I need to catch up on quite a few days! I'll start with where I last left off.....after Cuenca we flew back to Quito then the following day, which was Wednesday 29th July we got the bus north of Quito to a hacienda near a town called Cayambe. The hacienda was lovely and in a beautiful setting. Can't remember exactly but it was 400-500 years old and it was a nice place to relax. The rooms had log fires, luckily, as it was actually very cold at night! The owner had...

I am now in Cuenca, we travelled here yesterday. As a group we took the option of paying a bit extra to hire a mini bus for the journey which meant we could make stops along the way, which was well worth it, but it was a long day, after leaving the hotel in Baños at 7.30am and arriving here about 6.30pm I think! The first stop we made was at a small town to go to a local market. It was very interesting, and we were fortunate to get to see it, as it really was a ...

After my massages in Papallacta (which were very good!) we travelled by bus to Tena which is in east Ecuador and a kind of gate way to doing trips to the jungle. Our first trip was to a homestay, to stay with a local Quichua family. Accomodation was better than expected, sort of like cabins made of bamboo wood on stilts. Plus we had beds with mosquito nets and even flushing toilets! I didn´t particulary like it at night as it was obviously pitch black as there w...

We travelled by bus yesterday (19/7) to Papallacta, which is about 2 hours from Quito, and is famous for its hot springs. Bus journey fine but we were lucky enough to have a seat, a few didn´t. The weather was quite hot and sticky in Quito but it changed as we drove up to an even higher altitude and the cloud seemed very low, but really we are just high up. Drizzly rain here but that did not stop us enjoying a good soak in the pools which are dotted around the h...

Hi, hoping this will work! ha ha! Arrived safely in Quito late last night, bed at about midnight here time but 6am UK time so was awake for about 24 hours ;-( Typically I went to bed very late before leaving (so unorganised!) but was glad to find that despite having been worried about leaving I was actually fine in the end. No sleep on plane but watched 4 films on the plane to Atlanta- ones that I actually wanted to see at the cinema and missed so that was cool!...