Ecuador

Leaving Cape Town we flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina where we spent 4 days enjoying some good food and drink and exploring this large and modern city. Heavily Spanish influenced in architecture and general vibe although porteños (people of the port) prefer their pizza over tapas and spend much of their spare time drinking coffee in one of the countless cafes. We visited the colourful La Boca district with it's houses painted in a patchwork of colour, as residents used to use leftovers from the shipyards. We also bumped into the legend that is Maradona! Well ok it was a good look-a-like.

From BA we flew to Quito, Ecuador though not before a delay at the airport apparently due to the flight staff being too tired (surely that's what narcotics are for!). We think they'd probably been working overtime due to the flight back-log caused by the volcanic eruption in Chile (which we'd been completely oblivious to until the day before and couldn't understand at first how the volcano in Iceland could be affecting South America!). To add to this, during the final part of the flight we were informed that due to "personal reasons" the plane would be landing on auto-pilot. What happened to the pilot? Mid-air dispute over working hours and pay perhaps?!


After starting in Quito we made our way to the Pacific coast and stopped at a couple of seaside towns where we surfed and watched local fisherman bring in their catch, which included giant swordfish and hammerhead sharks that were swiftly de-finned and gutted in front of our feet. A special highlight was during a boat trip where we encountered a few different groups of humpback whales each of which put on a spectacular display, breaching from the water on many occasions. These sightings were a welcome distraction from the rough seas we encountered that made Katie feel sick and Phil fear that the boat would capsize and drown everyone onboard! After a week along the coast we headed back East into the highlands where we enjoyed a few days trekking and horseback riding between small Andean villages and beautiful scenery. After a tiring 6 hour trek the journey ended at the beautiful blue volcano lake of Quilotoa.

After travelling around Ecuador for a few weeks it was time to head to the volunteer project we had organised but not before a bout of food poisoning inflicted by a Chinese. We were able to pin-point the source since we had shared the meal with our hiking comrade named Kyle whose symptons presented themselves during his flight home to the US! Can't remember the name of the restaurant so just make sure you don't eat Chinese if you find yourself hungry in Latacunga! You have been warned. 

After recovering we spent 2 weeks at the animal rescue centre where we helped prepare the food and feed the animals and maintain/improve the centre. Animals included; squirrel, spider, wooly, capuchin and marmoset monkeys, an Ocelot, Margay and Tiger cat (3 types of jungle cats), a Capibara, Cayman, Parrots, Cabeza de mate, Coatis and some other random jungle creatures. The whole experience which included being attacked by monkeys and feeding live chickens to the cats (decapitation!!) was very privelledged and unforgettable. Surprisingly and also disappointingly we didn't encounter any Tarantulas during our stay.


After finishing the 2 weeks we spent another week or so travelling around Ecuador, white water rafting, flying down 500m zip lines and cycling down Ecuador's highest mountain. During the last few days in Ecuador we were slightly bemused as to why every bar and restaurant we went in to had stopped serving alcohol from their well stocked fridges. We eventually discovered that a national 72 hour alcohol ban had been enforced following the death of 21 people and the hospitalisation of about 100 others who had consumed bootleg liquor. There's a lesson for all of you homebrewers!


From Ecuador we crossed the border in to Peru. That relatively straight forward process turned out to be a little more eventful and stressful than expected. More to come on that one in our next entry when we leave Peru.