Another relaxed day. Just as well, as this damn cough has well and truly taken hold. There appear to be many other fellow-sufferers, as the cough is loud and convulsive. One guy had to leave the theatre as he could not stop.

I had not slept well – coughing uncontrollably at times, which

A decent à la carte breakfast in the Atlantide restaurant, then a lecture given by a Ken Williams about Ecuador, the country we are headed to. Quite interesting, but delivered rather too quickly. He barely paused to draw breath.

It is an intriguing country, the ninth largest of the 12 countries in South America. Three main areas – coastal, Andean mountains and Amazonian rainforest, providing a very diverse environment. Guayaquil, our destination tonight, is the largest city – nearly 4 million of the 12 million residents of the country. Quito, the capital, is in the mountains at an altitude of around 3,000 metres, the second highest after Bolivia’s La Paz.

Ecuador became a Spanish colony in 1537 and was liberated by Simon Bolivar in 1820. Its main export is bananas.

It was part of the Inca empire in the 16th century, and was one of the countries in Gran Colombia, dreamed up by Simon Bolivar as the South American equivalent of the USA. That dream died with his death in 1835.

After this, we sorted out a few admin bits and pieces, then went looking for a snack as neither of us were particularly hungry. The Arts Café provided this, but no wine…..☹️

To counter the overworked throat due to my coughing, we bought some Tylenol, the popular painkiller in the USA. We both took one before we attended the second lecture from Carlos Rangico, this time about the Moche culture which preceded the Incas. Again, not uninteresting, but we were both nodding off during it. Whether this was due to the Tylenol, I don’t know.

So we repaired to our cabin and took a snooze. Quite a long one, actually.

We recovered enough to enjoy a glass of fizz in the bar alongside the Atlantide restaurant before we sat down for dinner. I was not feeling great, and could only manage a soup, but Jean tucked into a decent meal.

We decided to make the evening entertainment – a performance from a flamboyant and virtuoso pianist named Jason Lyall Black. Me neither. However, he was remarkably skilful at stringing medleys of tunes from various genres, and even playing with his head underneath the keyboard. Quite enjoyable, but this coughing takes it out of me big-time.

Hope we get a better night’s sleep