Its a tough life

Viva Banos!

The night before we left Banos the annual fiesta started, which involves the whole town turning out to watch live bands, which were set up in the street next to our hostel. They also drink a barrel load of the local tipple (I can´t remember the name of it anymore but it is good stuff).














The music was great. Lots of salsa and regaton (Anna will know what I mean anyway), and after each song everyone shouts ´Viva Banos´. They certainly know how to party. We left at about 12 and they were still going strong well into the night.
















The next day we took a bus to Cuenca which is a colonial city in the south of Ecuador. It is a good stop off before you get to the Peruvian border. The place has a really nice feel about it. No hassle, great food and beautiful scenery. We stayed there for a couple of days and mooched around the local markets and churches.














The Peruvian border crossing turned out to be lots of fun. You basically arrive on a bus where they kick you off and then you need to make your way across the border and pick up transport on the other side. They have conveniently placed the Ecuadorian immigration office about 6 kms away from the Peruvian office so this is great business for the local taxis who all vie for your business when you arrive. We were greeted by a friendly young chap who gave us lots of tips in English about where we should change money, who not to trust and how much everything should cost. Too good to be true? Of course! So after agreeing to catch a cab with him through to the other immigration office, we got stung with a massive taxi fare, not what was agreed, but since the driver had our backpacks locked in the boot of the car there wasn´t alot we could do. So we had to put that one down to experience.














After the border hassle we were really pleased to arrive somewhere friendly. We are now in Mancora, which is a little surfing town about 2 hrs from the border. Can´t say we have been doing a lot of surfing but we have certainly got into the beach bum lifestyle.

We were going to bypass the place but we got an email from a friend saying it is a great place to spend some time and you can´t really argue when the local rum sells for 6 soles a bottle (less than $2).
















We are catching another bus later on tonight to Lima. It is a 16 hr journey but we have shelled out a few dollars for a ´luxury´ bus - so fingers crossed it shouldn´t be too painful. So I must go off to pack and watch the sunset before we have to leave. Hope everything is good at home and that you are all ready for Christmas and New Year. Have a wonderful time. We´ll be back blogging again in 2006! xxx

Lovely Baños

Ben Writes -

Well we made it to Baños but it was not as straightforward as it should have been.

South American bus stations would not feature highly on most people's lists of great fun places. There is a reason for this. As a result we found our transport as quickly as we could while keeping as close an eye on our bags as possible.

It was not until we were almost out of the city that we discovered we had been directed onto the wrong bus by a freindly soul and had to fork out for another couple of tickets for somewhere we really didn't want to go to. If you remember Kathleen Turner getting on the wrong bus in Romancing the Stone then you get some idea.

We decided to stay on the bus - this was preferable to staying in Quito or getting off the bus somewhere else as we did not really know where we were by that stage.

Tena was the final desination for the bus but it was off in the wrong direction - five and a half hours to the east in 'La Oreinte' which is Equador's Amazonian region. The journey was a real boneshaker over unsealed roads which had long since done for the suspension on our bus. Our fellow passengers included some very unsavoury characters so we were pleased to finally arrive.

Lonely Planet describes Tena as 'an attractive town which is the de-facto white rafting capital of Equador'. It is true to say that many tours into the rainforest leave from there, they do have rafting and it is the jumping off point for trips up the Rio Napo to several lodge hotels but I don't think many people would describe it as attractive.

'Two horse jungle town' possibly covers it.

It does have an OK restaurant with river veiws which was quite nice. After our Galapogos blowout we could not afford to go up river to any of the lodges or really do any excursions either. We spent the weekend waiting for a bus out of there and watching cable TV in our room.

On Monday we were able to get a direct bus from there to Baños and the journey passed without incident. Unfortunately we had to pay over the odds again as we overslept and missed the early bus we had a ticket for. What a couple of pea brains.

But Baños is lovely!! It is a very relaxed and friendly town in the foothills of the Andes and we both felt the difference immediatly. A lot cooler, minus the mosquitos and we were able to find a decent hostel and get our washing done. We bumped into some freinds from the Galapogos trip, Gill and Jules, who had also just been to Tena and gone on a jungle trip. They had really enjoyed it. Maybe our difficult journey there had coloured our opinion of the place.

Last night the four of us went to the Municipal Hot Spings - free this week as it is fiesta time which was really good fun.

Today we went on a hike up the mountains around the town where we were treated to some spectacular veiws.

At the top of the trail was the town's statue of the virgin who looks down on proceedings from a lofty hieght. We weren't sure how far we climbed but it had to be at least 1500 ft which is all good training for our Inca trail hike which is only three weeks away. We were both pretty exhausted after the climb which is a little worrying. People tell us the Inca trail isn't too taxing. Let's hope they're right.

