Quito, Galapagos and the horrid United States of America.
I had about a week each in Quito and on the Galapagos Islands. I had an incredible last few weeks in South America!
In Quito I wandered around the beautiful Old Town visiting churches, sitting in the main square listening to a band playing guitar and singing fabulous music in the sun. I went up the 'teleferiqo' or cable car to the base of a volcano where I got great views of Quito and could see planes flying down below! There were some great museums in New Town and I got fat at all the vegetarian restaurants, sometimes having 2 dinners (oops) But it was fun!
The Galapagos Islands were awesome! I first went on a four day cruise where I saw sea lions, giant tortoises, sea turtles (mating at that), sharks, marine and land iguanas, eagle rays, penguins, blue footed boobies and lots of other creatures too! It really was fabulous, except unfortunatley my guide continually hit on me with lines like "lets go on top of the boat and I'll show you the stars", "why don't we go to your room and we can talk in Spanish together" not even getting the hint with my response "I feel seasick, I think I'm going to vomit... now!" (I thought this would be sufficiently un-sexy to fob him off...) Alas. I ended up having to hide a bit, which did suck. After the cruise I went to one of the islands with two French people and there we went up a volcano which was awesome!
I spent a few days in Quito before making the horrendously painful journey to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. I had to fly on stupid American Airlines to Miami (they don't do vegan meals, or transfer luggage to other countries). I was scheduled for a 5 hour stopover in Miami where the bloody US officials decided I was an illegal immigrant. They took me to a room and told me to "SIT DOWN", I didn't know what was going on, or what this room was, but found I was basically the only gringo there. After waiting for several hours I started to worry that I would miss my next flight so I went to the counter and told them I had a connecting flight soon, to which they told me they would process me soon and told me to sit down again. I sat and waited and got more and more agitated until they finally got my passport and started asking me questions about past visits to the US, at one stage they asked me what date I entered the US in 97. To which I replied "I don't know, it was years ago and I was 13 at the time!" They then said "ooohhhh, she was a minor" and let me go to my flight (but not before telling me I should have got a visa (for my 5 hours in the US airport). Why the hell would I want to live in that horrid country? I have no desire whatsover to be an illegal immigrant there! I then collected my bags ran to customs, ran to the British Airways desk where they told me I had missed my flight... Grrrrrr! I was so angry. I was forced to stay more hours in that horrid country! But I did gain insight into how they treat Latinos... I'd always been through the gringo stream in the past.
(Franzisca, do you want to go to Cuba with me?)
I eventually got to London where I had a lot less time to hang out with Emma and Maria and ended up missing out on seeing Sabine all together. Grrr. Stupid US. But I did have lots of fun in London anyway. It was great to see Emma and Maria, and most enjoyable stuffing myself with gourmet vegan food (including vegan icecream! woot!) and going to the portrait gallery.
I'm now in Johor Bahru, Malaysia in a luxury appartment, at a hospital with lots of interesting cases with a group of really nice meddies. Hooray!
