Phil's Worldwide travel in 2023/2024

 Hey Fam, So I finished up my week of Spanish classes at Banana School, the 4 hours in the morning were pretty fun. Below was the crew, left being Christina, retired and just travels the world and learns languages for fun! Ariela works for the Swiss embassy fluent in Italian, German, Swiss German, French, English and her Spanish is pretty good! The classes in the afternoon was at Simon Boliver, one on one, also pretty solid and overall probably a better school On my last night I ate at Somos in Quito with a friend and her friend. Out of all the restaurants, this was definitely the best. Very interesting a la carte menu, a good amount of fusion (Ecuadorian/asian). I am truly sad that I was not able to try their degustación of three desserts and would like to return specifically for this (likely when I come back for the Galapagos). No pic features, but I did end up at Zinc Bar which was beautiful and would be my go to bar on return as well. Although I hate American Express for a vari...

 A heads up, this will be my least exciting blog post I ever write, I can just feel it. I went to Cotopaxi last week, an active Volcano. We did the beginner climb which was pretty brutal cause I do know cardio and the elevation is above 4000 m (Quito is >2000). I went solo but some cool solo travellers. Below: so tired I am now an expert and explaining to everyone how volcanoes work. I started a new Spanish school, Banana Spanish School. It looks pretty run down. All of these schools are "5 stars" online but there is clearly a lot of pressure on students to give great reviews and I don't think anyone wants to ruin the reputation of someone's livelihood. I'm doing 6 hours a day, the 4 hours in the morning are with 2 women who are super interesting, one is Swiss and Speaks 5 languages fluently (Italian, French, German, Swiss German, English) and her Spanish is decent. The other speaks French, English, Korean, a good amount of Japanese and her Spanish is pretty up...

This week I'm doing a homestay to see what the buzz was about. I'm staying with a family (mom is 65 years old, father is 75 and 2 kids). I mainly just see the mom who makes me breakfast and dinner. She's really nice, doesn't speak any English but her Spanish is great. It's interesting that she's been hosting students for 20 years. She's met so many different people of all ages. I had this idea that it would be a shack, but its quite the opposite, this is a mansion with at least 4 floors! I have my room, own bathroom and everything I need is in the area (the school is a 7 minute walk). I'm paying 27 American per night! I started classes Monday, they put me with a beginner student which was a little awkward, but I felt I could help a lot.  I met my teacher Tuesday, he's kinda like the latino George Costanza. I have to keep him focussed because sometimes he wants to talk about health (his health) cause he knows I'm a doctor, happy to help but I need...

I've continued with my Spanish classes daily for ~4 hours and then an excursion which is usually around 2 hours. I've done a few where we visit a local Quechua community. It is a bit touristy but below is a Shaman that showed us all sort of plants. One turned into a soap by squishing it, another was leaf that worked as toilet paper. He also told us about a birth control leaf... after 10 kids it started working (eye roll). He also rambled about some story where someone had a tumour no their liver and they couldn't afford  to surgery, so after taking ayahuasca, he saw a spider and somehow removed it. Although I largely think this guy was nuts he was super quirky. Below is his blow dart, this was super powerful, we all did a little target practice. They sharpen the arrows with piraña teeth. Below is a special character who needs a shoutout. This is Chichico (his apodo - or nickname). He's 18 and training to be a guide, he often was our driver. The kid is totally bonkers bu...

 I arrived August 7th to Gaia Amazon EcoLodge which is smack dap in the middle of the Amazon right by the Napo River. I organized this with my Spanish. The idea is trying to up my Spanish while doing something interesting at the same time.  My cabin is great, can fit four but its all for me. Very clean, lots screens everywhere, has a fridge, fan, and solid shower with hot water. There are a few different groups here and we do excursions together. Day 1 I went for one in the afternoon. We had about a 2 hour hike through the forrest, saw LOOOOADS of interesting stuff. One of the coolest things was lemon ants. Our guide took an inconspicuous true, broke the stem and it was full of ants. They have a lemon taste when crushed, which also releases pheromones; apparently park of a defence mechanism to alarm the colony). I actually remember hearing about a restaurant in Norway that uses these,  Maaemo. Our guide Roberto pointing out a tarantula. He largely speaks Spanish which is ...

Yesterday I had another group tour organized by community hostel to go to the centre of the world. They just charged for transportation. Although the weather is always perfect temperature, the UV index is high and sun screen is very important  Below is where they thought the centre of the world was, but left it there cause its kinda cool. On the right is my new wife and daughter, They had a great free tour, talking about some of the history of this place. Quito was named after Quitu tribe, and translates to centre to the world.  They were a pre-Columbian indigenous people in Ecuador. This tribe would have this tubes around their pee pees... i'm not sure why and I guess we will NEVER KNOW. Below was my crew for the day, middle was as a local who hadn't been here. Got a got a great break down of how chocolate is processed, starting with cocoa. Ecaudor has a big history of producing it and exporting it, but they also realize the best chocolate in the world is Belgium (referring t...