Riobamba to Guayaquil

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We are now in a bit of rush as the Galapagos trip we have booked is flying from Guayaquil. We have noticed that everytime we have any sort of date to meet it spoils the travel experience as you to try and rush and fit as many things in your itinary as possible and always conciouse of the date. Due to this we have had to miss out Banos which is a shame as it sounds very nice and the main attractions the hot spring pools would of been a welcome retreat. Oh well there are a few similar attractions later in the trip and once agian gives us something to do when we come back.

After Riobamba it was a short trip to Guaranda for more as the lonely planet put it 'Mind blowing views´ I think the pictures some up what we managed to see! The highlight of the bus journey for us were are first wild llamas and a group of locals playing volleyball on a highland court surrounded by mist and fog and a bit of rain! Unfortunaetly I couldn´t get a picture of this as the bus was going to fast. Something else that doesn´t go well with fog!

The town of Guaranda itself was pretty enough but nothing special. I am sure this would of been different if we could see the montains and volcanoes surounding it. We did occasionally get glimpses but nothing as much as we hoped.

From Guaranda we had an early start going for the bus at 6am for Guayaquil, it did't start too well as we got lost on the way to the bus station and had to stop a man and his misses walking their pig in the street to ask for directions! They pointed us in the right direction but missed our bus and had to wait another hour, not all bad as the sky was clear and we could see some of those amazing views the Lonely Planet talked about. We finally arrived in Guayaquil all excited for a trip to Galapogas and I was a bit nervous as it was the first leg of the Milan game. We already made sure in advance that the hotel had cable t.v and I got to watch the game which we won 3-2. This sort of settled my nerves as I knew I would miss the second leg and would not find out the result until 5 days later as it was in the middle of the boat cruise!

We didn´t explore this city but there was not much to explore and part of it can be quite dodgy so don´t think we missed much.

Galapagos here we come!!

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