Quito and Grand Hotel Guayaquil

Very sunny again at breakfast; this time the sun lasted all morning. After breakfast we went into the lovely little garden and I took some photos of it with the volcano in the background.

Then we went back to the shop we we'd gone to the day before, because I'd realised that the security tag had been left in my new shirt and I didn't want to risk ripping the shirt by trying to pull the tag off.

After they'd taken it off for me, Mum and I walked down the road to the Museo Etnográfico de Artesanía de Ecuador, stopping on the way at a lovely little triangular park for a look-around.

This museum had fascinating displays about the various indigenous tribes in Ecuador and their traditional dress, utensils, musical instruments and art. Between us, our favourite exhibits were some colourful feather crowns, carved wooden guagua de pan moulds (the sweet bread figures sold and eaten in Ecuador on 1st/2nd November - I had some in Cuenca), guitar-shaped instruments where the back of each was made from a large armadillo shell, a 'tuned' wooden log used to send messages (through different sounds) between different communities in the rainforest, and a patterned clay crab with large pincers and a very toothy, rather frightened-looking smile.

Mum bought some chocolate and two balls of alpaca wool in the shop and then we moved on to the café outside. Mum had a cappucino, I had an iced coffee that turned out to be very big and had lots of whipped cream on top, and we shared a slice of maracuyá (passionfruit) cheesecake. Although it hadn't been described as such, we could tell it was a baked cheesecake. It was lovely. Then I realised it was ten to eleven and we were supposed to check out before eleven, so since she had finished her drink, Mum dashed straight back to the guesthouse to check out and get our valuables from the safe while I finished my drink and portion of the cheesecake slice and walked back via a different route.

We got the guesthouse to order us a taxi to the airport at 12. This time the driver was very good, so the journey felt smoother.

Once we got to the airport and had gone though to our boarding gate we got some food from a café; Mum had a fruit salad and I had a large cheese and ham roll. The flight was completely uneventful apart from that I managed to get a good photo of Quito spread out below with the mountains behind it.

On arrival to Guayaquil we were met at the airport and taken to the hotel. I had another swim in the pool and soon after that we had to change rooms due to an unfortunate bathroom flooding incident!

For dinner we went to a restaurant on site, '1822 Grill Room', after first drinking our free, fruity and delicious cocktails at the Turtle Bar (we got a free cocktail voucher each at check-in).

The food and drink we had at 1822 was excellent - it started with a shared hors d'ouevre of pepperoni slices, smoked cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles. Mum had a Screwdriver cocktail and I had a delicious 'Pichincha Punch' made from dark & light rum, Cointreau, Vermouth, Dubonnet, Créme de Cacao, pineapple juice, lemon and orange juice. Then for the main course I had amazing mixed skewers of incredibly tender, juicy and tasty chunks of steak and chicken with mushrooms, onion and pepper; Mum had 'Corvina Boyacá', sea bass in a special sauce, with tiny baby potatoes and some steamed vegetables. My skewers came with salad. For pudding I had quite a stiff chocolate mousse in a glass, but Mum just had a coffee.

On the way back to our room we carried on up another couple of levels to the top of the hotel. I took some more photos of the pool, courtyard and cathedral after dark.

Before we arrived back at our room I heard the strains of the tune the rubbish collection truck plays on its rounds, so we stopped to listen to it until it went out of earshot. Once I'm back in the UK this summer, if I ever hear this tune again it will instantly transport me back to Guayaquil. It's really catchy.