Nicaragua

We predetermined, before we got to Nicaragua, that our time here was going to be relaxing!

Our first port of call was a small coastal town just over the border from Costa Rica called San Juan Del Sur. San Juan sits in a small cove lined with swaying palm trees and a stunning white sand beach, which was was pretty much empty the whole time we were there. The sea was warm and calm, perfect for the frequent swims that were required to cool down in the sizzling heat.

We found a hostal in a prime position on the beach front and we were lucky enough to get a room with a balcony overlooking the sea. We instantly agreed to stop here for at least four nights.

There is not a huge amount to say about San Juan. We spent breakfasts on the balcony, with neon green parrots perched just above us as squarking spectators. We basked on the beach during the day, drank cocktails on the beach front bars in the evenings watching the sunset into the ocean, and spent our nights eating amazing sea food. We'd finish the day as we started, sitting on the balcony with the sea breeze on our faces, but this time with bats whizzing through the air all around us. In summary, we had a great time there.

From San Juan we caught two buses and a boat across to the volcanic island of Ometepe. The small ferry rolled over the surprisingly choppy waters of the lake, with black smoke billowing out of the back. The island is about an hour from the mainland, and the enormous Volcán Concepcíon looms over you as you arrive at the main port, sulphuric clouds foaming the top of the peak from it's still active crater. At the other end of the island sits the extinct volcano of Maderas, covered in dense cloud forest filled with howler monkeys, whose roar you can hear from miles around.

From the main port we hopped on a bus to go 50km to the other end of the island to a village called Mérida, which sits at the bottom of Volcan Maderas and has one hostel. The 50km bus trip ended up taking us 3 hours, due to the amount of times it stopped to pick up and drop off the crammed on passengers, as well as the poor condition of the roads. Our hostel was on the banks of the lake and was ideally positioned to take in the stunning sunset every evening. It also came with two of it's very own bats, who would fly out of their little hidey hole in the wall and circle the reception area before returning to their home. There were also a plethora of "winged beasts", as Mel calls them, which were huge moths, beetles, fireflies and (Mel's favourite) mosquitoes. The remainder of our first day we spent lounging in hammocks reading and getting to know the people we were sharing our hostel with.

The following day, we awoke to find that Mel had been bitten on the foot by a spider. The puncture marks had swollen up and Mel felt a little under the weather. We decided to keep a close eye on it and that Mel should put her feet up in a hammock and spend the day relaxing. I, on the other hand, rented a kayak and spent four hours going along the south coast of the island observing the locals bathing and doing their laundry in the lake. It become obvious after a while just how integral the lake is to the local peoples' lives and how much they rely on it for everyday activities. Along the way I stumbled across a small river that led inland, that was filled with wildlife. The river was only about 2 feet deep so I had Ox crossing the river in front of me, the birdlife was abundant and there were loads of huge terrapins who dived under water for cover as I approached. Four hours of constant paddling totally took it out of me, so when I got back to the hostel I had an amazing banana milkshake and collapsed in a hammock. I then realised that I'd forgotten to put suncream on my legs and so got a bit burnt, which produced a fantastic line where my shorts had stopped.

The following day Mel, still feeling a bit peaky, wanted to take it easy again. Meanwhile an English guy and girl we had met, an American guy and I decided to climb the 1316m peak of Volcán Maderas. The peak is roughly the same high of Ben Nevis, but here you start climbing from sea level. At it's summit it had a crater lake that was surrounded by cloud forest, so we knew we would be in for a treat when we got there.

We started out at 7.30am to avoid walking in the heat, but by this time it was already 25 degrees, and as the sun began to rise quickly in the sky, so did the temperature. The climb was tough in the heat and the sweat was pouring off all of us. The path was steep and we often found ourselves having to clamber up wet slopes using tree roots to pull ourselves up. We did get get to see a lot of cute howler monkeys, however they were uncharacteristically silent as they watched us passing beneath them.

After three and a half hours we reached the top and found a good vantage point for lake, which is where we sat down to have a drink and sandwich. After about 20 minutes we headed back down as I had to be the dutiful son and call my Dad on his birthday. We descended quickly and within two and a half hours we were back at the hostel for a very cold shower and a much deserved banana milkshake. Once again I, along with the other trekkers, collapsed in hammocks and slept.

The following morning we left the island and head for the Spanish colonial town of Granada. Granada is one of the highlights of Nicaragua, due to its beauty and relaxed atmosphere. We spent our time here wandering around it beautiful streets and churches, and strolling along the shores of Lago Nicaragua. The houses, which from the outside appeared to be unimpressive, were actually hiding tresures inside. We sneakily peaked through open doorways, which led onto sun-filled courtyards with over-grown plants shading swinging hammocks.

