After the jungle it was time for some adrenalin activities.First up was Whitewater rafting in Tena.An all day class 4 river providing for plenty of thrills and spills, some caused by the rapids but more often actually by the guides tipping us overboard.Lunch was a feast - for the sandfly b*****s on my legs.Despite coating myself in insect repellant, I looked down and my right leg was covered in blood!The only remedy for not getting attacked more was to be sumerged in water, so I stood thigh deep in the fast flowing river trying to balance while eating my lunch off a banana leaf (nature´s plates)As I inspected the damage later, it was true, they´d only gone for the one leg, but they´d gone at it vorociously and below the knee it resembled a red join the dots puzzle and was unbearably itchy.Sandfly bites scar, even without exacerbating them by scratching them, so I was soon in the chemist (once again) to get something to alleviate the itch and hopefully prevent scarring.I say again as I had my fair share of travellers ailments and bumps and scratches so far.Vaccinated up to the hilt before my departure for the more serious medical threats it was to the pharmacy I´d go to ease the symptoms of the pedestrian day to day stuff.Pharmacies are incredible here, no prescriptions are necessary and you simple describe the problem and they pick up a blister pack of pills and cut out a number for you (it´s mostly been 6 in my experience) and with no instruction leaflet nor so much of a word of how, when to take them, or any precautions they ring up a ridiculously low sum for the medication and send you on your way,my way is always directly to an Internet café to look up what the heck I´ve been given before taking it.So far so good,and I´m thanking my lucky stars yet again that I speak Spanish and can describe the relevant ailment and not having to resort to gesticulating and potentially having to strip off in the street (a lot of the pharmacies have grills dividing them from the street for safety) to show them the area requiring attention.

Next stop was the beautiful Baños, named after the thermal baths that it is famous for.Baños also means bathroom in Spanish which gave Steve & James hours of hilarity on the way there.Nestled between the rainforest and the Andes it was located in a beautiful valley that literally spouted water everywhere, magnificent waterfalls, streams, canons, all flowing to the river at the bottom of the steep valley.We were staying at Pequeño Paraíso (Little Paradise) 17 km down from Baños.Believe me I know it´s down the valley as I was foolish enough to cycle up there.In a state of severe exhaustion and wobbly legs, I remembered too late that I´ve never been much of a cyclist and it took all my residual strength to put the bike on the bus for the return trip.

Pequeño Paraíso is beautiful.Cabins set around a plunge pool at the top of a 40m cliff down to the river, hammocks, volleyball court and a climbing wall.The best thing however was our host Rich, a Scot who on having just the tour of us invited us to dine on his amazing homemade feasts in his house.A break from hotel and restaurant food and his cheery nature and hospitality really made our stay.

Tarabinas are what the indigenous people used to get themselves and their crops across the valley from the civilised side to the other, which to this day has no running water or electricity.Now they´re also a tourist attraction.Rich recommended the one at the Manto de la Novia for the best ride and view.They are described as upside down shopping trolleys and they swoop under the force of gravity at a heart quickening rate to the middle of the arc of the cable where you pause, handy to take a piccie of the Manto de la Novia (Brides veil) waterfall before the generador kicks in whooshing up to the other side.

Next on the action list was canyoning, a fabulous series of jumping, somersaulting, rappelling and slding down the canyon and waterfalls.To end off my rather wet stay in Baños, did I forget to mention it had rained every day too, was a moonlight trip to the thermal baths at the foot of Volcan Tungurahua, which is still active as we found out for ourselves at the sight of the volcanic smoke billowing out of it, through the back window of the bus, as we departed the next morning.

We travelled through the town that sells white goods, then the town that sells toffee, then the town that sells jeans. It seems that unlike other countries I've been to that allocate streets to different wares, Equador dedicates whole towns to them. The 1/2 manequins in the jeans towns displayed a massived range of skinny jeans. I'd punt a guess that instead of coming back into fashion, they never went out.

Cuenca was our last stop in Equador, a UNESCO world heritage site of cobbled streets and travestine stone buildings and the largest cathedral in South America plus some TOUGH steep hills and sets of stairs for anyone attempting to try running at 2500mts there (umm, yes me again!) It was also heavily decked out for Christmas, the first place that had been since of course the Christmas trees I'd left in Sydney in er...October!!! Our hotel Posada del Angel obviously fond of 80's knick knacks and ornaments (especially anything angel related of course) and bowls of poi poirri on toilet (that was just waiting to be sent flying). With the multitude of Christmas adornments on top became almost overwhelming.

It was a huge amount of relief on my part, after a hazardous and complex border crossing into Peru to meet up with the northbound Kumuka group for 3 days at Punta Sal, a lovely 3km long beach. Tensions within my tour group had reached crisis point, and in fact Steve and James bailed out of the tour yesterday, which leaves....me! I get lots of personal attention now. Even before that I'd been spending lots of time exploring by myself, which actually is fantastic. Everywhere we've been feels much safer, and the luxury of mooching around with my camera, going wherever I please is fabulous. However meeting up with the 3 northbound passengers was a breath of fresh air and we basically spent 3 days lazing around the beach, eating delicious tuna steaks and enjoying cocktails at bars where happy hour lasted all night. Our last night was a bonfire on the beach, sitting around our bellies full of fish with a peruvian fellow guest playing beautiful spanish guitar and gazing at the stars.

Rebecca finishes in La Paz and is heading back to Oz and it was suggested to me about whether I fancied replacing her. A years contract being paid to travel up and down South America! Yet after only a month I know that I don't want to swap the novelty and excitement of constantly seeing new places and spending the summer in England. This delicious sensation of time, freedom and no responsibility is one to savour (even if it's just the ability to curl up in bed with a sore tummy watching movies on a tuesday afternoon as I've done today!)

On that note I'm heading back to my bed and in 4 days I'll have 10 new travelling buddies. Fingers crossed eh!