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Published: June 10th 2008
Well here we are in Ecuador and after a nervous start we are really enjoying it. We flew up from Santiago to Quito carrying U.S $2200 which was a bit nerve wracking! We even had money in bandages around our ankles! Better to safe then sorry I guess. We stayed in a great hostel near the old part of Quito (thanks Mark and Al for the tip!) and enjoyed wandering around the old city with the great buildings which Craig particularly liked. The only problem was the altitude (2800m) which took a bit of getting used to and I was huffing and puffing like and old wifey! Unfortunately due to starting an organised tour (53 days back down to Santiago) we had to move to the new city in a bit of a dodgy place, but by then we had met the rest of the group so going out in a big group was much better and we started to feel a bit more relaxed. We met "Frida" a huge yellow truck that would be our home for the next couple of months and off we set off to Otavalo, a cute market town north of Quito. After learning that we
would be camping in temperatures of down to about -15/-20 degrees we stocked up on Alpaca blankets and socks! Our group was a mixture of ages and mainly either British or Australian and all seemed a good bunch so, so far so good!
From Otavalo we headed up to Papallacta (3000m) for our first night camping. We jumped into some hot springs and had a good soak before retiring to our tent. Even with my woolly hat and alpaca socks on I was pretty chilly. Poor craig kept getting prodded by me asking what time it was and how long I had to survive before I could get up!
So feeling a bit fragile after the first camping attempt we headed off to Tena for our Amazon trip which we were both a bit worried about due to bugs and snakes but we couldn´t have been more pleasantly surprised. We got a long canoe type boat to our lodge which was pretty cool and had "mona" the monkey kicking about for a wee cuddle or a nibble on your fingers! With 3 course meals of foods we had never tried before, the next 3 nights were excellent. We
visited an animal rescue centre, went on a jungle hike, and even floated down the river on rubber rings! We were pretty sad to leave the jungle and despite getting eaten alive by sand flies and ants it was really good fun was very relaxed and we had great food and vino.
We went back to Tena and by now it was mine and Craig´s first anniversary and we chatted about all the cool things we have done in that year and what a great way we would be remembering our first anniversary. We decided to go white water rafting (how romantic!) which was pretty choppy and everyone fell out apart from me (other than being pushed!) but it was a good day out. We wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner but being a Sunday everything was closed so not even a nice vino : ( I even went crazy and put on a bit of mascara!
So now we are in Banos and chilling out for the day before making our way down to Peru and then for a few days at the beach so I can´t wait for that! I´m getting a bit nervous about
the Inca Trail with the altitude and the ever decreasing fitness but I´m sure it will be fine. Now being over half way through our trip it is starting to go a bit too fast for our liking but we are enjoying every minute. South America rocks!
Ecuador fact: 80% of pharmaceuticals used worldwide originate from plants in the Amazon Jungle.
Hope you´re all well
Helen & Craig
p.s. we struggled to get some pictures on this time but will try soon!
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Hazel
non-member comment
wish I was there!
Hi Guys Loving your tales from the Jungle! Sounds like Tena was great and so glad you survived the jungle! With each other to guard off the beasties you will have no worries! Happy Anniversary, thought it must be around now! Keep the trip shorts posted...and have fun! Haze xx