Quest Overseas - Gap Year Travel

Here's the latest from the Villa Maria team who are settling into their final week on the project....Big thanks to Alice & Jaiya for this one!

By our third week in VM the team has settled into a routine involving sweltering morning climbs to reach far out communities, mass amounts of colouring (standards of castles, princesses, aliens and flowers are improving) and banterous football tournaments between gringos and the local girls. We visit two communities each day, taking the children from the second community to the swimming pool with us in the afternoon... drowning comes as standard.

We have also had the privilege of venturing into unknown Quest territory. Visiting new communities, some not even on Google-maps, brings with it an entirely different experience, the families are reserved and we need to work hard to build their trust. The rewarding feeling when the children of one such community run to hug and kiss you as you pant up the hill in a Princess outfit for the Saturday Feria cannot quite be described....

Here's the latest from the Villa Maria Team's time at the project - keep up the good work guys!

Tuesday started as usual, we had breakfast and then visited one of the local communities with an array of games and activities in hand to amuse and entertain the children. Despite the sweltering heat, we managed to have a good time and eagerly returned to the house for lunch. We then visited another community in the afternoon and had another trip to the pool...definitely an exhausting day...

The Villa Maria team have certainly got stuck wholeheartedly into the Domingos Familiares - or Family Sunday shows which bring together different communities from across Villa Maria. Thanks to Lucho's legendary dance routines the team have been able to entertain the masses in style. Well done!

Day one in Villa Maria was welcomed with a blitz tidy for what is going to be our home for the next 31 days. Litres of bleach, sweat and tears ensured that the beers consumed with Ola's spiccccy sausage pasta in the evening were well deserved. Impressions of Villa Maria were great, with all the long term project members letting us know that pranks would be taking place on a daily basis.

Friday was our first fully packed day, involving a trip to one of the communities located at the top of the shanty town. Football as always featured heavily as well as skipping ropes, ring toss and memory games to the excitement of us as much as the children. Then it was our first introduction to the mayhem that is the swimming pool. Copious numbers of children togged up in swimming gear followed the Quest team down to the local pool where for an hour, we were used as what can only be described as human climbing frames and rocket launchers ‘Gringo, gringo carga me'...

Final update from the team's language phase, thanks to Jaiya!

As we entered our final week in Quito, Jimmy and Pete decided to spring upon us a set of group tasks that would challenge our knowledge on the local culture, language and history - as well as make us look absolutely ridiculous! After a long day of running around the city, consisting of human bullfighting in the Plaza del Toros, Charlie's Angels pouts with the policia and Titanic poses atop the Basilica (big church), the three teams tottered in, naturally shattered and immensely pleased to find the cook team creating a well-deserved pizza feast. The evening ended with what we were led to believe was a chick flick, yet only ended up being the most depressing and boring end to an eventful day... Thank you for the recommendation Alex.