the olympic stadium with my $5 ticket in hand. Sadly Rachel was stuck back at the hotel working. 

The stadium seats 40,000 but there were more like 7000 fans dotted around for this game. El Nacional of Quito were my chosen team. They were stong favourites coming into the match. Also, the news was that the Paraguay team had only flown in 3 hours before the match which is not ideal preparation for a ground at 3000 metres above sea level (the main reason Ecuador have qualified for the last two World Cups).  I was 'merched-up' ready for the match, proudly sporting my $5 knock-off shirt (apologies to Lotto and El Nacional) and holding a large cup of lager.

The boys started well, stroking the ball around, but as the game progressed they were showing a lack of urgency. Just before half time there was a clear warning when the opposition broke through two on one against the keeper only to embarassingly fumble a pass for a certain goal.  The lesson was not heeded. Ten minutes into the second half, my team was 2-0 down to two, admittedly spectacular, strikes.  The team fell to pieces. Where was the backbone? It was just like watching York.  The home fans kept banging the drum and waving flags but to no avail. Two more goals soon followed thanks to some shoddy defensive work. The final whistle was fast approaching.  

Two minutes was still time enough for one final humiliation as the Paraguayan team smashed in a final goal from an improbable angle.  So 5-0 it ended. Oh dear. 

It has since been reported in the local press that most of the board has been sacked.  A miserable start to the 2009 season for my boys, El Nacional of Quito. 

Maximum carbohydrate intake

Quito is high. At nearly 3000 metres the altitude takes some getting used to. The advice in our guide book was to rest, drink plenty of water and eat lots of carbohydrates. With this in mind, we went to a local branch of the Colombian outlet, Crepes and Waffles. I chose this gigantic loaf of bread filled with chicken curry. I believe I achieved maximum carbohydrate potential. It was nice too. 

We've made it to Ecuador

It's been a busy few weeks. Our last day on the banana visit ended up being pretty much on the border with Ecuador. We decided to get an overnight bus straight up to Quito so that I could get on with writing up all my interviews. 

Quito has been a lovely surprise so far. We had heard tales of backpackers robbed at knife point in taxis so we approached with a bit of trepidation. We're not staying in the backpacker part of town and we've found it to be a modern, relaxed and cosmopolitan city surrounded by beautiful mountains.

I have, however, spent all week glued to the laptop, finally finishing all my work at 3am yesterday. The massive window in our very comfy hotel room has helped. The sky is constantly changing, from sunny, to enormous clouds quickly building up and then dramatic thunder storms.

My able assistant has been very helpful (when he's not been at a local footy game), editing interviews, buying me flowers and getting us good, simple meals ready every evening. It's been nice to settle in here. We've unpacked, stocked up our fridge, we have hot water and a bath and it's of a comparable size (slightly exaggerated) to our London flat. It's starting to feel like home. We've even taken on jogging around a great city park in the mornings (well 2 so far, but we may manage a few more). We're not a model of fitness. We blame the altitude. Our lungs are in pain long before our legs.

It's holiday time for us now for a couple of weeks before we're back on the bananas, this time in Ecuador. Simon's dad, Erica, aunty and uncle arrived this morning and we're off to the jungle on Tuesday. It was surprisingly normal to see them, not quite like bumping into them for a coffee, but on a scale. I think chatting to people on skype makes a big difference - so come on everyone we're missing, what are your skype addresses please? 

Peru been and gone. But we'll be back.

We had very little time to be tourists in Peru. Piura was a nice place to be in between farm visits mainly because of the quality of the ice-cream shop across the Plaza. On Sundays the local military turn out for a fairly lacklustre parade. Our hotel room overlooked the plaza so we had a good view of what was going on.

The village of Chulacanas was a great place to stay for a few days while we visited mango producers. Everyone was friendly and we managed to eat well despite ongoing tummy disturbances. The streets are filled with far more mototaxis than cars. The picture below of traffic waiting at a junction is typical.
 When you do see a car it is very unlikely to be under-occupied.
We got to wander a little at the start and end of the week, like to the market. It was great to be in a place with virtually no other tourists.

But most of our time in Peru has been spent working.
Rachel has been busy interviewing, gathering information, looking for good stories as well as having to be an ambassador for the company and Europe as most of the farmers see things.
I've taken a lot of photos and enjoyed the privilege of meeting lovely people in rural communities way off the tourist trail.
Its not all hard work.
Banana farmers are nice. 

The work is varied. Insect repellent is important.

Of course the boy wasn't really sweet and neither am I: you can only tell so much from a picture.