There are times in all our lives where nothing seems to go right. You hit a stream of bad luck. Challenges are thrown in your direction. In usual life there is enough routine and responsibility to distract you. When you are travelling you have the freedom to wallow and as such these streams of challenges can feel quite overwhelming.

Banos in Ecuador is by no means a difficult place to be but it was our venue for a stream of challenges. Predictable as they are, after all there has to be balance between the great and not so great, they are never pleasant.

We made the decision to change our plans and extend our South American stint to include a month in Colombia. This was a result from much persuasion and also from hearing incredible stores from people heading south from there. It will sound great if we tell our children we backpacked around Colombia.

Changing a ticket is not an easy thing even when you speak the language and the call is made on a phone. Skyping someone in customer services in Ecuador with unpredicatble wifi and without a microphone is actually as effective as a chocolate fire guard. On top of that, travel agents pushed me to flight agents whilst others decided they didn’t want to try to comprehend my clipped and badly phrased Spanish and hung up. After attempt number ridiculous I shouted from the balcony “I am about to lose it”. Simon looking a little scared suggested trying a public phone and he would take control whilst I regained a normal level of blood pressure. Simon worked his usual magic, found an English speaker who was doing all the necessary all free of charge. Just as it was getting to the crux the phone line failed! Blood pressure back up, he tried again several times to people hanging up, transferring to phone lines where no one answered. Finally with public phone number two, attempt number INSANE we got through and ticket number one was changed. Just two more to go. Simon and I were not talking by the end of the event. Primarily because I had gagged him with my hand because he was talking to me whilst I was trying to understand Spanglish. Argument ensued on the street which ended up with a silent breakfast and me getting my knickers in a twist.

Travelling also gives you too much time to think and so after our little tete a tete I went through an internal brow beating. This escalated to a full on ego attack surmounting to me feeling completely useless, having no purpose to anyone and being terrible company. When you are used to being a busy and productive person crying into muesli over a telephone call made me realize how little I was actually doing that results in anything. I grant you I am learning a lot, meeting people and using an incredible opportunity to be free but somehow in Banos it all felt like I was squandering time. On top of this though Simon and I were also hitting an all time low. He was becoming frustrated by each and every habit, mannerism and mood. I was becoming frustrated at his pace. 24-7 equates to how the person folds their socks becoming intensely irritating. Everything is magnified as there is nothing else to look at.

I took myself off for a very long walk whilst Simon off loaded on a great friend. The value of time apart never being more realized. On top of these self created woes both of us were poorly. I started to get a fever and at one point at 2 am in the morning Simon was desperately trying to keep me warm whilst I shoved more painkillers for joint ache like you wouldn’t believe. I was frightened and panicing. Simon stayed calm. My absolute hero came to my rescue and by morning we were back to being us. Somehow life finds a way to make you realize what is important. That said, it is clear we have learnt a lot about each other that we didn’t realize and to an extent it is like meeting a new person. They say you only know someone when you live with them. I would say "try travel"! There is no covering up of warts. Moods, tantrums, negativity and down times are all on show with no car journies, evenings alone on the sofa or fishing trips to deal with these ebbs and flows of what makes us us. To that end travelling is an unreal situation. What we have come to terms with is that what makes a good couple is not perfection and constant wonderfulness but an ability to find a way together with how to deal with the intense need to throttle the other.

Despite the soggy muesli and sore throats we did manage to have fun in Banos. Banos is the gateway to the amazon and so sits in a valley surrounded by green mountains bathed in clouds. It has rivers and waterfalls, hiking and adrenalin sports and a great tourist infrastructure that means you can get what you need. Rafting and biking were out as Simon still was unable to sit without tears so instead we decided to wire ourselves to a cable across a ravine and fling ourselves off like superman! Nothing like a little fear of death to put things into perspective. Simon was horrified at the single loop around him and the devise that makes you travel at warp speed along a thin little wire but once harnessed in it was a bit too late! Simon and I were pushed off simultaneously and whilst I couldn’t even get a scream out Simon chortled whilst he caught my horror on camera! We hurtled face down across a 200 foot drop only to see with increasing speed a slightly scared looking man at the other side who drew the short straw of catching the hurtling humans!

We ate a lot. The swiss cheese restaurant was trans-fats-tastic. The guacamole was worth a revisit. Pad thai, bakeries, pancakes. We ate our way through our disgruntlement. We had massages. Simon had a pedicure where they filed his toes as well as his nails. I bought earrings. Funny how old habits remerge when you’re feeling a little lost. We decided we would visit the swing over the end of the world and see the erupting volcano as a way of saving our cholesterol levels but even then the cloud was so thick it was swing into the edge of mist. We took a chiva to see the valley of waterfalls. A chiva is a south American invention which south americans love. It involves a large rectangular truck with right angle wooden seats under a wooden canopy which is painted from top to bottom with garish primary colours. There are flashing disco lights in every nook and crackling blown speakers blaring out euro-pop at a level where tinnitus is almost inevitable. The beauty and serenity of the waterfalls and jungle strewn ravines all lost within Cher and ´If I Could Turn Back Time´. Poor Simon not only had ringing ears but his coccyx was throbbing. It can only be described as an experience…the day ended with a walk down to a waterfall base. The path takes you through vines and fauna with a distinct damp smell making you feel with each flight of steps you were going deeper into the jungle. No monkeys unfortunately, to Simons disappointment. The humid crawl back up the hundreds of steps was more disappointing however and we headed back to town with our flashing bus, both being sweaty and puce and violated by the warblings of Blue.

Leaving Banos was going to be a relief as it meant we could leave all of the angst behind us and start afresh as we headed for pastures new in Colombia. Banos had the last laugh. The bus left at 4.30am.