Can`t remember the last time I wrote to you all, was I still in Brazil? Think it might`ve been, it seems like months ago. I do remember however asking if there were any takers for Colombia - none you wooses!! I shall have to explore the depths of the country myself.
I made it to Ecuador after yet another stopover in Santiago. This time tho I went to Valparasio. It was cheaper to go there from the airport than Santiago centre. I heard so many bad things about Valparaiso that I wasn`t sure about going but I thought it was beautiful and if you look at my latest photo update I got a bit carried away! Yet another place I could live`although given the choice I would still take the heat in Mendoza or Rio - but without the muggings.
I stayed a whole 12 hours in Quito where I met up with Allison and Sean who I met in Patagonia. They whisked me off to Baños before I could even tell where it was, yet another place surrounded by volcanoes, I`d love to say we were really active, conquering yet more volcanoes and cycling to far away places but in all truth we lazed about drinking coffee and (in my case) margarhitas. A truly lazy 4 days. I even had a television in my room - my own room , what a treat - and I lay on a hammock and watched the complete series update of Desperate Housewives. Bliss. To be fair we did go on a tour to see the active volcano Tungarhua at night but by the time we got up in the hills you couldn`t see 2 feet in front of you, at least we tried to be tourists that day.
Allison and Sean were the last left of everyone I`ve met so far, I felt quite lonesome as I waved them off at the bus station when we went our seperate ways, this wasn`t helped by the fact too many cocktails had been consumed the night before. Trust me an Ecuadorian bus journey is hard enough without a hangover. They always tell you the bus is direct (you always have to change), they always tell you there`s a toilet on board (if there is its locked) and they always tell you the journey time is 3 hours less than it actually is. This on top of the fact they waste a tank full of petrol driving around town trying to drum up business before you hit the road causing you to miss you`re connection and having to wait in a scummy bus terminal for 3 more hours on a hot and sweaty Sunday afternoon - some memories don`t fade with time!
This is how I ended up in Cuenca, a colonial town still in the Andes, at 10pm at night arguing with a hostel owner over the price of a room. I`ve had various arguments in Spanish now which I think is skillful for me, my next aim is to actually win one. This is the Hostel with no lights and no locks and only me and a mad biker staying there. Obviously I slept with a knife under my pillow those nights. It was a very pretty town and I took to my sightseeing like a trooper, I even visited a couple of churches and was excited that I didn`t spontaneously combust. However I felt that I was in my own personal version of Gullivers Travels. I swear I was the only Gringo in town and all the locals were lucky if they came up to my chest. I stood behind one wee woman and she came up to just above my belly button!
I did come across one infeasibly tall schoolboy tho who looked completely out of place. And the locals kept trying to sell me furniture which I thought was a bit ambitious for them, come to think about it all the locals were loading head boards onto the buses, I wonder what that was about?
My plan was to double back and ride on the Devils Nose, yippee. It`s a train where you ride on the roof, but it was really cold and wet and I was craving more heat and less mountains so I decided to go straight to Guayaquil and book my flight to the Galapagos. Again I was the only Gringo around, in fact I`ve yet to do a bus journey in Ecuador where I`m not the only Gringo. Where are all the tourists??? The bus journey to Guayaquil again went on forever although its weird to drive through the Andes and arrive in the sweltering tropics. And yet again I was the only person in the Hostel which meant I had a strange few days reading book after book and talking to myself once I`d exhausted my Spanish repetoire!
Oh it was all worth it though once I booked my ticket to the Galapagos. I never thought for a moment that the Galapagos could live up to the hype but it was truly spectacular, I can`t believe how much I saw.
I met so many people there, infact I`m in Quito now and I`ve met up with 9 people I met in the Galapagos. I got off the plane and immediately hooked up with Matt and Sian, who I seemed to be stuck like glue to for the whole trip. It was really frustrating for the first few days as we tried to book a cruise. We managed to get one and to cut a really long and tedious story short the boat broke down and We jumped ship! Yhat meant we had to wait another week to get on a boat that worked, how tragic, stuck in the Galapagos for a week, what was I to do but spend the week diving and playing with seal Lions. Actually I think fate intervened as the 2nd boat was glorious and I was about to murder a head throbbingly annoying Israeli girl on the first boat.
I swam with 18 sea turtles, dived with sharks, played tag with sea lions and got chased down the beach by them. Got soaked by jumping dolphins, avoided piles of sea iguanas, dived with stingrays and didn`t do a Steve Irwin, watched giant Manta Rays jump out the sea, saw nests of albatross`and watched blue footed boobies mate - somewhat pervily I feel.
I even discovered my sea legs, I think that`s the 1st boat I`ve been on in my life where I wasn`t sea sick, now I`m planning a boat trip from Colombia to Panama - feel like a pirate!
Reluctantly I`m now back in Quito where I`m staying with folk I met on the Islands. So this is where all the Gringos are. Off to Colombia in the next couple of days, don`t judge me but I think I`ll wait til after the Liverpool game on Wednesday!
Let me know the gen, after Colombia it`s Venuzela if there`s any takers? Surely someones ready to break, if not I`ll have to wait to see Sharon in Cuba in July!
