Baños and Guayaquil

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So for Mandy´s birthday we decided to go to Cotapaxi volcano, then cycle down part of it. The only problem was that we forgot that we should be acclimatized to altitude before going so high. The result was that we all had in various degrees headaches, felt sick and generally felt a bit rough.

It was actually snowing when we got to the highest point you could go without proper climing gear which was at 4810 meters. The cycle ride down was much easier than the walk up, although Mandy felt too sick to cycle for too long - not a great way to spend your birthday. We went out for a nice meal though and to a casino after Mandy had opened her presents and we had drunk some champagne.

The next day we went by bus to Baños a lovely town with an active volcano. Mandy, Miles and me went to a mineral bath with various pools (cold, warm and hot) and the shower was fed direct from a waterfall. Chris had a cold so slept. We also hired mountain bikes to do a 61 kilometer ride from Baños to Puyo, following a natural valley with waterfalls. We decided to do it over 2 days, spending a night at a hotel on route.

It was going well until the second day when the gears on Mandy´s bike mysteriously broke. She claims it wasn´t sabotage but the rest of us aren´t so sure. We called the bike company but they said there was nothing they could do and we would have to go back to Baños to get a new bike. So we changed plans and did a walk for a few hours seeing some different waterfalls then got a lift back to Baños. Not quite the trip we had planned but we had a good time anyway.

After a few days in Baños we headed for Cuenca, with a fantastic drive down the Andes. The scenery was spectacular - watching the sun set behind the Andes with cloud in the distance was breathtaking. The most exciting part about Cuenca was that there was an earthquke whilst we were there. We thought that it might be aftershocks from the earthquake in Chile, but were told that it was a new earthquake. (Fiona & Sophie - I thought about using duck cover and hold but there was no need on this occasion). Having researched today the main tremor was in the early hours after we felt the original tremor and it measured 6.8. Scary!

We then headed off to Guayaquil and whilst there purchased a reader for our photo cards, so hopefully we will be able to post photos soon. Despite bad write up´s we liked Guayaquil - good scenery, nice restaurants and bars.

After Guayaquil we are off to The Galapagos so I will post again after then, with loads of photos.

Love to you all

Tina

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Photos

Me and Chris
Me and Chris at 4810m, in the snow on Mandy´s birthday

Baños
Waterfall in Baños with mineral baths below

Volcano in Baños
Volcano with ash coming out of the top

Cuenca
Church in Cuenca town square

Me and Chris
Me and Chris with Guayaquil below