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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