Hacienda Manteles Banos

... which used to be the old road. We stopped at the waterfalls each time for a piccie and at one waterfall (San Pedro) we took a Tarabita (cable car - but not so stable and all open air) down to the most rickety and wobbly swing bridge we have been on, to reach the bottom of the falls. You couldnt get that near them without getting drenched (don't know why I was so worried as we were already soaking). We then got the Tarabita back up to the road, and ...

... It made my 5 months seem like nothing. However it must be pretty tiring, I`d miss normallity after so long.<br><br>After the toe incident I was unable to take part in more action activities so I decided to jump on a bus to the Coast and largest City in Ecuador, Guayaquil. The bus trip was about 6 hours, the ride was very interesting as most of the roads arent paved or under construction ...

... was very relaxing, and we enjoyed a couple of hours pool hopping, and occasionally washing ourselves (by ourselves I mean me, Renee was having none of it) under the freezing cold waterfall waters before jumping back in to the 27 degree plus pools.<br><br>The history of Banos, it turns out, is closely linked with the volcano heating the thermal waters Renee and I were slowly becoming wrinkled in. In October 1999, all 17000 residents of Banos were forced to ...

... of lava falling from the sky (had his tripod ready and everything), and can't climb it either as it still apparently kicks out poisonous smoke. So we've enrolled in Spanish classes instead... Pete's learning process has involved some interesting errors like telling his teacher that his wife is "cold at nights" (we will let you work out the amusing translation misunderstanding that had his teacher wide eyed wondering why he was telling the class such things). He also asked if the ...

... rooted to be honest, but those japs know how to make quality electronics!<br>Its one of those things where pictures wont do it justice in the end, the waterfall and the ride. Pretty bloody beautiful and something I will remember at the end of the trip, even though my legs turned to jelly.<br>I hitched back with a guy and his wife in a huge truck. Took probably twice as long as if I had just paid for the bus because the truck was so bloody slow, but a good experience. They ...

... 1.50) and not great, but then we've been used to lovely seafood for the past week, so it was a bit of a shock to get back to set lunches with cold soup and rice!<br><br>I've posted a question on Thorn Tree asking whether anyone knows about ferry crossings to Machala because if there aren't any we have a rotten ride through the centre of Guiyaquil in order to get to Peru. We're sticking to the coast despite the headwinds and desert (we've got at ...

... morali staviti ruke na autobus, a cure nitko nista nije ni pitao) je Neil opet isao na WC, ali nije mogao pustiti vodu jer nije bilo vode :D na kraju ga je teta hostesa iz autobusa zvala te mu dala casu vode s bijelim prahom, a on je to morao popiti jer nije imao izbora (uzeci u obzir tri naoruzana policajca ispred njega :D). uglavnom, sve to je bilo presmijesno, ali nije bilo smijesno biti u sobi s 3 osobe od ...

... somehow ****** off Montezuma along the way, we decided to find a hotel with internet and call it a night. F inding a hotel with internet is not very easy to do but after about 7-8 stops we found one. <br><br> In the morning I went to the pharmacy to get some medication for Sylvain and there was a little puppy laying in front of the hotel ...

... sunbathing, playing volleyball, or surfing; the town is famous for its good surf, which I´ll get onto later.<br><br>One of the best streets was the northern-most street, on which was an internet cafe called Montezuma which we often used (despite the internet often being so slow that I could have used carrier pigeons to better effect) and also the Spanish school. After this were the cocktail bars (more later). The other main street joined the aforementioned opposite the school ...

... at it in the mirror, with the aid of a torch. What greeted me was hideous: the whole right hand side of the back of my throat had swollen up so that it was almost closed, and my tongue was all swollen too. Full of panic I quickly got dressed and ran outside where Andy and Cynthia hapened to be, returning from their wander. We went in search of a doctor. Being horrendously sleep-deprived and in a new place is not the best combo for this. We asked people ...