Black Sheep Inn (La Posada Oveja Negra) Cotopaxi

In spite of the protests we encountered in Quito after leaving Otavalo, we were able to get out of the city as planned last Thursday morning. We planned to head to an area in the Andes known as the Quilotoa Loop (a string of little indigenous villages on a small road that loops to the west from the Panamericana highway), and figured out we needed to get a bus to Saquisilí to get there (but not before getting a huge breakfast at the Magic Bean, for those who know it...) Saquisilí is known for ...

So that was my last week at Santa Martha :( Went incredibly quickly with no major incidents really. We had an inspection on Wednesday which would decide whether the centre could start receiving more animals etc. so we worked Monday and Tuesday on fixing paths, tidying up cages, other odd jobs. Passed, thankfully, though there wasn´t any reason not to. Next projects were building a breeding areas for guinea pigs and grasshoppers (separately!). I worked on the latter with Rachael, Lydia and Jér...

After a long but spectacular journey from Latacunga to Chugchilan, arrived Monday afternoon. Dragged ourselves up the Inn´s steep driveway a friendly welcome, just in time for a local dancing show from some girls who msut have been about 7-8 years old. Didn´t manage to get out of dancing, but was nice to see some local tradition. Felt a bit bleurgh after the journey, and missing Santa Martha, but a couple of bottles (not just cartons any more!) of Chilean white helped. As did the food which w...

Hola All I´m in Quito again, shouldn´t be but I am - details coming up. I´ve taken a weeks break from the reserve (been there 3 months so feel I deserve one) and left there last Friday to meet up with Tom (another volunteer, for those from LH thats Tom Tom, not Big Dave Damson Tom Tomato) in Latacunga (bout 2 hours south of Quito). I got there to find no sign of him other than a note from him and Vanessa - piecing the evidence together, I realised that she must be with him and was joining us ...

We arrived in Quito,Ecuador late on the 11th. Here we are on the last leg of our trip, can´t believe the time is going so quickly.It was late when we arrived but got sorted with a hotel in the Old Town. As we´d expected arriving in to Quito was definitely different than South East Asia. Number 1, there was nobody touting you to get you to their hotel at lower and lower prices and number 2, every body spoke spanish...oops,knew there was something I´d meant to do! In SEA, it was all so easy as ...

This past Tuesday (I´m almost entirely positive it was this last Tuesday) I hoped on a bus to Latacunga. Actually, my Tia drove me to the terminal and placed me on the bus, fearing for my very life as she usually does. Latacunga is straight south on the Panamerica highway and is nothing exciting. It´s just another modern, filthy city, but the bed there was cheap and the lock worked so what more do you need? The next morning I headed to Isinlivi with the intention of hiking the next few days f...

Slow internet connections really make it difficult to keep up this travelogue. This is now the third time that I`m writing this entry, after the previous two versions were lost when the internet connection at the internet cafe went down. Let`s hope the third time`s the charm.... Laguna Quilatoa is an extinct volcanic crator that is now filled with water, forming a beautiful turquoise-green lake. On Sunday morning I took a bus from the village of Chugchilan (where I was staying at the Black Sh...

I mentioned in a previous entry that it`s a bit difficult to get to the Black Sheep Inn because it is located in a tiny village that`s accessible only by dirt roads. Well, it turns out that getting there is much easier than leaving. Chugchilan is located on the far side of a big loop that begins at the city of Latacunga which is on the Panamerican Highway. From Latacunga one can get to Chugchilan by either taking the northern route or the southern route of this loop - they both meet up in Chu...

When I decided to come to South America in March and April, I was aware that this was the rainy season in the Andes Mountains. However, I had been told that the rainy season meant that it would be sunny in the morning and then we`d get a bit of a shower in the afternoon and then the sun would come out again. Well, it has now rained for five days in a row. It hasn`t rained all day for these five days. But it has been cloudy for five full days. Friday it started raining in the morning as I was ...

Ahh, this I suppose is where the gap year/mission generally becomes a little bit 'non-stop'. From that night out after the jungle I personally slept in (as you might expect) and did 'preparatory' things for leaving my casa. The evening here was quality, only myself and Dave were left in Quito, but we went in search of live music, and what fortune: this great guy was singing in 'sutra' (out regular Ecuadorian-come-indian bar) with his mates, and boy did they whip out the classic tunes. The hig...