Valley of longevity

In the sothern part of Ecuador is a small paridise. Villcabamba is a very special valley surrounded by hills that give it a perfect climate all year round.

We had
- our own beautiful cabin with onsuite and beautifil views.
- superb food, everything made on the premisies including the bread
- humming birds around us at breakfast
- swimming pool created out of a mountain stream
- great bar with wicked cocktails
- free montain bikes with a two mile down hill ride to town and a truck taxi to take you back up

4 days of bliss for 25 pounds a day all in, including booze for both of us

Back to reality tomorrow. We have a 12 hour bus ride into Peru!!

PS we took another 8 hours of Spanish. Thought it nessary after I told a taxi driver that his offer of $4 was not acceptable and that I was going to pay $5.
Its called the valley of longlevity because so many of the inhabitants live and carry on working into their 100s. Scientists think it is mixture of environment, diet and excerise - Didn´t see many of them in the bar though

Bloody Election

Wish I had the camera moment - Marilyn´s face when the waiter told her that the sale of all alcohol is banned in Ecuador for the 3 days running up to the election

We were staying in Cuenca. A lovely, laid back old town, that has a reputation for being lively on Friday and Saturday nights - except when the election is on!

We had got so used to the noise and razmataz of the election that it seemed really strange when it suddenely stopped on Friday. Instead, 100s of soldiers turned up in Cuenca, ready for the election. All armed of course. In Ecuador if you wear a uniform you get a gun. Most decent sized shops have a pimply teenager on guard outside with a massive F-off pump action gun.

We where traveling on election day and every village had a carnival atmosphere with all sorts of food and sales stalls set up outside the election booths.

Highest mountain in the world (?), H poirot II and other stories

Started working our way south. Took what is supposedly one of the world´s great train journeys, dug out of the Andes. Most of the time we could see our own tracks as they zig zagged up mountains. The train derailled twice, the engineers fixed it by putting rocks under the wheels and driving the train back onto the tracks. Great fun but its tiring sitting on a roof for 8 hours!! My big disappointment is that it is usually a steam train but they only had a diesel working














We took a trip up Chimoborazo, the highest mountain in the world if measured from the centre of the Earth (its because of the bulge on the equator) . We were driven to the first refuge and then climbed upto the second refuge at 5000m. It is the highest we have ever been and the effect of the altitude was incredible. Marilyn didn.t make it all the way and I had to leave her sitting on a rock with the radio. She subsequenlty rcovered and nearly made it to the top but ran out of time. After this we cycled down 30 miles on mountain tracks
They are electing a new president in Ecuador. Every wall has election slogans on it, even in the indiginous community villages in the jungle. In the towns there are parades with stilt walkers, bands and banners everywhere. Most of the candidates seem to canvass by giving out free sweets. They don´t have parties but each candidate has a number which is on every bit of publicity. Dont know how many candidates there are but we have seen up to number 66 so far

Ecuadorian Hercule Poirot - Marilyn handed our washing in at the hostal last night. When we got it back her very special, much loved fleece was missing. The girl on the desk was as upset as Marilyn but couldnt find it. We gave her the number of our new hostal and she called to say she might have found and could we go back. Her boyfriend had realised who the culprit was and suggested that she look in the night watchman´s room and it was there. She was very scared because of his reaction if he found out she had been in his room. After a lot of negotiation the manager promised that he would say it was him who went in. Marilyn is happy but we would like to know the end of the story and hope the girl will be ok

Ughh Stuff

1. I went into the toilet in an airport and saw a guy wiping the inside of the loos with a cloth. How very clean and thorough I thought until he walked over to the sinks and wiped the taps with the same cloth !!

2. The resturants have a dish of chilli and herb sauce on the tables. I had added it to my soup and eaten it when I saw a fly get trapped in the dish. I took it out with my spoon and realised that all the bits of herb where in fact other dead flies

3. One of our long distance buses had a loo on board. Great unless you are in mid flow when the driver makes an emergency stop

Caimen, tarantulas and spoted old lady

Plane to Lago Agrio on the Ecuador, Columbian border, 3 hours over dirt roads, 4 hours by motorised canoe took us well into the Ecuadorian part of the Amazonian jungle. We stayed in a thatched hut without electricty but with our own ensuite and tarantulas. Had an amazing time. Went pirranha fishing and swam in the same water. Daytime hunts for caymen (caught one) and anacondas (found its den in an holow tree but it was too far in to see). We did a night trek into the jungle and found poisonous frogs and boa constrictors. The jungle is really frightening when you turn the torches off. You cannot see a thing apart from fire flies that look like eyes peering at you through the darkness.

