Big travel day. Spent 9hrs on a bus from Quito to Coca. As the bus chugged up the winding mountain roads we reached 4100m above sea level, before descending out of the Andes into the lowland jungle. For much of the way a large oil pipeline hugs the road. A 500km eyesore that pumps hundreds of thousands of barrels each day from the oil reserves in the amazon to the distant coast, ready for shipping. We arrived in Coca that evening, jumped in a taxi and asked ...

Today we are heading out to Santa Domingo to spend a couple of days in an indigenous village with the Tsáchilas (true people). After our 4 hour journey we arrived at the village to very warm welcome. Wearing his tradition clothing (just a striped skirt) and body paint, the head of the community, Alejandro told us all about the history of his people and how they continue to live with very little interaction with western cultures. Accompanied by his sons and gr...

Today we set off to Mindo, a little town in the cloud forest about 2hrs north west of Quito. Once checked into our hostel, we decided to head up the mountain to 'La Tarabita' - a simple cable car which takes you to the other side of the valley. We then spent the afternoon walking around the forest looking at half a dozen impressive waterfalls. When we got back to the cable car it had stopped running at 4pm (it was now 4.15pm!) The thought of spending a night i...

The flight from Caracas was diverted to Guayaquil due to bad weather. We spent the night in a hotel and returned to the airport the next morning to fly to Quito. Quito is the worlds second highest capital (after La Paz, Bolivia). At almost 3000m above sea level, high in the Andes, the cool temperature was a relief from the tropical heat of Venezuela. Day 1. We checked into the Secret Garden hostel in the "old town". The roof terrace has amazing views over the...

The night bus dropped us in Caravas at 6am. We spent the morning at a shopping centre then met Gustavo and Carolina (our Venezuelan friends that we met in Los Roques) for lunch. They then dropped us off at the airport for our flight to Quito, Ecuador. Check out 'Venezuela - Caracas' at http://gallery.me.com/peterjprice/101639