We had a really leisurely morning, almost too leisurely in fact, we just made it in time for breakfast. We had a midday checkout before walking a couple of blocks to El Cigale Hostal, the pickup point for our shuttle to Vilcabamba. The shuttle didn't depart until 1.30pm but the hostel had a cafe/bar with internet so it was easy enough to kill an hour. It was a really small van and it was packed full: as well as us there was an American guy, a Dutch girl, UK/OZ ...

We woke up to heavy rain and we could hardly see the mountains while we ate breakfast on the terrace. This wasn't a good outlook for our tour up into the mountains. We pulled out the merino thermals, rain jackets and wooly gloves just in case. A very nice and spacious van picked us up and our guide for the day, Diego, told us that there was only going to be four of us. A couple had pulled out saying it was too cold and wet even though they knew there was no ref...

Breakfast at Hotel Milan is served on their roof terrace overlooking the plaza and church next door and the mountains in the distance. It was a pretty disappointing breakfast though - powdered coffee, juice and one scrambled egg with a piece of bread. Enough to get us going but definitely not enough to see us through until dinner. Down in the plaza, a huge crowd of men surrounded a jeep. What initially looked a bit hostile, turned out to be men trying to be pic...

It was an early start again, 6 o'clock in the morning, and we were on the street looking for a taxi to take us to the bus station. Choice was pretty limited at this time of the morning so we had to take a gamble on an unofficial one. We agreed the fare upfront and were taken on a route we didn't expect, and at high speed, but luckily it was just an over enthusiastic driver wanting to deliver us to the station as quickly as possible. It was an 8 hour ride thr...

It was not the direction we intended but we needed to go back to Quito to collect the charger that was left in the room on Friday. We checked out and took our bags hoping to get some breakfast on the way to the bus station. None of the cafes were open for breakfast though, we could only get an empanada from a bakery. A hardware store was open so we managed to buy some duct tape to strap up the slashed backpack. Not stopping for breakfast, we managed to get...