We had met a lovely Danish couple on Isla de Ometepe, who we hooked up with again in Granada, and spent a very pleasant Friday evening eating and drinking with them. Granada is a great town but very touristy so we were constantly hassled by touts trying to sell usless stuff (no, we don't want any ceramics or whistles), which wore us down, so after a couple of days we left and headed for the much less touristy town of Masaya.

Masaya is essentially a market town, but has a very pretty main square and is set on the shores of Lago Masaya. We spent our day searching the huge market for bargains, where we purchased a great hammock, for the bargain price of ten pounds, in preperation for our move to Australia. All we need now is a nice balcony overlooking the sea to hang it on!

From Masaya we made our way to Nicaragua's other colonial town of Léon. Léon was a lot less tourist ridden than Granada, making it much more appealing (to us anyway). We meandered it's streets taking in the laid back local atmosphere, occasionally stopping for coffee and ice-cream along the way.

The following day we took a very hot, cramped and slightly smelly bus out to the coastal town of Las Piñatas. The bus ride was supposed to be an hour, but as with most buses in Nicaragua, it was late and actually took and hour and a half. When we finally arrived we found a long, white, sandy beach with the most ferocious sea we have ever seen. The beach was very steep as the sea was constantly biting chunks out of it, and the rip was intense, so much so that we walked for 10 minutes down the beach to find a calmer area. We had to walk right to the end before we found a spot that backed onto a lagoon that was really calm, but the sea on the otherside of the beach was still far to scarey for either of us to brave.

We thought we were safe in the area of beach we had choose to bathe on, but before we knew it the wave were crashing over the ridge we were sitting behind, and the sea was starting to push us back up the beach from where we had come. We relocated and as we settled down we had a visitor.

A pig decided to waddle onto the beach to do some foraging. She wondered around without a care in the world, taking no notice of the humans randomly scattered on the sand, and took the occasional dip in the lagoon to cool herself down from the baking heat. The whole scene was hilarious and everyone was taking pictures of the random farm animal.

The following day would see us take a long journey leaving Nicaragua, traveling across Honduras (at it's narrowest point) and into El Salvador.

Costa Rica

I think it's fair to say that both of us felt like our last day/night in Panama had been a bit of an anti-climax, and hoped that our first days in Costa Rica would bring us bigger, better things.

The border crossing was a "real" Latin American border crossing. We got our exit stamps from mask wearing officials (they're taking no chances over here with swine flu) in Panama, and then had to cross an old, rickety railway bridge, passing lots of other pedestrians and bikers along the way. It wasn't until we were nearly at the other side that we realised that vehicles actually use it still, and had to quickly move out of the centre to avoid a huge truck! We got our entry stamps just on the other side, and had to fill in declaration forms about how we felt, whether we had a cough or temperature, etc. More evidence of the swine flu panic spreading quicker than the virus itself.

The first stop on our whirlwind tour of the country was a small town on the Carribean coast called Cahuita. Hopping off the bus, we made our way up the quiet and dusty street into the centre. We were pleased that we were not greeted by the tourist greedy touts we'd found in Bocas, leaving us to search for our pre-selected hostel. We did bump into a really friendly bloke doing repairs outside his house, and who introduced himself as "Jimmy Cliff". After we had wandered around, scratching our heads about where the hostel was, Jimmy Cliff became our saviour and said, "you lookin' for Backpacker's Dream? It's right across the street here. Why didn't you ask before?" We rolled our eyes at our school boy error (why hadn't we asked him before?) and thanked him profusely.

Jimmy Cliff shouted for "Joe" as we went through the gate. From the darkened hallway a small, boney looking man with grey hair and a twinkle in his eye, came shuffling towards us. His English was spoken with a distinctive American twang, and his humour and warmth welcomed us from the start. With Joe (otherwise known as "the teacher" and self proclaimed "professor of love") you never really knew whether he was cracking a funny, or being straight down the line. He really was quite a character.

We escaped the madness and took a quick stroll down to the national park, which is where a narrow, white sandy beach meets the humid, green jungle. As we'd arrived so late in the day we were restricted to a quick walk across the beach, squishing the soft sand between our toes. It was so pretty that we resigned ourselves to returning the next morning, having a walk in the jungle followed by a stint on the beach.

