We recently realised that we have not spent any time on our blog discussing the food we have to date experienced in South America. Given how so much time and energy is spent when traveling seeking the next feed, we want to give this blog something of a food related theme…

This is particularly pertinent now as Rich is still struggling with some bug that he picked up in Arequipa, which provides a general warning - the threat of eating a wrong'un is ever present. Firstly, breakfast. This is generally bad, consisting in nearly all hostels of bread, butter and jam, sometimes with the bland (and rank) papaya juice. We are spending increasing amounts of time searching for cheap alternatives, and day dream about corn flakes every now and then.

Peruvian specialities consist of Ceviche (cold fish in a lime vinaigrette, served with corn) Lomo Saltado (dish or sandwich with beef and chips, sometimes served also with rice or pasta) and Cuy (guinea pig), for which see previous post… Bolivia and Ecuador also seem to be serving up similar fare, with lots of fried chicken dishes thrown in and everything is served with rice and potatoes. On the whole its fairly basic, but often cheap - unless you go to restaurants serving foreign food types, which, as we have found recently, can be excellent...

Anyway, back to the trip, from Arequipa we took a flight to Lima (Rich's sick bag close at hand) then a 19 hour bus to Mancora in North Peru, which is considered the best year round beach in Peru. Although it was a lot of traveling it was surprisingly fine. In Mancora we got a nice beach front room away from the town where we could relax and listen to the waves, v chilled. We did a surfing lesson, which was cool, we both kind of stood up and also did some spectacular crashing. A bunch of girls were practicing for a pro competition happening in a few days so it was fairly intimidating! On the food front, we found a great restaurant (El Tuno) which did the most delicious tuna steaks… and the best tuna salads in the world. Fact. We went there three times in three days.

We spent 2 nights in Mancora before heading to Banos in Ecuador. Banos is brilliant. We spent 3 really good days soaking up the hot springs (Banos is in the foothills of the live Tungurahua volcano), incredible waterfalls and rafting. To see the waterfalls we hired bikes and cycled along, stopping at some of them. At one we took a cable car over a ravine only to be almost savaged by a crazy rabied dog, v scary! Mich fired a good stone throw warning shot (she missed) and skillfully hid behind Rich. The following day we went rafting, which was excellent, really fast river and a completely nuts guide. He managed to get us wedged between rocks so that we very nearly capsized… water all but submerged the raft, and we had to be bumped off in the end, was good for the adrenaline rush and less good for his ego. We treated ourselves to a massage and some more hot spring action after this. On the last night we went to Luna Runtun, a Swiss owned retreat in the mountains above the city, which was beautiful (see photos). We sat in hot springs overlooking the town and volcano until the sun went down, very magical. In a strange coincidence we also had a great raclette and meat fondue in Banos, courtesy of the apparently thriving Swiss Banos community's other local establishment, the Swiss Bistro.

From Banos we headed to Quito, Ecuador's capital city. We were a bit apprehensive to arrive as we had heard lots of negative stories about crime and bags being stolen from buses, but to our surprise the terminal we arrived at (South) was really modern and we didn't get hassled by anyone. In celebration we sunk a jug of margarita over some Mexican food, nice! The next day we did the touristy stuff and visited the 0 line of latitude, it was definitely the nicest equator we had ever seen, but its really hard to make imaginary lines particularly interesting and despite the Ecuadorian tourist boards best efforts to keep people entertained the museums and "attractions" on show were pretty bad. The old town in Quito is fairly architecturally attractive, particularly the Basilica, but the general feeling of impending violence in the City - hoodlums everywhere - puts a dampener on it as a tourist experience. Tomorrow, Colombia.