After spending the day hanging around a very decent mall with the wealthy of Quito, it was time to pack up and head to the jungle.

Whilst waiting for the overnight bus (yup, we shunned flying in favour of, well, see below) we learned that Quito is a dry city on Sundays. Apparently most of the police are given the day off and so to try and keep things calm the sale of alcohol is banned. Genius.

And so to the bus. No sign of the spacious luxury coaches so famed in South America. No, your bog standard somewhat dated coach, built for folk of a more conservative stature then me. Whilst surrounded by the gentle snoring of peaceful Ecuadoreans (and one Frenchman), I endured 7 hours of human origami and erratic driving through winding mountain roads. Bloody awful.

We then arrived in Coca, gateway to the jungle, at 4am and so spent another three hours sat on concrete benches in the bus terminal waiting for stuff to open. Our rendezvous with the jungle tour wasn't until 10:45am.

We transferred to the rendezvous hotel at 7am, had breakfast and spent the remaining hours on a sofa watching Ecuadorean breakfast TV, mostly a segment about tone deaf, boot faced housewives destroying little known songs. Actually quite engaging!

After being attacked by a local monkey, we finally met our guide Miguel and headed for the well deserved luxury of the Napo Wildlife Centre.