Equador 1 Brazil 1 in World Cup Qualifying

Sara has gone to bed with tummy cramps, and I have them too, along with a bit of a headache. Not much to say today, as it was a travel day, but I figure we may as keep up to date as tomorrow we head to the Galapagos Islands for 8 days.

Got up this morning, in Tena and had a light breakfast of fruit. After breakfast we finished packing up and walked to the bus station for our bus back to Quito. Along the way we saw another political rally. They really take their politics seriously here, with trucks covered with posters, flags, horns blaring, and people hanging out of the window all wearing matching teeshirts. There is the 32-61 party lead by Gina, and they are white, there is the yellow 7's, and the red and white 24's. All along the way on the bus you saw homes and bus stops painted in the political party of choice. Most people seem to be involved in the process, quite a bit better than back in Canada, for visual shows of support anyways. It was raining lightly as we walked through the otherwise realitively quiet Sunday streets to the bus station. We got on our bus and made a long trip back over the Andes to Quito. The trip ended up taking most of the day as we didn't arrive into Quito unitl 4pm, quite a bit slower than on the way to Tena where we also arrived at 4pm but had an hour construction equipment stuck in the road delay, and left 1.5 hours later. It was quite a bit colder in the high Andes where it was raining and hailing, but just overcast in Quito, but still not warm.

Sara and Marilyn would say they performed a power move to get a taxi from the bus station. They said they stepped out into traffic and hailed one down, but it took them 20 minutes to get to this point. However it went down, there was more people than taxis, so they did good. We got back to our hostel just as the world cup qualifier Ecuador verses Brazil was starting, *which was being played in Quito. I took a couple of Vitamin 'I' and watched the game with the hostel owners. Ecuador controlled the play, but couldn't put the ball in the net. Brazil scored first on one of it's 3 chances all game, and Ecuador finally tied it up with 5 minutes left to play, but couldn't get another goal. They aren't out of the World Cup yet, but it isn't looking very good. Marilyn got hold of Monica and we got our tickets for the Galapagos in hand finally.

After the game we went to get money to pay our park enterance fee for the Galapagos, and then go for dinner. We ended up in this Bohimeum *sp, place that had a great atmosphere (Peter said the music was too loud) and great food. The food was very rich compared to the food we have been eating, so that may have given Sara and myself the tummy cramps. As we ate we watched through the window as tons of Ecuadorians walked and mingled on the street all wearing their yellow football jerseys. It was kind of like sitting on Whyte Ave, or 17 Stree, or Robson street after a big hockey game win with everyone in their sporting best and lots of nice cars driving by. I can only image how it would have been in Equador had won instead of a tie.

After dinner we returned to our hostel to find Leann was here. She got herself burnt on her first day in Quito, which was surprising as she said she was wearing her jacket for most of the day. So now we are a group of five, and we are off to the very pricy islands tomorrow morning. I don't know what sort of internet access if any our boat will have, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from us for 8 days.

Tyson and Sara