The nightlife in Cahuita wasn't exactly electrifying, so we settled for a couple of beers in the busiest bar we could find, followed by a succulent fresh fish dinner by the sea.

Next morning we opted to take our breakfast down to the beach, and sit eating our cereal with the refreshing ocean breeze on our faces. We started our walk on the well marked trail through the jungle, which literally ran parallel to the beach. As soon we started we encountered huge nests overflowing with giant termites, the path awash with the sizable creatures as they marched to and from their abode.

James was on a bit of a mission. Ever since childhood he's had an obsession with sloths. The jungle at Cahuita is suppose to be the home of lots of these fuzzy animals, so every so often we would stop to look high up in the trees for any signs of life. The soundtrack to the forest were distant calls of howler monkeys, who although were deep into the forest, were certainly making their presence know.

As we continued down the path I managed to spot a large, prehistoric looking lizard in the bushes, which from the distance looked exactly like a huge leaf due to it's electric green colour. James picked his way carefully through the undergrowth to get a snap of this curious looking beast. We also found a smaller one further down the trail.

We had been walking for about an hour, getting deeper and deeper into the jungle, when I looked at James and realised that he had 3 mosquitoes feasting on him. I had applied a little repellent on my upper half, but my bare legs were an open invitation to all the hungry insects within a mile radius. We quickly dowsed ourselves in DEET, but feared that there were already many well-fed mozzies in the area.

Disheartened at our failed sloth spotting, we made our way back along the beach to the hostel for a spot of lunch. I was so overheated from our walk that I needed another shower, and was glad to be able to slip on my bikini and sarong in place of my clothes.


We spent the rest of the day on the sandy shores with tiny crabs flitting in and out of their holes all around us. We only managed to squeeze about an hour of sun before the clouds knitted overhead. It was still hot though, and we were able to enjoy several dips in the warm Carribean waters.

That night brought delicious local food, which was chicken with rice, beans and plantain. Whilst it was nothing that we hadn't tried before, this restaurant made all the food so fresh and tasty that we "ooh-ed" and "aaah-ed" our way through our plates. We washed this down with a couple of ice cold 2-4-1 cocktails at a quaint and busy bar across the street.

The next day we caught the bus out to San José. We resisted asking the bus driver if he knew the way (I'm sure he's never heard that before!), although we've been singing Dionne Warwick ever since our visit!

We stopped in really cool hostel called "Tranquilo", which translates into "quiet". I have to say that this was not a quiet hostel, but it did have a nice communal feel, with fast, free internet and cracking pancake breakfasts. The first afternoon we went to explore the city, which is pretty short on the wow-factor of other Latin American towns, but had a good local vibe.

Second day saw us catching a 3 hour bus on a day trip to Volcàn Poàs. This volcano has to be the most accessible, and therefore the most touristy, one that we've seen on our trip, with not an icepick or a crampon in sight. The entrance fee is quite steep at US$10, but worth it if you get decent weather. As it happened when we arrived we were met by drifting clouds and drizzle. The paths on the easy walk to the main crater was lined with huge-leaved foliage, which wouldn't have looked out of place on a Little Shop of Horrors stage.

When we reached the main crater we were disappointed to see that viability was down to about 10ft. Lonely Planet said that this was entirely possible due to the local climate, and that patience would reward us with a glimpse of volcanic activity. After about 10 mins we thought it best to walk around to the crater lake to see whether we could see anything there. We made our way uphill on the path, which had thick vegetation walling us either side. We were faced with even more dense cloud once reaching the other end, but amused ourselves by playing with an incredibly tame red squirrel.

The weather took a turn for the worse, and the heavens opened. Luckily we were under a shelter on site, so escaped most of it. We sat it out for about an hour, and noticed that the cloud had started to lift a little on the lake. We made a quick dash round to the main crater, and for the first five minutes there we were treated to a clear-ish view of the molten, acidic lake, spewing out sulphuric fumes in a billowing white plume of smoke. It was surrounded by blackened lava tubes and multi-layers of ash - it really was quite thrilling to see. We later found out that some of the people who had come on the bus with us hadn't been as fortunate, and the weather had hampered their efforts to see anything exciting. Thank goodness for our lucky timing!

Next place on our agenda was Monteverde. There is pretty much one reason to come here, and that's for ziplining through and above the canopy of the cloud forest. After hunting around to find the best company, we went with one called Extremo, which, as you can guess, had the highest (between 225ft and 450ft), longest (2250 ft) and fastest ziplines.

