Banos, 'bathroom' in Spanish and nestled south of Quito, is very much a Gringo-centric location. This isn't necessarily a negative as it makes it easier to book tours and converse in the mother tongue. We hired bikes for a 20k bike ride downhill(!) to waterfalls and trekked up hills to find shrines and crosses scattering the landscape. Whilst trecking military helicopters circled the mountains and soldiers scoured the earth to try and locate a missing 18 year old...

"Sir, there's a Ginger in Sector 4" stated the Lieutenant. "Excellent, release all units. We won't have had this much fun since the Albino of '92" chuckled the Squad Commander. ...or at least that's how I expect it played out in the control room of Biting Bugs Inc. Shortly after arriving at Mindo, a stunningly beautiful cloud forest, I received my first bite. This wasn't a normal bite from a Mosquito but instead a vicious assault upon my blood supply. Whilst Mo...

After three flights, we arrived safe and sound into Ecuador, to a large port city named Guayaquil. Guayaquil is neither pretty, nor steeped in history or culture, but offered a number of options for onwards transit into deeper Ecuador. Despite its somewhat functional offering Guayaquil has a traditional colonial-era neighbourhood , where brightly painted and ornately decorated wooden houses snake around a hill, with a lighthouse and small church perching on top. ...