Weeks... Oh man I've lost count!

Cusco - Arequipa - Lima - Guayaquil (Ecuador) - Montanita - Salinas - Banos - Latacunga - Laguna Quilatoa - Otavalo - Ibarra - Quito

 From Cusco we bused to Arequipa. Arequipa held a lot of charm. We wandered up to the look out point over the city which wasn't very high so we didn't see much! The whole city is watched over by Mount Misti - meant to be one of the easiest mountains to climb in the world.

From Arequipa we took a three day tramping tour through the Colca Canyon with a group from our hostel. The trip started with a 3am pick up, and four hour bus out to the Canyon region. Here we had breakfast then continued to bus out to Cruz del Condor - a hang out point for the Condors in the canyon. They gave us, and the 100 odd other tourists, a spectacular show soaring above our heads and dipping into the canyon out of sight. We then. Bused again to our starting point of the trek. At this point we were all a little peeved as our bus included three tour groups, and our guide, after six hours, was yet to make himself known or give us any idea of what we were to be doing. However, I found him, and we began our 2-3 hour trek down the steep and sloppy path downthe side of the canyon, over a bridge and across the other side to the first little village, stopping regularly for our guide who had a long term injur on his knee. Here we stayed the night.

On day two we hiked across the side of the canyon through a couple of villages, with our guide showing us and letting us try the fruits growing along the path. The previous night, Ollie and I had learnt the hard way that you need to scrape the prickles off the fruit of the cacti before you handle them... We stopped at a nice little place for the night, sleeping in round palm huts with dirt floors.

The next morning four out of our group of ten were up at the dictated time of 5am to start the arduous trek up the canyon. This needs to be started early as it is supposed to take 3-4 hours and is very steep so best done before the sunlight can hit you. After waiting 45 minutes, we finally found someone to raise our guide for his drunken slumber, and he instructed us to take off without him while he got the others up. Peeved that we were now 50 minutes late, and potentially going to get exhausted by the sun, we took off up the canyon. Only 2 hours later, after pushing ourselves, Ollie and I reached the top of the canyon, very proud with ourselves. Only a few minutes later we were joined by the rest of our group who, thoroughly hung over (including the guide) joined us on their hired mules. Then it was back to Arequipa!

From here Ollie and I next our separate ways for some much needed alone time. I bused straight to Lima, and Ollie was to follow a few days later after bypassing Nasca lines and Huacachina. Unfortunately for him, his bus was caught in a 3 day road block created by the miners. This meant that after sitting on the bus for 2 and a half days, Ollie made it back to Arequipa and flew directly to Lima. Lima was not an exciting cit for me, and other than wandering to the beach surrounded by cliffs, seeing the most recently uncovered ruins in town, and visiting the Spanish Inquisition Museum, I mostly read and watched movies at the hostel.

As we were on a time schedule to get to Ollie's old flatmate in Guayaquil for her days off work, we jumped straight onto an overnight bus to Ecuador. It was fantastic spending a week with Amber and her boyfriend Isaac in Guayaquil.they showed us the local cemetery, took us on a boat trip up and down the river, and to a park packed with Iguanas who we fed and patted as they climbed over our feet.

In the weekend we bused to Montanita, a small beach town designed for tourists, where we lazed on the beach and drank cocktails a night. Sadly, I didn't realize the sun has a similar strength in Ecuador as in New Zealand, and I blistered severely on my stomach after 40 minutes of sunbathing...

From Guayaquil it was goodbye to Amber and Isaac and we bused to the city of Guaranda in the highlands of Ecuador. from here we took a cambioneta, a ute, and rode on the back for an hour with about ten other locals. We jumped off at Salinas and spent the afternoon savor ring the chocolates, cheeses (aji - chilli and coriander were amazing!) and salamis that the town of 700 is known for. We only saw two other tourists, and think its a tad off the tourist track, but that made it spectacular! We climbed the hill with the cross on it - it seems every town/village/city has one, and looked out over the misty hills.

From Salinas we bused to Banos via Ambato. In Banos we biked out to the waterfalls that line the Northern highway. This we spectacular and took all day!

From Banos we bused to Latacunga, and in the morning we bused with our packs to Laguna Quilatoa, a crater lake in the highlands. This was spectacular, but with our packs we didn't much want to walk down to the Laguna - plus we didn't think we'd get a better view. So we sat up top of the Laguna in the freezing cold wind for two hours waiting for the next bust back to Latacunga.

From there we bused to Quito and on to Otavalo. This days long travel was tiring, but well worth it for the HUGE markets that are held every Saturday. Locals from surrounding villages flood int the streets, along with tourists, and sell all sorts of wares. It is amazing and Ollie and I surprised ourselves at the joy we found in 5 hours of shopping! The next day we went to Parque Condor, and bird sanctuary up in the hills. The bird - owls, falcons, hawks and condors were beautiful! The parque gave a demonstration of some of its birds in flight - though a couple who love the freedowm didn't return for a looooong time! We left the show early, and bused up to another village called Ibarra. This was said to have an excellent ice cream shop so we were more than willing to go out of our way to visit it. Turns out the ice cream was good, though id hyped it up in my mind, so it wasn't amazing...

We bused to Quito and here we are still. We spent the day out at the equator. First the original one, and then the one found with GPS 100m north. The real equator was fantastic and we got to do lots of little tricks playing with the forces in the northern and southern hemispheres and on the the equator itself. Today we headed to the Old Town, and climbed the steeple and bell tower of the Basillica. This church was the most brilliant we have he seen in South America, evident by the 50 minutes we spent there compared to the 2 minutes in other churches/cathedrals.