Thermal spa´s, blue footed boobies and a tatooo...!

We arrived in Baños on the 3rd of July in the middle of the night at a hostel called Plantas Y Blanco in this very touristy town in the northern foothills of the Tungurahua Volcano. Whilst we were here it rained most of the time, and there were a lot of waterfalls, I felt like I was back in Wales! But we made the most of it and went on a little hike nearby and stopped for tea at a little cafe at the top surrounded by clouds they call it the ghost of Baños!

The next day we explored Ecuador a bit more and went on the tren a la Nariz del Diablo . Just to do it really, we embarked the train in Alausi and returned there! It was a nice scenic ride though sitting on the roof dangling our feet over the edge! I´d heard that a couple of japanese tourists had been beheaded on this ride, or an alternative faster train, because they stood up on the roof to take a photo and got caught in overhanging wire or something similar and tragically died!

We travelled to Cuenca the next day and after an excursion or two and overindulging in a bit of yummy chocolate atalittle cafe! From here we travelled to the coast. We bumbed into another traveller we had met a couple of times quite randomly on our our bus to Guyaquil, the first time! Happens a lot on the gringo trail! Claire´s always good at remembering their names and I´m sooo rubbish! We wanted to experience a bit of the Galapagos so we went to the poor mans equivalent Ísla De Plata´. We were here in a good season, because we could watch some beautiful acrobatic Humpback Whales migrating! I tried to take some photos but they were a bit camera shy and I only really caught their splashes! On Isla de Plata we saw lots of seabirds like the blue footed boobies,the cutest and friendliest birds I have ever seen!! Also we saw the endangered Albatross. That night we travelled to Montanita, a relaxing little surf village with a no worries be happy vibe and fire jugglers etc in the street!Was a bit like a mini glastonbury! We could have stayed here for longer than just one night it was such a nice place to chill out for a few days. Claire and I got henna tatoos here, I had a sun on my wrist and Claire had a Benny on the back of her neck.

The next day we travelled to Guyaquil,again! A horrible polluted seaside city with the stupidest most confusing bus station ever! We went to the cinema while we were here, we always seem to go to the cinema in places we don´t really like, we saw the worst horror film here called the Hitcher, with Sean Bean! We caught our 19hour Ormeño bus to Peru, along the pan american highway from Guyaquil the next day. The border crossing was in a weird, limbo, dusty place! I always get excited when I have my passport stamped!.....

Bienvenido Quito!

We travelled through Ecuador in roughly three weeks but we could have spent longer there. The long scenic route from Colombia over the border to Tumbes then to Quito was hassle free but we arrived there late and very tired after the 4am start, try and get up as early as that as little as possible! We stayed at a really lovely hostel, the Secret Garden that had the most amazing views over Quito especcially at night so was worth the long breathless climb up to the terrace on the roof! It wasn´t really a secret though because you had to book in advance as it was always full!

Claire and I thought we would spend about a week in Quito to improve our spanish a little more. During our time in Quito we did a few excursions such as the famous Otovalo market, we missed the best part though which is in the morning on the Saturday because we were partying the night before at Bungalow 69! We met some Otavaeleños in beautiful traditional dress at the market, and I bought a wooly hat and Claire bought two because she couldn´t decide, I was soo tempted to buy many more souvenirs! Unfortunately I had my camera stolen on the bus to Otavalo but will try and put that to the back of my mind, Im soo unlucky!! We had a busy few days in Quito we visited lots of churches and museums and also took a ride up the teleferico cable car to have an amazing view over the city. I also tried my first Guinea Pig here in a traditional eatery, and it tasted like chicken, oh the poor thing came out on a plate fried to a crisp with his little head looking at me I nearly didnt eat it!

We also visited the Cotopaxi volcano in the Andean mountains which is reputed to be the highest active volcano in the world at 5,897m and can be seen 75km from Quito, we climbed to the refuge, the climb felt like two steps forward and three steps back but there was a nice hot chocolate waiting for us at the refuge! We then mountain biked downhill from there which was fun but a bit scary too! We couldn´t visit Ecuador and not go to the Ecuatorial line so we went on our last day in Quito and I learnt that it´s not a myth that water drains clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the south and weirdly straight down in the centre of the line! The little kid in me couldn´t resist doing a little cartwheel on the line! We moved on to Baños from Quito on July the 3rd...