travelling around ecuador

HOLA!

Oh, I have just skimmed my last blog and realised how many mistakes there were in it, my excuse is that I was tired although I am now too. Hopefully I will do better this time!

So we had a lovely time in Cuenca. It was small enough to walk everywhere so that was nice. Even though we were tired we made sure that we went around Cuenca because we knew that we only had a day there. The buildings there were very pretty but by the time it got to about 3pm we were really tired so ended up going back to the hostel and relaxing.

The next day we got up fairly early to get a bus to Guayaquil. This took about 4.5h but was not too bad. At least we got to Guayaquil at a reasonable time of day. We again managed to find a hostel to stay in that night and could leave our bags there straight away. We decided to find somwhere to get our laundry done. This was more difficult than we had expected and ended up getting a taxi to somewhere that really wasn´t very close to the hostel. We spent the afternoon walking around Guayaquil. We walked along the promenade by the river. This was really pretty, with a good view of the city! We then also went to see the main squares and churches in Guayaquil.

The next day we had to go back to pick up our washing before getting the bus tio Puerto Lopez. We had got a bus ticket for 9.45 but ended up missing this bus because the taxi driver could not find the lanudry place and then it ended up being the wrong one etc etc... Anyway we managed to get to the bus station at 9.50 with our lovely clean washing. We got the next bus to Puerto Lopez (11.15) so spent some time in the bus station but we were very careful with our bags! It took quite a while to get to Puerto Lopez so we got there at about 3pm. We quickly found a nice hostel and then had a little wander around. It is a very small town so it didn´t take us long to look round. We then got a couple of drinks at one of the bars on the beach. The next day we went whale watching. This was brilliant! We saw about 6 whales all in one group. We then went on to a small island and walked round a trail (similar to the Galapagos but with less wildlife). We were able to have a quick snorkel before heading back to the mainland on the boat. On the way back we saw more whales! This time they were breaching and slapping thir fins on the water :) It was really close as well. On the beach on the mainland in the morning we saw some of the fish that the fisherman had caught. It was really sad, there were dead Manta rays and sharks :(

The next day we had the joys of a very long bus journey. We went all the way back to Quito. The guide book recommended a certain compnay so we took their bus. It was supposed to only take 10h but took 13h. We realised we hasn´t booked anywhere to stay in Qutio so tried ringing somewhere. Lizzy tried to ring someone but couldn´t really hear what they were saying. I then tried a different place. I asked if they spoke Enlish but their response was ´no´(helpful!) so we struggled on in spanish, I could understnad most of what they said but trying to tell them things was interesting. Eventually we came to some conclusion. When we eventually got to Quito we went to the hostel I had rung up and they had room so we stayed there. The next day we spent walking around Quito. We mostly walked around the old town, looking at churches and other buildings and parks. I was shwoing Lizzy the places that Amanda and her family had shown me before.

Yesterday we went to Cotopaxi. It was BRILLIANT! We were driven up to 4500m and then walked another 5oom up to the glacier. The views were absouletly stunning. It was hard work walking uphill at that altitidue but it was definately wotrth the effoert! We had lunch up at the refuge at 4800m and then we got to cycle some of the way down. I cycled 11km down to the bottom (from a lake). It decied to start hailing on us which wae really painful but ti was also great fun. We got covered in mud and there were times when I really didn´t feel in control of the bike! We then went out in the evening with Andrew and Adri (They have kindly let us stay there again for a couple of nights). It was rellay good fun. We met up wit some of Andrews friends and went to a club.

Today we have been to the Ecuadtor (because Lizzy hasn´t been) We saw the monument again and there was some livve music which we listed to for a bit and we looked round the stalls. We managed to work out how to use the metro bus in Quito to get us most of the way back too!

This week has been so much fun. We have spent a fair amount of time on buses but seen so many interesting things too. The highlight for me was getting to the glacier on Cotopaxi but whale watching is a very close second! We have managed to stay safe and so far have not had any major problems!

Tomorrow we are off volunteering in the cloud forest!

Adios! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx