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!

Days 6 - 13: The Galapagos (Gah-LAH-Pah-Gose) Part Two

Buenos dias! Ready for Part Two!!

We forgot to mention how the tour was set up. We did the ten day tour which has one night at either end in Quito. So eight days on the boat. There are 16 beds in the boat, and there were five of us on the ten day tour. The first few days the rest of the group were doing the six day tour, so halfway through the tour they went home and we had new group members who had booked a seven day tour. Our first tour group was awesome, we were all between 25-35 except for the parents of another girl in the group. There was a real mixture of nationalities and we all got along very well. The second lot consisted of a young American couple and both of their parents, plus older Canadian and English couples plus a young German girl. The Americans were quite hard to take, and therefore needless to say the first group suited us wayyyyy more. But our core ten day crew had a lot of fun on the tour.

Day 9: We went to the Charles Darwin Research Centre to see the new famous tortoise Diego, and all of the baby tortoises that they hatch and look after before releasing back on the islands. Even in the zoo-like research centre we could get pretty close to the tortoises!! We then walked around the biggest town, Puerto Ayora, looking at souvenirs and having some free time. We were then driven in a bus up to the highlands were we could see giant tortoises in the wild!! That was a pretty awesome experience!! Followed by a beer on the pier. Here we can buy 600 ml pilseners for about US$1.

Day 10: We were reluctantly combined with our new group for a walk around Rabida Island on the red sand beaches. Then back in the water for more snorkelling with more playful sea lions and saw another shark. After a quick boat ride we went for another walk along Bachas beach on Santa Cruz. This was a white sand beach named for the remains of barges sunken in the sand. There was a flamingo lagoon here, and we were surprised to be quite taken by the majesty of the flamingoes.

Day 11: Was spent on Floreana Island in Post Office Bay, where an old barrel is set up for a stamp-less mail system, so tourists can leave a postcard and the next group of tourists will see whether the addresses match where they are going and leave their own postcards, etc. We went snorkelling at Champion, which is an old volcanic crater submerged in the water, which is only newly open to snorkelling, and saw many many tropical fish. There was more snorkelling in the afternoon where the sea turtles were feeding off the algae on the rocks in large numbers.

Day 12: At Espanola island, a favourite of many of the guides, we saw heaps of sea lions, marine iguanas, both blue-footed and masked nazca boobies, albatross, lava lizards and even a Galapagos snake! Snorkelling yet again, an entire sea lion colony came to play in the water, and the landscape was spectacular with many caves in the cliffs by the water. So a great way to finish the tour.

Day 13: We left the Galapagos via San Cristobal Island, arriving back on land in Quito to a steady bed and nice long hot shower!

So now we have a few more days in Quito before our giant Quito to Rio tour begins on Friday!

Some Sam Facts for Days 6 - 13:

The facial features of ET were based on the Galapagos giant tortoise.

The booby is a type of gannet.

Tortoises could stay alive upside down with no food or water in a boat for up to a year, making the perfect sailor snack, but threatening their existence.

Hasta luego for now!

Xo

Days 6 - 13: The Galapagos (Gah-LAH-Pah-Gose) Part One

Amigos!

It has been a long boat ride but we are finally back at the Hilton from our Galapagos cruise!!

We had a great time! So many tame animals and what spectacular scenery!! We can only choose some of our many favourite photos so we may have to have viewings when we get back.

Day 6: We flew early in the morning with our new tour group to San Christobal island. We jumped on the Xavier III, our G Adventures G4 boat, with cabin conditions not bad, pretty much as expected! After lunch (pretty good food on board, even if portions were a little small for the guys), we went snorkelling by Isla Lobos, by San Christobal. Straight away we swam with sea turtles, which are absolutely beautiful to watch underwater. We also saw plenty of tropical fish, marine iguanas and a stingray or two. The highlight were cheeky sea lions which would swim straight at you and duck away at the last minute. Once dry, we went for a walk around Isla Lobos, through a blue-footed booby colony. What awesome birds!! And they are so tame, they let us get within about a metre, and were nesting on the track! Back on the boat we saw humpback whales while sitting on the top deck! We all decided that if we went home tomorrow we would have felt satisfied... But more to come! There was a welcome drink while we met the crew, which were great despite a bit of a language barrier!!

Day 7: on North Seymour we went for a walk through the frigate colony, where the males were displaying their puffed up red chests to attract females, pretty cool to see! We saw more boobies, land iguanas and more marine iguanas. We also went snorkelling twice, and went for a walk along Mosquera beach with a sea lion colony - it was a stunning beach.

Day 8: We woke up in Sullivan Bay, with Bartolome island off the coast. We walked on a lava flow, which was pretty cool. We snorkelled and saw turtles and a white-tipped reef shark (only small and not aggressive!!). Then we climbed the tallest peak on Bartolome, saw a Galapagos penguin, walked on the beach and saw basking sharks, and then set sail, where Sarah's first and only seasickness set in!! It was pretty rough though!!

That's all we can do for now, check in tomorrow for next instalment!! Xo