Arrived in Huaraz at 5am and took a taxi to our pre-booked hostel Alpes (although we were a day late). Preparing ourselves for a midday check-in, we were really excited to be taken straight into a dorm. It had 3 bunks and was pitch black... and when we turned on our headlamps to determine which beds didn´t have a person sleeping in them, the light illuminated an entire floor of mess and a mostly empty bottle of tequila on the table! Slept until 10am, when we wok...

On our first day in Peru we found ourselves fleeced out of $50 and stuck in some random bus stop at 10pm hoping all our belongings would be kindly returned to us... The night bus across the border was easy - we were woken up at 3am for immigration, but some clever person thought that it might be more effective to have both Ecuadorian and Peruvian immigration in the same building, so it was nice and quick. After our pizza breakfast (and a nazi movie on a bus full...

At Guayaquil airport we were royally ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us $3 to leave the airport gates, turn right and immediately arrive at a buseta HQ. The busetas (shared people carriers) were recommended by Jorge and our triathlete friend at the airport as they are faster than buses and evidently the way many Ecuadorians travel to Cuenca. The terrain was absolutely dead flat for miles until all of a sudden we met an absolutely enormous mountain which w...

A 4:15am alarm in Quito to take a taxi to the new airport located miles away from anywhere. As we left many of our roomates hadn´t even made it back, but that´s to be expected in La Mariscal on a Saturday night. We were quoted an hour to get to the airport but actually it took half that, so we were all checked in and at the gate far too early to justify our curtailed sleep. Luckily it felt like we were going on holiday within a holiday. The flight took 30 minu...

We returned to the bus station in Latacunga for the fourth time and without stepping foot in it managed to get on a bus heading to Ambato. During the hour or so journey a vendor boarded the bus and provided a full sales pitch for some sort of gout prevention product. At Ambato we changed buses to Baños and this time we were treated to a pitch for intestinal worm prevention... complete with photos. It was so horrific I almost bought some. In Baños we headed to ...