Graham Williams & Louise Jones Travel Blog This is our journal logging our trip through Central and Latin America from July 2005 to the present date. We update it and add new pictures every two to three weeks. At the moment Will is travelling in South Africa, while Lou is living in Buenos Aires.For more background reading on our travels go to - http://journals.worldnomads.com/will/

Having got back to Quito from the Galapagos we spent a few days there, seeing films and catching up on admin. We were also waiting for our sleeping bags which were in the post, these had been sent onto us by our friends in Seattle and were taking a very long time to turn up. When we were finally giving up hope - they arrived. After a morning at the Post Office haggling about how much duty needed to be paid on them, we finally got them. We then went out and bought a small two man tent and a cooking kit and we were ready to head to the hills. We traveled down to the resort town of Baos in the centre of the country which is a small town which sits at the feet of the very active Tungurahua Volcano and has lots of hot springs and baths. The Baths have tubs which range from very cold and straight from the waterfall, to lobster cooking hot. Lots of travelers and locals come here and its been in the news recently as a nurse from Manchester, Jennifer Pope, has gone missing here. The British Embassy has done a good job in trying to find her and her face stares out at you from every window and lamp post. We went for some training walks, including along the main river valley which has several waterfalls along it. We have since moved on to the town of Riobamba and used it as a base for a couple of longer treks were we camped out. The first was a short easy walk in a rural area which was a good introduction to trekking. The second was more ambitious as we climbed onto Volcan Chimborazo, the dominate (but dormant) Volcano in the area. This involved two days hard trekking, mainly in good weather and our highest ever camp at 4300 meters. The views at dawn, before the clouds rolled in were sensational. We had planned to move on to the south of the country and the colonial town of Cuenca. This has been prevented by protests by indigenous people who have blocked the main roads in the country, as a protest against the North America Free Trade Agreement, which they claim will only help the wealthy. So for the last two days we have been stuck in Riobamba and so plan to go for another trek tomorrow, in the hope that the situation is resolved soon.