As we made our way in the minibus I did begin to think to myself, "what have I done?" but then realised that if height-phobic James can do it, then so can I. We were given all the safety equipment and a briefing on correct procedures for an accident free 3 hours.

Climbing to my first platform I felt remarkably calm, and when the time came we were both so excited that fear soon drained away. The first one was short and not very high, but by the third one we were whizzing across a long line, the valley floor giving way below us at a tremendous rate.

We did around 12 lines of various speeds and lengths, and as if that wasn't exhilarating enough, we followed this with a 90ft rappel, which is a line which drops vertically to the ground. It was here where apprehensive beads of sweat began to form on James' face, as he clamped both white-knuckled hands on the railings either side of him and started repeating to me, "I can't do it, I just can't do it". I tried to talk him into it as the instructor was hooking him up, but when he was told to sit down into the harness he repeated to the guide, "I can't do it". If it hadn't been for the instructor replying, "Aw, come on man" which translated into, "Stop being such a whimp" then I don't think that James would have gone over the edge. Then it was my turn. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, but it's the initial going over the edge which is the most difficult thing.

After the rappel we did the hysterical Tarzan swing. This was where each of us were hooked onto the longest tree swing I have ever seen, and took a leap off a very high platform. We all watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as each victim took the plunge. For some this was accompanied by a lot of screaming, for others the air was turned very much blue. One guy actually got stuck on the swing as he didn't follow instructions allowing him to be caught. He was dangling over a massive drop until the crew eventually managed to rescue him to safety. Not what you want to see just before your turn.

James went before me, and took to it with an ease which surprised me. He let out a manly yelp as he dropped over the edge, and I was pleased to see an over-sized smile when he swung back in my direction. As for me, I bent my knees and tipped myself over the edge. The free fall for the first couple of seconds was the most hair-raising experience of the day, and the cord eventually jolts taut, catching your weight and sending you sailing through the air. I think I made the most noise of the group, with a high pitched squeal of delight followed by a shout of, "THAT WAS AMAAAAAAZING!!!".

We had three more ziplines there after, but these were very adrenaline fueled as well, being very long and high. The second to last one James and I were paired together, so we set off with me in front and his legs tightly wrapped around mine, as we soared high above the fields and cows in the valley below.

The last one was by far the best. It ran across the widest part of the valley, and gathered that much speed that it carried you over to the other side through sheer momentum. I went before James on this one, and flung myself into the line with force. It was incredible just how quickly my speed picked up, with the wind whipping my face and twisting my body around. As I approached the other side I felt myself slowing down and started to panic a little. It seemed as if I was quite a way from the landing pad, and by this point the wire was going up, reducing my speed even further. I crawled into land safely, and awaited James. We were both on such a high, and were glad that we'd blown two days' budget on the trip.

There are a couple of entrances into the cloud forest, and we chose to visit the Monteverde reserve the next day. James resumed his hunt for the ever elusive sloth, as we squidged our way around the very wet and inevitably muddy circuit for 4 hours. Although we both got soaked, and James didn't find his sloth, we had a great time walking through the mystical looking forest. We only managed to spot a couple of birds, but were treated to the most amazing songs from them, which echoed everywhere that we walked. We saw countless stripy caterpillars along the path, and also saw the tail end of a wild boar running down the path in front of us. Whilst the beast was nowhere to be found when we got near to the spot we'd spied him, we could hear his heavy breathing and grunting in the undergrowth. We could see him, but we were sure that he had his beady eyes firmly fixed upon us until we left.

All that remained of Costa Rica was to make our way closer to the Nicaraguan border. We traveled to a small city called Liberia, where we decided to break up the journey and stop the night. There wasn't a huge amount to keep us entertained here, but at least we were able to catch up with the blog!

We went to bed early, hoping to catch the first bus out of the town in the morning. Arising at 4am was pretty painful, especially as it had been hot work trying to get to sleep that night. We gathered our stuff together and tried to get out, only to realise that we were locked into the hostel. In vain we knocked on doors to find someone in charge, and so I ended up leaving a note in my dodgy Spanish explaining that we needed to get out of the hostel as soon as possible, and asking that they would come and get us once they got up and unlocked the front door.

As it happened this was a bit of a blessing in disguise, as when we awoke for a second time James' eyelid was red and swollen. Once the door was open, we waited for the pharmacy to open so we could get him some treatment, before eventually walking to the bus station in the already searing heat.

