So after War and Peace in Lima, not a great deal happened in Ecuador, so I will roll it all in to one.

The bus from Lima to Guayaquil was a monster 26 hours, so I booked super vip and had a dirty great chair to myself. Movies were good and the time soon passed til we hit the border.

Really quiet place in the middle of nowhere with both immigration sat next to each other.

Bang Bang I was in Ecuador.

The main bus terminal is huge, on 3 levels with a load of shops, and I was pleased to see a taxi rank with official looking taxis.

For once I did not get super fleeced, even though it was a long way down town to the hostel.

I had booked a nice looking boutique hostel but had seen some reviews about people not liking the gay staff looking at them coming out the showers.

As most people who leave reviews are mentally unstable I did not take much notice of it.

However when I checked in it was like a scene from the birdcage! More camp than a row of tents.

They were so funny and friendly though, and the main receptionist took a real shine to me. Haha.

The room was awful and I was met by a German guy that laughed nervously and scratched his face every time he talked. Totally harmless but a nutter none the less. Then surprise surprise room mate number 2 walks in...

Hi I am from the USA.....

God please take me now, I cant take many more of them, I thought to myself.

Awesome, gee, awesome he replied to everything.

I am unemployed I told him.

Wow that is totally awesome man, he replied and just carried on his sentence.........so I am doing humantarian aid in response to natural disasters after my gap year...

I pretended I needed the toilet and walked down to reception and straight in to a group of pompous people staring with pained expressions at the pictures on the wall and enjoying the smell of their own farts.

A woman asked me if I wanted to join the group which were having an explanation on what the pictures were by the artist.

You mean Old Bob Marley look alike is desperately trying to flog them as well as trying to have sex with all the females in the process?

No thanks.

The whole section down by the river was really modern and developed and had lots of shops and restaurants, I was quite surprised at how modern it was.

However go a few blocks in to town and it starts to get a bit more worrying.

They had no lockers at the hostel so I had to carry my bag with everything in it, and after a few turns down some more streets I was pretty sure I would be going home without it.

Then a big police van pulled up and loads of officers jumped out with guns and started running after someone.

Time to head back I thought.

There was not much there for me to see, so I booked a bus to Banos for the day after.

Banos sounded really nice, out in the mountains, just a few streets big and only 8 hours away.

I left early morning, but after a few hours we had to pull over for a puncture. It was all a bit keystone cops and how now one got killed in jacking the coach up and getting the tyre off I will never know.

Banos was ok, but you had seen it all in an hour, plus it was full of backpackers, so I booked a bus to Quito for the next day. I could not hang around anyway as I needed to get to Cartagena by the 19th.

Bus was only 4 hours and I arrived right in the middle of the football match with Ecuador and Argentina. Everyone was spilling out of the bars and on to the streets as I walked past with my rucksack. There were police everywhere so I was not to worried, but I was still getting flashbacks from Lima lol.

I had heard that the cable car was good, and that it was also the second highest in the world so decided to go after booking my bus ticket for the next day. Only one bus went across the border and you had to book a ticket at the main office.

The receptionist at the hostel advised a taxi but I decided to walk.

As usual I had only looked at where the street was and not where on the street to go. How hard can it be to find a bus station I thought?

What i had also not checked was the fact the street was a steep hill.

It was miles away, and after shedding a stone in the burning sun walking to the top of the hill I had given up. Luckily there was a little shop with a computer in it and after checking again I realised I should have gone down the bottom of the street as it was on the next corner.

Typical.

So eventually I got my ticket to Colombia and then got a taxi to the cable cars.

I hate cable cars. I think they are going to either fall off the wire or the wire will snap. My level of fear depends on how far away from the ground it is, and this one was pretty bad In places.

Anyhow I lived to tell the tale but it was a bit of anti climax. I was bored within a minute of getting to the top, so bought an over priced beer and then went back down.

Quick wander around the old town, and after the same old crap I was done. Time to move on.....

Next stop Colombia......