QUITO (EQUADOR)

In Quito we were getting up every morning at 7am (preparation for being back at work soon), cooking our own food and not touching a drop of alcohol.

We went to stand on the equatorial line where you can prove your patients to balance an egg on a nail. We also saw the water going clockwise and anticlockwise down a sink on either side. On our day trip to Otavalo we spent all our time and money in the market and after 5 hours we had two huge bags full of clothes, another parcel back to England.

On our last day in Quito we visited Basilica del Voto National, one of the only churches we heard of where you can go all the way up in the bell tower. First we had to go over rickety wooden planks inside the roof then climb up steep steps and ladders to finally reach the top at 78 meters. Phil even stepped outside on a tiny little platform with no fences while Petra preferred to stay inside taking pictures. Guys, if you ever get to Quito, get up there we highly recommend it.

TENA (ECUADOR)

We decided to go to Tena to book a longer trip into the jungle again but under the rainy circumstances we arrived we didn't take the risk of paying and maybe get rained of. Instead we were hanging around for a few days sleeping long, eating lots, playing pool and drinking beer. Isn't that the way how traveling is suppose to be sometimes too?

At least be booked a wild water rafting trip (class 3) to have something to talk about. Going through all the procedures of how, when and where to raft and sit, what to do if the boat flips over and how to swim in the strong current we started to get a bit nervous. After a few meters in the water there was no way back and it turned out to be an amazing trip with lots of laughter. The current was very strong at times, we got thrown over board so many times by our guide and our boat flipped over once but we all managed well. We really didn't think it would be so much fun, it was worth the money and we would do it again any time but the next time with suncream, we got badly burned in our faces.

Petra SANDBOARDING?

CANT BELIVE THAT SHE WAS BETTER THAN ME

Worlds Most Dangerous Road - Bolivia

We loved it!

WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS ROAD (BOLIVIA)

We did it, oh yeah baby!

ocelot

Hes so Cute!

OCOLOT

Hes so cute

BANOS (ECUADOR)

Most inhabitants of Banos were evacuated in 2000 for several months because of the erupting volcano Tungurahua but apart from a few insignificant steaming fumaroles its not worth the night tour every agency offers. Instead we went to a nearby lookout but the volcano was surrounded by clouds and that was all we saw that day.

More impressive was our 61km bike ride to Puyo along Rio Pastaza dropping nearly 1000m into the Amazon Basin. Phil did his first swing jumping from a bridge on the way, we took a cable car 100m above the river to reach the other side of the valley, we saw beautiful waterfalls and got scared like hell by German Shepperd's. Following a path we accidentally entered a private property and got attacked by 3 vicious dogs. Phil was more switched on and kicked them in his defence. Petra tried to run away screaming, fell and got bitten a few times in her legs. After a few tears and Phil's caring attention she got over it and carried on walking back to the bicycles. We reached Puyo near before darkness, threw our bikes on top of a local bus and got driven back to Banos.

Staying in Banos you cant miss the thermal spas. Running around in your bathers from hot to warm to freezing cold pools at night is fun and the pub night after was even better,

GUAYQUIL (ECUADOR)

From Guayquil you get the cheapest flights to the Galapagos Islands so we headed there to book our tour. We didn't expect that tours are fully booked for at least a week so we changed planes and decided to book it but we will be flying out from Quito. We also got a stunning deal of a first class boat for $50 more compared to tourist class. It's an upgrade of two classes with a class 3 guide (bilingual biologist) who only works on top class boats.

After seeing all the iguanas in the central Parque Bolivar, whispering into the walls of monument La Rotonda and dancing to a few salsa tunes with tiny Ecuadorians we left that city to hit our next destination.

CUENCA (ECUADOR)

Cuenca is the third largest and supposedly the most prettiest city of Ecuador. We visited museum Pumpapunbo with its archaeological site of Tomebamba and the highlight of 5 displayed shrunken heads from the Shuar culture of the South Oriente.

Another day we got up at 6am to visit Parque National Cajas. Its a moor-like countryside at 4000m altitude with more than 200 chilly lakes. The $10 entrance fee includes a map but unless you have a compass it's nearly impossible to find any of the longer trails. We hitch hiked to the bottom of the park which was better accessible without any equipment. Phil sat on the deck of a pickup with 3 kids and a woman and got asked exactly the same questions as Petra sitting in the front with the driver and his wife:

Where are you from?
Are you married?
Do you two have children?

Those questions seem to interest the majority of Ecuadorians. We went for an easy walk to and around a lagoon and spotted Andean Toucans. Back on the road we hailed down a bus back to Cuenca and while we were waiting we even got offered a free ice cream.

VILCABAMBA (ECUADOR)

After being stuck in the sleepy boarder town of Maraca on Easter Friday where everything was shut it took us nearly the whole next day to reach Vilcabamba. We arrived there in the dark and the place looked tiny, run down and dead. There seemed to be a crazy party train driving around town full of drunken locals who seemed to have a pretty amazing time. During the night we got woken up by strange noises and we realised are hostel was situated next to a slaughterhouse where pigs were killed by cutting their throats all through the night.

When we woke up the next morning we were stunned by the views outside our window. We were surrounded by hills and we used the good weather to hike to a nearby lookout. After reaching the top we decided to carry on walking on top of the ridge to use a different way for the decent. Unfortunately it wasn't signposted at all (as nothing ever is in South America) but apart from a few scratches from all the spiky plant and trees Phil navigated us well down hill and we treated ourselves to a nice German meal on Easter Sunday.

LIMA (PERU)

We lost our bible for travellers, our lonely planet and we were hoping to be harassed by hostel owners on our arrival as usual but that wasn't the case. We got dumped in the middle of the road with rubbish lying around everywhere and the area looked rather dodgy. After walking for a few minutes towards the city centre a car hit a person who came flying over the road. By then Petra had enough and was quite happy to spend a few soles on a taxi. He found us a cheap hotel and we were very grateful for that.

Lima has not much to offer and coming towards Easter the city was building up with people and so were the queues to get into church. We decided to leave this place and the country as soon as possible but being Easter all long distance buses were fully booked. We had to hop along in buses for over a day to finally reach the boarder.Bye, bye Peru and we don't think we will visit you again.

PISCO (PERU)

Jumping on a Pisco bus the last minute we had to take our backpacks inside the bus. Normally that's a nightmare but locals were friendly and patient (quite uncommon) and the ride went smoothly. On our arrival we got badged by tour operators and hostel owners but we got a good deal out of both.

We went on our tour the next morning to see the Ballestras Island and Paracas National Park, the most concentrated bird life reserve in the world. We saw a huge amount of pelicans and went for our third swim in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately we ended up we a few spikes from sea urchins in our foot but our guide removed them for us carefully.

NAZCA (PERU)

We thought we were lucky finding a bus company in Cuzco for a half price fare to Nazca but the supposedly 12h journey ended up to be 24h and a completely waste of a day.

In Nazca we took a small aeroplane to see the famous lines from above. Cut into stony dessert there are large designs of various animals and geometrical figures. Its thought they have been created between 200 BC and 600 AD.

Nazca is also known for Cerro Blanco, the highest sand dune in the world. With our boards we hiked uphill for 3h to reach the highest point of 2078m. We then more fell then boarded downhill. It was fun even that by the end sand were stuck in every little pore of us.