We take a bus from Quito to Tulcan, a border town in the North of Ecuador, and catch a taxi to the border. I get my exit stamp and then Helena hands over her passport. Like most passport control officials he's a bit nosey and takes a look through the passport. Checking the visas from China et al and then finally checks out the Ecuadorian stamp. Something is wrong. He gesticulates at the stamp and fires off some rapid Spanish which we don't catch. We take a clos...

Happy and relieved to be out of the ash filled air of Banos our next stop is Quito the capital of Ecuador. It was a little strange to be using US dollars when not in the US but after 'dollarisation' in 1999 Ecuador had adopted the dollar replacing the sucre. They use the american notes but mint their own versions of the coins which are made from the same materials and are the same size of the US equivalents but they stamp the coins with their own national figur...

After the relatively restful and relaxing time we'd had in Peru the past week were ready for some action. We'd heard really nice things abut Banos. Hot baths, great scenery and walks. We arrive having seen the smoking volcano on our way in. We step off the bus and turn round to see a mushroom cloud rising up over the hillside. Banos is about two or three miles from the volcano but the size of mushroom gave you the impression it was a lot closer than that. The h...

The first thing about Mancora we notice is it really hot and second that there are loads of sandflies (not again). We're early for check-in so we set up camp by the pool and take in the early morning rays and let the sandflies have their first sniff. I bet they just love fresh meat. Well they weren't disappointed. There is an inter hostel game of beach volleyball and I'm roped in for a game. Turns out Jay who we met at La Senda Verde is working at the rival h...

Miraflores is one of Lima's nicer, safer and more touristy areas. It's easy to see why. Large colonial buildings, clean tree lined streets, casinos and nice up-market restaurants. Fortunately for scum bag travellers like us there are cheap hostels and eateries too. The hostel is in one of these lovely colonial buildings with super high ceilings and thin high double doorways. Also, and maybe we were thinking about sleep here, the advertised orthopaedic mattresses...