Baths, trains and a whole lot of Rob Schneider films

After several intensive days of trekking the Quilotoa circiut, we decided it would be wise to spend a little time having a well earnt rest. Arriving at Baños at 8 pm, we quickly got a taxi to a backpackers' hostel nearby. After getting unpacked, we were given a tour by the hostel owner, the lovely Yolanda, who took a shine to a certain blond member of our part (read - Franklin). Feeling pretty tired, we hit the hay after watching the only English thing on TV, NCIS.
The next day, after my tooth was fixed by a very friendly dentist (with very questional apparatus), we visited one of the town's famous thermal baths, the temperature of which was just too hot for us. In the evening, we treated ourselves to pizza and steak, found at a restaurant called ´restaurant good flavour´. On our 3rd day in Baños we again treated ourselves to more fancy food, in the form of an american breakfast. I cannot tell you how nice it is to smell frying bacon after over 3 weeks without it (3 weeks , my family can account for, is a very long time for me). To earn this breakfast (which also included fruit juice, coffee, croissants, butter, jam, eggs and bread) we walked up to a viewpoint above the city, and then in the surrounding paths around. After such an intensive workout, myself and Max (who has, for all you folks at home, requested the nickname ´Monsterdog´), decided it would be money well spent to get a massage. The options were limitless, from ´Geoffrey and Edith´s´, to an alley where a 60 minute full body massage was $20. In the end, we opted for the Chinese massage (performed by Ju Xing and her Ecuadorean friend), after reading a review in the window quoting ´Ju Xing knows all about the body´s capacity for pain´. 30 finger-cracking, back-hitting and shoulder-rubbing minutes later, we were walking down the street, eating vegetable dumplings and wondering whether Xu Jing would be able to understand the comments we left in her guest book.
The following day, it was time to depart Baños (after another fried breakfast, which we cooked ourselves). A few hours later, we were in Riobamba, staying in an old converted spanish colonial building for $4 a night. Our plan was to ride on the roof of a train along the ´Devil's Nose Railway´. Unfortunately, this was not possible, so instead we decided to do the offered alternative. Unfortunately again, we would have to get up at 5 am to purchase ticket. Oh well, we thought, I´m sure it will be worth it...
To pass the time in the afternoon, we got some chocolate cake (and, admittedly, a glass of milk) and bought some supplies to make sandwhiches with (in preparation for the upcoming train ride). In the evening, we went for a meal in one of Ecuador's many chicken and rice restaurants, where we ate while one of the waitresses kept on pointing her phone at Franklin (due to his blond hair). When we stood up to leave, she simultaneously ducked to hide under the counter. Most peculiar.
Early next morning, after eating our processed-cheese, processed-ham and couldn't-even-be-called-processed-chicken sandwiches, we boarded the alternative devil's-nose-railway train, which we assumed would be a fast, action packed adventure passing through the heart of the andean mountains. We couldn´t have been further from the truth. The train bumbled along at about 15 mph, passed through suburbs, visited a church and a muddy pond, bumbled along some more, passed through another little town, and ended. On the way we also passed a cement factory. According to our guide, it employs a lot of people and makes a lot of cement. Who would have thought. Admittedly there may have been more, but we all fell asleep. After this we had a 4 hour bus ride to Cuenca, during which we were forced to endure a medley of Rob Schneider films. In Cuenca, we found a nice hostel, relaxed and ate a massive pizza. In fact it was so massive that it didn´t fit on our table so our waiter took it to one side and guarded it for us while we ate. Then we visited a museum (where we saw real shrunken heads) and an aviary, ate lunch and visited an internet cafe, where I started to write this blog post. And that should get you just about up to date with our adventure so far.

The Curse of the Coffee Sugar

Today we are in the small spa town of Baños and as I write this Max and Alex are getting a massage whilst eating chinese food, after the previous few days of trekking the Quilotoa circuit.


