Hotel El Indio Inn Otavalo

... of pushing others in, letting other rafts down whilst on move and generally breaking every health and safety rule in the book we arrived safely at end point. The night that followed was totp - our first cocktail heavy night out. Yes, I did have a creme de menthe, naturally. It was in the form of a ´bob marley´ tho, with some other weird stuff in it. No sign of a frappe over here yet.<br><br>Following morning (thurs 5th) we were on road again to town called Banos ...

... humbled by the experience and could have happily stayed here all day, but it was time to make our way to Ecuador.<br><br>At the top we looked for our taxi driver who was nowhere to be seen so we caught a collectivo taxi who charged us only $6mil pesos. We got back to the hotel, collected our bags and caught another taxi to Rumichaca, which is the border area just 2km&#8217;s away. The taxi driver was a blessing, we were uncertain about the formalities but it turned out that the taxi ...

... the bus and we were underway. As we started through town, the bus took a different route than the one we were on before, but no big deal - there are frequently different routes to the same destination, and that just means new territory we haven't yet seen. As we left town, we noticed we weren't picking up any passengers, but didn't think too much about it. Once we left the immediate environs of Cotacachi, we found ourselves on a cobblestone road - not unusual in town ...

... 13 kms and a couple of little settlements later that we spotted someone with a bag of buns. Sure enough, the panaderia was open for business, but selling only one type of bun, dry, but with nothing else on the horizon we bought 4. As we were chomping on our first of the day, we noticed little bug things landing on us. 'It's those bugs from Valle de layva', cried dave, and if you'd blinked you'd have missed him getting on his bike and riding off down the ...

... lifestyle. This time, with fiestas going on, I saw how much of a strong community this place has and just how much everyone knows everyone else. The culture has a lot to do with the mountain environment and how far it is from Otavalo and the conditions of the road. There are landlines but little to no cell phone reception or internet. People go into the city all the time (it costs money and road conditions are questionable) but mostly life in ...

... got to the mt ledge and set up camp. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped and it was actually a bit chilly. Eric fell asleep in his new wool hat. The night sky was amazing, and with no light pollution for miles, zillions of stars could be seen. Aden pointed out some constellations, some of which I guess you can&#8217;t see from our northern hemisphere. Nothing better than good company, good views, and being out in the middle of nowhere. <br><br>We got up the ...

... water flows clockwise and on the other, anti clockwise? It would have been cool to see that and other stuff performed infront of my amazed eyes... but like I said I was feeling ****** and had a tv in my room which meant I would rather be holed up in the warm that battling to taking freezing pics of me with a foot either side of the Equator..no matter how cool it would be.<br><br>Tomorrow we are off to COLUMBIA. Am v excited!

... Paul's choice obviously!) This should have read as... 3 things we are missing most from home... 1) Mrs E E McLean 2) Mrs E E McLean 3) Mrs E E McLean We trust that this unreserved apology now puts this matter to rest. Sorry Mum - I am missing you really! Love Paul

... the road and looked the wrong way? and hey presto a car's nearly on you, so what do you do? You freeze. And your life doesn't flash before your eyes, because you're too ****ing scared to think - you just freeze, and pull a stupid face. The doctor didn´t seem too concerned, though. Why?<br> <br> It´s because the word "casi" in Spanish means "almost" or "kind of". So, instead of saying "It´s a tumour" like I thought he did, what he acutally ...

... which has been hand-making ice cream in the traditional way for over 90 years and is hailed as "the best in Ecuador". After sampling their product several times (once for breakfast) we have to agree its the best in the country, and maybe the best of our lives! All in all Ecuador has been fun, friendly and beautiful. We are excited to see what Colombia has in store for us.