You Come to Me with Excuses

Thursday 25 February
Quito

I bought a new mobile phone. I don’t actually need it for the phone especially, but I do need an alarm clock and something to help me tell the time. I went back to the same place and luckily there was a different person there, one who spoke English, so that made things easier.

I spent most of the day trying to sort my way through the admin of using a PayPal account to pay for my Galapagos trip, which frankly makes the French look like they are the epitome of sleek, organised systems.

The mugging had made me lazy and I didn’t really care about doing any tourist stuff. I had found a book in the hostel which was Martin Kemp’s autobiography. True! Gold. So I started reading that, which was interesting. He was a lucky bastard, having a brother who was one of the top songwriters of the 80s. Although perhaps the two brain tumours meant he wasn’t so lucky. It made me want to see that film about the Krays that he starred in as well.

I went to an Irish bar in the evening and met some nice people. For some reason I didn’t have an evening meal today as well. The large lunches combined with the altitude are playing havoc with me. I’ve definitely lost weight on this trip. I usually eat a lot at home but the randomness of travelling means that couldn’t happen here.