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Published: September 12th 2007
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Our bags barely touched the ground in Tumbes as three charming and seemingly helpful guys loaded the four of us (& bags!) into the back of their five-seater car while they all squished into the front!! Ten minutes later we find ourselves in a locked car park in the (seemingly lawless) no man's land between Peru & Ecuador! The three men were now threatening us and asking for USD$35 each! At first they wouldn't even let us out of the car bit we forced our way eventually. They then stood in front of the boot, but Heloise surreptitiously sneaked our bags over the back seat while they all ranted at the rest of us with increasing aggression. We stormed over to the car park gate where we were confronted by a corrupt security guard who wouldn't let us escape either!!! Everything was really heated at this point and we were all pretty scared but livid and were never going to back down to these punks! At the mention of the tourist police, the security guard eventually ran scared and let us out (much to the fury of the three taxi theif thugs!) and we walked, fuming, to the border police (through,
what seemed, a really dodgy area). The police turned out to be as useful as ............ but we perservered and the brutes ended up getting USD$2 to share between the three of them - hooray! Did we win?
We were warmly greeted in Ambato by a friendly family consisting of parents: Eliana & Roberto, and children: Eliana & Roberto, who showed us how the Ecuadorians party...Karaoke (Eliana we are not worthy!).
With our enthusiasm for the jungle still not quelled, we headed to Tena. As we visited a National Ecological Park: Parque Amazonico, we decided that it was really quite shabby and could do with help from the volunteering "Power of Four" to sort them out! And so, we spent the week feeding monkeys (Heloise was their favourite and was urinated upon regularly!), turtles, parrots, toucans, a jaguarundi (like a little jaguar), an ocelot (like a little leopard), a kaiman (like a little crocodile), giant boa constrictors, man-eating pigs who bark (straight out of Hannibal!) and many more. A certain death-defying experience occured when a gigantic warthog-like beast (who had been calmly following us for twenty minutes!) jumped in a pond and went completely loco. The crazed creature
charged us and continuously chased the girls round a very small tree (while the boys cowered from a far laughing!) but the added danger was the extremely dangerous (and furry) caterpillar who lurked quite close to said tree!!
Our other duties involved building paths, clearing paths, creating a superb Charlie Dimmock-style waterfall and acting as guides around the park (Edith and Caroline, you would have been so proud - the girls were amazing and caught on Ecuadorian TV at one point...and in French too!). Matt, having raked a total of 4 leaves all week, gave up and headed to Quito, presumably to do another 5-minute stroll in Cuzco! Steph, missing Matt, followed suite to meet her brother Max in Quito (who would be living in Ecuador for the following year).
Meanwhile, Jack & Heloise needed some more volunteering in the Jungle. They took on a marketing position for an upcoming tour agency based in a tiny Kichwa village called Serrena. For four days, we lived a Kichwan life with a lovely family in their wooden hut (with no comforts!) right in the thick of the jungle. We were taught how to live off the jungle and we even
helped build a toilet block to improve the community's sanitation. We went for a couple of jungle treks, including a particularly incredible one which saw us gallopping (well...erm...actually limping on a pregnant mule who only really wanted to eat!) through the jungle and then rock climbing up several waterfalls. And…wait for it mums - we were doing research for a new tour agency, so there was no safety equipment in sight (and that only made it better!). Jack was supposed to look out for snakes, but in the jungle, a lot of stuff looks like it could be a snake… (using basically machetes and more machetes.One of the best bits, however, was saved till last. To catch a bus to the nearest big town, we first had to get across a really big, fast flowing and freezing river. The only way to do so is by zooming across it on a kind of zip wire - better than a roller coaster any day!!
We joined Steffy in Quito the following day to find that she’d been really busy and done pretty much every possible tourist attraction - efficient as always!! She did most of them again though with us,
in addition to a trip to Otavalo and its huge market (where we were involved in a James Bond-style race through the market, chased by an angry restaurant owner…). We also caught up with Bob, Heloise’s friend from a pub she worked in at home and who is now married to an Ecuadorian, Erika. They have an absolutely adorable 11 month old, called Joaquim and we were treated to a tour to see a lot of the sights in Quito (yes Bob, the most important two sights were donut express and the most expensive book hunt in “Mr. Books”!) and, generally, a really good time! Quito is such a nice city. It’s divided into the old town and the new town, and we spent the majority of our time wandering around the old town, popping into churches and galleries and shopping (to Steph and Heloise’s glee). And then came the tearful goodbye to Steph, who is presently at home having just started her new job!!!
The following day, Jack and Heloise were booked onto a flight to Mexico. Well, so we thought! We arrived at the airport only to discover that South American airlines are rubbish, and cutting a
long and stressful story short, we had to purchase the tickets again. On the bright side, though, Mexico City was a lot better than GCSE geography lessons had led us to imagine! It’s a really sophisticated, arty city (well…in parts!). We explored the sights as well as making a trip out to the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Our next glorious bus trip took us through the lush jungular, but also mountainous, landscapes of central Mexico (a different load of scenery again!) to Papantla and the ancient city of El Tajin. The ruins, here, were refreshingly off-the-beaten-track and very much still in the middle of the jungle (similar to the temples of Angkor, Cambodia, in fact!). Next stop was Tampico, which gave us an opportunity to relax a little and go for a swim in the gulf of Mexico! We had a fairly idealistic image of a Caribbean beach in our heads, but were shocked to find out that if someone doesn’t clean them regularly, you just end up with a shoreline covered in driftwood and crap! Nevertheless, we waited for some locals to unearth a small portion of sand before enjoying the stunning weather and water at least!! We’re now
in Monterrey where Jack’s friends from school, Tim and Tom, are living at the moment. We’re finding it a very welcome change to have some familiar faces around and a home as well! Truly spoilt! Monterrey is quite an Americanised industrial town but has a fantastic backdrop of mountains and plenty of home comforts!
We’re coming home soon, which is a very strange thought. In a way we’re very happy to see our families again (and of course some home comforts!), but at the same time travelling is a way of life. Although it can be tough a lot of the time, we see new and exciting things every day. It’ll be hard to get used to the normality of student life back in the UK!
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SuperDad
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You would think they had learned
At least you now know all the ways of being mugged! Southampton should be a doddle. A settled (boring) year at Uni? I don't think that will happen now....