Life in Sangolqui

We´re half way through our spanish school, and we´ve managed to take in a bit of what we´re learning. Most importantly we are able to recognise things on the menu, and therefore know what we´re eating. You don´t really want to order ´Cuy´ (Koi), which is the local speciality of baked guinea pig. I have been adventurous to some extent, and eaten the pigs trotters, which was pretty tasty.

In the afternoons we have been at a local project that feeds kids from the community. Actually quite hard work, as we´ve had to prepare dinner, serve the kids, and then clean up. Takes about 4 hours every afternoon. This has helped quite a bit with our spanish and food vocab.

As I mentioned earlier we are staying on the main square in Sangolqui. The church on the square rings it´s bells every 15 minutes, day and night, and because they are currently celebrating the anniversary of their independance, there is the occasional singing procession that does laps around the square at 5 in the morning.

We´ve got on well with the other folk at the hostel. We are now 6 in total, the rest all english. We´ve decided the hostel is a bit like ´Faulty Towers´, with our waiter come hotel manager (Carlos) reminding us a lot of Manuel. He constantly forgets that Jackie is vegetarian, plays loud music when he wants, forgets to turn our hot water on and seriously limits our toilet paper.