Whoop whoop we survived our journey from Honduras, even after traveling to C & D before arriving in B - Ecuador!

Being the sensible girls we are arriving so late at night we decided that it would be worth the extra pennies sorry dollars to stay in a hotel that was bound to be opening at 2am instead of being lost in Quito.

After a well deserved lie in to catch up on sleep, we moved to another cheaper hostel and choose to explore the city determined to find our own way to Mitad Del Mundo the Equator!! After a few wrong tram decisions and some serious hiking around at altitude we were on the right track! A lovely local lady on the bus helped us find our destination even when we could only reply to her Spanish advice with puzzled blank faces.

We took our touristy pictures and did the touristy things. I sat with the equator line running between my legs, kind of cool to think I was in both hemispheres at the same time!! Only the 'tropic of cancer' line and we have done all three!

The next day we awoke early and set off on what became a mammoth hike up and down 'New Town' Quito but filled with excitement. We booked our Jungle trekk to the Cuyabeno Reserve the Amazon Basin, got our bus ticket to allow us to leave that night and start our trek the next day(remember we our on a tight schedule now and every day counts!) we brought our jungle outfits, got some awesome traveling trousers, finally updated all our blog including pictures and amused our hostel family with our Google translated written Spanish questions! Who says you need to speak Spanish!

After a not so bad 10 hour very bumpy shaky bus journey we arrived at our pick up point. We had then another 3 hour bus journey to the entrance to the park. True to its name it started to rain as we approached the outskirts of the rainforest... what have we let ourselves in for this time I wonder. Although the rain was over quickly and no soon than it had passed the sun was out and all was dry as if no water had fallen. Beautiful butterflies (swallow butterflies) lined the floor all flapping their wings in the sunshine drying themselves off. Nervously we handed over our backpacks to the guys who threw them into tiny canoes, to reach our accommodation for the next three nights we had to ride down the river for another 3 hours.

The ride down the river was breath taking, this was a first for us both we had never been to a jungle before. We passed a group of monkeys (Squirrel Monkeys) that were playing in the trees, jumping from one branch to the next effortlessly. Every so often stopping to keep a watchful eye over us, but never long enough to pose for a photo! I think they were just teasing us! We also saw lots of birds again all very shy when it came to photo time!

The lodge we were staying in was amazing, all set high above the floor apparently ready for the floods, I hoped it was to keep the bugs on the floor and not in my room!!! Little wooden huts in a circle around a cool chill out area filled with hammocks. We were given a little time to settle in, before we were out again on the canoes whizzing off to the lagoon for our first sunset. We arrived in time to watch the sun set behind the canopy of tall rainforest trees, turning the sky into beautiful reds & oranges by far one of my favourite sunsets so far. Our guide Wan assured us it was safe to take a dip, nervously we walked up to the front of the boat balanced on the top and not so safely Hana dived into what turned out to be very shallow water (obviously she is losing her lifeguard instincts!!) I jumped but realised it was still too shallow for even that! No matter how shallow the water was you didnt want to put your feet down as it was all squelchy between your toes.

After our swim Wan took us for our first night walk through the jungle, it was pitch black but we did have our head torches however you were reluctant to turn them on as it attracted the bugs and MOSIQUITOS!! As we walked Wan pointed out spiders after spiders all big and extremely ugly! It made you panic every time you felt something on you! It was creepy but so exciting at the same time! Heading back to our lodge we found Caimans (alligators) lining the river, I did wonder why Wan said it was safe to swim in the lagoon surely the Caimans could swim up the river to eat us!! We had some amazing food and a few drinks, guides kindly pointed out the spiders in the roof brilliant nightmares tonight I feel but it was an early night all the adrenaline had got to us and we were whacked and luckily the cabin was clear of any bugs.

Early the next morning we were out again in the canoes off to another part of the rainforest , we had dresses in our very best jungle outfits and were ready to set off and explore! It wasn't long before Wan had us eating weird fruits that tasted really nice. We saw a really cool poisonous frog and lots of other creepy crawlies. Some monkeys played in the canopy above us! Then Wan had us trying something that reminded me of being a kid, now dont squirm we licked up a tree that was covered with Lemon ANTS they tasted like the dip from lemon sherberts. You naturally said Yuk, but then you realised it was really nice and we both went back for seconds I could of eaten many more!

