Blogs from South, Ecuador, South America - page 56

I did not spend too much time in Guayaquil (just one night - did not fancy being in a huge city for too long- largest in Ecuador) and was not well in Cuenca so did not do much sightseeing there. Vilcabamba was superb and just what I needed - total R&R... I guess it isn't called the Valley of Longevity for nothing - as soon as you come through this place you feel relaxed... it was brilliant looking through my guide book and seeing no sights and activities to do other than take in the view and go for a massage. Sigh... perfecto..... read more

After Riobamba I decided to visit a Shuar community, which was located a couple of hours north from Macas. The Shuar tribe is most commonly known for its past ritual of shrinking heads. Many years ago, they originally did this as a form of revenge if someone in their tribe had been murdered. This involved weeks of spiritual preparation and even annual rituals after the deed had been done in order to prevent the dead spirit from harming the perp or his dead ancestors. They are known as a proud people who have long defended their land and community from being invaded by foreigners. More recently, the Shuar are one of the very few Ecuadorian tribes that refuse to give into the oil mining companies. In fact, I learnt that Macas, where most of the modern ... read more

.....Im sat here, in the house I've been living in for 4 months, but the time has come to leave. I'm so sad! It feels like we only arrived here weeks ago, only we're going already. Cuenca is a fantastic place, and I've met some bloody amazing people here, not surprising, everyone is just so friendly, (apart from idiot man, the rudest man in the whole of ecuador, who works in the immigration office, snarling at people and not looking at documents, then trying to come on to you afterwards.) Anyway, people have already left, like Kat and Louisa headed to Peru a few days ago, so as you can imagine the past few days have been fun filled ecuadorian house party times woop, but I dont want it to end! In about 10 minutes (so ... read more

Hi guys! We had much better luck leaving Puerto Lopez. We took a bus and then a short flight to a city in Southern Ecuador called Cuenca. We really love this city! It's an old colonial city with beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets with a big river running through it. Our luck with the weather has been awful! We went to see the remaining Ingapirca structures and it was cold and it drizzled. Actually, we were disappointed with the whole thing all together. The structures weren't anything special to look at. I guess if you are a history buff it would be worth checking out, but it didn't do much for us. As Dan and I have been saying a lot here in Ecuador, maybe it would have been better if the sun was shining. ... read more

Things aren´t great at the moment. I´ve been puking up and more for the last two days. To cap things off my first night here I accidently checked into a love hotel, so had to put up with amorous noises all night to boot. I´ve moved now (a traumatic experience in itself when you have precisely 10 minutes between forced toilet visits). Still this afternoon things have come together a bit, I even managed a walk and sat out watching a practice session for some blues concert (how appropriate) going on in La Mariscal the heart of the new town here, so maybe tomorrow I´ll be back to normal. I´m on an all liquid diet now, having made the mistake of a burger last night. Still thats not the worst thing in the world either - ... read more