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Hello all,
We are now a week down and 3 cities in between. Currently we are spending our Sunday night in Cuenca. So far we seem to have followed national festivals around the country compeltely by accident.
We were wlecomed in Quito by President Correa, his hundred strong band, sea of Ecuadorian flags, and some Secret Service esque security. Sadly we soon realised this wasn't quite in honour of our arrival, rather we were standing on a bench at the back of a rather large crowd. We still haven't quite figured out what it was for but we still hold that we probably missed our reserved seats on the balcony of the President's palace. Beyond this Quito was essentially a big city, full of people working and not many travellers/tourists. So after 2 days we made tracks and headed for the much smaller town of Baños.
It rained. It rained some more. Then it rained even more. We thought the best idea was therefore to go the jungle, not quite remembering that this was a place known for its rain! Rory spent most of this day questioning how Toby could ever gain an A star in Geography. However, this trip was definitely the highlight so far for a combo of reasons. Firstly we fell upon a guide who was a delicate mix of Rambo, the Hoff and Tony Montana. Genuis. His english may have been straight from any blockbuster film and his sense of humour like wise, but he proved to be an absolute gem taking just firstly canoeing (although we thought it was more white water rafting) and then on a hike to a spectacular waterfall avoiding all recognisable paths. Rambo then tried to convince us that we could go befriend a taratula we found, we used whatever tactful displomacy we had left to avoid that. The tour did not end when we returned to Baños, we preceeded to the urban jungle of the seedy local bars at which Rambo proved to much the man about town. We thought it best to leave him alone in his native environment after a drink (or several in his case).
Our first valuable life lesson came last night, our first night in Cuenca when we arrived to another unknown festival. The only thing we now know of this festival is that it rather consumes accomodation in this city. After a few attempts and again many questions of Toby's map reading abilites, we foud what could only be described as a gem from the 1920's and an owner to go with that. Th slogan was clean, safe and cheap... well one of those was true at least! We'll leave you to guess. Having seen our fair share of Ecuadorian festivals we are staring down the barrell of a 5AM wake up to catch a bus to capital of Peruvian surf, Mancora. We have secured accomodation 600 metres from the town, now all we have to do is find it... Toby may not be trusted with the map again as this hostel is located close to the sea and Rory swimming abilites are limited to floating.
Our Spanish is improving but unfortunately Rory keeps on finding himself involved in deep political debates with the locals and there is a limit to how some political issues can be explained through charades. He is learning new shapes by the day.
Anyway, we must go eat but hope you are all well. We will be sure to send you a review of Toby's surfing and Rory's floating. xx
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