In Mancora we very nearly missed the bus! Very very nearly missed the bus! It was driving off as we rounded the corner and someone had to whistle it to stop! In our defence we were still 5 minutes early!
So very very luckily we got on the bus!
The bus was lovely as usual and we made it to the border of Ecuador in decent time! The border immigration was together, so we didn't have that awkward part of trying to find the other side. It did take forever though!
After this we had a three hour wait on the Ecuadorian side for customs but they didn't even search anything so it was pretty pointless and made us hours late. When we finally set off they put the new hunger games on the TV and it was really really good!
We arrived in Guayaquil late, really late so we just headed straight to the hostel and straight to bed. We were told there was nothing to do their anyway so it didn't really matter that we didn't get to see anything of the city.
The next day we headed to the bus station again to get a his to banos, a small village next to a volcano that's still active. We arrived there in good time and looked at all the things to do there. There was loads and so cheap! We enquired about paragliding and zip lining but the paragliding was not on at the time we were there!
We went out for dinner and on the way back a tour seller said we could go get a night view of the town and the volcano for only $3 each. We decided to go for it.
The bus we got in was like a night club on wheels, with giant speakers, strobe lights and even a pole in the back. It was so weird to go on a tour to see a volcano with babies and things in the bus when it was blasting out music the whole time! We felt like proper gringos.
Once up there it was so misty and cloudy we could barely see anything! We definitely couldn't see the volcano. Up there, there was also performers, one was a fire guy and another was a comedian but it was all in Spanish and we couldn't understand a word! At least it was only $3!
The next day we did the zip lining, you rang up when you wanted to go so it was just us doing it without anybody else. There were 6 zip lines and when we arrived there was a photographer doing publicity shots for the business and said if he could photograph us we could get the photos for free! We obviously agreed but I think after the first he regretted it. We were not good zip line models! He had to keep giving us pointers like 'make sure you smile', ' you look scared'.
Each zip line we did a different position, the first was regular, the second was upside down and I hated it! It was horrible!
The next was together, and then the fourth we did different, Dan did another upside down but with his legs fully spread out, it was called the butterfly. I did the Superman and it was really good! Our next two we just did normal again. The scenery was amazing as it was all mountainous and we were zipping past waterfalls! Very pretty and only cost us $20 each for all 6!
After we were absolutely starving and got some chicken chips and rice as usual then took a walk around the town. The church in the main square was interesting as the locals claim a lot of miracles have happened in the town so instead of the church having biblical pictures on the wall it has paintings of the miracles. So even though the paintings are painted traditionally they also have cars and things in!
Banos was a lovely little town but the next day we took a bus to Quito. The buses here are really scary everyone drives way to fast along mountain roads, it actually makes me travel sick!
In Quito our room was double booked so the sweet old lady offered to pay for a hotel room for the night. It was so lucky because her guesthouse was way out of town and this was right in the centre! The room was a beautiful 4 star hotel, so all our Quito plans got scratched and we just enjoyed the hotel room!
The next day the only thing we had to do was look for a jungle tour that left the next day the first one we went to offered $275 for a private room but the next place we went to offered $220 each for a double room and it also included the night bus to the town which we felt was a good deal!
We booked that and again enjoyed the hotel room watching friends and big bang theory all day.
The night bus didn't set off till 11pm so we checked out at the latest time we could and headed to the 'mitad del mundo' the middle of the world/the equator!! Which was just outside Quito
We went to the fake one first as in what they thought was the line before GPS, they were only 200 meters out so not bad! It was raining and drizzly but the monument was massive and it was quite nice.
After we headed around the corner to the actual equator line and at this place they talked a lot about things different on the different sides and about the water going round different ways like in Africa. It was quite interesting, we also balanced a raw egg on a nail and got a certificate because we were egg masters. At the end of the tour she got out a real life shrunken head and it was disgusting! It even still had eyelashes and eyebrows but you weren't allowed to take photos of it.
We took a cab back to the historical part of Quito and took some photos but it started raining and they all are merging in South America by now so we didn't last long! We spotted a pizza hut round the corner from the hotel and treated ourselves. It was 2 for 1 Tuesdays so we ended up getting two large pizzas and putting it in a box to take away!