Jungle Boogie

There are some things in life that you just don't say in public, for fear of outing yourself as an utter tit. "Two And A Half Men just cracks me up", for example, or "The best way for the Labour Party to reconnect with voters across the country is to tack to the left." You know the sort of stuff.

Until our recent visit there, I'd have certainly had "Our visit to the Amazon rainforest was such a crushing disappointment" on that list. But, if asked for two words to sum our time in said forest, I'd plump for "disappointing" and "crushingly", though possibly not in that order. That there was pumping dance music blaring from a nearby swimming pool when we arrived at our 'secluded jungle lodge' didn't bode particularly well, though when next door finally turned the speakers off our cabin was serene and restful, all fireflies and oil lamps with a hammock slung across the patio.

But our 'Amazon trek' the next day was, by any marker, a real downer. Though our local guide was knowledgeable, and the animals and plants undeniably fantastic (the baby tarantula was my personal highlight), we weren't trekking the Amazon at all. We were just walking in someone's - pretty impressive - back garden wearing matching wellies and pretending that this was what we'd shelled out a couple of grand for. There are even fences in a few of our photos. Cap it all off with an utterly abysmal 'traditional' dance and shaman show back at the lodge that evening (highlight was the shaman cleansing me by... er... blowing fag smoke in my hair), and our visit to the Amazon was a crushing disappointment. There - said it again.

But a seven hour ride on ramshackle local bus later and we arrived in Banos, a little gem of a town apparently dropped by the Gods slap bang in the middle of the Central Highland's mountainous ranges. Arriving a little jaded by the jungle and still a little wires by Quito, Banos seemed purpose-built to ease our bodies, rest our minds and generally make me fall in love with South America all over again. Though it's fit to burst with hostels and eateries amid squarely at the backpacker crowd, Banos remains a functioning community in its own right,. Indeed, the ruinous effect that intensive tourism can have in many places is notable by its absence here; if anything, the fifteen thousand or so people who live in Banos seem to enjoy a quality of life that the millions living in Quito's suburbs would give their eye teeth for.

We spent our three days in Banos walking in the hills and trying to look at volcanoes (damn you, clouds), eating surprisingly good Italian and Mexican, wandering around the endearingly bonkers Cathedral enjoying the best breakfast of the trip so far on the sun-kissed roof terrace of the ininfinitely recommendable Plantas Y Blancos hostel. We also spent more time than was strictly necessary luxuriating in the natural thermal springs on the edge of town. We visited a few times with Zara, Dave and Leigh, but went the extra mile and got up to watch the sun rise with the locals on our last morning in Banos. Sitting in a giant steam bath, listening to Louise practise her Spanish while the sun flooded corn-gold beams across the valley was just as blissful as it sounds. Just as much as our jungle trip had failed so badly, our time in Banos was all the sweeter because I'd not really given it two seconds thought before we arrived.

En route to Cuenca, we took a small detour to spend some time with a local family who maintain a relatively traditional lifestyle while running a hostel in a converted railway masters house. Truth be told, I was more interested in the railway line - sadly no longer in use - than the sweet but somewhat affected show they put on for us. Lou and I also had our first taste of Guinea Pig, a staple for families in Ecuador and parts of Peru. Eating it was painless enough. Splitting the bill with a minibus full of people you don't know that well was another matter entirely.

Cuenca, our last stop in the country before heading over the border to Peru, was a charming place to while away a few days. Though undeniably smaller than the capital, the fact that almost all city life takes place in a UNESCO listed colonial old town makes for a more relaxing visit. The main plaza is Spanish to the core, while the Cathedral - topped outside with a blue-dome triptych and dominated inside with an altar that was a little to gold for my protestant tastes - certainly catches the eye. We spent an immensely enjoyable morning at the Museo del Bacno Central, where decent enough collections of religious art and historical coins and notes serve as a decent entrée for the fantastic ethnographic exhibits and the ghoulishly engrossing collection of shrunken heads. Even more impressive is the excavated pre-Inca town centre of Pumapungo at the rear of the museum, with a lovingly recreated garden and collection of endangered birds. The ice-cream parlour on the corner of the main plaza is also worth a visit of six - the servings are enormous, the ice-cream fresh, and the hoops you have to jump through to buy the damned thing delightfully South American.

And, with the taste of my double-cherry ice tub still tingling on my tongue, we were back on the bus and headed for Peru. The change in terrain as we headed from Ecuador to her bigger, poorer neighbour was striking. After driving through banana plantations for what seemed like hours, we hit  desert. Border control was a wonderfully messy affair, which seemed to annoy some of fellow travellers more than us. That was, perhaps, because while the queuing system was certainly not British in style, neither Lou or I felt in imminent danger of losing our lives or our wallets. Which is more than can be said of some of the bus border crossing we did in Europe. And that was that. So long Ecuador, Hola! Peru. More of which shortly...