The bus journey itself was pretty uneventful, but the border crossing was a bit of a farce. Costa Rica were pretty well organised, although the queue was long and they didn't give us the papers we needed to complete until after we'd arrived at the desk. It was the Nicaraguan side which was total chaos, with a whirlpool of bodies surrounding different desks, people wandering round handing out official forms and then asking for tips, and the longest, drawn out process of entry stamping ever! We were both fed up and hot when we crossed the border, and were hoping that we didn't have to go through a process like that with the other border controls that were yet to come.

Panama

The format of the blog is going to change slightly. Previously we've broken the blog down by place or area of a country, but as we are now traveling at a fairly rapid pace, we're going to break the blog down to a single post for each country, the first one being Panama.

Our arrival in Panama City took us aback. Skyscrapers, what were these? All the other major cities we had visited in South America looked nothing like this. We expected an American influence on the city for obvious reasons, but this was crazy, KFC, Baskin Robins, McDonalds, huge shopping malls etc etc. We were very disappointed, this was like being in the US. In some ways it was nice, but it was not what we had come to Panama to see. Fortunately as we made our way towards our hostel it became a lot less like North America and much more like South America, none of those pristine buildings, but more older worn buildings with much more character, like we were used to.

We arrived in the city just in time to go for an hour's walk about to get our bearings. We managed to make it down to the water front and have a saunter around a pleasant park. It was enough to make us realise just how much construction is going on in the city, building sites everywhere, in 5 to 10 years time it will be a very different city.

Our first full day in the capital and we were going to have a wander into the built up and Amercianised part of the city, out of interest more than anything, to see how the Panamaian people lived in these American surroundings. The first difference was obvious, during our travels we had never seen so many over weight people, the fast food lifestyle was obviously having it's affect on the health of the nation. But it was a nice area, very clean and quite refreshing to be in more western surroundings.

We got stuck inside one of the cities main shopping malls due to a huge rain shower that lasted for about two hours! From here we walked the entire length of the water front, which took a couple of hours, to an area of the city called Casco Viejo. A complete contrast to the CBD, this area of the city is the spanish colonial area, with stunning buildings and churches that reminded us a little of Havana. This had been a pretty long and tiring day, so we made our way back to the hostel for a couple of beers and a rest.

The next day we trotted out of the city to one of the main attractions in the country, the Panama Canal. We went to the Miraflores Lock, where there was a museum as well as a great platform from where you could watch the ships passing through. We arrived at 11am and the next ship was not going through the lock until 2pm, so we had plenty of time to have a walk around the muesum and have lunch.

The first ship started its approach to the locks ahead of schedule at 1pm. It was quite a sight; it was a car carrier from Japan, which was huge. We were close enough to the ship to see the expessions on the faces of the people aboard. This was impressive, but in the distance we could see a cruise liner, and we knew we had to wait to see that. After about an hour the liner was approaching and it was quickly upon us. The size of it was impressive, height and length. It came to a stop in the locks and began to lower. After the ship had floated past we made our way back to the city. It had been a great day and we were both pleased we had got to see the world famous sight.

Our next stop in Panama would be a tiny little mountain town called Santa Fe. Completely the opposite to Panama City, Santa Fe has a population of about 2000 people and is nestled in the Central Highlands of Panama. There is only one hostel in the town, which is ran by a Belgium/Argentine couple, and it is pretty new. It was stunning and had a wonderful balcony that overlooked the valley. It was the perfect place to spend a couple of days doing a lot of nothing.

The weather in this part of Panama is unpredictable and as it is the rainy season at the moment you could never tell when the next big storm was coming. We had heard of a good trail that was only about a three hour walk and went up to a great point that afforded views of across the valley.

Unfortuantely an hour into the walk the heavens opened and the rain started, it was a torrent and we got completely soaked, it was like standing in a shower. We waiting for 20 minutes to see if we could see any improvement but the rain just persisted. We decided to turn back and make our way back to the hostel, but by this point the dirt road we had climbed had turned into part river, part clay-mud bath. When we got back we both took hot showers, scrapped off the inches of mud which had glued itself to us, and just layed in the hammocks overlooking the valley and reading, so the rest of the day was very pleasant.

From Santa Fe we travelled to another mountain town called Boquete. Boquete is famed for being not only beautiful but a popular place for US and Canadian retirees to come and live, so we didn't really know what to expect. When we arrived in the town, we couldn't see a lot as the cloud was low and the rain was falling. We spent the evening chatting to two lovely couples in our hostel who were from Belgium and Sweden. We learnt from them that the weather in Boquete was usually pretty good in the mornings and bad in the afternoon, so we made a plan to get up fairly early and make the most of the good weather.

