Day ONE HUNDRED

---

So, we have now been away for 100 days. My how time flies. Having said that, we've done tonnes already and let's hope this continues for the next 265 days. On this milestone day, Gemma set a milestone of her own...

On our 100th day, Gemma visited her 40th country. What a well-travelled young lady. And that number will certainly be growing over the rest of our trip. Ed is marooned on 30, having never been abroad during his schooldays as he was forced to work down a mine during the holidays.

It is worth pointing out that this blog entry is the second attempt. It was mostly written when something inexplicable happened and the text disappeared for ever. Add to this the fact that the internet cafe we are in has speakers for each PC and lots of teenagers exploiting them, and it would be an understatement to say that the author is not in the best of moods right now!

We began the day in Tena in the Ecuadorian jungle and hoped to finish it in Lima in Peru. We got off to a bad start when we were told that our hoped for 9am bus was not running today as it was 'off the road'. We hope that this meant it was in the garage rather than the more literal (and not unheard of in these parts) meaning. Anyway, we took the next bus and got underway.

Predictably enough, the bus was severely delayed for no discernable reason other than an incredibly optimistic guess of how long the journey should take. But this seems to be par for the course.

Eventually we arrived in Quito which is a really good city to drive into. There are mountains all around and plenty to look at. Luckily the driver more or less kept his eyes on the road - it's hard to predict which direction the next obstacle will come from. In Quito we took a taxi to the airport and then tried to find somewhere to buy tickets. For a whole host of reasons even this was not straightforward and it took a bit of wandering around the airport's hidden corridors and passing security guards all over the place before finding the right counter. Even though we'd told ourselves that we would only fly if we could get tickets for a reasonable price, it was no surprise that we just went with it - the alternative was the best part of 2 days on a bus which we didn't think made best use of time given that we only have 265 days remaining.

Anyway, we bought the tickets and then paid the additional airport departure tax, and proceeded through to the gate GBP500 lighter. We'll probably come to regret this when Ed has to sell Gemma when we're in Bhutan.

The flight was pleasant enough and Gemma even had the bonus of sitting next to a young Ernst & Young - where she used to work -employee on his way to a course in Lima. In Lima we took a 'Taxi Green' cab because they are supposedly the safest way to travel. The Peruvian tourist board would have been beside themselves had they heard our 'Welcome to Lima' talk from our driver. Basically we were made to think there was little chance we'd make it to our destination without several car-jackings and that counting Gold sovereigns on the streets of downtown Johannesburg would be safer than travelling through Lima in an armoured car with an SAS escort.

We got to our very friendly hostel, Miraflores House, in the safer Miraflores district. We went out for a McDonalds dinner - our first for over 100 days - and made ourselves sick in an ice cream parlour.

Finally we went to bed in our dormitory. But we didn't go to sleep. Oh no. A combination of arrivals every hour or so until about 3am, and then similarly regular departures from then on wasn't conducive to a good night's sleep. Add to this the snoring chorus from some very ill-sounding travellers and we didn't sleep a wink. It'd be more peaceful spending time right here in the internet cafe from hell...

---