Let me take you back a few days, we wrote our previous post from the small market town of Latacunga, in our intense explorations of the town we discovered an interesting substance which was not dissimilar to Kendal mint cake, although instead of mint it´s coffee flavour, this was ultimatly to prove to be Alex´s demise, but more on that later. We set out from Latacunga onto the village of Zumbahua, where by coincidence there was a festival at the time of our arrival. After observing the celbrations, meeting the friendly local who offered us a lift in Quito from Latacunga to Quilotoa, and consuming a good sized portion of chickens foot soup, we began our walk to Quilotoa village a few hours away. After an hour or so we saw a sign saying ´Quilotoa 7km´ with this we felt like we were indeed getting closer to our destination, so we were severely dismayed when an hour later we asked a local man how far it was and he replyed ´seite kilometre´ exactly the same distance as an hour before. Fortunatly the next woman we asked told us it was only 1km a much more accurate estimate, it must be said that the Ecuadorians seem to lack in accurate estimations of either time or distance.So finally we arrived at quilotoa village and find an comfortable hostal (albeit with some disturbing features) where we rest and await dinner. After our hearty meal, the hostal staff light the wood burning stove, it was then a matter of minutes before we noticed the sickly smell, and the noxious fumes coming from the heating apparatus. As it turns out amongst the rocks resting on the burner had been a lump of the dreaded coffee sugar, looking extremely similar to a rock, it had melted giving off toxic fumes, making even breathing hard in the upstairs of our cabin...which just so happened to be my area. Eventually the air cleared and we managed to get to sleep, despite the heavy odour of coffee in the air.

The next day we had decided to walk around the entire rim of Quilotoa, and set out early after breakfast. Earlier that morning Alex had come to the horrible realisation that he had lost his wallet containing all his cards (although fortunatly only $30 in cash) in Quilotoa village we had no way of contacting the banks to cancel the cards, so we decided the best thing to do was wait until a more convienient time. As we walked to the rim a sign forbodingly warned ´must trek in groups of 4 or more´ a warning we decided to ignore. Suddenly we could see the fantastic vista of the Lago Verde in the basin of the volcano.

We continued to trek around the ridge, scrambling down craggy rockfaces, passing only the odd group of indiginous people with their flock of sheep. It was over half way round when we realised that we had bought too little water and that we would be wise to ration it. We passed several shepherd women, and then we saw one on her mobile phone, and Alex decided to take advantage of the tempermental signal.

Eventually after all the spectacular scenery we had made it back to the village, It was here that we bought a cheap lunch (as we were now running fairly short of cash without a cash machine in sight) and had a reasonable snooze. The next day we began to hike to Chugchilan (bringing far more water with us) Max assured us that todays hike would be far easier than that of the previous day due to it being entirely on a road. This considering the initial bit didn´t seem that easy with us getting confused in a maze of paths on the side of the volcano and eventually having to pay an indiginous woman (Maria) to take us to some woods where we could follow a road of sorts. She offered persistantly to take us to our final destination for only $10 but unfortunatly we had only $3 in change which would get us as far as the woods. Nethertheless this was indeed a worthy investment, and between shouting up the mountain to her friends in a mix of Quichua and Spanish about her sale, and emptying out her plimsole of sand and mud, we made excellent time through the maze of fields and ravines.

From here she estimated that we would arrive in Chugchilan by 1.30pm only 2 hours from then. So we set out in high spirit along the road. Several hours later the road ended abrubptly at a ravine with a plank for a bridge, and a bulldozer with an audiance merely sitting there the next step being unclear. It was obvious that we were not going to reach the destination by 1.30 as it was now 2.00 and despite being able to see it it was across a massive ravine, as we descended passing heavily laden donkeys treking up the ancient pathway we passed several traditional water holes, and after an hour or so we were down, only having the imminent ascent to look forward to. Eventually we made it to Chugchilan and our hostal, where we met some Canadians who were planning a similar move for the next day via the bus to the deserted town of sigchos from which we could get a bus back to Lactacunga. It was here that the curse of the coffee sugar struck again. In one swift move it removed alex´s tooth from his mouth (although a false tooth) which meant we were going to have to visit a dentist. Eventually we arrived in Latacunga and set out in search of a cash machine. The first one we came across failed to work, and the situation was getting desperate with sixty cents between us. A 20 minute walk later and the second one failed to work with Max´s card. Fortunatly it did work with mine, and we were back in business on the bus to Baños via Ambata, we arrived at our current location, where we remain until this day.


