AmyP_MarkP

Leaving behind our volunteering job in Ambato was sad, but with about 6 weeks left we were eager to see a bit more of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela before the flight home. Baños From Ecuador we took a bus to nearby Baños, where we stayed a few nights. We hired bikes for the waterfalls trail, which was fab as we had lovely sunny weather with plenty of breeze, and it was a really easy ride as it was pretty much downhill all the way, and we returned to Baños in the back of a truck with some other bikers. The "Devil's Cauldron" (Paillon del Diablo) at the end of the trail was a huge waterfall and we got soaked taking pictures! It was such a hot day though, so quite a refreshing end to the ride! ... read more

Hola a todos! So, we are now in Ambato, Ecuador, where we are spending a month volunteering with the Jovenes Para El Futuro foundation. We arrived a day late in Ambato due to lots of bus strikes in Peru, and were immediately put to work in the school "comedor" where the school children eat lunch before they leave the school and go home for the rest of the day. Lunchtime is a noisy, messy affair in the comedor, but as we've been given mainly teaching duties, it is nice to see the children outside of classes. The Jovenes Para El Futuro (Youth for the Future) Foundation comprises of various projects, but all of them focus on the support and protection of vulnerable and deprived children who live both in the city centre or make up part ... read more

Hello again! I'm taking the opportunity to write a blog entry today as we're currently stranded in Cusco, Peru, due to a bus strike over the price of fuel. There have been quite a few strikes for various reasons throughout the countries that we have visited so far. So we are in Peru, our fourth country. So far we have enjoyed Peru, despite the fact that it definitely feels like the most touristy place that we have visited (perhaps bar Salta in Argentina and San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.) This is inevitable, due to the fact that Peru was the capital of the Inca Empire from about the 11th - mid 16th century, and the main cities that we have based ourselves in - Arequipa and Cusco - are tourist hubs with lots of amazing ... read more

This is my first contribution to our collection of blogs. Amy has finally relinquished control and let me have a go! We arrived in Potosi after a 6 hour bus journey from Uyuni that only cost 15 BS each. Straight away we noticed the impressive colonial architecture in the city and there are plenty of churches that are well worth a visit. My favourite was the Iglesia San Francisco where you can view the city from the roof of the church. The altitude in Potosi is 4070m above sea level and we did feel it walking up to the centre of the city with all of our belongings. We had decided to find Hostal La Casona as it looked good online and when we arrived it did look really nice. It is a large colonial style ... read more

Hola a todos! (Hello everyone!) I haven´t been embracing the blog writing as much as I'd planned recently, not that I haven´t wanted to but we've been up to so much! We've definitely been embracing the travelling lifestyle, although moving on every 2-3 days and never really unpacking can get a bit much so I'll be really happy if we can settle in one place for a while soon... hopefully very soon as christmas is coming! I'm writing this entry from Sucre, the capital city of Bolivia. We've only been here a couple of days but we already like the city and Bolivia is by far the poorest of the South American countries which means everything is cheaper here. It is heartbreaking to see some of the poverty, particularly the working children on the streets from ... read more