From Banos we had a scenic bus journey to a town called Cuenca. This is the third largest city in Ecuador but you couldn't tell from looking at it. The town centre is very picturesque with colonial style buildings and of course the obligatory central plaza with a cathedral and some other nice buildings. Our hotel was located about 20 minutes walking distance away from the centre and involved walking through a dodgy looking ghetto area and up 4 sets of steep steps...

After being evicted from the jungle (and disappointingly not being greeted by Ant & Dec), we were looking forward to having a hot shower and getting our clothes cleaned. First though we had to endure a 6 hour bus journey before we could succumb to these pleasures. The coach journey was surprisingly painless as all along the way we encountered breathtaking mountain scenery and countless waterfalls. Banos itself seemed quite a quaint and idyllic town located i...

One part of our tour which really appealed to me was a 3 night stay in the Amazon. That truly sounded like a once in a lifetime opportunity and something I really don't think we could do on our own. Of course that was before we started travelling and before I realised how much of an issue I had with cockroaches, frogs and other similar horrible creatures! I really didn't know how I was going to cope in an actual jungle. We took a bus to the nearest city called ...

So the beginning of the end...the last leg of our trip...it's scary how fast it has gone so far. Our entry point into Latin America, the fourth and final continent that we would be visting, was Quito - the second highest capital city in the world. Sara regretably looked up Ecuador on the FCO website and it isn't a pretty read, but this blog is evidence that we have managed to survive so far! As you already probably know, we are doing an organised tour around Sou...