For those interested Alex´s tooth was fixed for a very affordable rate, he is now considering getting all his dental work done in Ecuador. AND we have also managed to upload lots more pictures including the Amazon, onto our Flickr Account, which can be accessed via the tab at the side of this blog.

Amazon, Baths, and Finnish People

Our journey to the Amazon begins at 9pm in a British pub in Quito, where we had a few pre-7 hour journey drinks and played darts. We then tried (albeit unware and unsuccessfully) to leave without paying, as unlike all other pubs in britian, we were meant to pay at the end of the night instead of after every round of drinks. A large tip later we were on hour way, on our first night bus, a journey which was, in one word, scary. After a further 4 hours travel (2 in a minivam and 2 in a motorised canoe) we arrived at a lodge for a spot of lunch. stayng with us was a half German, half ecuadorian couple (who were not siamese twins) and 4 american guys (3 of whom were working in the peace corps). Then we went on our first trip into the amazon actual, floating downstream looking for monkey and birds. Afterwards it was a case of relaxing in hammocks and sampling the local ecuadorian cervezas. The next day started early (for 1 of us) as Franklin went looking for river dolphins, without much success. Then we paddled our canoes into the jungle proper, where we saw massive spiders, ants nests and gerenal insectary. The afternoon saw us go piranha fishing, monkey spotting (where we saw the more intimate part of the monkey lifecycle) and swiming in the river (away from the piranhas, electric eels, caiman, anacondas and those evilest of creatures the, you know, the willy catfish thingy). In the evening we went caiman spotting, seeing icle baby caiman but unfortunatly (or fortunatly) no mama caiman. On our third day we visited an indigenous village, where we ate some local food before playing football against them and swimming in the river. In the Evening we visited the jungle for a second time, taking pictures of all the nightlife, which is basically more insects, but much bigger. During the next day we did some more canoeing through the jungle, where we saw more monkey and even some river dolphins.

Early start next day then the epic journey back - canoe, minibus, five hours in the bus to Papallacta. Paid three dollars to ride the seven metres into the centre of town and found our hostel sin problemas. The next hours were spent washing ALL of our clothes which smelt of sweat, mud, Amazon and general decay. For the rest of the evening we watched a surreal blend of TV westerns and Japanese animé.
Papallacta is known for its thermal baths and we spent most of the following day bathing and relaxing and getting burnt. Ideal. That evening we met Tony: 'Hey guys! Do you have informations for me! I am from Finland, we make Nokia, HAHAHA! Oh, you go to dinner, then I come too!' And he did. He turned out to be an engineer and mildly racist. But all-round, a nice guy.

By Alex and Max

"Don´t Get Lost No-one Will Come For You"

Hello, long time no see... We´ve done a lot since the last blog, and have largely been out of contact from the rest of the world. Way back on Monday, we left Quito for Mitadad del mundo - the "centre of the world" or the ecuator to the rest of us. It was here after a one and a half hour bus ride that we visited the exciting monument.

After a brief visit to the top we went for lunch. There was a variety of food oppurtunities at the ecuator, and in the bizzarely deserted tourist attraction we went for a cheap coke and fast food option. Shortly after this we said goodbye to Mckenna the second American girl who was about to meet someone to visit the Cloud Forest (albeit 2 hours late). Then we were once more on our own. After a short taxi ride up to Puluahua (at least we assumed it would take us near to our hostel where we would be camping.) we began to walk down the road, abruptly the road stopped and all that lay before us was a winding gravel trail leading 1000´s of feet down into the bottom of the volcanic crator, there between the clouds we could just about make out the roof a building we assumed to be our hostel. 

