The End of the Beginning! After a blissful couple of days in Loja in which Nick's gut was finally fixed by a highly proficient medical service, and both the boys and the horses ate far too well for their own good, we left Loja. Once again we were unwittingly following the Panamerican highway. We travelled west to Catamayo over a high pass and down a winding road which, from above, often looked like one of those mazes in kids' puzzle books. Arriving in Catamayo w...

After leaving Ed behind to recieve regular medical treatment the team set off with a new member. This was a guide (Don Lucio) who had been recomeneded by some friends and claimed to know a route from Cuenca to Loja that would take "no more than 3 days." If the team could get down to Loja in this amount of time the whole trek would be back on track.... The horses were loaded into a van to take them across Cuenca but it soon became apparent that this was...

ARRIVAL IN CUENCA Apologies for the delay in this update, and to those who attempted to view our photos over the last few days and only had red crosses to look at. We´ve tried to fix it but internet technology is lacking here in Cuenca, uploading is a laborious process but hopefully we´ve managed to now get a few on board. The trek since we left Bucay has taken many new turns, but we have now officially arrived in Cuenca. After being kindly looked after by ...

We´ve come through 48hrs of rain, catastrophies with the horses´ "Easy"Boots, and more rain to make it the 90kms to the large town of Bucay. The boots, it turns out, do not work so well in the rain and rub at the horses´heels. After relatively frustrating progress in our first two days we hatched a plan to wrap the heels in protective bandage, refit the "Easy"Boots, and attempt the 2000m vertical descent to Bucay. We would then shoe the hor...

ALL BEING WELL, THE TEAM AIMS TO BEGIN THEIR VOYAGE this Saturday 21st February. The training is nearly over; the months of preparation, the nights spent in comfy, dry beds, hot meals, mains power, warm showers, clean clothes, are all to be cast into the past. For the next five months Phil Sutton, Nick Warner and Ed Lines are to brave some of the most hazardous elements of the Southern Hemisphere. With their five horses (Pajarito, Capricho, Rocio, Gansa and Noah...