It is hard to talk about an old memory with enthusiasm but I'll try. I remember that we left Ushuaia huffed and puffed. For some reason for us Ushuaia has a taste of a miss even though looking backwards we got to meet interesting people, Pippa and Catherine, and got to see the beautiful scenery around, but whilst I wanted to do something more adventuristic Liz had a cold and I didn't feel so good to go out to the wild without her. The Gloom - Crossing to Isla Navarino: After spending time with my parents in Buenos Aires and meeting Liz's friends Von and Beth we rushed down to Ushuaia to catch summer. As we do in this trip we took a bus (not a flight) down south, 36 hours to Rio Gallegos and then ... read more

We arrived at Hacienda la Florida on December 8th 2009, by bus from Lima, a gruelling six hour journey with the usual latin music blaring from the radio the whole journey. By the time we had taken a taxi from Tarma the short distance to La Florida it was well past midnight and we were absolutely shattered from our journey from Chachapoyas. We were greeted at the gate and shown our room, and were able to throw off our rucksacks and get some well earned rest. The following morning at about six we heard the sounds of the Hacienda waking, with footsteps above in the kitchen, and voices calling across the yard. As soon as we stuck our heads out of the door we were accosted by Carlos, one of the employees on the farm, and ... read more

Back in Baños we got ready for the expedition to the jungle. Via Rainbow Expeditions we took a trip to a community of the Shuar tribe set in a primary rainforst 40 minutes flight and then 40 minutes walk from Puyo. We could have done this walk in 2 hours and enjoy it but we really didn´t want to lose eye contact with the ‘guide’ - the man and woman from the community where we landed who carried food and other things to the community, Tuna, where we stayed the next 4 days. Tuna is a relatively new community comprising three brothers and each one´s family, all together about 20 people. They welcomed us with a short ‘official’ welcome including a traditional Chicha drinking (not yummy, a sour tasting drink that was made from fermenting, mashed ... read more

We left Papallacta in the direction of Tena. We had had enough of mountains and high altitude, as I (Ram) realised that my lungs cannot really aclimatize to the altitude. We thought that a change in direction and a detour of the Andes via Tena and then to continue back up to Baños would be a good idea. Liz didn’t resist even though she really wanted to take the horse ride trip around Cotapaxi. We thought that maybe from Baños we hop to Cotapaxi later. When we arrived in Tena we met Stephanie, a Swiss girl, who joined us at the hostal we stayed and later on became our trip partner for about 2 weeks. As Ram primarily prefer to do trips without a guide he was happy to find a routes map in the hostal ... read more

After the bad expereince in Quito we were and still are surprised to find nice people in Otavalo. To see how lovely relaxed and warm the people are here was a relief. We stayed in a nice hostel run by an American - Ecuadorian couple, it was called Rincon El Viajero, quite a common name for many hostels as we found later on. Otavalo gets lots of tourists, especially at the weekend, due to its market, but yet keeps to its values and friendliness - it completely changed our mood since we arrived there. As it is only two hours bus ride from Quito, many tourists come here for a day excursion or a weekend. We, however, made it our new base for excursions in the north of Ecuador. We found here some nice and cheap ... read more