As we headed down the small and steep trail several times we were overtaken by locals on donkeys, or worse by ancient old men using machete´s as walking sticks. Eventually we were at the bottom, and had found our hostel, where we met Avery the Canadian bird watcher (apparently no pun intended) who had come to the crater to see a type of bird which could only be found here. We spent the rest of the day relaxing out of the hustle and bustle of city, before our dinner, where we met Peter the swiss expat/rancher with a suprisingly strong handshake, and Bill the farmer from America who had looked everywhere for cheap farmland but didn´t want to go to missouri, so Ecuador was the obvious choice. It was at this meal that such gems as "Quechua is not a language its a sickness" came out of the largely silent Peter. We also met Chris the Norwegian fitness trainer. At the end of the meal the Hostel owner Ronalto arrived and advised us on hiking the next day, "don´t get lost no-one will come for you." a piece of advice we strictly followed. The next morning we rose early and bought a packed lunch from the Hostel, and set out in search of the hot springs. following ever smaller pre-incan tracks, we passed a heavily laden donkey and farmer, the only person which we saw for the entire day, As we traversed craggy trails, we eventually reached what can only be considered a semi-stagnant pool bubbling sulpherous gasses at the bottom of a muddy scramble. It was here that Alex was brave enough to take a dip. before we returned back to the hostal around the other side of the mountain.
At this meal both Avery and Chris had already left by horse and we were eating with Ronalto and Bill. Here Ronalto told us how his neighbour had been particularly bothersome and he had threatened to shoot her. (apparently she didn´t beleive him) He then told us he very nearly went through with this when he caught her dog bothereing his puppys and shot at it with his BB gun, he said that he also shot her rooster and that it subsequently died, but that his troubles seem to have been solved. After the meal we went back to our tent.
   The next morning we woke and left soon after breakfast taking considerabley longer to exit the crater than had taken us to enter it. Yet due to the time of day we were able to see the spectacular view with a clear sky. Once out we went to an Incan sun temple on the volcano edge from which we rang Daniel our couchsurfing acquaintance, and agreed to meet him at 5 in the Park in San Antonio de Ibarra. Many bus rides later, and after a brief look around San Antonio at its famous wood carving workshops we met Daniel and his brother. Ten minutes later we were in his house, being given a gracious welcome into his family. We saw his garden which was full of exotic fruits and plants, and then we went to visit his Guinea Pigs for eating on "special occassions" Back inside Max and Alex attempted some of the equations set by Daniels brother a maths teacher (although without too much success), and discussed the tense history between Ecuador and Peru. After dinner and a bad Swarznegger film we went to bed. The next morning we went for a tour of the town and surrounding countryside with Daniel, and discussed how the indigenous strike may effect our travel plans. Later we went to the town of Ibarra via bus, where we tried some local icecream, and got rather wet. Then we traveled to the statue overlooking the town, before heading down to a lake and then on to Otavalo. Due to hte dreadful weather during the evening in Otavalo, we only venturede out of our hostel for some dodgy looking kebabs with 3 kinds of meat and a potato on, washed down with a large bottle of coke. Back at the Hostal we enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum before going to sleep.

