08/11/12 Happy birthday to my lovely step mum Bev xxx The 2 hour journey to Riobamba was beautiful, up and down huge lush green mountains, over bridges and through small villages untill we were told to get off the bus so we could get the next one to Alausi. We were not however at the bus terminal but instead at a few bus offices where no one seemed to know what we should do to get to Alausi so we decided to get a taxi to the main terminal. Once here we got a bu...

4th November The journey was once again amazingly picturesque as we twisted and turned our way up and over the many mountains and volcanos that make up Ecuador. As we neared Baños the road disappeared through many tunnels in the hillside and the views we did have of waterfalls into the river Pastaza below us were only bettered by those brave enough to do one of the various canopy lines from one side of the gauge to the other, seemingly a very popular activit...

We were up with the alarm at 7am and before we knew it we had said goodbye to what had been our home for the past month and were hailing a taxi. After a little bartering between Neil and the taxi driver we hopped in and set off towards Quatumbe bus station. Once at the bus station we were waved over by a friendly lady at the counter who wrote on the bus number as well as the platform number for us. Because we were early (Neil's prefered way to travel!) we headed...

27th October We caught seven buses today for our epic adventure to Otavalo. Getting up at the normal time we walked down to the bus stop where, after asking the lady at the cash office, we caught an Ecovia bus to the end of the line. Although we don't really understand the different types of buses, one of the idiosyncracies of these buses is that they have their own separate "track" which runs down the middle of the other roads in Quito, thus eliminating any ...

20/10/12 - It wasn't a great night's sleep for me and I was woken up by the annoying dogs barking! After a quick shower, we grabbed a breakfast bar each and headed out. We flagged a taxi down on the main road to take us to El Panecillo meaning little bread loaf. The taxi driver was really nice and even tried a few English words - good for me but not so great for Neil who is always trying to practice his Spanish! It was a good 20-25 minute drive past La Mariscal ...