Hi again,

Well, from where we last left off we have over the past couple of weeks almost completed our whirlwind visit to a new country, Ecuador! After our last night in Lima, Peru (a ghastly, bleak city not worth mentioning really except for the ridiculous American ex-pat presence there - clustered on one strip in the capital we saw KFC, Starbucks, Chilli's, McDonalds, Dominos, Pizza Hut and Gloria Jeans, just to name a few - very bizarre!) we jumped on yet another long-haul bus ride to a city called Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest and closest major city to the Peruvian border. Here, and even on the ride out of Peru we noticed a lot of changes. Things generally turned a little warmer as we headed towards the equator, as we descended from the heights of Peru green mountain slopes turned to lush pampas and jungle, potatoes and maize fields gave way to plantain and banana plantations. On arriving in Guayaquil, everything in its own way seemed indescribably different from everywhere we had been before - you could put it down to being in the tropics, I guess! We didn't do a lot in Guayaquil, which despite being Ecuador's largest city, didn't seem to have a lot to offer tourists. We had recently learnt that our couch surfing host and friend from New York, Maria was in town here which was very exciting news. Unfortunately, we managed to miss each other by just a couple of days - she had traveled down into Peru while we had left the country! We passed the couple of days we had there exploring the newly developed riverfront, an amazing plaza filled with biiiig iguanas, turtles, squirrels and birds all living together in harmony, and getting stuck into some ceviche (a dish of raw fish/seafood which is cooked in the acids of lime/lemon juices… Hayley is addicted!) for dinner.

We soon moved on from the big city to somewhere a little more remote. The small town of Banos (literal translation - Baths), in contrast to Guayaquil, is very well set up for tourism. Set amongst the lush Ecuadorian Andes, and situated only 4 hours from the country's capital, there is plenty to do here - hiking, rafting, biking, rappelling down waterfalls - you name it! Also plentiful are hot springs (from where the town gets its name) which we indulged in yet again, just to make you all jealous! We are happy to report that these springs were much more pleasant than our last experience in Aguas Calientes! The town is also famous for it's melocha, s type of taffy which you can see being made and stretched out in stored all over town. While in town, we also went on a little hike to a mirador which looks out over the town. Other than that, we spent our time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful setting.

After Banos, we made our way towards Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. On driving into town from the bus terminal, the setting of Quito reminded us a lot of La Paz, except on a smaller scale. Ringed with volcanoes and set into a valley from which the suburbs reach up and sprawl onto the surrounding verdant hillside, Quito is a city with a lot of history. It was originally the site of an important Incan town, but was destroyed before the Spanish arrivals. Quito was built on top of the ruined city in the middle of the 16th century, and as a result is home to a plethora of beautiful colonial buildings. The bulk of this architecture can be found in the historical centre, or what is commonly referred to as 'Old Town'. In contrast to 'Old Town", there is of course a 'New Town' part of the city (also referred to as 'Gringolandia') which is packed to the brim with tourists during the day, but has a reputation for being somewhat dangerous to wander through at night. In choosing our hostel, we decided to compromise and stay smack bang in the middle.

On our first day in Quito, we spent the bulk of our time wandering through the 'Old Town' areas cobbled winding streets and open plazas, admiring the history of the place, mostly just taking it easy with no real plans. The next day however, we had resolved to navigate the city's public transport system, and bus about an hour and a half out of the centre to visit what is arguably the city's most famous landmark - 'La Mitad del Mundo' or 'The Middle of the World'. Geographically significant as the point marked where the Equator cuts across the country. Set up as an extremely touristy theme park (referred to as a 'city') it has many food shops and artisan stalls, as well as a museum, planetarium, but most importantly, it has a line! That's right, with a massive structure with a sculpture of the globe affixed atop, there are cardinal lines marking out the point of zero degrees latitude, upon which we posed for many a silly photo. (Actually to let you all in on a tiny inaccuracy, the real equator actually lies about 240m to the south of where the massive monument is placed… but lets make that our little secret, okay!). After leaving to return to downtown Quito with some weird sense of accomplishment, we checked out a few more sights in the city including a shop attached to a monastery where you can purchase nun-made items such as hand cream through a revolving door so you can't see the cloistered sisters- a very surreal experience!

The next day we were off for a weekend side trip to a place which had been recommended by a friend (Erika, our lovely couch surfing host from NY- thanks!) many months ago. The Black Sheep Inn is an award winning eco lodge in the tiny town of Chugchilin, 5 hours from Quito. In order to get to our destination we took two buses, filled to the brim with campesinos (country folk) and occasionally vendors selling every type of food imaginable. We were let off in what looked like the middle of nowhere and made our way up a steep driveway to the lodge. The owner Michelle welcomed us and showed us around the common area, complete with lots of board games, books and yummy teas for our consumption. Everything here is recycled or composted down to the tea bag wrappers which are used as scrap paper! Even more impressive is the bathrooms at the lodge- composting toilets which don't use water and basins that empty into the garden beds being cultivated IN the bathroom itself with the help of green house like roofs. Our sleeping quarters themselves were also great- a wooden A-frame bunk house with hammocks on the balcony where you can watch the incredible view of the green valley and the clouds rolling in each evening. As if this wasn't enough there's also a yoga studio on the property, lots of sports to play and a flying fox!!! What a flash back to go on one of these again! All in all the BSI is an incredible place to stay which is really doing some great things for the community- the owners have been there for 12 years and have even donated a small library to the town. For our part we spent most of our time there just relaxing- reading, taking some hikes to see the surrounding area ( at one point bribing an 80 something year old woman to call off her attack dogs and let us walk through her property- long story!) and eating- the food they make at the lodge is amazing and all vegetarian! In the end we were very sad to leave (especially as we had to catch a bus at 4 am and miss breakfast!) - it was a very relaxing and beautiful place.

So now we're back in Quito and preparing to travel to Columbia- very excited! Hope all is well with everyone.

Love Hayley and Ryan