23rd- 30st August We had a relatively short journey from Tena to Quito, only 6 hours and after missing our first bus stop we got off in the middle of a dual carriageway, crossed over a bridge and hailed a taxi. For the next week we are staying with Lorene, Marbelita and Juan-Luis. We found the house quite easily and immediately felt at home with Lorene. There were three other travellers staying in the house with us, Alex, Edward and Romana. Although they sp...

19th-23rd August We got to Tena around lunch time and I stepped out of the bus and was immediately sweating, it was so hot. I was wearing my denim skirt with leggings, I was boiling, so whilst I was waiting for James to come out of the bus I whipped the leggings off. To my horror my skirt also came down which was a hilarious treat for a group of lads waiting for a bus. They didn't stop wolf whistling until we left the station, it was so embarrassing! We fou...

16th-18th August In the morning we met up with the Swiss girls and shared a taxi to the bus terminal, which was lucky for us as we didn't realise there were two bus terminals and we were going to walk to the closest one. When we arrived (around 10 minutes later) we got shoved on a bus to Ambato and were told to change there for Banos. I was so pleased we had to move buses as there was a drunk pervert standing over me for the whole journey and kept whispering '...

13th-15th August We were up early and caught a bus to Zumbahua and from there had to get a camoniesta (pick-up truck) to Quilotoa as there are no buses. It was a fun but windy ride and we were holding on the whole way. The locals seemed to stand perfectly still without holding on and with no problems. It was a short walk to the crater edge and the view was fantastic. It looked like a huge spaceship had crashed landed onto a mountain range and is now filled ...

11th-12th August Yesterday afternoon was spent napping and some more napping and finally it was bed time. I was so exhausted from our stop over that apparently I slept through a dog barking just outside the window and a group of youths singing, just outside the window, can you believe it Mum and Dad? After my power sleep we had a nice breakfast at our hostel then explored Quito's old town. You can feel the difference a few thousand metres makes as it fel...