My second placement was at Guandera, another reserve, this time near the Columbian border at 3200m, pretty high! We arrived and immediately had to walk about half an hour up a hill, then down a really steep hill and then cross a river a few times- all wearing huge backpacks- fun! The reserve was pretty isolated, the nearest small village was about an hour and a half walk away and the nearest town another hour from there. The work was really different to La Hes...

My second placement was at Guandera, another reserve, this time near the Columbian border at 3200m, pretty high! We arrived and immediately had to walk about half an hour up a hill, then down a really steep hill and then cross a river a few times- all wearing huge backpacks- fun! The reserve was pretty isolated, the nearest small village was about an hour and a half walk away and the nearest town another hour from there. The work was really different to La Hes...

OK, so we only went for the afternoon (after queuing for nearly 2 hours to get all the necessary stamps!) but I had to put this on here just to say I'd been! We went to Ipiales, the border town, had lunch and ice cream and went shopping (typical girls!) but didn't see any scary drug running or tourist kidnapping- probably a good thing! The next day we went back to Columbia again, in a way- visited volcanic hot springs which straddle the border between Columbia...

One of my must do things while I was in Ecuador was to attempt to climb a volcano, so after three weeks at altitude in Guandera I figured it was ideal timing. A group of 7 of us set off on Sunday afternoon, and arrived at the Cotapaxi national park around 3pm. It was the most amazing clear day and the views of the volcano were spectacular, snow capped and pretty high. We drove up to the car parking area and walked up a really steep slope to the refuge, which was ...

I've just finished three weeks volunteering in La Hesperia, a biological reserve in the Western slopes of the Andes. We arrived mid afternoon and immediately had a 1 1/2km hike up a very steep hill- hard work after a week lazing around in Quito! The first afternoon we were introduced to Juan Pablo and Alexandra who run the reserve- they are great people, so friendly and helpful, full of information about the forest and local culture. The work has been hard at ...