Week One is almost over!

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Well I finally arrived in South America after a nightmare trip over here! My first flight was delayed due to the ash cloud, then I missed my next flight the next day due to my stupid travel agent booking the wrong time and then a further delay on my next flight. I think I was pretty lucky to get over here at all so I was happy to just catch my tour before they left. So after nearly three days of travelling I arrived in Quito, Ecuador.

A representative from my tour company came to meet me at the airport which I was grateful for as Quito was much more dangerous than I thought. Loads of tourists get mugged there so I didn´t leave the hotel other than with a big group for dinner. I met up with my tour group, there´s 17 of us so it´s a massive group but everyone is really nice which is a big relief, otherwise it´ll be a long month together!

I also experienced altitude sickness for the first time which I have to say is pretty shit! I know the jet-lag didn´t help but the feeling of being very dizzy and spaced out with a headache and my legs and ankles swelled up to almost double their size which was a bit scary! My kankles cleared up the next day thankfully and all the other symtoms disappeared as we decended. Somehow not looking forward to being at 4500 during the Inca Trail :-)

The next morning we travelled by bus about 5 hours into the Amazon rainforest to a retreat called Cotococha. It consists of about 15 huts (that don´t have electricity!) in the dense rainforest so the noise from the bugs at nighttime was insane. Those of you who know me well know of my fear of bugs and spiders so my stay there wasn´t the most comfortable considering what we had coming into the hut at night time! We also had quite a scary walk back to the huts at night time as we only had oil lamps to light the way and our torches so we were a bit freaked out about running into an boa constrictor on the way! I also worked out that drinking a considerable amount of wine doesn´t really dull the fear at all :-) The next day our tour group headed off on longtail boats down the amazon river to a wildlife rehabilitation centre where they take care of sick or injured animals. They also take on the exotic pets such as monkeys and boa constrictors that people keep as pets here when they can no longer look after them. From there we headed off on a jungle trek which my guide cleverley disguised as an ´´excursion´´. I´m not really one for getting that close to nature so I was quite panicked for most of it, we were pretty much bush bashing and climbing up a very steep hill were you were scrambling to grab onto branches (what you hoped were branches!!) and roots of trees to pull you up. Then once were were back down in the gully we were nearly knee deep in mud. Not a single leech on me though so I was pretty happy with that! I´m glad I did it but will be very wary if my guide wants to take us on another ´´excursion´´ again. We spent more time on the boat and also visited a community. I saw some amazing things and scenery while on that trip in the jungle but I was happy to head back to civilisation the next day.

We´re now in Puyo which is jungle town about two hours bus ride from where we were in the jungle. It´s from here where a lot of tourists go on jungle trips but seeing as we have just come from the jungle there´s not a lot to do here. I´m just happy to be sleeping in a hotel again that has four walls and I won´t find giant spiders in the bathroom! Today a small group of us went to see a beautiful waterfall while the rest of our group went white water rafting (I´m way too unco for that!).

Tomorrow we move on to Riobamba so back up into the mountains!

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