Back from our adventures we monged in the Old Town before moving hostel to Sunrise hostal in Mariscal to be bit closer to the action, and subsidised many cheeky cervezas by having super cheap (but very good) curries from a local place. The chef used to work in Guildford, so he knew his stuff. Next day, jumped on a bus to the Midad del Mundo, thats the Middle of the Earth between friends. We did the whole gambit and went to all three options there. First the o...

Got to the capital of Ecuador, slightly nervous from all the warnings of muggings and skullduggery, but after the usual hastle of trying not to get mugged off by a taxi driver arrived swiftly at L'Auberge hostal. A nice place between the old town and Mariscal Sucre, otherwise known as "gringotown"! It was getting a little late in the day, and apparently you can't walk around anywhere after dark, so we decided to head into Mariscal, and check into a ba...

Another local bus two hours north across the equator to Otavalo - home of the most famous market in the whole of South America! Arrive after dark and checked into our strange little room more akin to a garden shed at the bottom of the garden before heading out for dinner. Settled into a cosy local joint for a shared meat feast platter and a bottle of vino. Up bright and early, we roamed the market for hours taking pictures and checking prices...before the shopp...

Hopped on a quick bus ride back south to check out the famous Mama Negra festival in a somewhat sad looking town. Despite our initial fears, the festival turned out to be a great party! Perched on the pavement with hardly any other gringos in sight, we watched one of the strangest parades we have ever seen! Highlights included men dressed as women brandishing whips who attacked the crowd, men carrying huge pig carcasses on their backs with bottles of booze and ...

Settled into our lovely room in Plantos y Blancos hostel and hit the thermals springs. Spent a good few hours pickling ourselves in the outdoor pools including the super scalding pool which was so hot you could only stand to be in it for a few minutes and even then had to keep completely still for fear of burnage. This was followed by a sudden dip in the icy cold plunge pool! After a few times, we got quite expert at it and were in and out like veritable yo-yos. ...