Hotel Posada Real Puyo

Got here It is tiny place surrounded by a few more mountains, and A SWISS restaurant!!!!! I had Fondue.

Arriving at night and was ready for bed when came from nowhere 2 Canadians who convinced me I needed a drink, it took them 1.57 seconds to do it. Now realise that I had just been on a dare devil Rapids ...

Jungle Boy!

I´m just back from 4 days in the Jungle off the River Pastaza traversing the Amazon Basin. I booked this through an organised tour and had a crazy Ecuadorian guide, Sixto, and joined an Aussie girl and two young Israelis straigt out of national service. I was pleased to find that the Aussie was a massive Cricket fan and managed not to tease her endlessly about the Ashes (much)! She even found my Twelfth Man ...

So Cat & I are here at this project in the jungle, along with various other people from all walks of life:

Lukas, the Project manager, who happens to be the brother in law of my friend Molly who i´ve known since we were 12 and growing up in Geneva!

Anna, the Project coordinator, from North Carolina; Naomi, from Washington DC; Jack & Ellen from London; Vaughan from Melbourne; Rob & Caroline from the ...

Ok so we got to Puyo several hours too early, and got in a taxi to the town centre to find somewhere for lunch. Cat decided to attempt getting in the cab with her full rucksack still attched, and somehow managed it! I took everything off for the 5 minute journey, then had to put all the baggage back on...still not used to it.

We had a bit to eat somewhere then decided to get some provisions from the local supermarket ...

... rooted to be honest, but those japs know how to make quality electronics!
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.
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 ...

... called a house. They had several thatched roofs, held up by wooden pillars, over cleared dirt, and one small, wooden shanty. Within the shack, they had generously cleared enough space for the four of us to set up the two tents in which we´d sleep that night.
Although the people were dirt poor (quite literally), they could hardly be more amiable. As soon as we arrived, one of the adults eagerly began to show us around their garden, pointing out all of the different ...

Travelled from Latacunga to Baños (I do like to make proper use of the fancy ñ) this morning after the standard Ecuadorian breakfast (although they like to call it Desayuno Americano!) of fresh juice (our favourite, mora - blackberry), coffee (made with milk), boiled eggs and a croissant with cheese. Excellent journey and just the right length for me making here in a couple of hours with time to get our bearings, grab some lunch, visit one of the many spas, book a horse riding trek ...

27th August 2009
Hostal libertad, Puyo, Ecuador (12 usd)
30 degrees
Tena – Puyo (80 kms)



Today was one of those perfect days, no
really, a lovely day of cycling that whizzed by. one minute we were
in Tena cycling past the trendy riverside hostals, the next we were
crossing the makeshift bridge into Puyo.

The day began with me scratching myself
to smithereens, again, I have bites all over the left hand side of my
torso, mostly on the ...

... up while she called for help. The instructor guy came in and took me out and sat me down in water and covered me with cold water and gave me some drink to take. Luckily i was fine but lesson learned. It was fairly scary. Next thing the instructor beckons me to get back in-i did but he kept an eye on me and turned down my heat so i was ok. Poor Shar got an awful fright. After these 3 sessions we got out and were hossed down with a cold water hose and then to finish ...

Today is the start of the four-day long celebrations that is Carnaval. So as there's no school on Monday and Tuesday next week, I decided to use the opportunity to go on a trip, to the tourist town of Baños, famous for its natural hot springs ("baños" literally means "baths").

In the morning I got the bus from Tena to Baños, a four hour journey. I'd booked a hotel to stay at for the weekend - this was necessary because of the popularity of Baños during Carnaval ...