mancora

it´s been a little while.

i´m in a little place called mancora, peru. after our week of spanish we wished cuenca and our spanish teacher the best and headed south to the border. it involved nearly 2 days of hell but we got there. from cuenca we caught the 6 hour bus to loja, we arrived there at 2am, checked into hotel londres and got up in time to get the 7am border bus. the bus was about 9 or 10 hours including border formalities.

after a few miles into peru... south america became a whole new ball game. ecuador had been a lush mountainous, picture postcard, landscape... and now we were surrounded by vast flats of desert. the first town was piura. what an absolute hole. no joke. whats worse is the lonely planet say´s not to worry about using US dollars. bull. one tuc tuc ride later we found that to be the case and despite the taxi driver offering to take us to the cash point we managed to walk away only to spend the next hour trying every cash point with a ´visa´sign... finally we got one that worked.




from there it was a mere 4 hours to mancora to be confronted by the best hostel i´ve ever been to in full swing on saturday night. some familiar faces from ecuador and some great volenteers have kept me here since. it´s been a mixed 10 days. for the last 5 i´ve been trying to get rid of a horrible bug that has done the rounds. i won´t describe the symptoms. however, work begins tommorrow... which seems more like play. i´ll be surfing during the day and behind the bar or organising some crazy game at night... if you need me you can catch me on 555-this is the life.

photos are coming i promise.

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the devils nose

a few peeps from banos headed to riobamba to start the 6 hour train ride, known as ´the devils nose´. what an awesome trip it was, ridingthe top of the train in glorious sunshineround some pretty cool switchbacks on the side of a mountain. it annoyed me to see some gringos throwing sweets to the indigenous kids as we went by butother than that all was perfecto.

unfortunately i´d failed to charge my battery before heading out at 6am and only managed to get a few snaps, apologies. but hopefully there should be some facebook tags to help me remember just how awesome that day was.

five of us stayed in the last town, Alausi, before spliting, i headed on to cuença with kate (aussie), and an irish-new zealand couple.

kate (from melbourne no less) and i have enrolled in a spanish school for the week and have managed to find a great hostel with kitchen to make the week as productive and affordable as possible. the last two days have been all shits and giggles around the town, the highlight was buying a truly amazing panama (montecristi) hat from this amazing 80 year old mute called alberto. the guy was absolute gold.

more on cuença to follow, and heeps of photos. wish me luck with the classes, entrance exam on monday. x

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banos

banos is a small town about 2 hours south of latachunga, it is stunning. a goldfish bowl, surrounded by beautiful volcanic mountains, waterfalls, and hot springs. there´s so much to do - hence i was there for 8 days. the hostel - plantas y blanco - is perfect for the young traveler, and luckily i was there with a great crowd. the communal kitchen gave me the opportunity to show off my bangers and mash skills, and some other great meals from those who stepped up to the plate...

i got stuck in straight away with some white water rafting, then an essex boy (adam) and i hired some quads to do the hour trip to the top of the mountain, unfortunately we got stuck with one thats chain kept coming off - so racedback to the shop to swap it... the replacement was worse - the chain kept breaking, but by the end of our two hours and after free-wheeling down the mountainside - we left it for hem to pickup. good times.

the bars in town were great. a cool 3 levelled, open, pool bar; the leprechaun - a fake irish bar with cool courtyard and the local dancing sweatbox.

four of us decided to try and rent some more mechanically disabled vehicles and head round the mountain roads to see what we could find. we found a mini (35m) bungy jump off a bridge, some cable-zip cars that flew over the river, and some tunnels. two of the tunnels weren´t a problem given that you took off your sun glasses - as the end was in site - but the last one we came through on the way back had a bend half way, and andy and my lights were both out. i went into the wall unhurt but andy got his bike stuck in the side ditch after crashing into the wall. with a bus coming up the rear, a lot of shouting and noise, and andy´s hand smashed up we made it out alive. we got back to town. $50 for the damage to the bike or no passport... er, take it you prick - and we got andy into the er room. all was fine.

loved banos, and the people there - will no doubt miss it.

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cotopaxi

so i decided to leave quito on a bank holiday. the bus station was hectic. after about an hour of trying to figure out the logistics of tickets which termianal to go to, etc. i managed to stand in the right bundle for the bus... it was mayhem... sort of a riot to try and get on a bus, with angry police puching people, people climbing into windows and dogs being thrown through windows. i managed to get on - just! - and get a seat with my pack securely on my lap. latachunga my destination, i made small talk with the locals on the back seat.

the hostal (cafe tianna) is beautiful, but quiet. after a few drinks with the dutch owner and her ecuadorian husband the ipòd made its way onto the pa.

the following morning 2 german girls, myself and our guide drove us the hour and a half up winding dirt track needed to reach the base of cotopaxi. it´s beautiful. STUNNING. a 6000m, glacier topped, mountain... bigger than any in europe. the hike took about 2hour to get to a meeting building. from there we trundled to the snow, encouraging one of the girls who was so big headed at the start as to say it would be "easy". when we got there, it was a white out, expected but still a bit dissappointing as i am certain the view would have been amazing.

it was well worth doing and made me feel as though my adventure had started.

next stop riobamba or banos. x

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telerifiquo

after about four hours sleep we headed over to the base of the telerifiquo... a mulit million dollar cable car that seems so out of place in this city. it took us to 4100m which was enough to have me light headed. got some great photos as the view was pretty amazing, but it was a bit of a box ticker.

the best part of the day was when the go karts we´d heard about at the bottom of the ride turned out to be pretty impressive. 10 dollars for about half an hour but so worth it and made nicks and my day.