After some yummy lunch and a little siesta we headed out in the afternoon for one of the highlights to the tour.... Anaconda hunting, which isn't really hunting as we are just going to look for them. Yes Hana although excited is a nervous as she hates snakes because they have no legs! We were told to wear our swim wear as we may get a little muddy and wet, normally you would think this to be an over precaution but when we saw Wan wearing only blue speedos (oh yes it was a picture in itself!) and wellies we wondered what are we trekking through. As soon as we were off the canoe we were wadding through the swap water well over our wellies. As the water shallowed then came the MUD! Sometimes stepping into mud up to our knees pulling our wellies out by hand as they got stuck. At some points I was helping Hana pull her wellies out only to find I then needed her help to pull my stuck wellies. However we got stuck in and put on our war hunting mud stripes and start to wallow in the mud! Unfortunately not being the best season we were unlucky and after a lot of effort and lots and lots of mud we didn't get chance to see an Anaconda. Again Wan took us to watch the sunset and go for another dip in the water, a much needed dip to wash the mud off. The water this time was much deeper, this didn't fill us with much confidence as we had now seen the caimans and Wan had mentioned that they didn't venture to the lagoon as it was too shallow surely now they would!!! Once the sun had gone and darkness was upon us again we went in search for more caimans, we saw the largest Dark caiman and the smallest Dwarf caiman as well as some snakes. I was amazed how Wan could spot the snakes amongst the trees as we drove up and down the rivers.

Our last full day and again setting off early in the morning we went for our final trekk through the jungle in search of the largest tree in the Ecuador Amazon Basin. It was hugh 45 meters high, pictures do not do it justice, you couldn't get a picture of the height. It would take nearly 20 people to surround the base hand in hand, unfortunately our group wasn't big enough to test this.

After this we visited a local indigenous tribe village, which wasnt as back dated as you see on the Discovery Channel. They wore proper clothes, had TV's & Radios and even had street lights. We were having our lunch in the village but before we could eat we had to make some bread kind of thing first. We set off to go get the main and only ingredient couldn't tell you what it was called thou. On the way Wan climbed a tree and cut down some Jungle Grapes which again were gorgeous I could get use to Jungle food! We watch and helped the lady prepare the ingredient making into a powder like texture which she then cooked on a circular plate over a wooden fire. It was weird texture but very nice especially when topped with strawberry jam. One of the group had a cold so Wan did his witch doctor bit and made a cure out of ginger, all I can say is that I was always told if something doesn't taste or smell nice then it probably was good for you so this stuff must have been amazing never seen grown men cry!

After a quick change into our fishing jungle outfits we were back on the river to what was the bit I had been waiting for all trip... Piranha fishing!!! Again we were not far from the lagoon and I had decided that I was not going to ever swim in the river again knowing these guys were so close! We baited our extremely basic fishing rods, if you call a wooden stick with a bit of string and a hook a fishing rod! We waited and waited and just like crabbing the piranhas got the better of us and just ate the bait! Cheeky monkeys Wan kept saying! But then all of a sudden I pulled my line up, which nearly hit Hana on the way into the boat unfortunately thou it wast not a piranha but a sardine. Great is that all I can catch, however Wan killed it for me so that I could use it for bait! An hour passed and we moved to a few different locations finally I pulled up my line as soon as it was tugged and out flew a Piranha!! I had caught my first one, it was rather small but I could still see the teeth. Wan was at the other end of the boat and being too scared to touch the flapping around in the bottom of the canoe Piranha I just stood on my seat talking to him to keep breathing till Wan came to his rescue! Another hour passed and we all started to scream as Hana caught a massive Piranha that was flying 360 degrees around the boat missing my head by millimeters, we jumped up as it too landed in the boat Wan struggled to catch it and at one point we were all scream watching the Piranha flapping as we all jumped up high to keep our toes save but desperately trying to stayed balanced, I don't think this would be a good time to fall into the water! The poor guys in our group had there egos dented as only the girls managed to catch things not all Piranhas but fish neither the less. It was a great end to a perfect tour.

We awoke on the day we left for a before sunrise bird watch, it wasn't a highlight to the tour but we did get to see some macaws and we are never ones to want to miss out anything. We had our breakfast and packed up our bags, the journey back was going to be rougher as during our whole stayed it hadn't rained once therefore the river had dropped several inches exposing more debris trees. Every so often on the journey back we would hit an underwater tree trunk that would wobble the boat, everyone would grab the sides and pray we weren't going to tip! But our boat driver was experienced and he kept us dry and our bags safe. We said our goodbyes to our friends from the group and went our separate ways around South America. We were heading southwards to Puerto Lopez to see the 'poor mans Galapagos' hopefully more affordable.