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Couple of days in Quito were quite enough as not a lot to see and told not really safe, more so at night.
Seemed to be blokes with guns all over the place outside banks, armed police, outside hotels even outside KFC!
Also due to the altitude always seemed to be cloudy, not seen the sky for 2 days and bit chilly!
The old part of town is supposed to be picturesque but as on my own decided to chill and just did a bit of walking around the city and bought a sim card to get my iphone working at last, managed to type up my last blog on it.
Everyone on the tour group turned up on the Friday, 17 people in all mainly fron England some from Canada also Germany, NZ, Oz and Norway. 9 females and 8 blokes most in their 20s but also 2 ladies in their 60s! Our tour guide is Manuel who is cool and we have two drivers Willy and Rauel.
My roomie was Matthew from Necastle for the first night, he snored lol but nice guy.
The bus is more like a truck with the
28 seat cabin up above and behind the driving cabin, with air con, reclining seats and two tvs so we can watch dvds, cool! Also a toilet at the back but only for number ones!
So we set off at about six thirty in the morning and drove towards Tena in the Amazon, still in Ecuador. Took about four hours with one stop for water and toilets.
When we arrived in Tena we had a 40 min stop to buy water use internet etc then packed a day pack and were picked up by three pick up trucks - utes and were driven into the jungle to a community we were going to stay at for the night.
The community is basically a small number of dwellings for 40 villagers who are farmers but also now put up tourists and take them on tours of their land.
Had rained a lot so we ended up being shown how they make necklaces from palm leaves and seeds and in the evening after dinner were shown some traditional dancing etc.
We as visitors were asked to do something to show our culture so we sang
Wonderwall and couple of Canadians did a dance.lol Daisy played the guitar for wonderwall, she plays well.
Next day we got up at five in the morning to drink tea with the villagers, as they do this every day to discuss plans for the day and chat with the family, they actually get up at 4 but as we are tourists….. not sure whhat was in the tea but some of us were a bit giggly!
The money we paid thru gap to stay and eat there plus our tip helps them make improvements to the village.
We were then taken back to Tena in the pick ups and joined back up with the bus and set off about 20mins to our next place to stay, Shangri La lodge, again in the Amazon built into the top of a cliff overlooking the river and jungle, amazing view from the lodge and we all had rooms with the view right on the edge of the cliff.
I had a room with Simon and Chris from NZ and Norway.
We had fried worm grub things before dinner see picky, Simon had a raw one, he had
had a few beers lol
After lunch we went on a 1 hour walk and shown stuff about medicinal plants etc then back for dinner (all included) and cold beers.
The following day we went for a 3 hour hike in the jungle walking along a river bed climbing up rock crevices and saw some bat caves, was really cool.
In the afternoon we climbed down the cliff steps to the river where we then went for a 2 hour tube ride, not many rapids but nice to chill on the “lazy river”.
Then a truck picked us up and took us back to the lodge for dinner and more beers, my roomies and I managed to get thru 57 600ml beers in the 2 days!lol the barmen wanted their picture taken with us, so by now the group getting to know each other!
Following morning we were off again this time a 3 hour journey to Banos, famous for its volcanic baths.
We had the day to wander round and in the evening went out for dinner, had an amazing steak!
Also managed to get myself a new cap, sorry Jon
but the other one looked pink in the pickies.lol
Following day we all went off white water rafting (well water was brown due to rainfall!) The river was a tributary to the Amazon and was a level 3 plus, was great fun and lasted for several hours included bus ride to rapids and back and lunch for 35 bucks.
My camera is waterproof but decided not to take rafting as wanted to enjoy rather than worry about my camera.
After the rafting some of the guys did a bridge jump, nutters! I watched. Then after dinner we went off to the baths for a soak in the hot sulphur baths and pools.
The hotels have been really good quality with big rooms wifi etc (jungle one obv not as high quality but amazing view!) and restaraunts have been good too.
In the morning we set off towards Cuenca, an 8 hour drive with stops, we have bought a few dvds!
Larf
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john fraser
non-member comment
hat bastard
glad you're having a good time but you're wear em for awhile and throw them away, hat bastard