We have one more day here in Baños then down south to Cuenca before heading for the Peruvian border.

Sick in Quito

Ben Writes -

Montezuma has decided to exact more revenge on my intestinal tract. I really don't know what it was I did to upset him in the first place - but he certainly has got it in for me.

As a result we are still stuck in Quito. I have dragged myself from my sickbed because I really had to say something about the Galapogos Islands. Put simply they were the most amazing place I have ever visited. The fact that several of the pictures we posted (including the crab and the marine iguana with the boat in the backgroud) were taken using our phone shows how incredibly fearless the animals are. We had to start using our phone after we ran out of space on our camera - if you go make sure to take an extra memory card.

Easy for me to say now I've been there but I couldn't help worrying that the numbers of visitors there is detrimental to the environment. A report recently concluded that 12,000 visitors a year was the maximum sustainable level for the islands. The annual total is currently running at ten times that number which also has the effect of attracting many more Equadorians from the mainland to sell whatever to a captive audiance. What a hippie. What has happened to him over there?

For the record, these are the Islands we visited on our trip: Baltra, Santa Cruz, Floreana, Española, Santa Fe and Plaza Sur.

Incidentally our budget was almost killed by the Galapogos - it wasn't in the best of health before we got there. We need to be very careful for a while now.

Tomorrow we begin our journey south to Peru where we will be meeting up with Marc and Nicky Dix. Baños in the Ecadorian central highlands is our first destination, if I'm feeling up to it.

Galapagos

Hello folks

Yes it is time for another update. We arrived back from the Galapagos trip last night after spending a week travelling around the islands by boat. It was crap.................
...... only joking. It was a totally brilliant adventure. We flew out to Puerta Ayorta with AeroGal who are a local outfit, and a great improvement on American Airlines. They actually feed and water you!

The first day we arrived as newbies on the boat. Everyone else had been there for a few days so it was a bit odd, but after a spot of lunch we got chatting to everyone and felt at home. There were 14 of us in total. There were a few Auzzies and some Brits so there was plenty to talk about i.e cricket and rugby (haha). Plus 8 crew and our fantastic guide Roberto.


We visited the Charles Darwin Centre in the afternoon, which is where they breed turtles and iguanas in captivity. It is not really my cup of tea - but we did get some good pictures of the giant turtles having a late lunch.

We got back on the boat and had our our briefing about the next day before having a great dinner and a few beers. We then heading off to bed. Delux bunk-beds no less with an en suite shower. It took a while to get used to being on a boat nearly 24/7. The first night we set sail for another island at 11pm and sailed through the night. I slept for about 45 mins as we were pretty close to the engine, and I kept thinking I would fall out of bed, so when we woke at 5.30am to get ready for the day I thought I would never survive another week. But after a while you get used to it.

The second day we got ready for our first dive in the Galapagos. It was pretty cold in the water so we were wearing full wetsuits, gloves and booties. I had a few problems descending as I couldn´t work out how to deflate my BCD but after a couple of mins we got to the sea bed and were immediately greeted by 2 sealions who came over to have a look at us. They played in the water for about 5 mins before swimming off. Within a few minutes we also saw about 15 rays swimming across the bottom and then about 5 galapagos sharks swam over head. Then Roberto spotted a Pacific white tipped oceanic shark which looked pretty scary. Big eyes and bigger teeth. At this point my blood pressure did go up a bit but it just swam around us a couple of times and then headed off. There were loads of turtles and big schools of fish. Every few feet there was something to see. After about 45 mins we headed back up to the surface and arrived back on the boat for breakfast at 7.15.

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We headed off to Floreana after breakfast for a bit of wildlife watching on the beach. I have never seen as many animals and birds in my life. It is really crazy. First of all we happened upon a lake with 100´s of flamingos in it. It looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Then we went down to the beach so do a bit of wildlife spotting. We saw thousands of rock crabs which congregate close to the water. The colours are amazing. After mooching around on the beach we took a dingy to the surrounding islands and saw a sealion giving birth to a pup which was pretty incredible. She didn´t seem at all bothered by us passing by.

We saw some great birds including the famous blue footed boobie and lots of pelicans (see below) .

We rounded off the day by snorkelling off the beach and swimming with some giant turtles and a sea lion. Not a bad day at the office!

The next day we went hunting for marine and land Iguanas and found quite a few lurking around the trails and lounging on the rocks. You can see our boat in the background of this shot.

This is the prickily pear which is the iguanas favourite food. He gets rid of the spines with his claws before chewing on it for a couple of days. Nice!

On the last day we went in search of the `Magnificent Frigate bird´. While we were watching a male do his mating ritual which involved puffing out his red double chin and making a noise like a machine gun (very impressive) he managed to attract a female admirer. Here he is looking very pleased with himself.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the snow!

Lots of love

Tigs x