Firstly, apologies for the delay in communications! I have been in the jungle & then not within easy access of a computer. So in order to stay in contact more easily I decided to buy a tablet so I can use the Wifi access which seems to be available in most places. Ok, so the jungle was pretty amazing- very humid as you can imagine, very lush and full of mozzies!! Though luckily, no snakes to be seen anywhere at all- there was supposed to be an anaconda at the Animal sanctuary we visited on the river Napo, but it was very shy ;) There were however lots of monkeys, parrots, wild pigs and turtles! The boat ride there was a little hairy- at one point we got stuck on the bottom going over some small rapids and had to be pushed out. We went on 2 walks led by our local Qechua guides, one through streams, up waterfalls and through dense primary jungle, in the second we looked for plants traditionally used for medicine and tasted lemon ants- yummy!! We also did a tubing trip down the river in 6 tyres tied together as a raft with 8 people plus oarsman. This was interrupted halfway through with a visit to a Qechua village, which was 15 mins walk through the jungle, all of us in swimgear and flipflops!! After the jungle we went camping in Baños in Pequeño Paraiso (little paradise) about 30 mins outside the actual town in the 'green zone' - the safe zone from the still active Puluhua volcano above Baños town itself. Went canyoning nearby- this involved jumping into pools from 3m and 6m, abseiling down waterfalls, walking through the streams and a 'flying fox' zip wire backwards :) and yes i did it all, no chickening out for me, even though the 6m jump was pretty damned high!!! The next day, went to the hot springs on the volcano and had a full body massage followed by a little shopping - bliss!!! We had one night out in Baños town which was fun and there was lots of dancing. One member of our party went off with a young lady and ended up in a hotel (on his own) in Ambato (hour & half by bus) :P those crazy latina chicas ;) Last stop in Ecuador was Cuenca and en route we stopped in Ingapirca, the largest Inca ruins in Ecuador. However, the weather was not on our side and there was heavy mist followed by heavy rain meaning we saw actually very little. Stayed in a lovely little hotel in Cuenca and spent the day around town, shopping for Panama hats, electronics, head torches and seeing the colonial town. Next day we crossed the border into Peru and we're now in Punta Sal (near Mancora). Yesterday went quad biking on the beach with Jes and ended up sunburnt on my back and legs- sigh- but its Day 13, so think I'm doing pretty well so far. Found a colony of brown pelicans and a huge dead male sealions being slowly consumed by vultures. The sea here is a lovely temperature and the tents are pitched right on the beach!! Pretty much just chilling out and trying not to run up too big a bar bill, but the cocktails are just so drinkable ;) Next stop is Huanchaco, which is near Chan Chan and the Temples of the moon and the sun..... then Lima, where 11 more lucky people join us!!!
