Day 14 Friday - 07/04/06 Up at 6am to go to the Tropical Cloud Forest and a very small towñ called Mindi, where I tubed (a collection of inner tubes tied together to form a raft and you hang onto ropes) down the Mindo River, it was only a small river but very fast flowing helped by the torrential rain, freezing but great fun, my guide came with me even though she didn't have a change of clothes, so we both got drenched ;o) Visited a butterfly santuary an...

Day 13 Thursday 06/04/06 Up early for a visit to the mountains and hot springs. Saw some wild Lama on the way, see pics and climbed to 4,000m for some spectacular views, but completely out of breath, but good training for the Inca trail. The hot springs we fantastic 5 pools of differing heat up to 50 degrees, some you could lay in like a jacuzzi and others that showered you with warm water. It was raining and I was laying there looking up at the mountians an...

Day 8 01/04/06 Full days trip to a market 2 hours outside Quito, on the way met my first lama and went to another equator line site and balanced an egg on it's end which you can do more easily on the equator line. The market was fantastic with all the clothes and food being so different. This is a huge market and somehow managed to bump into my South African friends. Met some of the people who will be coming on the same boat on my tour and they are great fun, we ...

Day 7 31/03/06 Yesterday's flights went well i.e. we made it although we did have some huge turbulence at times. Met a lovely South African couple on the flight from Santiago, they had a great sense of humor and had traveled the world and we just laughed and laughed. It was great to have some company and laugh so much. For what was meant to be a hostel at $10 a night the room was massive and the person I was sharing with hasn't turned up yet, so loads o...

Day 6 30/03/06 Up at 4am to catch first flight of 4 today!! ** During the flights I was thinking about a couple of things that happened in Rio. A local gave me some great advice as we landed at Rio ''Try not to look like a foriegner'' it's hard to blend in when you're the only one carry a ruck sack and your skin hasn't seen sun for neatrly a year. Don't always trust advice from locals if they are trying to sell you something, one my first day I truste...