Hungover. Again.

Stupid hostel with their free 12 litres of rum and coke in a bucket on Mondays.

Kruse and I are in Quito. The election is over. I think number 35 won. I wanted Dr Gilbert to win. He had a really good poster in which he was wearing his surgical scrubs so you could tell he was a real doctor.

It was decided that Kruse and Ben were looking decidedly shaggy so we got them shaved. Took them to a barber shop and watched a man hold a knife to their throats. Quite satisfying. The barber gave them both very nice manicured moustaches. And also cut Ben´s hair so that he now looks unpleasantly like Borat. I didn´t get a haircut because I look fine. Damn fine, actually. Although, I am covered with mosquito bites. Even on my bottom.

We abandoned Ben in Guayaquil and scarpered up to Banos, famous for its hot springs. They were indeed hot. But jam-packed with tourists so actually not as enjoyable as they could have been. Stupid tourists. They ruin everything.

Caught a bus with no toilet up to Quito yesterday. Two hours in and I was once again quite desperate to pee. Told the conductor who seemed remarkably uninterested in the fact that the gringo was about to soil herself. So I told the driver, stressing the urgency of my situation. I have only used the word urgent twice in South America, and both times it´s been because of my bladder. At any rate, five minutes later we stopped at a service station and I ran, ran like the wind, to save myself from the embarassment of wet trousers.

Quito seems all right. Haven´t exactly seen a great deal of it, what with the hangover and all, but tomorrow we shall go and visit the line marking the equator and get some boring photos of us standing with a foot on either side! The fun never stops.

Had to listen to some remarkably boring people last night, whilst swilling my free rum and coke. This is the problem with free booze in hostels. Everyone wants some. And then they want to talk. Talk utter bollocks. Can´t they just let a woman booze in peace?

Right. My bladder tells me that it´s about time to go. Heading up to the border tomorrow afternoon so should be in Colombia very soon. Think it might be about time to get Kruse a Panama hat. (Boring side note - Panama hats are actually Ecuadorian hats.)

Fanta is really good. How could I have forgotten this?