As predicted the next morning the sun was shining, and after making breakfast we went out for a few hours of walking in the hills around town. We had made a conscious decision that our time in Central America would be much less strenuous than South America, so we would not be pushing ourselves to much. A pleasant walk up the hills around town rewarded us with some great views and it was really nice to be able to get the chance to experience the Panama countryside. As regular as clockwork the grey clouds and rain rolled in during the afternoon.

The following day we decided to move on and travel north to an area of the country called Bocas Del Toro. This is beach resort made up of several small islands and is one of the most popular traveler destination in the whole of Central America. The drive from Boquete was around four hours and it was an absolutely stunning one, winding up and down the central highlands of Panama through mountains covered in rainforest.
We eventually arrived in Bocas where we needed to catch a boat across to Isla Colon, the island where we would be stopping. It was very pretty and the area was made up largely of mangroves with houses on wooden stilts perched out over the water. After 45 minutes on the boat we eventually arrived at Isla Colon and as soon as we got off the boat we were instantly approached by people trying to get us to stay in various hostels. One thing for sure, Isla Colon is not a cheap place for people like us with empty wallets. Not just accomodation but also food, it was much more expensive than South America and we knew our budget was going to be in for a battering.

The following day we arose to heavy rain storms with thunder and lightning. We considered our options. We came to Bocas for a few days on the beach, but the weather was poor and forecast not to get much better, and considering the high cost of everything, we decided to leave Bocas and head over the border to Costa Rica. So, we jumped on the boat back to the mainland and headed for the border.

Quito - Our last stop in South America

We had both heard a lot of bad reports about Quito, as we had with other places in South America, which has not come to anything, and Quito was no different.

When we arrived we were dropped off just outside the "Old Town", about 20 mintues from our hostel, so we immediately got our first chance to use Quito's tram system, which was very impressive, regular, clean and quick, so we knew straight away that making our way around the city would be easy.

The day we arrived in Quito was voting day for Ecuadors main governmental elections, so it was pretty chaotic, especially as voting in Ecuador is compulsory. Everybody was out and the streets were very busy, but it made for a great atmosphere. We spent our first day around the "Old Town", which is full of Spanish colonial buildings and churches, but it's center piece is the stunning Gothic basilica. The public has access to climb one of its spires, but at the time we got there the building was all shut up, so we decided that that would be our first port of call the following day. That evening we decided to head into the "New Town" aka the Mariscal Sucre, which is renowned for being a bit of a dodgy place to go at night, but it was where all the good bars and restaurants are located. We took a taxi, which is a must at night time in the Mariscal, and did see quite a few ladies of the night and gangs of people hanging around on street corners, but despite that there were still groups of gringos wondering around, quite comfortable in their surroundings. So we jumped out of the cab and found a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, before and after elections for a few days the government will not allow the sale of alcohol (and the UK public say we live in a "Nanny State"!) so all the bars and pubs were empty, therefore we made our way back to our hostel, which was selling beer on the quiet!

The following morning we headed straight back over to the basilica. It is a bit of a hairy climb and you start by walking over a series of gang planks that span the roof of the main section of the building. You then climb a very steep staircase that leads to an outdoor platform, from there you ascend two more very steep stair cases, which lead to the top of the tower. Even Mel, who isn't as frightened of heights as I am, trembled her way to the top, but the views across the city are amazing at every angle and it was definitely worth the climb.

From there we walked to the other side of the city, to the top of a small hill with a park at the summit where we could kick back for a few hours and just stare over the wonderful city, there was also a great café at the summit, where we had a drink to escape the intense heat.

This was our last full day in South America and so thought it would be fitting to visit Mitad del Mundo, which translates to Center of the World, otherwise known as the Equator line. We had arranged to meet up with our friend Mark, who we had met at the start of our trip in Rio. When going to meet Mark at his hostel we also bumped into a couple and another guys from the UK that we had met in Mancora.

It was about a two hour bus ride from Quito, which seemed to take forever on the hot cramped buses, it was certainly a relief when we arrived. The exact mark of the equator line has been signified by a huge monument and around that there are a number of shops, restaurants and small museums that have been built to create a bit of a theme park. We expected it to be quite busy, but it was very quiet, and we virtually had the place to ourselves. We spent about 10 minutes taking photos on and around the Equator line then we headed next door to a museum which had been recommended to us. When we arrived we bumped into a couple that we had previously met in El Chalten, Patagonia, back at the start of February, which was a real shock. The visit was fun, as its an interactive museum that demonstrates the power of the equator e.g. how it affects your strength, how much easier it is to balance eggs on the head of a nail, how water flows differently down a plug hole on either side of the line and on top of the line. We have skepticism about how scientifically valid the tests are, but it was all good lighthearted fun. We returned to Quito on an even longer bus journey.