Hasta la vista,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

Spanish Is The Loving Tongue

We had a five hour stop over at Bogota airport on our way to Quito, but weren't able to go through security, so unfortunately we didn't get to see any of beautiful Bogata (sorry Bryony). I can only report that Bogota has a relatively nice if simple airport. Following a local beer, I started to feel dizzy and light headed and aware that I couldn't breath. It turns out Bogata is the third highest city in the world, and some people can feel unwell due to the altitude -only Quito and La Paz are higher.

Needless to say we spent the first few days in Quito, not drinking, sleeping a lot, and getting out of breath when we walked up the stairs!

We had just under a week in Quito, and spent that time in the lovely and homely Tutamandu hostel. The hostel is part of Cristobol Colon Spanish School, where you can do one to one lessons in Spanish. Both Luke and I took lessons, and both our teachers, Solange and Roxanna, were fantastic. Though we were only able to do five days, but both our Spanish has improved and I was able to read a whole Dora the exploradora book.

In between lessons, doing homework and and sleeping Luke and I did manage to get out and explore a bit of Quito. The old town is old colonial grandeur at its best, with streets of colourful buildings, laced with extravagant balconies, and an array of European style squares each with a more magnificent church. The grandest of the squares was the Grande Plazza, with impressive buildings all around, including the Palacio del Gobierno (a government building used by the President) and the Cathedral. The Cathedral was vast and empty and very beautiful -a highlight of which was the painting of the last supper, where the meal is guinea pig (a local dish).

Other church highlights in Quito include La Compañia de Jesus, which is literally dripping in gold, and many claim is the most beautiful church in Quito. I have to disagree, and say the most beautiful church is the more mordern Basilica del Voto Nacional. This vast gothic edifice, with enchanting stained glass stands on a hill and the views from the towers are impressive. I'm proud to say I managed to clamber across the rickety wooden plank in the Cathedral roof, and up the first ladder, to the souther tower and was delighted to find myself looking out across the roof, and out at a beautiful view of Quito. I was, however horrified to find that the next step was t climb two ladders which stuck out off the building, where one wrong step, would definitely result in death -I'm sad to say I chickened out of that bit.

Anyone who knows Luke will know that he feared the much talked about crime in Quito. His fears were not alleviated by the warnings plastered all over the hostel to be careful, or the stories of increased knife crime, muggings and bag slashing that were rife amongst travellers there. It also didn't help that the president was kidknapped by the police a few days before we arrived and had to be rescued by the military. Ecuador had declared a state of emergency. The hostel owner emailed to say “don't worry whilst yesterday was bad everything's fine again today.” We were told “these things happen in South America.” More worrying still when we arrived in Quito we were told there was no need to worry, because it wasn't political it was just a pay dispute. A dispute which resulted in lootings and tourists being robbed at banks, mainly because the police were too busy kidnapping a President to arrest anyone.

During our week in Quito we heard a variety of stories as to what really happened. One version is that the police are all right wing crooks, not supported by the nation, in their money grabbing criminal ways and the other end of the scale, is the version in which the president staged the whole thing to increase is popularity. Who knows where the truth lie -but we should thankful for our stable (if comparatively boring) democracy.

One afternoon we were eating chicken and rice in a chicken restaurant by the Grande Plazza, when the restaurant suddenly appeared to be surround by military (some of whom were also eating chicken), all of whom had very large guns. As we were walking out, men speaking into their sleaves appeared. Having worked in politics I knew this could only mean one thing, Hero or fraud I was still very excited when the President walked past.

Whilst on the subject of chicken and rice, it is impossible to be in Quito and not have a meal involving rice and chicken. The best we had was in the small cafe opposite our hostel, where chicken and rice soup followed by fried chicken, rice and lentils, with a fresh fruit juice was $1.65 -about £1.10. The fresh juices in Ecuador are amazing, and I never tire of them, though it's fair to say after a couple of weeks you can tire of rice and chicken.

We spent our last couple of nights in the Mariscal, which is the main tourist area,and known locally as Gringolandia. Gringolandia has an array of nice bars and restaurants, but my advice to anyone planning on visiting Quito would be to stay elsewhere and if you go out in Mariscal pay the two dollars to get a cab home. A lot of people seem to find comfort in its Western feel, but it is more expensive than everywhere else in Quito and is actually very dangerous at night, being a tourist mugging hotspot.

On our last day in Quito we got a cab out to the Equator. There are two places you can visited at the Equator, the official equator where the big statue marking the equator is. This is the spot where, over 200 years ago they “found” the equator. You can have your photo taken on the line, and have a very reasonably priced burger. Then you can go 10 minutes up the road to the real equator, which was found years later-using GPS. We did both, and the real equator was more fun. Dave and Zara, two lovely fellow travellers from Northern Ireland who came with us, would agree. Those people who shell out for the fake one and think they've seen the equator - but actually haven't - probably wouldn't...

Did you know?

1. You can balance an egg on a nail on the equator.
2. It's really hard to walk along the equator with your eyes shut without falling over, because of the gravitational pull
3. You're weaker when you stand on the equator.

And of course we did the exciting water experiment, and the water really does go straight down on the equator, and in opposite ways North and South.

Lots of love,

Louise and Luke

(Posted by Louise)