Here we are at the last stop in Ecuador. It took a 9 hour trip to get here. I am already getting a bit over the long trips. Today we played I spy and watched 'If I stay' which resulted in Rebecca sobbing so loud our leader had to ask what was wrong. Began our visit of Cuenca with a walking tour of the city which included the Panama hat factory. Here we seen exactly how they make the hats and learnt Panama hats are actually from Ecuador and are called Paja Toquil...

Travel for 4 hours to Baños, which is translated to toilet town. Such a wonderful little town of 20,000 people. Definitely aimed at tourists but still pretty amazing. It kind of reminds me of Queenstown. I was well and truly ready for some food that doesn't include rice, it seems that every single traditional dish (even steak and chips) includes rice! Tried a massive chocolate pancake that was bigger than my plate, a hamburger that tasted like off meat, and ...

After a fabulous start in Quito, I was quite excited for the next part of the trip. It began with a 5 hour bus, to cover only 180km, to get to the Shiripuno community near Misahuall in the Amazon Basin (30 mins from Tena). Cute little community which has a tourism lodge built out the back where we stayed. An incredibly difficult climate. It's around 100 percent humidity with so many bugs that you have to wear long clothing all the time. But what an amazingly rela...

First taste of South America. A city of 2.7 million that is in full celebration for holy week. Thousands of people around and us tourists are sticking out from a mile away. Warned twice on the first day to watch out by the police. My hotel was located in the centre of the old city which is where the Good Friday celebrations were located. The stations of the cross were acted out around our block taking 3 hours and 250,000 people came to watch. The procession inc...