The following day we were flying to Central America, and Panama City would be our first stop.

The Quilotoa Loop

The Quilotoa Loop was the best thing that we did during our time in Ecuador. It's a circular route which is nestled in the Andes, with lots of tiny villages dotted along the way.

We started our journey from a large market town called Latacunga, and caught one of the local buses to the small village of Zumbahoa. The bus spat us out by the titchy main square early afternoon, and the locals looked at us with our large backpacks with bemused looks. We made our way to the only hostel in town, and a small Ecuadorian lady with a sweet face and long, traditional plaits ran over to greet us. We were surprised when she opened the door to the hostel without unlocking it, and ushered us through the uninhabited building to our room. Once agreeing a price she showed us to one of the two restaurants in town, which also happened to belong to her Uncle, for a filling "almuerzo" lunch.

We then set out for a walk up the side of one of the hills and through the patchwork of farm fields, colours running from lime through to jade green. We also watched the locals working, who gave us shy smiles and tentative "holas". As we walked we were able to get a better view of the surrounding countryside, and appreciate the pretty scenery. We were unable to get all the way to the top of the hill we were aiming for, and so returned to town.

As we'd only been walking for an hour and a half, we started on another path in the opposite direction. This ran parallel to the road we were to take out of the town the day after, but rose higher, affording an even better overview of the area. We found many loud, barking farm dogs, trying to defend their property from the strange gringos traipsing through their fields. For the first time we were also able to see the deep gorge running through the valley.

We returned a different way, walking through more farmlands and past even more crazed dogs. Along the way we also managed to befriend several children, one of which followed us all the way into town. At one point there was a large group of local people, all just sitting outside of a building. As walked by we said our usual, "Hola, buenas tardes", to which we got several cheerful replies. However, as soon as we had left their sight the whole group just burst into spontaneous laughter, which in turn made James and I really chuckle. We didn't realise that we were so amusing!

Upon returning to the hostel we realised that there really wasn't much else to do in this sleepy little village other than relax, read a book and enjoy the scenery. After dinner we perched ourselves on the hostel balcony with a couple of beers and a blanket over our legs, people watching. The temperature very quickly plummeted as soon as the sun had gone in, and any piece of exposed skin soon became invaded by the icy cold. The already incredibly tranquil village grew even quieter after 8pm, and by 9pm we were starting to see the lights that studded the town wink off as the locals curled up in bed. By 9:30 we'd stood as much of the cold as we could and went into our empty hostel. There was no one downstairs to lock up, so we went around the place doing this ourselves. It was a bit creepy and definitely unnerving to have the drafty building to ourselves, like something out of a horror film. Tucked up in bed, with about six woollen blankets pulled up around us, we soon defrosted and fell to sleep.


The next day we grabbed a greasy breakfast before flagging down one of the locals who had a utility truck. We gave him some money to take us to the Quilotoa crater lake, just a short and bumpy ride away. We jolted up and down in the open air, our bums lifting clean off of the hard plank of wood which served as a seat in the back of the truck. As the road unraveled in front of us we saw a change in the scenery. The ground in the area was incredibly sandy, and as such had been sliced vertically by the river, which now ran through the bottom of the dramatic valley.




When we got to the crater a lovely lady who owned a hostel there offered to look after our bags for a few hours so that we could explore. Once we got to the mirador it was a real sharp-intake-of-breath-WOW moment. This was even more resplendent than the other crater lakes we'd seen on our travels. It seemed to be jewel encrusted, with the water glistening aquamarine and sapphire in the sunlight, which was set off perfectly by the vibrant emerald of the foliage growing around the inside of the crater.


We took a trot down to the bottom of the crater, which was not an easy task. I managed to slip on my bottom again, and James had more than a couple of close calls. We passed a large party of teenagers all struggling, puffing and panting their way back up to the top - I certainly wasn't looking forward to the return leg. We also crossed paths with a couple who had hired some mules to carry them up, and one of the poor animals bucked under the weight of the rather chunky male on it's back. When we reached the bottom we realised that the crater was best appreciated from the top, but still, it was very pleasant just the two of us sitting there next to the still waters of the lake.


