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Hi!
So I thought I'd better start writing this since I'm now 2 weeks in and actually now in Peru...
I'll start with the journey over. After being dropped off by my Dad at Heathrow at 5.30am I waited around for the first flight to Madrid. On time, slept whole way over so that was good. Got to Madrid and plane was delayed by an hour so hung about reading at the airport. Got onto next plane and realised I had been upgraded to business plus class. It was brilliant. I got champagne as I sat down and a menu with 3 choices each for starter, main and dessert. Ended up having veal, beef and chocolate cake all served on nice china plates with proper cutlery! The seat reclined a full 180 degrees back and had a massage option. Own tv, the lot. Didnt want to get off the plane at Quito!
Anyway I arrived in Quito about 5pm there time and was pretty tired. Got a taxi to my hostel, checked in, had a beer and went to bed. First full day in Quito I wandered to the Basillica and climbed to the top, it had some pretty nice views of the city. I wandered around some plazas for a while and there was a protest going on. Couldnt quite work out what they were protesting against but it was interesting to watch anyway. Decided to go sit in a park and read in the afternoon. That night I ate on the terrace at the hostel which had an amazing view over Quito. Met some guys at the hostel and played cards until the early hours and got recommendations of where to go/stay.
The next day I went with some people to Mitad del Mundo (middle of the earth) which is a very touristy place that has the equator line. The actual monument the built on it isnt acutally on the ecuator line, they found out a few years ago via gps that they were about 400m off. Funny. We then wandered up to a huge crater which I think was 4km across and they say is the largest inhabited active volcano crater. I dunno though cus I always had an image of a load of lava in a crater but this was just fields and houses. Pretty epic view with the clouds rolling in though.
The day after this, a french guy called Cherif and I took a bus to Banos about 3.5 hours south of Quito. The bus ride was pretty funny, the drivers are reckless and they stop every 10 mins, some people get on a try to sell anything from food to pegs to sunglasses and then hop off again. The views of the mountains from the bus were pretty spectacular though.
Got to banos and checked into a hostel. Everyone in ecuador was celebrating quayaquils independance this weekend so it was pretty busy. Went to a few bars at night which was cool. During one day I hired a mountain bike for 5 dollars for the day and cycled round the andes. It was a really nice day and missioned it down to dome epic waterfalls. To get back we had to stop a bus and put the bikes on the roof, was pretty funny.
Sunday I just lazed around the hostel, such a hard life travelling!
On the monday we went white water rafting in grade 3 rivers down towards the jungle. I'd never done this before but had so much fun! There were a couple of times I almost fell in but thankfully stayed in the boat the whole time. It cost me 25 dollars and we got transport, 2 hours on the river and lunch. Bargain!
The next day me and the french guy headed to Cuenca, which took a boring 8 hours to get to. The room in the hostel was right next to a pub so had music playing really loudly until midnight and the speaker may as well have been on my bedside table. So loud. Wandered round cuenca, not a great deal to see but a nice small town and felt safer than quito. Went to a bar at night and there was a band playing. I danced a bit and then this ecuadorian lady grabbed me and tried to teach me to dance, obviously I looked like I had no idea what I was doing and still to this day cant dance! Was a funny night.
That should do it for now, I have 2 mins left on this comp. Moved onto Peru now but ill leave that for another time. Hope you're all well!! So far so good. xx
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