and it smells like home ....

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The first sensation I will think back to when I think back to Ecuador will be the smell of cut grass. It wasn't of course the first thing that happened in Ecuador as I reduced myself to that dream like state that is the uncomfortable snooze of one who can't sleep on long distance buses. The first thing of course was the border crossing - and given I've now made quite a few of these I can fairly say that this was amongst the weirdest.

The drive to the border is fine although somewhat disconcerting when someone from the bus company gets on the bus to 'help' the westerners with the crossing. From there you get to the migration office and stamped out of Peru .. no problem. Then back on the bus and the drive through the bustling border town of Huaquillas. It's a good 15 minutes until we're out of town and back onto the main Pan American highway - only THEN do we get stamped into Ecuador, taken off the first bus, put into a taxi back into town to spend an hour awaiting another bus to take us the rest of the way up to Quito! Myself and the Aussie couple on the bus did the only thing you can do in that situation - play guitar in the bus station with drunks ... lovely!

Back on the bus and back in the dream like state my thoughts were free to roll along - here's a sort of commentary - hmm this will be my last ridiculously long bus journey (15hrs!), buenas tardis to the woman next to me and little smiles each way (my Spanish is now of survival status but doesn't stretch to small talk), oh man I'm so jealous that she can fall asleep next to me so quickly, oh no is she really snoring that loudly, oh man she really is, even the ipod can't drown this, ok we're stopping, police check, man they're scary, off again though, ok ... stopping again ... more cops, man this is a police state! Pretty fields though ... ok, music and focused effort to drown this woman out ... oh really? we're here? ok!

I've had a really bad feeling lately, that somehow on this trip I've tempted fate too many times or have been too lucky and I'm due something bad happening; and the comments you'll hear from other travellers and concerned hostel workers will make you think that if your card is marked then here's the place! It's a flipping good job then that it's a really beautiful city and the hostel has a roof top view that is quite simply stunning! And here I met 5 hilarious British uni students - or the 'girls on tour' as I liked to refer to them and set off on a day trip to Cotopaxi - one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.

Before going on the day trip I had seriously toyed with strapping my crampons on again and going for another South American summit - but I have no regrets on this count. The halfway misty shot that I was able to take of the volcano was as good as it got all day and the wind was enough to take your breath away ... and I'd forgotten how completely soul destroying climbing volcanoes can be - what's all this 3 steps forward 2 back nonsense!! What might have been hilarious on north island NZ was suddenly void of humour in an ash dense side wind! The girls however made the day a wonderful laugh, when they didn't make me feel very old - which was a lot of the time!

The following day I got to do another of those things that, in my life I want to do - just because. The first was the stand on the Great Wall, another is to stand on Antartica but for no reason I can explain I wanted to stand on the equator - so I did! By navigating the public buses the round trip - around 2hrs each way - cost just under a dollar! The park that has built up around the equatorial line is a weird Disneyland. Lots of restaurants, souvenier shops and kids play areas that conspire around you to make you think you've come to do more than just stand on a line, take some pictures and leave - but this is what you do! The more exciting part of the visit is to go to the REAL line! Calculated by military GPS the real equator is around 150m from the other and here they do some interesting displays of the effects of gravity e.g. the directional changes to water down a drain just on each side of the equatorial line - mixed in with some interesting cultural displays - such as the shrunken heads. Shrunken heads are traditionally real heads of defeated enemies, scooped out, boiled down, shaped and pinned before being decorated and stuck on the end of a pole to warn future enemies of their potential fate. As everything with economic demand when 'tourists' even back then discovered these things and wanted them as souveniers there emerged several murders and a fake industry of artifically produced heads so now it's hard to find genuine ones! Really ... people are completely mad!

After another day in Quito just to enjoy the beauty of the city it was time to move on - and with that I headed towards Chugchilan and the Quilatoa crater lake - one of the apparent 'must sees' of the country. As I'm now at the stage of my journey where I plan and research almost nothing anymore I got halfway before having to change buses when the next bus wasn't coming for a few hours - disaster you might think but no! Instead the heavens conspired in my favour again and plonked a great big tv in the bus station! I was therefore able to watch Englands first World Cup match (and no, we don't need to comment on what a disappointing experience that always is, just to know I watched it is sufficient!) From there it's a 3 hour journey on dirt tracks to the village of Chugchilan, which is the kind of place that advertises internet but there's only a few people in the village that even have phones! All the other guests were French which completely rocked my new world of basic Spanish which has been liberally peppered with French words when I didn't know the Spanish ones! They were welcoming though and somewhere in the night I managed to arrange for a horseback trip to the lake the following day - 7-8hrs for someone who is not good on a horse ... no problem!!

The Ecuadorian countryside has an incredible beauty to it. The hills aren't quite as dramatic as further down the Andes and are lower so cultivated. The marked fields with cattle grazing remind me of home except that these are generally set at 45 degree angles up the hillsides! Grazing in the fields are pigs, goats, llamas, cows, donkeys with chickens running around while whole families tend the fields. The women wear traditional clothes, large colourful skirts, patterns cloth round their shoulders, knee high socks and impractical black shoes all topped with a Panama hat. The men generally less traditional but sometimes adorned with a poncho and of course lots and lots of faces that are weathered by the elements but beautiful to the photographer within me. Those photos however will have to remain in my mind - I just felt uncomfortable sticking a camera in these peoples faces - like that was a breach of contract in the unspoilt traditional surroundings I was in.

My guide kept encouraging us to vary the pace, sometimes trotting and sometimes a little beyond that ... at which point, like the experienced rider I am I just held onto that knobbly bit at the front of the saddle for my life and tried to smile and look in control!! Finally though we reached the crater, I dismounted, winced, shook my legs out and walked unsteadily to the view point - which was of course worth it!

The next stop on the journey, after an awesome drive back to town on the roof of a truck (health and safety be damned) was Banos - a town famous for its thermal spas and the constant threat of destruction by the 'Black Giant' - Ecuadors largest, and active, volcano that looms over the town. Not only was I in need of the hot water therapy for my limbs after horse riding but the touristy aspect of Banos provided a welcome selection of foods and a chance to buy more presents for the friends and family I'm looking forward to seeing in a few weeks time. The beautiful hostel also introduced me to a few lovely new travelling companions and together we set off for our next destination - Cuenca.

The bus ride wasn't fun! It might have been more fun if we'd have caught the direct bus, but as that would have clashed with World Cup viewing it obviously wasn't possible! Instead we rolled into Cuenca around 10pm tired, hungry and certainly not sparkling with conversation. Our hostel was a cafe in a central covered courtyard with rooms off the sides of it with a great vibe and some of the hardest beds ever! It was hear however that our little trio met a group of holidaying Londoners - and rarely have I laughed so much as we all did over the next few days. Recently created card games were lovingly bestowed on us and the rules just made up as we went along. We went for walks, and watched football and all against the backdrop of what I think is Ecuadors 'jewel in the crown' of cities. Probably the best activity we did in the city was to visit the hat factory to learn that the Panama hat is actually from Ecuador. The real ones, are made to two main qualities, one that takes about a week to weave and the other that takes around eight months!! They're so soft and of course exist in so many styles that many of the hats you might see at Ascot might well be a Panama hat in disguise!

Too soon of course those good times come to an end. The guys flew back to the UK and although I'm confident we will meet up again the place seemed very empty and quiet without them. Fortunately though there was not much time for me to dwell on sadnesses ... my next journey was just the long push back down to Lima to fly up to Canada and see my brother and his wife who are expecting their first child - now if that's not a cause for excitement I just don't know what is!

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