Hey All, For once the computer in the hostel doesn´t have a queue so I thought I´d update you all. We are currently in Cuenca, our first full day here today entailed walking around the city which is full of really historic buildings, cobbled streets, churches and museums. It has a really lovely feel to it and is a very pretty city. We visited the cathedral and some churches plus a panama hat making shop and a museum with anthropological artefacts dating back to 3000 BC! It was an amazing collection. However, we have visited a couple more places before coming here so I shall update you! Firstly, the rest of our time in Quito was spent visting Mitad del Mundo (the centre of the earth aka the equator!). The monument which stands on the line isn´t actually the equator though- it was the first one which was officially recorded though and was measured without the aid of satellites or modern technology. We wandered about here for a while and saw the views from the top of the monument and then headed to the ´real equatorial line´250m up the road! To celebrate this line a museum has been built dedicated to explaining things like the role of the sun and seasons in relation to the equator plus quirky demonstrative experiments like balancing an egg on the head of a nail and the difference between water going down a plug hole in the northern and southern hemispheres to the equator line (sounds boring but was actually really good!!). Next place was Latacunga where we stayed in the best hostel yet Latacunga is very much a typical Ecuadorian town with narrow pavements, loads of shops selling anything and everytyhing, bustling streets, street vendors selling the best and cheapest fruit. It was nice that it wasn´t really touristy but just Ecuadorean. We decided just to do a day trip to Laguna Quilatoa (Lake Quilatoa - a volcanic lake) which actually ended up being an epic bus journey right through the highlands. The mountains here were very different, almost arid like, and there were lots of traditionally dressed highland men and women jumping on and off the bus with huge smiles on their faces which made the journey a bit more colourful too. We then got in an open backed truck to the brim of the lake. The views looking down onto the lake were stunning. We hiked down to the waters edge and stayed a while (with a lovely German couple we befriended from the hostel) and then walked back up which was absolutely exhausting as we were 3,919m above sea level - we were very breathless to say the least! Next place was Banos which turned out to be very much the Ecuadorean version of Banff in the Rockies in Canada. It´s a small town nestled in the valley of mountains with an active volcano looming over the town! It´s very touristy with lots of traditional Ecuadorean craft shops, a lovely little market plus a street of bars. You can also do lots of extreme activities here like jump off a bridge but we opted to just hire a road buggy and bomb it around the town! We also did a beautiful walk along the mountains overlooking Banos which gave us amazing views of the town. After the walk we went to the thermal hot springs which were boiling but very nice as they looked out onto the mountains. We found a good eating place too called Casa Hood which did Almuerzo´s with a western, vegetarian touch which were totally delicious and a nice change from just rice and meat! They also screened free films so we went there in the evenings which was really cool (we recommend The Bird Cage with Robin Willaims- very funny). Casa Hood could easily fit into Brighton! So, that´s all for now. Hope you have all recovered from the sizzling heat wave you´ve just had! Lots of Love K and V P.S. Some photos from Las Tolas have been uploaded