Ecuador

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"Yes! survived the 55hr bus journey but now smelling like a kipper and looking like my face has been rubbed in a vaseline tub! Anyways at least we made it to Quayaquil."

Quayaquil was quite a short stay mainly because there wasn't a great deal to do in this massive city other than walk along the newly developed waterfront. From here we caught another bus to Banos, which is a small town set in a valley and is famous for its natural springs. In Banos we stayed in a nice hostel called 'Blanco de Plantos', it has white walls, plants and an attractive kitchen/bar roof top terrace. On our first night we took a visit to the hot springs and boy were they hot, so hot infact that they gave us sun burn! Luckily there were also warm and freezing cold pools which were much appreciated. The following day we hired out bikes and took a 20km ride to visit varrious waterfalls. Having had a good and relaxing few days in Banos we then jumped on a bus and headed for Quito.

Now in Quito, we checked into the new town, which has a vast supply of bars and resturants, however sadly there are not many interesting people in our hostel so looks like we'll jus have to enjoy them on our own; or go and sit with the 2 people who have been reading non-stop in the living room in complete silence for 2 days! Luckily Quito seemed quite a nice place so we decided to go and explore. Our first point of call was to head for the equator line. At the equator we managed to find a nice museum hidden behind the main museum called 'Inta Nan' (or something like that). Here we had a guided tour and got involved with some experiments. One was the well known water down the plug hole trick and to our amazement it actually does work! On the equator line water goes down the hole straight, she then moved the sink just a couple of metres to the south of the equator a incredibly the water went down the hole in a clockwise direction. As you've probably guessed, she then moved it north of the equator line and the water went down the sink in an anti-clockwise direction. Simple but amazing! Other experiments included balancing an egg on a nail, here Nick excelled and managed to do it, which resulted in him gettin a certificate. Our final challednge was to use a tribal blow gun and fire the dart into a target. Again Nick managed to do this but also poped his ears in the process (like when you try too hard to blow up a ballon). Paul eagar to develop his skills decided to make a purchase for a minature blow gun. That night we then went to a Mongolian all you can eat restaurant and absolutely dominated it! Overall a good and fullfilling day. On our last day in Ecuador we took a trip to the Old town and checked out some of the architecture and cathedrals. We Now have our flight to LA. To sum up, we have had an immense time in South America but are also looking forward to heading to a region that can speak slightly better English!

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