Vilcabamba, Ecuador a place of longevity - yes, we are going to live alittle longer after visiting for a few days! We stayed in the beautiful Izhcayluma Hostel up on the hill side, looking over the whole of Vilcabamba. It was so tranquil and just amazing, literally you could sit and stare at the scenery for hours, over breakfast, playing scrabble or savouring the culinary delights that made there way from the Izcayluma kitchen (the chincken stroganoff was AMAZIN...

Bathing Beauties in Baños! Exactly as the name suggests Baños is known for it´s baths, but these are no regular baths, no chlorine just natural spring water, although it did look a bit murky. We went to Las Piscinas de La Virgen - the only hot pools around, yeah that´s right hot pools, like having a bath! It was amazing escaping the cold mountain air to just slip into a nice hot bath, sound tranquil? Think again. Yes, it was amazing, but we were surround...

Quilotoa Loop. The Quilotoa loop is known to most travellers as a way to see the coutryside and interact with the local people and it can take between 2 and 5 days to complete the loop depending on how much time you have. We decided to head from Latacunga to Zumbua (will correct spelling after) to the Saturday market then on to Quilotoa to see the laguna! The market was ok, not as good as Otavalo but did have a yummy dried pancake with sugar on bargain price of...

MITAD DEL MUNDO - THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD..... Apparently. We arrived to the official Mitad Del Mundo after flagging the bus down in the street and hopping on with no problems, I think our spanish must be improving or they saw two lost westerners attempting to flag down a bus not even at the bus stop. We went to the official mitad del mundo after paying the $2 entry we went to the museum to learn all about the discovery of the ecuator, maps and other geograph...

Just 2 hours out of the big city of Quito lies Mindo, the Cloud Forest and one of the most beautiful places I have ever come across, both the place and the people! We arrived at about 17.00 with no map and no clue where Rubby Hostel was and so came the attepmted spanish once again, Henrry from the Tourist Information drew us a detailed map that led us right to the front door of Norma and Marcello the lovely owners of Runny Hostel, named after their first and on...