Ecuador

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Update number 4 in a row, guess what it´s gonna be short!

It took us forever to get from Mancora in Peru to Quenca in Ecuador and the journey was a right royal pain in the backside. Was it worth it? Probably, Quenca was quite a pretty wee town and we wandered it´s streets happily looking at quaint churches and squares, but it has kind of faded into the background as one of the less memorable stops on our trip. A bit like Sunday night tv, it´s nice enough, but you´re just passing time until it´s over.

Next stop was Baños, hidden in the Ecuadorian section of the Andes. We had read that you need to be a bit careful in Baños as the Volcano it sits underneath erupted a couple of years ago and flattened a couple of villages. Since we left we have read on the Foreign Office website that they advise you go nowhere near it as the volcano may well go again anytime soon, whoops! The setting of the town, despite the danger is beautiful, surrounded as it is by high altitude forested mountains. Baños means bath and unsurprisingly it is famous for its baths. Families, friends and tourists pile into the naturally hot water in the town baths to relax, chat and who knows what else. The water is damn hot and at night with a lit up waterfall behind you it could be romantic and wonderful if it weren´t for the fact that really, if you think about it, you´re just having a bath with about 40 other people. We´re not Romans and we have a hot shower in our room, so we up and leave after about 30 minutes and head for dinner.

Because of illnesses and injuries we have had to cut our time in Ecuador down severely and hence the last stop on our whistlestop tour is Quito, the capital. It´s a bit like La Paz in Bolivia but nicer and lower. We spend the first afternoon and evening looking at the old town which is cobbled and pretty and packed full of churches. The second day we go Christmas shopping in the new town, attacking artistic and touristy markets and get back to the hostel with more than our backpacks can take, whoops! Having learnt our lesson about not getting drunk on rum due to bad hangovers, we decide to see if it´s any better on red wine. It´s not, but the night before we made a new Belgian friend and chatted with the Ecuadorians about their chances in the nights big footie game (for those who care it was a Quito team that Man Utd beat in the final of the world club cup, but it started at 5:30am so we were in bed).

The following day we got up understandably a little late and went shopping again, this time for each other for Christmas. An early drink free night followed as we needed to be well rested for the next evfening when we departed the Andean countries for Brazil.

Our last day in Quito was spent lazily exploring more of the old town and trekking up the hills to get panoramic views of the city from sweet little coffee shops that serve gorgeous coffe and cakes.

It is a shame we didn´t have more time in Ecuador, but this was no time to ponder, it was time to head to the beaches of Brazil for Christmas and New Year. Just the three flights, three taxis and two buses to get past first!

Love
Matt and Chrissie
x x x

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