A dog, a pig and two damp rucksacks

It's only been a week since I last wrote on here, but so much has happened and Ecuador has been so fab, prepare yourself... this will be a long update.

From La Selva, we spent a night in Quito and then travelled to Zumbahua, a very remote, cold and lonely town. We bought tickets for the nice bus but accidentally got on the locals' bus. Our bags went up on the roof, along with a dog that had been strapped up there. A couple of villages on and the bus stopped to pick up more passengers, including... a pig. A quick discussion between the owner of the pig and the conductor and the poor thing was also dragged up on the roof, squealing as it went. Of course, no-one else batted an eyelid.

After a while it started to rain and we had a slight sense of humour failure as we realised our clothes and sleeping bags were getting soaked. It was a good deal colder in Zumbahua and no laundrette, but by some miracle, even though it hammered it down, our stuff was relatively dry.

Freezing cold and the only gringos in town (and the only people in our hostel), I started to worry when Dave said we might be murdered in our sleep. Fortunately four spaniards arrived at the hostel - more safety in numbers and we survived the night.

The reason for going to Zumbahua is to see the beautiful Laguna Quilotoa, a gorgeous crater lake, filled with emerald water. An opportunistic local had offered to drive us there, so we set off the next morning and it was truly breathtaking. Although the hike back up to the top was quite hard work and we really started to feel the altitude. Driving us back, the same guy offered to drive us on to Latacunga for only $6 more than the bus, so we jumped at the chance. Of course, he took the opportunity to give all of the locals a lift into town (it's about a 90 minute drive) and so Dave and I shared the passenger seat, with two people in the drivers' seat and the rest in the back of the truck.

From there we headed to Banos, which is nestled between mountains and waterfalls. We found a great little restaurant for dinner that had curry on the menu. Knowing that a good curry is non-existent in Oz and truly sick of egg and beans, we both ordered what was described as a vindaloo. In fact, it was a creamy mild curry with bananas, but it was still good.

The next day, we kicked off with some canyoning. I'm so glad I did this first in Costa Rica where it is set up exceptionally well. Ecuador´s approach is a lot more slap-dash and a lot colder! But it was good fun, even though I was quite scared. We then hired some bikes but about 2km out of town, I got a flat and we had to walk the bikes back. We decided to console oursleves with cheese fondue and a bottle of crack juice, when we met Jill - a widely travelled American, living in Ecuador. She mentioned she was looking for company on an 11 hour drive to the coast and in return, she offered to put us up in one of her bungalows for $5 a night. So with no fixed plans we decided to join her.

The drive was spectacular. The scenery changes dramatcially as you drive across the Andes into a more tropical climate, and then on the Pacific. The next day, Jill had booked us onto a whale watching tour and a hike on the 'poor man's Galapogos'. I can only compare seeing whales to the first time I saw a giraffe on safari. On the boat, I'd turned to look the other way, when I heard a gasp. I looked back, and there was a huge humpback whale mid-jump. Awesome. We slowed down and watched for ages a mother and calf, leaping and playing. We have pics and film footage, that I'll try to upload. We also met a cracking American couple, Frank and Stephanie. Honeymooners who were really good fun.

The next day, Jill took us to a school where she teaches English. It is funded by donations and the teachers get paid very little. The kids are very poor, but they all brought in ingredients and baked us a cake. They were so excited to meet us and Dave did a little talk about Jill´s dog who had died, explaining why it happened, as Jill translated. After our cake and jelly, we said our goodbyes, giving each of the kids a kiss and a cuddle. It was very humbling and the kids were totally cute (and yes, I appreciate this is me talking).

And now we're in Guayaquil airport waiting for a flight to Lima, Peru. Tomorrow we fly to Cuzco, and from there to Machu Picchu. Just three weeks left til we reach Sydney...