Jungle adventure!

After 2 days of travelling we arrived into Quito. It was a pretty horrific journey with lots of delays and getting ripped off by taxi drivers at the Peru-Ecuador border which is supposed to be the worst border crossing in South America. Quito is nice but rainy and cold, quite similar to Cusco with a pretty central square. We stayed in the dodgy area of La Mariscal where all the bars and restaurants are, as well as all the crack dealers. Four people got mugged outside our hostel in one night - nice. We went to the Mitad del Mundo or the Equator and jumped from one hemisphere to the other.
After spending a few days in Quito doing nothing much we set off to Baños, a tiny town with loads of adventure sports. We'd met lots of cool people in Quito so there was about 10 of us together in Baños. We went to the thermal pools then jumped off a bridge! It was possibly the most scary experience of my life standing on a tiny platform looking down onto a drop of 120m onto a fast flowing river, but it was also possibly one of the most fun things I've ever done.
After Baños, 5 of us set off together for a jungle adventure. We spent 5 days in the Cuyabeno reserve which is part of the primary rainforest. It was absolutely incredible. We saw monkies, went pirhana fishing, learnt about forest fruits, got poisoned by jungle papaya and visited an indigenous community. The feeling of swimming in a lake in the Amazon at sunset is one I will never forget. Our guide, Patricio, grew up in a village in the rainforest so he had amazing knowledge of all the plants and animals and could make the noise of just about any jungle animal and had a laugh that sounded like a monkey so he kept us entertained for the whole trip. It's impossible to describe how amazing the jungle really is, I think this has been my favourite experience of the 4 months I've spent in South America. We were really lucky with the weather as it was hot and sunny with only a few showers apart from the last day when we had torrential rain for the whole day. We spent 2 hours in a canoe in the heaviest rain I've ever seen, they don't call it the rainforest for no reason! We said goodbye to the 3 boys we'd been travelling with for the past 10 days which was really sad and Amy and I set off for Tena with Patricio our guide. It was the 50th anniversary of the town so everyone was in party mode and there was a huge procession through the town which felt like the Notting Hill Carnival and the Ecuadorian presdient was there too. After that we headed back to Quito where we are now. Getting very excited for Carnaval next week! Only 4 more weeks left of my adventure, time is passing too quickly! Actually I'm looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone but would love to stay for longer.

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