Saw pink river dolphins, manatee, otters, toucans, parrots, bats, sloths, loads of monkeys including one that is only 6 inches big, lots of snakes, bat hawks and loads of other stuff

It has taken a visit to the Amazon for us to really understand how it teems with life but it is all totally independent. Every bit of jungle we destroy is lost for ever. Replanting will never bring it back

Quito!

first picture is the view at breakfast in the Secret Garden













1. Everyone wants cash but cash machines only work some of the time and never after 3pm
2. Surrounded by volcanoes
3. Quito sits in a valley that is more than twice as high as Ben Nevis
4. Edgy atmosphere, have to be on your guard all the time
5. Secret Garden deserves to have won best hostal in South America
6. No health and safety rules so climbing around the Basillica towers gives an adrenalin rush
7. Live jazz in the main plaza
8. 3 course lunch for 1.5$, a good room for 18$, guinee pig for 3$, the best restaurant in Equador, dinner 70$
9. The new town is known by everyone as Gringolandia
10 Án English and a Scottish pub both with their own micro breweries

Enough internet (this cafe is the best place to get good coffee) . We are off for 5 days

Monika´s revenge

Mindo is a small town, down a track in the middle of the cloud forest. It is the sort of town where children and dogs play in the middle of the road all day and most of the night. Mindo is famous for its bird life, waterfalls and beautiful hostals with natural swimming pools, saunas and humming birds in their gardens

Monika, our Spanish teacher, has a friend who has a hostal in Mindo. Monika kindly arranged our booking with her friend.

Because we had missed our bus we arrived in the dark and with limited cash. We found out that there is no where to get cash in Mindo

Our hostal room was filthy and mosquito ridden. There was no one else staying there and the garden was a dump. We were landed with a crap guide to take us into the jungle. We are now both infected with fleas . We couldnt move because we didnt have any cash

Dispite Monika we did see humming birds and a type of Toucan and swam in waterfalls in the jungle

Testing the system

Our Spanish teacher took us to the central market so that we could learn the language in real life and to see if we can get food poisoning. She got us to buy and eat unwashed fruit, fresh fruit juice with local ice and dinner consisting of dried pigs blood, boiled pigs skin topped with a piece of advoacdo. We survived the food but not the Spannish - we were crap

In Equidor young girls walk around cradling small puppies, then in their early teens they swap the puppy for a baby. Marilyn is beginning to get the hots for the indigenous Andien men - I think I will get her a puppy.

Love the comments on the blog

Middle of the word - almost

Took a bus to the equator. The best thing about it is that the French screwed up. Midi du Mondo is like Disney Land. A big complex with stages, restaurants, tourist shops, displays. At its centre is a massive monument supposidly on the equator. All this was built by the French but they got it wrong by 200M. Next door to the complex is a dusty little outdoor museum. It is not signposted but it is brillient and they have used GPS to put it right on the equatorial line. They do alsorts of dodgy scienitifc experiments and tricks using the equator. They also have a real shrunken head. What more could you ask for!

Started Spanish lessons. 5 hours a day, including lunch, when we dont speak a word of Engish. Very intense but fun

Security and Safety

1. Pickpockets everywhere - Marilyn had a child try and get in her pocket. Her hand not the whole child!
2. Guy eaten by an anaconda on a jungle trip - he disappeared while swimming with other members of the group
3. Hammock framework broke while 6 people where sleeping in a cave. Lots of bruises. We are doing this trip in a couple of weeks
4. Guys girlfriend was attacked by a grissly (but this was in Canada)
5. Dodgy areas - twice we have been told to get out of area because it isnt safe - in both cases we where only one block from a safe area
6. Forged dollar bills - we have a very nice fake 20 dollar bill we got at the airport
7. All the usual scams such as squirting gunge on you and then pretending to clean it off
8. Free drinks in the Hostal followed by pool in the new town until 3am- makes you ill
9. Altitude sickness - we just get breathless but some people are quite bad
10. Losing the opportunity to buy 2, 3 day tickets for the Ashes Test in Melbourne. A Engish guy wanted to sell them for $40 but a bloody Australian got in first - makes you sick You should have seen Marilyn´s face when she thought we where going to abandon SA for Australia

All in all we feel safer than wandering around Ipswich on a friday night

We are here

In Quito, in the Secret Garden Hostel. Brilliant place even if our room is a cell without windows. It has a terrace with fantastic views over the city where you can sit and drink beer and eat really good food.

Had a good flight apart from the woman next to Marilyn who thought she was a foot rest. Marilyn wanted to kill her by the end of the flight and she was really pleased when the woman was hit on the head by two bags when the overhead lockeers where opened