Luckily the clouds had started to roll in on our ascent, which meant that it wasn't as much sweaty work as expected. We managed to make it back up in 45minutes, which is about how long it took us on the way down. We ate our packed lunch sitting on the lip of the crater, not tiring of the pretty view below us. By the time we had finished eating, cloud was flooding into the crater completely veiling the beauty below. We had timed our visit perfectly.


We caught the local bus out of there early afternoon, and made our next stop at the village of Chugchilán. The road between the two villages was treacherous, and the bus needed to stop on more than one occasion because of landslides. I tried not to notice how close we teetered on the edge and also tried to forget how badly the drivers are in Ecuador.


Thankfully, we made it to Chugchilán where there was a charming hostel called Mama Hilda's. The lady herself greeted us warmly with handshakes and warm smiles. We managed to barter a good price for a beautiful private room that had a balcony overlooking the valley, which also included both dinner and breakfast.


We spent the afternoon chilling on the balcony and reading, something that we were getting quite used to by now. Dinner was a communal affair, and conversation flowed easily between us, another English girl called Barbara and an American family. The temperature in the toasty dining area was a stark contrast to the one outside and in our rooms, so we stopped in there for a while longer, clutching a mugs of hot chocolate and getting to know Barbara better. The next day we agreed to take her when we went out for our trek in the local area and promised that we wouldn't walk too quickly!

The three of us set out relatively early in the morning and were joined by an American guy called Benny who'd just checked in. The first part of the walk was the toughest, as it was quite steep. Barbara and Benny struggled a little to begin with, particularly as neither of them were used to the altitude that we were now accustomed to. The initial trek was worth it though, and the panoramic view was the recompense for the struggle up the hill.




We continued along the path, heading towards a cheese factory that was marked on a sketchy map given to us by Mama Hilda. We caught up with the American family who had set out an hour earlier than us that morning, and we ambled along with them. We passed through another speck of a village, seemingly filled with lots of young children and pigs. The children met us with a lot of curiosity and giggles, which was incredibly becoming.

We continued along the path until we reached some locals who said that we'd overshot the cheese factory and taken a bit of a wrong turn. We headed back in that direction, and the American family left us to it. Unfortunately we found the factory, but rather than it being the hive of activity that we were hoping for, the gates were locked with not a glimpse of a local in sight. We decided that here would be as good a place as any to have a spot of lunch, and between the four of us we managed to cobble together a strange concoction of bread, cheese, tuna and chocolate. Fuelled-up, we began our descent back to our beloved Mama Hilda.

Once more we caught up with the American family, who were strolling leisurely back. James and I left Barbara and Benny in their capable hands, whilst we picked up the pace and strode back to the hostel at our own pace. We stopped off for a little bit of delicious soup at the Cloud Forest Hostel, which was just next to Mama Hilda's, and our bellies rumbled appreciatively.

That evening we were joined for dinner by an lovely Australian couple from Melbourne (seriously, are there any Aussies left in that city?) who were on their honeymoon. They'd decided to do the loop as part of a whirlwind tour of South America.

Bright and early next morning we were up and awaiting our next mode of transportation, the local milk truck. For a dollar each we hopped into the back of the truck alongside half a dozen other locals and the "milkboy". This was such an enlightening experience for us. We were jostled by both the locals and the truck, and frequently the truck would stop for people, usually children, standing patiently by the side of the road for this beat up vehicle to appear. There would be one of three types of pedestrian, and would either want:

1) to buy milk

2) to sell milk

3) to be picked up by the truck as another passenger

The first of these would be holding an empty vessel of some description, and would speak to the driver about how much they wanted and pay him. Then the milkboy would open up a huge barrel of milk that had been wildly sloshing around, and measure out the required amount, passing this back over to the customer with a huge grin.

The second type would also be standing with a container, but this time it would be full of the white liquid. This would be tipped into the bright blue barrel to top up the stock on board. The driver would pay them the agreed amount, and the milkboy would return the empty with a huge grin.

Lastly, if they wanted a lift, it would involve us shoe-horning on more and more people, along with any bags/crates/boxes they happened to be carrying. Then, fully sardined-up, the truck would carry on it's merry way. How we managed to keep everyone on board is beyond me.

We arrived at our destination of Sigchos, but only stayed here for an hour and a half before catching the bus back to Latacunga. We'd had such a fantastic time on "The Loop" and were so glad that we'd decided to do that than spend more time in the jungle. It is a trip that we have strongly suggested to every other traveler we have met who has Ecuador on their agenda.

Only spending one night in Latacunga, the next day we caught the bus to the county's capital, Quito.