I know Malcolm's entries have been keeping you all enthralled.

This is just my take on Ecuador.

So arriving in Quito wasn't the nerve-wracking experience I thought it was going to be. Thanks to Renee and Nicks' experience I was expecting a scary dark little city that was not going to be friendly, but I found just the opposite. So many opportunities to practice my Spanish, from the receptionist of our first beautiful hotel laughing along at my first attempts at Spanish after a year without practice (which by the way Abbey it was even up to your standards), to the taxi drivers warning me that the area we were moving to was "muy peligroso" and I should try their friend's hotel, asking if Malcolm and I were married and if Craig, one of the guys we met, was my father in law! All seemed so willing to assist with grammar and sentence errors. Even one random Ecuadorian we met on the bus was happy to have a slow conversation in Spanish, (or spanglish, as his English was at the level of my Spanish!). Everyone told us when it was safe or dangerous to do something, and everyone made sure we understood.

So many more people here spoke English than I was expecting. In every town, in almost every situation, we could have chosen the easy option and spoken in English, but we persevered with Spanish, and Malcolm seems to be picking it up well too. At dinner on our last night in Baños he ordered, took care of the bill and everything, without a word of English.

And so onto the idiosyncrasies of Ecuador, as expected, there were many examples of "No te preocupes" (No worries) and "Mañana, mañana" (tomorrow... tomorrow) with everything such as bus times, walking distances, paying bills and where we were going next. On the bus from the jungle through the Andes, there was an assortment of people getting on and off, families, homeless asking for money, women selling "colitas, aqua, papas fritas, heladitos", clowns, children, farmers, locals, and anyone else you can imagine. And very few tourists. It was always easy to find the bus you were looking for, the touts seemed to find us rather than the other way around. I will always have in my head the constant cry of the bus conductor: "A-Quito-A-Quito-A-Quito-A-Quito-A-Quito"

Off to the jungle, amazing animals as Malcolm has detailed, our guide had the eyes of a hawke to spot the animals he found for us. A black shadow in the trees turned out to be a Sloth, rustling leaves, a couple of monkeys jumping across the river. Sunburn crept up on us each time we jumped in the canoe. Insects serenaded us to sleep. I get the feeling that there are a few people back home that would have loved it, and a few that could think of nothing worse! As for swimming near the Piranhas, I have heard that they only will attack if there is no other food available or if you are bleeding. I hope thats true, but I have all my fingers and toes so I came away unscathed. The food was great, jungle juices fresh and different at every meal. Knowing what does go bump in the night in the jungle however is not quite so refreshing. Seeing tarantulas too close for comfort but thankfully none appeared in our room as they did in one of the other traveler's rooms after we left. We were told he promptly squashed it so that it didn't climb into his bed. That didn't go down too well with the guides...

We swam in the Amazon sunset in the Laguna Grande, searched for a few nocturnal animals as it became dark and then the canoe sliced through a black lake of stars on out way back to the lodge. Unforgettable.

The views on the way back to Quito were breathtaking, as were some of the overtaking risks out driver took. A memorable moment was an old woman with an aged and wrinkled face climbed onto the bus as it was moving off, clutching a white Hessian bag and a large knife. She sat down, and as the bus gathered speed, the head of a baby goat popped up out of the bag, wide eyed, looking around. Perhaps he was looking for a quick escape. We don't know, but that knife looked sharp, especially as she struggled out of her seat and down the aisle as the driver swerved along the windy cliff top roads, falling towards us.

Otavalo was a great little town. Didn't get much time to look around, but the market was fabulous. Spent too much money and now my pack is way too full, am contemplating buying another suitcase to pull after me to keep all my souvenirs. We're definitely not living the tough backpacker life this time. I blame those at home, because oops- budget going down the drain, however I'm not complaining. I have heard the term is "flashpacking" and am happy to do it that way - watch out VISA and MasterCard, here come the bills!!!

Despite bus drivers sending us walking with bags for 10km toward the equator line, we found Mitad del Mundo and half the fun for me was seeing the geek in Mal come out (not that he hides that often) at the experiments showing the water flowing different ways, balancing the egg on the equatorial line. The photos will better show his excitement I'm sure.

Down to Baños, and the term flashpacking really kicked in. The hotel was like a small resort, with a beautiful garden, a massive room with immediate hot water (others we have had to wait a few minutes) and a Macaw in the back garden. Shabby. We had a half day horse riding, and after two years, I was so sore I hate to think how Mal felt after 3 hours on the horses! I started with a beautiful little horse that was raring to go, however Mal's feet wouldn't fit in the stirrups of his horse and we had to swap. All good, except his horse didn't want to go at all! He galloped anyway eventually, and by the end, the young guide Andres and I were holding our horses back, waiting for the rest of the group to get ahead, and then he would ask "¿Vamos?" (Shall we go?), wait for a nod from me and off we went, galloping to catch up the rest of the group. Up the mountain, and we started to hear a low rumbling coming from above. As it turned out the mountain we were climbing was a volcano, currently active, and the loud rumbling was coming from within. "Its alright, we are talking with the engineers on the ground, we are ok here" said the guide. Given they had survived the massive eruption and subsequent evacuation in August last year, if they weren't scared being there, I was fine with it too. It was amazing going past the lava flows from last year. Every so often you would see the top of a house appearing out of the ash dirt and rock. The lava trail went all the way down the mountain and was quite a humbling thing to see.

So that's my take on Ecuador. Hopefully it didn't repeat too much of what Mal has already written. All I know is I need to come back. Galapagos, Cotopaxi, Quilatoa, Cuenca, there is so much to see and enjoy in this Country. Highly Recommended.

I will write again after Peru. Enjoy Mal's updates in the meantime. xx