In the middle of the night at 3am I had 2 Argentinian Couchsurfers barge into the room which frightened the s*** out of me - they had not told anyone they were coming and they seemed pissed off I was in the room, they turned all the lights on and didn't seem to care I was sleeping or that it was 3am. After this I couldn't sleep at all so I got up at 4:30 and had breakfast with my host family. I did all my washing yesterday and its all soaking wet - I only have t...

Today I am going to attempt to climb Cotopaxi Volcano one of Ecuador's primary tourist attractions. As I will be doing on the cheap I need to catch a bus heading towards Quito, get off at the turn off for Cotopaxi and then hitchhike in 40km to the base camp - from here I will hike 1.5 hours to the refuge (hopefully if the snow isn't too thick). Luckily my hosts had some thick jackets, beanies and gloves to lend me otherwise for sure I would freeze. My hosts dropp...

It was back on the road today after 6 freezing but amazing days in Otavalo. I met some wonderful people Paul, Dudu the owners who let me stay in their hostel The Flying Donkey for free in return for some designs and paintings and Juan the crazy Argentinian, the French guy, Adriana the Couchsurfer from Quito and Luisiana my host from Quito that I never got to stay with. The festivals were definitely the highlight of my stay along with Otavalo being my first time i...