Day 1/2 Erupting with excitement!

So today started with everyone meeting at Redbridge station. We said our goodbyes, took a few group photos and made our way on our adventure. The first challenge was the central line train to Ealing Broadway which was about 25 stops away, seats for all of us but with our packs in the aisles...  NO LEG ROOM! To be honest, we felt more sorry for the other commuters in our carriage. We made it to Heathrow and got onto our plane for our 10 hour flight. We made ourselves very comfortable by leaning and lounging over Shona and Emily (sorry about that guys). The plane food was, as you would expect, with the added banter of the vegetarians getting fruit instead of cake (ha). We landed in Bogota an hour early meaning we had a 5 hour wait instead of 4 to catch our next flight. During this time we discovered that you do not put toilet roll down the toilet, no matter how dirty you make it... If you get what we're saying. We also had our first experience of brushing our teeth with a bottle of water as, from now, the tap water isn't safe.

Whilst at the airport, the leaders tried local Columbian coffee and we amused ourselves with a few card games.

We then got on our final flight to Quito where we were fed again (after our 2am breakfast). Once again the veggies were given fruit (lol- literally an apple and a pear served on a tray) while us carnivores had a cheesy pasty.

When we arrived at Quito, we were greeted by our CEOs, Franklin and Carlos, who showed us to our luxury, private coach. We had a 4 hour drive to our accommodation in  Baños, however we stopped about 2 hours in to eat lunch at a pizzeria. We shared a traditional Ecuadorian pizza called Criolla (well something like that anyway). It had bacon and corn (not sweetcorn- CORN) and tasted, in Kathy's words, "very smokayyy".

So currently we're sitting in the back of the coach surrounded by volcanoes (no lies) and one is active with some ash coming out of the top. It looks MAGMAnificent (pardon the A-Level Geography pun).

So far, we're having a smASHing time and we will let you know what we get up to this evening!

Beth & Jane.

Obligatory group shot

Our four fabulous volunteer leaders

Saying our goodbyes

At the gate

Discussing time travel at our stopover

Enjoying Colombian cortados in Bogota

Lining up for some good loos in Ecuador airport

Awaiting our bus

Pizza lunch

Cotopaxi covered in glaciers, snow and a light dusting of volcanic ash