You might have noticed a passing reference to El Nariz del Diablo in our last blog. WELL this amazing feat of engineering deserves at least a blog spot of its own and maybe more than one! In the late 1800s the Ecuadorian government decided to build a railway from Quito to Guayquil to link the two main areas of the country and stop every one fighting with everyone else. They started in Guayquil on the coast and proceeded splendidly through the coastal plain until they hit THE ANDES. The Andes are one heck of a obstacle and the railway ground to a halt and over the next few years began to be overgrown and abandoned. The story goes that an English born financier, Archer Harman, who had a brother John who was a civil engineer, was ... read more

Today was a first for me (Jan) when I was heard to pronounce that going up was easier than going down…...sounds a bit unlikely? Unlikely but true! Today was funny old day…..We left our hostel at 0630hrs in a cross country vehicle with 9 bikes on its roof and 8 people in the car- 2 Brazilian geologists (very useful when on a volcano), 2 Dutch youngsters, us, a driver and a guide. Our goal was Mount Chimborazo, which is the point on the earth that is nearest to the sun. It's not as tall as Everest at 6263m but because of the Equatorial bulge, it's actually furthest away from the centre of the earth and therefore nearest to the sun! Well we weren't trying to climb to the top (thank goodness) but we were dropped at ... read more

Our move to the Quilota Loop didn’t start well, when the taxi that was meant to take us to the correct bit of the hard shoulder of the Pan American highway for the Latacunga bus, failed to arrive. We leapt on the local bus and sped down the hill to the town of Otavalo where we jumped into a taxi and arrived at the aforementioned hard shoulder spot in time to wait for an hour and and half until we could get onto the right bus. (There was an earlier bus and we had got there first but there was no point arguing with a group of Ecuadorians who felt they had a right to get on the bus rather than us.) Luckily we were able to leave our stuff that we didn't need for the ... read more

With 12 hours til we go, we have been reading the previous blogs from our Patagonian adventure and wondering how this trip will be different.... Well, the main difference is that there will only be the two of us on this trip. Yes, Tiny Tim (our Tiny tent) is NOT coming with us this time. Call it fool-hardy if you like but it seems that Ecuador has plenty of hostels and plenty of people who might look kindly on a couple of old people with nowhere to stay. So GOOD RIDDANCE to Tiny Tim that's what I say! Another difference will be that we will have lighter backpacks so we can walk even further and be even more joyful ....Jan's is currently 7.9kg and Pete's is 11.5kg. Jan has the empty water bottles, 3 pairs of ... read more

Whether it was the effect of the reblochon or some other reason, our pilot needed two goes at landing in Iguazzu and then we found out that our luggage had remained in Buenos Aires. We were reunited with our lovely rucksacks only a couple of hours later which was a real blessing. We were already looking slightly out of place in a tropical airport wearing our hiking boots (too heavy to pack so we always wear then when travelling) and trousers while everyone else was in flipflops and shorts, and we were considering with dismay and a certain amount of hilarity what we would wear to visit the Iguazzu Falls in the jungle the following day if our luggage failed to arrive. Our hostel in Puerto Iguazzu has achieved the unenviable status of “worst place to ... read more