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"i´ve just been fucking robbed"

...she said as she came up the stairs on wednesday night. there´s been a few stories and events that have opened my eyes, and everyone in the hostels´, to how dangerous quito can be. the girl was on the last day of her trip about to fly home in the evening, she was at the end of the street at about 6pm when 5 guys jumped her and put her to the ground - taking her camera with the weeks photos and a bit of cash.

so a few of us decided to head into the mariscal (gringo land), a place that the lonely planet and the foreign office warn to not go to. the 3 irish girls, nick (aussie) and i had a pretty good evening and although we could feel the eyes on our backs and we could see the hookers, pimps and fellow gringos a mile off - we were safe as a group.

so funny drunken antics insued and come the end of the night nick and i looked forward to promises of shepherds pie friday night a la irish girls... i think i can stay another few nights. latacunga can wait.

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mitad del mundo

if you come this close you almost have to visit the equator... i didn´t expect much but it was a great first experience of what i can expect from trips in the area. after a horrible bus ride we arrived to the official center of the world... not so much... someone obviously got their bearings wrong and decided to build a massive monument there, surround it in restaurants and charge you a few bucks to get in. great what next? well right next door, a few hundred metres down a dirt track roas is the real 0´0´0, as confirmed by the us army no less. a cute little ecuadorian (i´m guessing thats the right terminology) showed us some history and then smiled as we took in some of the tricks that can happen on the magical line. see the video here as soon as i find somewhere that it doesn´t take three days to upload.

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touch down

after the scariest landing ever, i arrived safely in stormy quito. this meant that when i got my backpack from the baggage claim - it was pretty wet. anyways... just a quick post to touch base as i have much exploring of the old town to get through. the hostel is beautiful... with amazing views of the old town from the balcony.

i do hope this altitude headache goes away though.

much love

(update) if you search ´quito airport landing´ you´ll see what i mean http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=quito+airport+landing&aq=o&oq=

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counting down

so i have 18 days left of the UK. my preparations are going mostly to plan. and i'm winding down at work...

first port of call is ECUADOR. my only knowledge of which comes from lonely planet. but there are some really great sites out there for the travelling like... some that have been useful include:

trip wolf
hostel world
lonely planet
sta travel buzz

but more importantly there are so many online tools that help you in your preparations... i'm going to put a list together, but the most valuable to date is google maps, google docs, google mail, in fact... everything. i'll explain this in a future post.

wish me luck with my 5 jabs on friday - ouch!

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testing...

So obviously I thought it would be a nice idea to blog as I travel. This is a great thing to do when possible.

- No lugging a diary around that might get lost,
- There's internet cafe's nearly everywhere,
- I can pick up new ideas and tweak as I go,
- But mostly, it's a great place to keep my memories and let people know what I'm up to.

There'll be a few test post before I'm happy with the layout and it will be going onto it's own domain name thanks to google. So keep coming back to see how it's doing, if not only to help me out with some recommendations. You could say it's in BETA.

I jotted down some ideas as to what I should be taking from a few other blogs the other day... here it is...

Pack List (v.1)

CLOTHING
2 x T-shirts, 1 x Polo shirt, 2 x Shirts, 1 x warm jumper, 1 x rain jacket, 1 x jeans, 1 x light trousers, 2 x shorts, 2 x board shorts, underwear, socks, belt, cap, warm beenie

FOOTWEAR
Thongs, 2 x Trainers

ESSENTIALS
Sink plug, Money belt, Travel locks, Travel Towel, Lightweight Sleeping sheet, Passport Holder, Sunglasses & Case, Water Purification Tablets, Travel Washing line, Lonely Planet, Notepad & Pens, Sketching Pencils, Sharperner (swiss army) rubber, Money Clip, Ear Plugs, Elastic Bands, Zip Lock Bags, Diary, Bin Liners,

FIRST AID & TOILETRIES
Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Soap, Toilet roll, Wash cloth, Tweezers, Small Scissors, Plasters, Bandage, Gauze Pads, Safety Pins, Pain killers, Hydrocortisone cream, Vaseline, Antiseptic Cream / Wipe, Motion sickness pills, Sun screen, Razor Blades, Malaria Medication, Antiperspirant, Insect Repellent,

ELECTRONIC
Phone & Charger, iPod & Headphones, Camera (Extra Memory Card, USB Connection & Charge cable), USB, Torch, Batteries, Power point Adapters, Shaver & Charger

OTHER
Wallet x 2, Student ID, International Driving permit, Certificate of Vaccinations, Passport Photos, Photocopies, Pack of cards

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