At the crack of dawn, we left Quito and took a 6 hour bus ride to Misahualli. We met up with our jungle guide, Sergio, and had a hearty meal of beef stew with potatos and salad in preparation for our first trek into the Amazon. I got fitted with some shiney yellow gum boots which did not adequately provide the traction needed to prevent my epic slip (which will be detailed later. We followed Bear Grills(Sergio) into the flourishing Amazon highlands. We spotted...

This morning we took a walk to the town´s weekly animal market. A 5 minute visit was enough to scare me vegetarian. The squeeling pigs, the meowing cats, the frantic looking guinea pigs, ducks, chickens, lambs, alpacas, cows & horses were tightly round up in an emotionally disconnected trading scene. The only emotions on display were those of the animals who seemed to some how sense they would be ending up on a plate. Dawn, Georgia and I were quick to gtfo. ...

Buenos Dias. Today we headed to Otavalo by bus and checked into Hotel El Indio. After a short stroll in the local market, we met up with Washington, our local tour guide. He took us around the outskirts of Otavalo by jeep to Cascada De Peguche. We visited the indigenous community that lives around the beautiful falls, explored the ancient tomb sites and the temple of the sun(which is still in use for special ceremonies and festivities). Afterwards, we had a sc...

It´s time to bust out some Sash! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPsMR7HvuZM Shirley has arrived in Ecuador. Today I met up with my Tucan Travel group at the Cayman Hotel. Apparently we start off in Ecuador as a small group and then pick up more people along the way in Peru. There are 6 of us now- Me, Georgia, Dawn, Christine, Henry and our tour leader Fabio (the antithesis of this guy --> http://www.promotionalitemsbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/I-Cant-...