Ecuador!

Ah, I cannot believe how long it has been since I have written a blog. I have sooo much to catch up on and now seems like the perfect moment. We are currently in Cuzco Peru, it is 8:00am in the morning, Joel is actually up watching the football and I am upstairs in the computer room in our hostel. So I will try and fill you in as best I can on everything we have done since Columbia.

After Cali, we got onto a 15 hour night bus to head to Quito in Ecuador. We had a little trouble crossing the border as the immigration officer typed in Joel´s name and said he was only allowed 10 days in the country :s eek Fortuntately though, Joel started speaking in his charming spanish ways and the officer decided he liked him and he could have 90 days instead :s...not quite sure how that one worked! So we finally got to Quito, checked into out little hostel in the old town, got very excited at the sight of KFC, especially for a meal for $2, woop, and had a little wonder. The old town seemed very pretty, with a stunning Cathedral but not much seemed to be going on there. We did however find some excellant DVD shops where I bought about 10 Disney DVDs (including Toy Story 3) for $9. Lets hope they work at home!

The day after we went to the middle of the world to the equator line. You can stand with one foot in the Northern and one foot in the Southern hemisphere. There are also lots of other cool experiments you can do there to prove the different forces of being either side of the Equator. Unfortunately I had allitude sickness that day, and spent most of it sitting on the floor in the shade. Finally after a horrible cramped metro journey, we got back to the hostel where I could lie down, and Joely brought me chocolate and crispies all afternoon :)

After Quito, we got on a 3 hour (very windy) bus to Banos. Banos means bath in spanish and there in the little town there are natural hot baths that you can go and sit in which are heated by the surrounding volcanoes..amazing. I don´t have anything bad to say about Banos. We had such a great time there. It is a beeeautiful town, quite touristy as that where the Ecuadorians go on holiday as well. But it is still stunning, in a valley and surrounded by mountains. We stayed in a great hostel, which has a glass roof top terrace with a panaramic view where they served delicious breakfast every morning. Here we also met up with a great group of English guys, who we spent a lot of time with there.

The first day in Banos, we all took dune buggies out, so there was a long like of us, all following eachother, along the mountain side roads. The view was amazing, however a slightly terrifying trip, being part of a load of silly boys, all trying to overtake eachother on these ridiculous roads.

The second day we all went out on Quad bikes. We sat for ages sorting out a quads with the compnay. The got all the boys a quad each and said mine was coming. I was very dissapointed, when mine came and it was the smallest one of all. I asked the quide why I couldn´t have a big one like the others, where he snapped at me and said they were all the same. So we all went off me pissed off because I assumed that the guy thought a girl couldn´t handle a big quad like the guys, but nope...I was soooo wrong. We got to the bottom of the mountain that we were racing up and began to climb. Turns out I had the fastest quad by miles and the boys where all very pissed off that they couldn´t overtake me. I guess they didn´t want a silly boy with the fastest quad, hhahaha! So anyway, this experience wasn´t actually the most pleasant. The mountain paths were terrifying as they were dusty and slippery with shear drops either side. We finally got to the top and carried along the path,where one of our friends went through a pile of cow sh*t right in front of me and COVERED me in it. Not only did he cover me, but a piece went straight in my eye...eeeeeeew. So covered in cow poo and half blind we then went past the bucking cow (who obviously left the horrible smelling poo for us) then a house where 2 viscious dogs ran out and chased us, trying to bite our legs to the point where one of our friends went up on 2 wheels and almost came off. So all in all in was pretty scary!

The last day, the guys decided it was my turn to pick, and we all went horse riding, woo! A lot of fun as we galloped up another mountain to see an amazing waterfall. It was great to see some of them terrified as the horses started to run, as opposed to me on a speedy quad, covered in cow poo and almost legless!

Cuenca was our next stop, where we checked into a rather grotty looking hostel and went for a walk in the evening. After being followed we decided we didn´t want to stay in Cuenca long, and spent a total of about 12 hours there. So the following morning, we headed to Vilcabamba.

Vilcabamba!!!!

I looove this place. It is quiet, stunning, relaxing and just all round lovely. We stayed in the most amazing hostel which was more like a hotel but the same price as a hostel. The restaurant there was cheap, with some of the best food we have eaten yet, and looked over the whole of vilcabamba, where in the evening you could watch the sunset. There was a great bar and a tv room, and the owners had 2 adorable puppes -which as most of you know, totally won my heart. But to my surprise, won Joel´s too. He is now going on about how he wants a black lab pupppy...and he doesn´t even like animals!!!!!

I can´t even say enough about this place...I just loved it and could have spent a lot longer there!

While we were here we did meet some strange characters though, including an american astrologist who insisted on reading mine and Joel´s stars. Hmmm...still not sure how I feel about the whole situation, as he said some rather strange things which I will tell you about when I am home!

We also went horse riding again here which, didn´t turn out to be quite as successful as the others. Joel, as always before we go horse riding, asked for the smallest horse so he can "step" off if he gets scared. However it backfired this time, as he had a very small yet VERY fast horse, who likedto be right up at the front. Not only that but his horese was afraid of backpacks...BACKPACKS!!! Not the best thing when your in a town of backpackers and your walking along extremely thin mountain paths. Well Joel has now sat his first buck...poor Joely. Obviously he was terrifyed, and went very quickly from being Robin Hood on horseback to Mr Bean on horse back!!! He did really well, I even offered him my lovely, calm yet huge horse, and he stuck with the little crazy one. I think that might be his horse riding days over :( It was fun while it lasted!

Peru to come......