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Alrighty, so we arrived in Baños a few days ago, from Cuenca and before that, Mancora, so I'll do a little summary on them all.
Mancora was just a little beach town, known for surfing, and sunning. It was our tour leaders "21st" birthday the night we arrived so we had a big night out, starting with dinner, and then drinks in a couple of bars, aswell as a shop actually that we ended up in. Very strange, there was not much was open, so a guy ended up having a party in a clothes shop, we were just having a few drinks...browsing the clothes. Bizarre. We went home fairly early though as we wanted to get up and make the most of the sun the next day! We were sharing a room with Athena though (and millions of ants!), who got back at 8am, making our 3am seem VERY pathetic. We got up earlyish though and went for a nice leisurly breakfast at 'Angela's Place' which was VERY healthy organic, non-fat, non-dairy, but good, and then just had a wander around the markets before spending the rest of the day on the beach, in the sea, and tried our hand at surfing. Sadly the waves were a bit non-existant, so we're going to have anpther go in Costa Rica we think. The evening was the very exciting prospect of Mexican Food, which we were really looking forward too (a bit of spice at last!!) but despite it being very nice, we were disappointed with the spice element...it was Peruvian Mexican for sure...plain.We also had our last Inca Cola today as we left Peru the next day for Ecuador. No more Inca Cola...and boy were we sad about it.
Very scary border crossing the next day from Peru over to Cuenca in Ecuador. It was bedlam, and we had to get our exit stamps from one place (guarding all our bags with our lives as we went) before getting taxis to another place to get our Ecuador entry stamps, then making a mad dash to catch our 12 o clock bus into Cuenca itself. We wouldn't have had a clue what to do if we were on our own. Apparantly people don't know to get the Ecuador entrance stamp, thinking buses will stop at immigration like they do everywhere else, and then get charged 200 dollars to get the stamp in Quito or at the airport. It's a very complicated process, but an excellent money making scheme.
Next stop Cuenca, where we had new members join the group, Mariella and Dirkjam from Holland, and Rick and Donna from Canada, all very lovely. We had Italian at the hotel and then a few of us went for Ice-Cream. We had another early start to go and see the inca ruin, Inga Pirca, which was cool, but no Machu Picchu...but in its defence, we didn't walk four days to see it, so we still appreciated it. We spent the afternoon having a VERY leisurly lunch and exploring the city before having the worst dinner we've had so far. Because we'd had such a late lunch, Gem and I weren't eating, so we ordered drinks, and snacky bits, but waited 2 hours for any food to appear, and apparantly it really wasn't worth it, nobody was very impressed with their meals. We had a laugh though...very entertaining.
Onto Baños...known for its LIVE volcano which could erupt at anytime! We were warned to listen for the sirens and just run. Luckily it decided to stay un-erupted. The next thing Baños is know for is it's adrenaline sports. We were very excited about the many things on offer and squeezed as much as we could into our two days.
Day one, we spent the morning Canyoning, which is abseiling down waterfalls. It was very fun, but hard work, they didn't prepare us for the 30 minute trek up a very steep muddy hill...in wetsuits and plimsoles! But the canyoning was well worth it. We also got to slide down some on our bums, landing with pretty great splashes at the bottom. Athena entertained us alot aswell, refusing to go ahead with her abseiling, however, there was no other way down, so she had to go down each waterfall with the guide...who happened to be quite good looking? Coincidence Athena? We think not. By the time we got back, we were just on time to set off with Claire, Dave, Kristy and Todd for our swing jump. We weren't quite sure what to expect, we just knew we were jumping of a 100m bridge over a river. When we got there, the bridge was actually an open bridge, with cars driving along it, with a guy stood on one side of it holding a rope, and a wooden platform hanging to the other side. The way it worked, you jumped off forwards, 'like a bird' and would then free fall for about 50m before stopping, and swinging under the bridge, appearing on the other side. Dave got harnessed up first and clambered up the railings of the bridge onto the platform and was very quickly counted down, 3...2...1 and he went! We were all so giddy and full of butterflies on the bridge, and Donna, Rick and Sarah had come to watch so the were getting us all riled up aswell. Gem decided she wanted to get hers done so off she went next, followed by Kristy, Claire and then Me. It was amazing, Gem and I decided it was like a mixture of the best and worst feelings ever, all rolled into one, "I don't wanna do it, damn I've already jumped, I'm gonna die, I'm flying, I'm falling to my death, This is amazing, Ouch that hurt, wow the river, I'm swinging, I've done it!" Our tour leader, Todd, said he would only do it if the five of us went ahead and did it...and we did, so he was a bit gutted, but he did it, and was hilarious, he was obsessed with looking like a condor as he jumped! We went back to the hotel in very high spirits, and got ready to go out for Athenas birthday, where we had a lovely dinner at a swiss resteraunt and then chatted elatedly and danced Samba all night in a very random bar. Excellent day.
The following morning we attempted a lie in, had a late breakfast and got ready to go horseriding. Gem was really giddy but I hadn't done it before, so was very reluctant...and remained reluctant the entire ride. It felt very un-natural and although very pleased I did it, wouldn't rush to do it again, I was glad to feel my feet on the ground again. I was very impressed with Gemma's riding though, she made it look so easy, and she was loving being back on a horse. Good scenery too. Quite amusing aswell becuase our guide was about ten years old at the most! I felt like such a wuss. We had dinner at the hotel that night and sat down to watch some films before bed, although nobody lasted a whole film before creeping off to bed, exhausted!
Today we set off on our four day excursion into the Amazon Jungle, staying in a very basic lodge with no hot water, limited electricity and definately no computers, so will blog all about our four days once we arrive in Quito. Keep your fingers crossed for us not getting bitten by a snake or being eaten alive by mosquitos guys!
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