alekmaxwell

Warning: There were animals slightly injured in this story. Sorry. Ambue Ari national reserve is a rarely heard of animal sanctuary somewhat off the beaten track (which is what drove me to go there in the first place). The park is for animals, normally the animals have been maltreated or kept in captivity by circuses or ambitious pet owners. Those that travel through bolivia will probably hear about Villa Tunari and intiwarayassi, which are part of the same movement with the same objectives and whatnot, which normally has about 30 or 40 volunteers. Whereas Ambue Ari normally has a maximum of 5 or 6 (and that's pushing it). And there's a core body of 6 bolivians that run the park so knowing spanish is a big plus. The animals that one finds in the parks range ... read more

Disclaimer: In case any one reads this and thinks that colombia is dangerous or unsavoury on account of what I write or perhaps appear to insinuate I assure you it isnt; the people here are incredibly helpful and often go out of their way to help you, and I would definitely reccommend anyone to come here, no worries. (just the stretch of road around ipiales at night - apart from that safer than a lot of other countries. nb Guy I was travelling with left colombia for ecuador (by plane) because he was afraid something would happen here, and got a bus straight away to the peruvian boader the moment he arrived so as to distance himself from the "horror" that was colombia. The bus was stopped by 3 men with guns in santo domingo who ... read more

well it´s been an eventful week and a half for all in ecuador and quito especially so why not discuss it in blog form I thought. There were sporadic demonstrations in the streets of quito the past few months, but it all started to heat up a week and a half ago whilst I was asleep early ready to get up and go to visit the valley of the volcanoes (as it is known) 2 hours to the south of quito. Whilst I was asleep a state of emergency was temporarily called by young lucio guittirez (the president of ecuador) until the US stepped in and said dont be silly, and then it stopped again. Meanwhile I was soon off on my way to see quilatoa a volcano that has a lake inside it, which was ... read more

Unfortunately this site has a limited amount of places to choose from in Ecuador. Weekend just past I went to Atacames which is on the North West coast of Ecuador, it´s about a 7 hour coach journey for 4 quid from quito. We stayed at a hostel owned by italian people and it was clean and right on the coast for $5 a night which was nice. We got there on thrusday in the evening and went out to one of the numerous bars along the coast. There are too many bars on the coast there are about 50 bars with 10 people serving at each one, with about 5 customers in each bar. Ecuadoreans really haven´t grasped the concept of financial viability yet. We met some people on a end of college trip and spoke ... read more