Pizza & Panecillo

For the last 2 days we have been doing genuinely useful stuff, like sorting out phones, bank accounts and cameras. Well we tried but things happen at a slightly slower pace in Ecuador. Except for the traffic, as we discovered whilst crossing the majority of Quito to find a bus station. This short task, plus getting stuck in a university and eating street kebabs, took up most of our day. During the night there was some heavy rain, followed by some torrential rain, followed by a storm. After volunteering to get pizza, Franklin and me had to cross the river that had formed infront of us (this was infact the road and was due to the horrendous rain). A river so deep Franklin took off his boots to keep them dry. I didn´t and my boots are still wet.
Today we went up to the Virgin de Quito, where we climbed to the top of the statue and had a very relaxing time. Then after a meal of fried fish, head and all (which I ate), we went to a park where we also did very little. Who said this travelling stuff was hard?
By the way, the first post on this blog was written by Matt, the Second by Max and the third by Alex. Please enclose any complaints about sombrero wearing Mexicans to Max

Easter in Quito

Our journey begins in a travel lodge next to Heathrow aiport, when the sound of the most annoying alarm ever wakes us up at 5 am. The same alarm. From 3 separate phones. At the loudest voulme. We get up and gingerly make our way to heathrow airport, where we bord the flight without too much hastle (altough one of us did get spot searched on the way to America). After 10 hours and 2 meals we got to Miami, boarded another flight (and got another meal) and arrived in Quito at 9pm local time (3 am for us). A taxi got us to the hostel, where we unpacked and relaxed. Until the same alarm that had woke us up in the morning sounded again. It had been a long 24 hours.
Exhausted as we were, we would have had a sucessful night´s sleep had it not been for the Australian girl who was sharing our dorm, who traipsed in at three in the morning after a nearby Guns ´n Roses concert and loudly announced that there was an enormous rat crawling on the ceiling. Which there wasn´t. Having convinced her that there is no such thing as a giant spider rat we eventually went back to sleep and got the rest we needed.
The nextday was a general explorey getting the hang of things day. The Good Friday celebrations were the main highlight, lots of guys dressed in purple KKK style hoods carrying enormous wooden crosses with barbed wire wrapped around their chest whipping each other with stinging nettles. This went on for AGES, so tens of thousands of religious people later we got a smoothie then moseyed on back to the hostel, with a SLIGHT detour (or series of detours) given that we didn´t know the exact address of our hostel.
In the evening we met two American lasses who came to share our dorm and we went out for a night on the town, teaching them how to say tomatoes and vitamens properly. Other highlights were Ecuadorean cuisine, various beers and interesting cocktails, and a man dressed in a sombrero and a fake moustache who tried SIMULTANEOUSLY to sell us crack, pot, Mexican food and prostitutes. Tempted as we were to do an Angus Deayton, we politely declined and moved on. (Although there are still a few nights left in Quito...)

A trip to the slanty tree.

Hola, It was an admittedly grey thursday evening when I arrived at Alex's house the site for our field test of  the 2.8 Kilos which are to offer us shelter from the elements for many of the nights of our three and half months travelling the Andes. Quickly we decided on an appropriate location for the tent in the marshy hinterland of the Thorverton Brook and in the fading light we pitched up, followed by a hasty withdrawl into the warmth of Alex's kitchen to meet Max and eat the South American delicacy of Pizza for which we thank Karen. We toasted to our trip, and embarked into the darkness for a hot chocolate and a cup of tea on our expedition stove. Once inside the two man tent whic which I had decided was secretly a three man tent (and  indeed it is) greeted Alex's Dad, on his evening walk, and slept throughout the night, only being woken to hear of Max's dream of shark attack.

The Friday brought sunny and gusty weather, and we quickly made the most of it. Early on we set out for Alex's fabled "slanty tree" crossing several fields we encountered many funky looking sheep both living and... not. We wandered for several hours eventually reaching the small nothingness of Cadbury stopping only briefly with the assumption that there must be something better than the reindeer farm. Once back at Alex's house we stayed only briefly before embarking for a hearty meal at the Thorverton Arms, over which we discussed the value of the max's car - with max protesting at my low estimates. It was on the journey back that my point was proved, with some sort of mechanical failure occurring making the car undrivable. A short while later he left with his car on the back of a tow truck. This concludes our extensive field test, in which we can see that our equipment is more than prepared for the -8°C temperatures of the Bolivian Altiplano. Next stop Ecuador.