Hello everybody!Well, we are having a fantastic time in the glorious 30 degree heat of Vilcabamba! Glad you´re enjoying the wind/hail/snow back in Manchester!! It is beautiful here, really lush, lots of green and wildlife galore. We´ve been here three days - arrived on Saturady after a really smooth, uncomplicated 6hr bus journey from Cuenca! The travel pills work!!!We´ve been staying at a gorgeous german resort called Hostel Izhcaluma (or somet...

We have been in Cuenca for 3 days now - we hated it at first, but when we arrived we were both close to death so it´s no wonder really. We had the bus journey FROM HELL to get here. It was 6hrs from Riobamba on mud roads (dodging the odd mudslide) and with THE SMELLIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH!!!! Honestly, we picked up loads of locals on the way, and we can only describe them as smelling something like a combination between rotting onions and wet dog - ewwww - we were...

We´ve had an exciting few days! On Sunday we rode the famous Nariz del Diablo - we got ther at 6.30am thinking we were early as the train left at 7am - the train was already full!! So we perched precariously next to some american students who were studying in Quito. We had no safety rail unlike everyone else! It all added to the experience! :/ It was really enjoyable and the scenary was amazing, but after 5 hrs the thrill did start to wear off abit... mos...

Hey, forgot to tell you the best part about our hack yesterday - my girth (that´s the strap that holds the saddle on for those non-horsey folk) snapped mid-gallop!!!! The guys tied my saddle back together with abit of old rope and then off we went at full gallop again!!! Much fun!!! thank god it didn´t happen to Andy! Today we are in Riobamba, an hour or so South of Baños. We have booked in at the Hotel Tren Dorado, right in the middle of town, and as the tow...

Soph: Thank god we are still alive! Andy: So much pain!!!!!! What a day! It truly was the hack of certain doom!! My god, i´ve never seen anyone so petrified as Andy as his horse shot from 0 - 60 in 2 seconds! I was crying with laughter and still am every time i think about it!!! ...not sure andy feels the same way ...he has blisters on his hands in the shape of the saddle he was clinging on to!!! oops. *Andy is currently looking for any woman who has no inte...