Our visit to Rio B was to ride on the roof of a train. Friday morning and were watching Ecuador drift by, lying on the roof of a train, running along tracks that were built in 1903 and looked like they hadn´t been repaired since 1903. When the train de-railed no-on was surprised, the train guards knew the routine and began to dig out the rotten sleeper so the track would drop lower. They chucked rocks and leaves under the wheel, revved the engine and 10 minu...

Banos, a chill out town with good food, outdoor activity´s and hot baths, just what us road monkeys need. We spent our time productively. Watching the volcano Tungurahua, hoping glowing lava would cascade down the slopes as the air fills with smoke and ash. The highlight of our watch was a constant puffing of white smoke from the crater and a dusting of ash in the town one evening. We dipped in and out of the local hot baths, one pool measured 48degC, scold...

Out of the remote amazon jungle and back to towns and cities we needed a new place to explore; we picked up the lonely planet and quickly thumbed the pages, as the pages flicked by Kat said stop and we opened the book to discover our next destination. It was the Quilotoa loop. An 8 hour circular road set in the backwater highlands of Ecuador. It is one of the most remote places in Ecuador, which after the jungle, and hey we're used to remote places now, it felt r...

Monday morning started and while the majority of the world was off to sit in an office and play on the internet we were off to play in the amazon river. We paddled off in a canoe exploring another dark recess of the jungle. Don showed us more types of plants and trees that are used by local people as medicine. The saber tree has roots as wide as people. The bamba tree has a hollow trunk and when you hit it the wood resonates into a lovely deep bass sound. It was ...

Sunday morning was a 5:30am start. Just before sunrise we were off to a canopy tower to do some bird watching. The tower went up higher than the trees so we had a great view of the jungle. However that's how it stayed, it started to rain and not a single bird was out flying around. After breakfast we took a sunny walk to a fruit field. Giant lemons hung from trees and pineapples grew up from the ground. One tree held strawberry shaped fruits and inside they cont...