Continuing our amazing journey through South America, we left the Amazon and travelled down to Riobumba via Banyos then onto Alusi, Cuenca and Guyaquil. We were supposed to be riding on an open air train but due to the weather being freezing we decided to travel in a bus that 10 Dutch guys were travelling in through Ecuador, whilst they braced the cold instead. We finally reached a place called Montinita, which is a small coastal town and possibly the most chilled out place in the world. Everybody simply surfs, walks around barefoot, juggles in th street, lays in hammocks and drinks Cuba libres ( a rum based cocktail!). We have to admit thought that we did do a little more of the cuba libre drinking than we did sufing, but we will have plenty more time for that. As soon as the bus dumped us and our bags at the side of the road, a surfer dude called Ricky strolled up to us, no shoes on, cup of tea in hand and showed us to his hostel. It was great, bamboo made cabins, hammocks and so we decided to over look the fact that he was previously a cocaine addict, alcoholic and his brother was in jail for drug dealing! We spent five days (2 days longer than we had planned) literally chilling! We bumped into the 10 dutch guys who we had managed to see everywhere in Ecuador and proceeded to salsa each night away, cuba libre in hand, until the sun came up! We also managed to crash their private hotel bbqs and make full use of their swimming pool, which looked out onto the beach. We never would have imagined that we would end up sat around with 10 Dutch lawyers playing drinking games at 5am. We made a good friend in a surfer dude named Charlie, who taught us for free and brought us several presents including a jar of nutella, lolly pops and bracelets! He also offered for us to stay with his family and use his car in the next city we were visitng but of course being the worldly, sensible travellers that we are, we declined (as we also did with a rather dodgy looking guy from Lima who told us that his sister could "sort us out" in Peru!) Words really cannot describe the atmosphere in this town. People didn't seem to have any worries or anything to stress about and it was really difficult leaving. We all agreed that we could have stayed there forever (so if we don't come back you know where to find us!). When we finally forced ourselves to buy bus tickets, we ended up changing them to stay longer! Anyways when we eventually did leave, we travelled back to Guyaquil for a night then did a 9hr bus journey to Mancora in Peru. We crossed the Ecuadorian border in a bus, which is the safest option as most buses make you get off and walk over it by foot ( which by the sounds of it is just asking for a mugging!) There are several passport checks by very scary looking guys with guns and everybody trying to fool you into paying to cross. We did however arrive safely in Mancorao for some more sand and sun! We had to check out of our room today at 12 and so spent the day on the beach until our bus in the evening. As our hostel refused to let us use he showers we proceeded to shower in style, using bottles of mineral water. The local seemed to enjoy the show anyway! So we are now off on a 20 hour bus jouney to Lima (also known as the most dangerous city in Peru) and then flying to Rio de Janerio tomorrow! Hope everyone is well lots of love Cary, Annie and Rys xxx