Quito (New Town)

Well yesterday we walked into the new part of Quito and it was totally different from the old town.
There are lot's of shops, bars, restaurants etc (as you'd probably expect) it's also not quite as hilly, which is always a bonus for ex office workers!!
Before we came travelling we went to see Steen and Nicola as they had travelled extensively through Sth America so we got lots of tips and stuff, Steen told us about a scam they often pull on backpackers, wherby somebody squirts mustard/ketchup on your back pack, which makes you take it off to clean it up, then somebody runs up and snatches it off you and runs off with your stuff.. well Im sorry to say that we fell victim to this scam yesterday, although because we knew what they were trying to do, we kept the back pack on and kept walking (it was only a day pack with our jackets in and a drink)
The guy that we think was involved tried to grab hold of Matt by his pack and pull him into a shop on the street to clean himself up but we just told him politely that we were ok.
When I looked Matt had tomato ketchup all up the back of his trousers, all over the pack and up his t'shirt, I had it on the back of my legs and trousers too, no real harm done, we are just glad that we knew what they were trying to do, he was an oldish guy too, not young thugs.
At the time we were looking for the local cinema, we were going to watch Spiderman 3 (hoping too) when we eventually got there it was a spanish kind of theatre and no trace of Spiderman 3, they'd never even heard of him!!!
We have decided to stay in Quito a couple more nights, we are still getting acclimatised as we are so far up in the mountains and it can be dfficult to breathe when you're climbing hills and stuff, were in no rush to be anywhere, it's not like we have to be back at work next week, or the week after he he!!
On Saturday we're going to a place North of Quito called Otovalo, they have the best market on the continent apparently, but very little else.
We will get the bus up there on Friday morning which takes about 2 hours.
There are still lots of beggars and stuff in the new town and you see small children about 3/4 years old with their parents begging for money in the street, this gorgeous little girl came up to us yesterday and started following us down the street with her hand out, Matt was just going to walk past but me been the soft touch told him to give her some money, when he gave her 50c her face lit up and she ran off to her mum, its 25 pence to us but a lot more to them, that was our good deed for the day.
Last night we went out for a few beers into the new town, we found a crammed bar full of locals, but it was really friendly and the owner soon got us a couple of stools at the bar making us feel right at home, we then headed off to the Thai restaurant for some food, it's the first Phad Thai Ive ever had with parsley?!?!?!
It was lovely, not as good as the one on the High Street in Ricky though.
We had a massive storm just before we went out last night, it absolutely pi$$ed down for about 2 hours, it has been doing the same this morning too, but the sun is now out and it looks to be another nice day.
Yesterday it was 25c, which is pretty cool compared to the temperatures we were experiencing in the USA.
It's so cheap here it's criminal, I just feel like were ripping everybody off, it is difficult to spend money, not that were complaining.
There are quite a few Brits and obviously Ozzies in out hostel but we haven't really got chatting to anybody yet.
It seems like the Ozzie bird is acting tour guide for everybody in here as she is fluent in Spanish (as you would expect from an Ozzie) I dare say that even if she wasn't she would still be organising everybody's day for them.
Any road.. the sun is shining and you've got work to do (most of you) so I'll be off.