It was a 22 hour journey from Cusco to Lima but we went with a really good company, Cruz del Sur, so it wasn´t too bad. The area of Lima we were staying in was away from the central downtown and was kind of equivalent to the Sloane Square/Kings Road area of London. There were lots of bars and restaurants, a big park area with a church and two nice big department stores. The problem with our stay in Lima was the hostels. Without a doubt the first hostel we stayed in was our worst night while travelling in South America. The hostel itself wasn´t too bad, it was the people who were staying there. There was a large group who insisted on making so much noise it was ridiculous. When I asked them at around midnight if they could be bit quieter one of them responded that if we didn´t like it we should move. They then played music in the dorm throughout the night. It was terrible. We changed hostels first thing the following morning. There was no way either of us could bare another night of that! The second hostel wasn´t much better. We had our own room, however it was right next to the bar so there was noise late on into the night. We didn´t do that much during our time in Lima. We went to a big shopping mall on the outskirts of town to get some more clothes and wandered around our nice part of town. We were glad that we were only in Lima for two nights. It was more than enough. We were ready for the beach.

We headed 7 hours north up the coast of Peru to a small town called Huanchaca. There is very little there apart from a long beach, a few market stalls, some small cafes and restaurants. It was exactly what we wanted after our efforts on the Inca trail and our experience in Lima. We stayed at a very nice small Swiss hostel (random I know!) We spent 2 and a half very nice days which entailed waking up, having breakfast, wandering to the beach, relaxing, having lunch, relaxing, eating and sleeping. There were very few people around in Huanchaca. The beach was practically deserted. I was a bit disappointed though as I couldn´t find anywhere that sold buckets and spades and I was desperate to build a sandcastle! All the shops seemed to sell exactly the same thing - model boats, hair braids and souvenier clothes. It was very strange. On our last full day I craved an empanada for lunch (an empanada is basically a small pasty filled with meat.) This was a mistake and it was the last empanada that I will ever eat. It made me incredibly ill for the rest of the afternoon, evening and following couple of days. It was particularly bad timing since we had two flights and a bus trip the following day to reach our next destination, Manta in Ecuador. Charlene was my rock and had to do everything on the journey. I could barely walk, let alone carry my heavy bags. We took the two flights, which were thankfully very short, and arrived at Guayaquil in south Ecuador. We had heard bad things about the city and weren´t planning to stay there, however there was no way I could have managed a 3 1/2 hour bus journey, so we decided to stay so I could recover.

Guayaquil has a bad reputation. There are big no-go areas in the centre of the city and there is nothing there for tourists to do. Our plan was to stay in the hostel, recover, then move on. We had a list of possible hostels to stay at, nothing booked though, however the first hostel on our list had a room available and was incredibly nice. The owners were so helpful and welcoming. It was so nice that we decided to book for 2 nights so I could fully recover and maybe to explore a little of the city. The following day I was feeling a lot better so we asked the hostel owner where we should go. She told us to visit a park nearby and then head for the river front where it is safe. We went to the park and at first just thought it looked like any normal city centre park. It was a fenced city block of grass, ponds and paths. We took a few pictures of the statue in the middle and saw some people taking a picture of something. They were posing with a huge iguana on the path. "Random" we thought and took some photos of the creature. It was only then that we looked around and saw there were about a hundred iguanas all over the park. I don´t know how we didn´t see them! I couldn´t stop laughing about it. The iguanas were all minding their own business while people posed with them for photos and birds walked over them. There were also lots of turtle in the ponds. It was an amazing place. From there we walked to the very fancy river front. It had all been regenerated about 10 years ago and looked really nice. There were restaurants, a shopping centre, an entertainment venue, a tropical gardens, an IMAX cinema and a museum. There were police every hundred meters so it felt really safe. We spent the majority of the rest of the day wandering along the riverfront and by the end of the day I was feeling almost back to normal. Guayaquil was such a pleasant suprise.

From Guayaquil we took the bus three and a half hours up the coast to Manta. This again was a beach resort, but a lot more developed than Huanchaca. We arrived quite late on in the day, so once we were checked into the hostel we headed straight to the beach to see what it was like. It was beautiful, just like a postcard! Palm trees, clear sand, nice water, shells for Shil to collect and an amazing sunset. That night we ate at one of the many restaurants on the beach. Shil´s meal was hilarious - it was so big! It was a plate full of rice, with chunks of meat in it, topped with every kind of seafood imaginable. It was a shame we didn´t have our cameras with us. It could have fed 4 people easily! We had 3 full days to enjoy the beach. The weather was very hot, however there were lots of shelters on the beach, so you could easily get in the shade. The only problem with Manta was the wind. In the morning it was a nice, cool breeze but everyday at 1 o´clock it got very windy. The sand on the beach was incredibly fine, so the wind created a sandstorm and we got covered in sand very quickly. It was okay, but you just had to make the most of the mornings and late afternoons.

We got the bus from Manta back to Guayaquil and then flew from there to our final destination in South America, Quito. We arrived late in the day again so we got a taxi straight to our hostel and didn´t leave. Quito isn´t a safe city after dark so we ate at the hostel restaurant. The next day we went on a trip to visit the equator. I didn´t know what to expect from the equator - a monument, a line on the ground, a theme park. No idea! We were first of all taken to the equator museum. This was probably one of the best museums I´ve ever visited. It was small but so interesting and our guide was brilliant. First he told us about the native Amazon people, how they live and what they do. It was very sad to hear that big oil companies moved into parts of their homeland and not only destroyed bits, but polluted it badly - so much so that lots of the natives developed cancer and other diseases as a result. He also told us about the practice of shrinking heads, showing us diagrams of the gruesome process, and then actually showing us some real shrunken heads. It was very strange and a bit creepy. He then told us all about the equator line and showed us various devices to show how you know it´s the equator. We then got shown the classic experiment where you see water going down the plug hole clockwise, then anticlockwise, then straight down on the actual equator. We were then told about how the forces of the Earth´s rotation are cancelled out on the equator. This was demonstrated by us being able to balance a raw egg on a nail. He then told us to push our finger and thumb together. He tried to separate them but struggled. We repeated this on the equator line and he separated them easily. It was weird! We then had to walk along the line with our eyes closed (a bit like the drunk test), and that was near impossible. I never knew the equator was so special. After the tour we were taken to a big monument near the equator which was put there by scientists to show the importance of the place. Apparently when initially studying the equator, Ecuador was the only safe place in the world to do experiments. All other places were/are jungle or dangerous. As part of the tour we were taken to a nearby crater that was caused by a volcano imploding. There is a community living in the crater, however the volcano is still active. Dangerous! To finish our tour we were taken for a naturally made ice-cream (which was delicious!) It was made using ice from the volcano.

This brings us up to date. Tomorrow we fly back to the UK. It feels strange that the first part of our tour is over. We´ve done so much but it feels like it´s all gone very quickly. It´s been amazing so far. I´m so glad we decided to do this year of travelling. I can´t wait for the next part (although I think it´s going to be a little bit more challenging!)

D