Days 37 - 39: Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

After another night bus from Nasca to Arequipa (they don't really get better, but we are now three from nine!) we had a look around the quaint city. There are heaps of llama and alpaca wool products here for sale, and we also tried alpaca meat, which was similar to lamb but a bit more gamey. We have definitely mastered spotting the differences between llama, alpaca, vicuña and guanaco now!!

Arequipa is our gateway to the Colca canyon, which is really deep, nearly 4 km deep in places, with small villages dotted around the edge. We took the bus to a specific lookout, Cruz Condor, where we could see the condors flying around the canyon, which was special for us after seeing them in captivity in Ecuador!

After a soak in the hot springs we are ready for dinner, which is booked for a restaurant which has traditional singing and dancing - could be interesting!

Have been told we are on another night bus for the ABs vs ARG, so we might not catch it, but go the ABs!!!

Days 34 - 36: Pisco, the Dunes and Nasca

Sorry it has taken a while to blog, the internet has been a bit dodgy!

The Pisco distillery/winery was great fun, the took us on a tour, and then we had a tasting. Small tastes of course! It was interesting to see how they could grow grapes with so little water and vegetation around naturally!

After the tasting we went sand boarding in the nearby sand dunes. These dunes were way bigger than we had expected! We were put in buggies which were driven like we were on a roller coaster, with stops at the top of big dunes for boarding. A lot of fun but we had sand everywhere!

We then jumped on the bus to Nasca. On an early flight in a tiny plane, we cruised over the lines, trying to quickly spot and snap photos of the fascinating lines in the desert made in the pre-Incan times. Sam is still convinced they were drawn by aliens...

The hotel in Nasca put on a 'Pachamanca' dinner for us, which was remarkably similar to a hangi!

Xoxo

Days 31 - 33: Lima

Disappointingly, our good time in Lima was capped off with a little bad luck. We are now sans iPad, due to some quick Peruvian fingers. So we may be short of blog photos from now on!

But anyway, back to where we left off! On our last day in Huanchaco we went on a tour of the nearby ruins. These were constructed out of millions of mud bricks, and had the most amazing designs painted on the walls!

Then we headed on to Lima. We hadn't heard great things about Lima, but it was nice to have an explore around the old town, including the Franciscan cathedral and catacombs (ooooo creepy!) and attend a Peruvian soccer game, supporting the home team, Alianza Lima, of course! The dancing and singing where Lima were ahead 2-0, and subsequent hurling of abuse when they finally drew 2-2, was spectacular!

We have also gained seven tour group members, which takes some getting used to after being a close nine for the last 16 days! The tour from Lima to La Paz is their busiest, as everyone wants to do the inca trail! Today we are back on the bus (getting used to the size of this continent!!) and heading to Pisco, the home of Sarah's South American drink of choice, the Pisco Sour!!

Sam Fact Day 33: Inca Kola, the bubblegum flavoured, bright yellow soft drink, is one of the only two soft drinks in the world which sell more in their home countries than Coca Cola. Because of this, McDonalds forced Coca Cola to allow Inca Kola to be sold in store. Coca Cola now owns Inca Kola.

Days 27 - 30: Deepest Darkest Peru

From Cuenca, we had a lot of land to cover to get down into Peru. We had a big day of bus travel to cross the border. At the border, it was as simple as getting off the bus, lining up to leave Ecuador, crossing the room and lining up to enter Peru, a bit of a bizarre experience! Then we all jumped back on the bus, passports stamped, to get to our Peruvian destination, Mancora.

Mancora is a seaside town (well, one main street) on the north coast. We were driven around in motortaxis, a motorbike with a carriage attachment, and were very pleased to find ourselves settled into our beach-front hotel, beer in hand, watching the surfers and the sunset. The next day was pretty lazy, we are definitely feeling more on holiday and slowing down a bit lately, and we spent most of the day lying in the sun on the beach.

Mancora also has a pretty raging nightlife, though there are no pubs, only nightclubs all in a row competing for the loudest music and also for our custom. Needless to say it was not the relaxed Kingsland Neighbourhood environment we know and love, and we only stayed for one drink, ears ringing!!

The next day we decided to have a surfing lesson, where we all stood up and surfed, with the help of the instructors!! We were both pretty stoked with our surfing!! Unfortunately this was our last day in Mancora, before we caught the night bus to Huanchaco, another seaside town about 600 km from Mancora.

The night bus was an experience! We were on the top floor of a massive double decker bus, with seats that almost fully reclined. Also on board was a man who snored very loudly throughout the entire night. He needs to watch out if he happens to be travelling to Lima tomorrow!!

Huanchaco has been a lot quieter than Mancora, so we will be looking forward to jumping back on the night bus tomorrow.

Can't believe we are already up to Day 30, the time is flying!! Missing everybody and the lack of harassment from hawkers back home, but still a lot more to see yet!!

Xoxoxo

Days 24 - 26: The Road from Banos to Cuenca

On arriving in Banos (Ban-yos) we were presented with a view of a beautiful city nestled into the side of a canyon - the city is known for its hot springs and adventure sports. We only had one full day there so we had to pack everything in.

We woke early to hike to a lookout of the city and the sometimes active volcano above, however we were thwarted by clouds in both directions.

Next we hired bikes and headed down the famous waterfall road, an impressive 18km journey down the canyon, where we stopped to cross the canyon by cable car and got drenched in the devils cauldron waterfall! Thankfully we caught a ride in the back of a truck on the way back!

In the afternoon Sam went to have a go at zip lining but was stopped from doing the extreme version due to being too fat. Luckily he got to try a less intense option. We finished off the day by soaking in the hot baths.

