Final adventures and parting words

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We spent several days on the coast of Ecuador, first at the small town of Puerto Lopez. This was actually a big highlight in my travels as we had a fantastic trip to the nearby Isla de plata, part of the national park. The island was full of the famous blue footed bird, which is quite the character; with a strange song and dance to attract its mate. We also went snorkelling and were surrounded by colourful fish and coral. But the highlight was in the boat journey; the whale watching. We expected to see a whale, but maybe a flick of the tail or a spout of water, not a huge male whale jumping almost entirely out of the water metres from the boat...but that's what we got and it was incredible! Like the dance of the blue footed bird it was to impress a lady, which makes me think the buying of a drink in our culture is too easy!


After Puerto Lopez we headed to the party town of Montanita and joined the groups on the beach with some $4 rum. We hired a surfboard too and spent some time in the not so Carribean Pacific waters, Stu surfed, I mainly fell, but we both had a lot of fun. We left the beach for our final stop in Ecuador; Zamora, a town in the south bordering the Amazon. We walked around the national park near Zamora, visiting waterfalls and swimming holes, and made the steep walk up to the viewpoint: and when I say steep I mean STEEP, my legs are still recovering.

Then we embarked on a grueling 32 hour journey involving 4 buses, to cross the border into Peru and finally arrive at Huarez, in the Andes. The scenery around this town is truly beautiful; surrounded by snow capped peaks. We spent a few days here, enjoying the hot springs, walking around and visiting a spectacularly blue lagoon in the Huascaran national park.

And now were back in Lima; eager for our flight home.

I feel extremely lucky for what I've seen and done in the last 8 months. The people I've met, like Miguel, who showed us around the Amazon jungle; The nature I've been surrounded by, like the perfect postcard views of NZ's South Island; The experiences I've had, kayaking along rivers in Laos, eating weird and wonderful foods...have all been amazing! But it has also reminded me of everything i love about home; my family and friends; our bloody brilliant NHS; and Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

BREACHING JUST FOR YOU
Great pic...sort of image that you dream about...well done.