Cuenca was a quaint and charming town were our Ecuadorian adventure began. This was our first insight into the American influence that the US has over Ecuador with ice-cream parlours and electrical shops selling 'Dr Dre' headphones lining the centre plaza. Our couple of days there were spent enjoying the luxurious blend of American vs. South American culture with a top highlight being a visit to the Panama hat factory. Panama hat's I soon discovered have no association to the country in its name rather they are an Ecuadorian pride created locally and historically transported to the rest of South America via the Panama river. Feeling like this was the best South American souvenir I couldn't help myself... of course I bought one!

From here we headed north towards Banos, the adventure capital of the region. We camped nestled in the mountain outside the city in a town called Rio Verde. After our host providing us with information around the local (and apparently frequent) volcanic eruption evacuation procedures we have a few days to explore the local natural sights. I spend a day with some of our group canyoning through the mountain. I questioned my eagerness to volunteer into this adventure in a moment when six of us we perched on a tiny ledge hanging over a cliff waiting for the rest of us to finish jumping off a waterfall into a fast flowing pool, we had already experienced the joy of doing. Overall however the experience although terrifying given the standard of health and safety in South America was definitely one to write home about. While some of the rest of the group headed off river-rafting a couple of us decided to sit that one out and instead headed into Rio Verde town. We discovered undoubtedly the BEST empanadas South America had to offer. Homemade while you wait by the cutest little lady who spoke not a word of English, only adding to the charm of the experience. It got us thinking about the riches we could make if we imported her to New Zealand and began an empanada stall, a very tempting business prospect indeed. After saying farewell to a couple more travels in the group we headed further into Ecuador towards Misahualli and the Amazon Rainforest.

We started our Rainforest adventures with a guided hike into the jungle. I'm all up for tramping however I should have suspected something was up when we were provided with gumboots at the start. After tramping down into the jungle we hit a river bed that we happily wandered through darting over fallen logs and rocks. Out of now where the weather packed in causing torrential rain that raised the river beds to armpit height for a shorty like me and our tramping adventure turned into somewhat of a jungle swim. Heading too far to now go back we trudge on through until we hit what seemed to me a dead end. A canyon wall stood in front of us. Christian our local guide explained that no we hadn't taken a wrong turn; we would in fact be bum shuffling up the three story high canyon with our hands and bum on one side of the wall and our legs on the other (no safety ropes attached). Just when we thought we had gotten through the worst we approached another canyon climbing spectacular, feeling braver this time as we already knew what was expected of us we moved forward towards the entrance only to be greeted by a wave of flying bat's looking not too pleased with being disturbed. So here we go round two of wall bum shuffling with the added incentive to move quickly due to the diving bombing kamikaze bats flying at your head. By the time we reached our lodge that evening nestle in the Jungle it was hot shower, food and bed all round.

Our second day was spent in a more relaxing manner, spending the day travelling down the Amazon river by boat visiting local animal rescue centres and Paraná finishing while avoiding the inevitable afternoon torrential rain downpours, they call it the rainforest for a reason it appears. On our third and last day the sun came out in all its glory allowing us to tube down the river with our local guides. We stopped off at a local village. I experience my first leach only to be removed by a much unperturbed villager with lemon and salt, I was less relaxed by the experience. After feeding us some jungle tequila - homemade of course we were more than merry enough to play soccer with the local kids (and adults) before sitting down to a yummy lunch of fresh fish and BBQ'd (HuHu) grubs... Yum! We finished off the day by jumping back on our tubes to float further down the river experiencing some fun small rapids on the way.

Leaving the Jungle we made our way towards Quito, the capital of Ecuador and our last stop on the tour. On route we stopped off to visit the Equator line. Travel opportunities like these always make for fun experiences (and photos) standing one half of your body in the north and the other in the south. Quito being another big capital city provided the group with a few more fun nights out together before parting our separated ways. We spent our time in the new city making sure we kept to recommended areas as Quito like most big cities in South America also had its alley ways you would not like to find yourself wondering down alone. To grasp the enormity of the city itself we headed up the local gondola to a view point that provided almost 360 degree views of the city we it is quite easy to distinguish between the new and old towns of the city. On our last night we headed out for a dinner together as one last adventure. It was sad to say goodbye to the group after our last few months travelling together where we became somewhat of a travelling family; living, eating, driving together and generally living out of each other's pockets. We had the beauty of experiencing the wonders of what South America had to offer together and those memories will live a life time. Sad to say goodbye at the time, yes but the misery somewhat dampened by the realisation that we will no doubt see each other again in our next adventures.

I wasn't due to fly back to New Zealand for a few more days so together with Jenny another girl from the tour, we decided to head to Mindo a cloud rainforest to spend our last few days on South America back with nature. The short two hour bus ride took us along gorgeous mountain passes and delivered us to the small town in the middle of mountain range, Mindo. Here we entertained ourselves by experiencing a frog 'symphony' which turned out to be walking through a hotel's jungle backyard with guides who had torches pointing out bugs, spider and frogs along the way. We spent a day hiking to seven different waterfalls jumping in for a swim here and there. And discovered another fantastic empanada lady who managed to smuggle us a couple of beers on a dry Sunday evening on the sly, she even double bagged the shopping bags just in case. I headed back to Quito to catch my flight out of South America back home. Leaving was a bitter sweet emotion, I was excited to head home to loved ones and back to somewhat normality however have also realised there is so much more of South America left unexplored. My only conclusion is that I will just need to visit again, possibly armed with a little more Spanish next time. Next stop, Wellington New Zealand... as the adventure comes to an end I can only think in the words of little Dorothy, she said it best 'There is no place like home'.