The next day we headed to Cuenca via Mt Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest mountain, and Ingapirca, the remains of an Incan city. Climbing to the base camp of Chimborazo provided Sarah with an opportunity for redemption after Cotopaxi. It was hard work but we both made it over 5000m, and the view was spectacular. A highlight was seeing vicuñas (llama relatives) in the wild. The Ecuatorian perspective on the Incan conquests was cool to see at Ingapirca, with a lot more to come in Peru.

Today in Cuenca we visited the Panama hat factory, way cooler than it sounds! The hats are all hand woven and take from two days to six months to only weave, with at least another month required to complete. Future photos will show Sam sporting the classical style!

We capped off our time in Ecuador by visiting a local museum/ruins/zoo and a wander around the pretty streets of Cuenca. Tomorrow Peru!

Sam Fact: Panama hats in fact originated from Ecuador. They are called 'Panama' hats because they came into fashion during the construction of the Panama canal, where their light weight and good sun protection proved to be a hit with the American workers.

Days 20 - 23: Amazonas

Day 20 and we finally managed to leave Quito. We boarded a bus and headed over the Eastern Andes to the lush valleys and planes of the Amazon.

After reaching Tena we jumped on the back of a truck and headed to our home stay with Delphin and his family. We expected to be staying in a one-room hut with a dirt floor, but the g adventures homestay was more luxurious!! We stayed in purpose-built wooden cabins, in beds with mosquito nets, with a proper bathroom with flushing toilet! So far more civilised than we had expected!! We didn't see many Amazon animals, they are much deeper in the rainforest. But there were HEAPS of HUGE bugs - ahhh!! Especially cockroaches, huge moths, spiders and fireflies! One tarantula photo is included for Rach! So as soon as we we took our torches to go to bed, Sarah jumped in her mosquito net, preferring to sleep in fully clothed than contend with the insects!

Amazon activities included making chocolate the old fashioned way straight from freshly picked cocoa beans, canyoning up waterfalls in the jungle, a visit to the local school, and a three-hour jungle trek. We finished up with a local shaman ceremony on our final night. The family were really friendly and we got to eat a lot of traditional food and experience a lot of their culture.

A highlight for Sarah was visiting the local school. There were only ten pupils, from five to thirteen. The kids were very cute, and some were quite shy, but they taught us some Spanish, and we taught them some English.

On our last day in the Amazon, we went white water rafting from close to our homestay for four hours back to Tena. We got completely drenched, had a great lunch of the 'best chicken in Tena' and headed on the bus to Banos.

We are exhausted tonight so more on Banos tomorrow!!

Hasta luego everyone xo

Day 19: Dusty Days in Quito

After climbing Cotopaxi, Sarah was feeling a lot better so we decided to take the TeleferiQo cable car up Pinchincha mountain, overlooking Quito city. From there we could climb up to roughly 4400 metres. It was pretty bizarre watching planes take off from Quito airport below us - see if you can spot the plane in the picture!! But after Sam had finally climbed all the possible mountains in the Lonely Planet guide, it was time for a rest.

So Day 17 we bought bread rolls, cheese, pepperoni and tangelos from the supermarket, and went for quite a walk to a pretty park and had a picnic. This was a great day but we got pretty tired walking back to our hostel in the heat!! Speaking of our hostel, we made a new friend 'Manchita' the owners' border-collie/something else.

Day 18 we were excited to be joining our new tour group. We checked into the new hotel (pretty nice for 'basic' accommodation), and went to the Irish pub to watch Ecuador play Bolivia in the world cup qualifiers. The atmosphere was awesome, heaps of people were wearing their Ecuador jerseys (a pretty offensive bright yellow, even coming from a Hurricanes supporter!) and the pubs were packed! Luckily Ecuador won 1-0, despite their goal being a penalty from a really obvious dive!! We then had to leave the festivities to return to the hotel where we had our joining meeting for the big Quito to Rio tour! Unfortunately we had to spend an extra day in Quito that we didn't know about on the tour, so we are pretty Quito-ed out, but really looking forward to heading to the amazon tomorrow!!!

So hopefully we will be able to blog after the Amazon!

Hasta luego everyone! Xoxo

Sam Fact Day 19: Cotopaxi and Pinchincha form part of Ecuador's Avenue of the Volcanoes. The eastern and western ranges are separated by a high altitude valley (2500m - 3000m), where the city of Quito and many other villages are located.

Chimborazo is the highest peak in Ecuador at around 6300m. However, due to Earths equatorial bulge, the peak is furthest from the centre of the earth (closest to the sun). Even more than Mt Everest!

Day 15: Cotopaxi

We arose early to meet our tour bus at 6:45am for a day tour up Mount Cotopaxi. On our journey out of Quito we were greeted by the sight of this imposing volcano, with a 5900m summit, in the distance. After a few stops we reached the top car park (altitude 4500m) at about 10am - literally breathtaking!

Our first goal was to ascend to the climbers refuge at 4800m. Unfortunately the altitude quickly took its toll on Sarah. After a third of the way to the refuge she succumbed to shortness of breath and dizziness and decided it was best to return to the bus where she recovered quickly. We kind of knew we were pushing it with only two days acclimatisation in Quito but this tour was our best option and there are no guarantees with altitude sickness.

I continued to the refuge, and after a short rest set off for the base of the glacier at 5025m. The crazy German guide maintained a brisk pace up the steep scoria slopes. After a lot of pain and determination I reached the glacier!! Only five of the original nine in our group made it this far.

After a quick descent I caught up with Sarah again and we drove downhill a little way before disembarking and mountain biking down to the plateau! This was a cool experience and a great way to soak in the surroundings!