Hey!

well i´m actually in baños but this blog wouldn´t recognise it, had a busy few days, mainly in the amazon jungle....very cool!

this is actually the second time i´m writing this entry as i didn´t have much time before, or my diary with me, and believe me the altitude certainly affects your memory here! and your fitness, 2 flights of stairs in quito at 4000m felt like you´d run a marathon!

anyway, met the other group members at the pre departure meeting, monia and luca from italy, both in there 30´s, and victoria, 24 from edinburgh, oh and jed the driver and kim the leader. all seemed really nice and friendly.

decided we´d stay in quito until the sunday so we could stay and watch the rugby on the saturday...in an irish bar of course, a disappointing outcome but good to get there all the same i guess.

so on the sunday, we headed up to otavalo via the equator which was very cool, then had to buy jumpers and scarves in otavalo because it was just so cold. visited a crater lake called cotacachi on the sunday and did a 6km walk, which was good practice for walking at altitude...ready for the inca trail.

tuesday we went to papallacta thermal springs, gorgeous to be sat in hot pools surrounded by mountains! then that night we did our first bush camp, and it was freezing. victoria and i were teamed up for ´jobs´on the trcuck so our turn to cook, just did a pasta and veg in a tomoato sauce mix which seemed to go down well. was sharing a tent with emma, and we were all ready to go to bed by about half 8!...but stuck it out until 9:15pm!

wednesday, went from papallacta to mishualli, via tena for lunch. had a bbq off the truck in the hotel car park, but down to 400m now so finally able to crack open teh shorts and t shirts!!...at last.

thursday was our treck into the jungle, pretty hard core with lots of creepy crawlies, and a lot of up and down muddy paths, got lent some wellies which we were all very grateful of! we got to the camp site in the jungle where we were staying about lunchtime. really grateful to be able to zip off the bottom of my trousers and put trainers on, however that lasted about 5 minutes as got eated alive by sand flies...not pleasant! camp site was right on the river tho and was beautiful. learnt about the traditional indian way of searching for gold in the fter noon and had a little siesta in a hammock...bliss.

after dinner, we went on a canoe boat ride up the river in the dark, then turned the engine off to float back down it...pitch black, but full moon, tons of stars and an absolute racket of jungle noises...incredibly surreal! back to the camp for a bonfire and a taste for the local sugar cane fire water!

cockerel kindly woke us up at 6 the following morning, pancake and fruit at the camp before another walk into the jungle, with a guy called wilfred! tried lots of jungle delicacies! bits of different plants here and there, some quite sweet, some not so great...especially the ants in the stem of a lemon plant, they turned out to be quite bitter! natural cinammon and mush around a cocoa been was quite cool tho.

at the end of the walk we ended up back down at the river, to meet the canoe and a whole load of big rubber rings...basically went tubing down the river over rapids, absolutely brilliant, only came out once but well worth it! back to the camp for lunch after a play in the river then back to mishualli along the river in the canoe.

even wrote in my diary that i´d thought about donna a lot today and turns out that was the day she was having contractions, must be telepathic!

another bbq off the truck for tea and far too much vodka (3 quid a bottle you can´t really complain, or turn it down! lol!) so woke up with a hangover, but perfect excuse to sleep for some of the time of the all day drive to banos. stopped for lunch in tena, prawns and rice (which have lived to regret) and headed back up into the mountains so a bit cold and cloudy again :-(

got to the hostel and able ot put dvd´s on for free so we watched shrek while victoria and i made a tuna and pasta mix. however by the end of it i wasn´t feeling to great, and to be honest have been pretty poorly ever since. got as far ast he paddock for horse rididng yesterday before i threw up, and supposed to be white water rafting this morning but just couldn´t face it :-( not good. but glad to have a chance to catch up on this blog, and victoria has said she´ll come with me in chile, as that´s where she wanted to do it really anyway.

so i´ve kinda just been chilling out in baños, taking it easy and enjoying the news of my new nephew, just kind of gutted that i can´t be there to meet him.

well off to do the devils nose train ride from riobamba tomorrow, and it´s emma´s birthday on wednesday so we´ll have a bit of a party for her. and when i´m feeling better will be wetting the babies head!

hope you´re all well

you may also have noticed i´m having a complete nightmare uploading photo´s, jungle picture isn´t my own sadly

will keep trying, be in touch

xxx