After the Quilotoa loop we had a rest day to let our legs recover before taking a day hike up the Cotopaxi volcano. Despite being a rest day we still managed to book our New York accommodation for 5 months time on Airbnb and looked into internal flights in Argentina (also a long time in advance). Both an attempt to save money by being organised. That evening Tijs and Jacqueline cooked an amazing stir fry with a satay sauce for us and we watched a movie in the h...

After selling the Quilotoa loop to Tijs and Jacqueline, I (Simon) was a bit worried when we arrived into a very ugly looking town, Latacunga, where we would stay one night before attempting the loop. Thankfully Latacunga had a small colonial centre hidden behind the highway, a really nice hostel and a fantastic cafe run by an American-Ecuadorian where we had lunch. We spent the rest of the day preparing for our three day hike (and being lazy) and were glad ...

After our long bus ride into Quito, we then had to get two more buses into the historic centre where we wanted to stay. At 25 cents each per bus it was a lot cheaper than a taxi but a little more crowded. We hadn't booked anywhere as we'd decided it was low season and the hostels wouldn't be full however we were mistaken and were turned away from two before arriving at Huasi Lodge, fairly newly opened. We accepted a room but quickly realised that there were a few...

On Monday we left Ned's farm for 3 days to help out at Patricia's family's farm, 5km down the valley, as the rains were coming and they needed extra help (more from Patricia than us). We had to cross an incredibly narrow wooden bridge to get to the family farm, which everyone from the little kids to the Patricia's 75 year old Mum has to use to get in and out. The French guests (Samuel & Cyrielle) came with us for one night before catching the bus back to Quit...

We successfully made it on and off the right bus to the small town of Cuellaje, where we soon found someone in a pick-up truck to take us the majority of the distance to Finca San Antonio. We asked if the driver could call Ned (the Englishman who owns the farm with his Ecuadorian wife Patricia) and were somewhat surprised when he produced a large, reasonably old-fashioned handset. It turns out that everyone uses these bulky satellite phones round here. The pick-u...