Attempted Mugging Thwarted!

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog. It´s not just because I wanted to keep the pic of Jonny boy (as his close friends call him) at the top for as long as possible, honest. We tried to update it on Monday put some pics wouldn´t upload.

We had a couple of unsettling days when we first arrived in Quito, Ecquador, from Chile. Firstly our flight changed and we had a stop off in Guayaquil, another Ecquadorian city, before arriving in Quito 3 hours late than expected. This meant the couple who we are staying with (a tango teacher and retired doctor) had left the airport already and we had to ring them and then get a taxi to their house. Then on Tuesday morning on our way to the language school (We are learning Spanish here so that the rest of our trip will be easier and more enjoyable as we pick up S American Spanish) some joker tried to grab my bag.

The scam was to ask Bec the time, then as I was distracted squirt me in some kind of ketchup type sauce and then pretend to help me wipe it off as he took my bag. He didn´t stand a chance for 2 reasons - I´ve lived in Manchester & London and since when has a big blob of sauce on my jacket bothered me? I wore my ski jacket all season with a massive rip all down one side. When he tried to show me the extent of all the sauce I just shrugged and carried on until Bec said "Gav, it´s dripping". This little kerfuffle has made us wary hence the lack of photos so far in Quito. Here´s a map of South America with Ecquador in black and me in our room learning some vocab.

So how is language school going? Well put it this way, when my dad rang this morning he had a longer conversation with Elena, our Tango teaching hostess, than either Bec or I have had so far but we´re getting there.

Here are some rules I´ve learnt from the school so far:

1) When there are only you and your wife in the class it isn´t wise to snort with laughter at her mispronunciation.
2) Punching a fellow classmate is OK when it´s your husband and he´s just laughed at you.
3) Waking up early and reading through yesterday´s lesson is not allowed in case you progress more than your wife.
4) Walking out of the classroom when laughing to avoid further punches is considered rude in Quito!

We´ll try and improve the standard of photos for the next update. I suppose Bec´s 3 entry ban is up now too.

Adios amigos!