¡Chicos!

Since the wonderful waters of Baños, Ruth and I have spent a bit of time slumming it. Our first endeavour was to trek the Quilotoa loop, which is a trail connecting several tiny villages in the central highlands of rural Ecuador. From the Lonely Planet´s description it sounded pretty darn good; remote indigenous villages where homestays are the norm, treks of only a few hours to get between villages, picturesque mountain scenery complemented by deep canyons and an akaline though magnificent lake formed in a volcanic crater. Obviously, as two girls on a tight budget the homestays would be fine and the trekking would be simple - we are officially Jungle Ruth and Mountain Helen, after all. However, it was problematic. First problem - transport. There were pretty much no buses, and for some unknown reason those buses which did run left at the obscene hour of 3am. This meant we had to hitch some rides with guys who tried to overcharge us ridiculously. Second problem - homestays. While very interesting to see the cultura differences between urban and rural Ecuador, our mediocre spanish prevented easy communication with our hosts. And we got fleas. Or at least we think we did. And still have. Nice. Third problem - treks. The altitude as simply too high after living it up as jungle warriors in the Amazon basin and we spent about two hours staggering up a slight incline gasping for breath like asthmatic goldfish out of water. So yeah. Bit of a disaster really. Despite the fact that we cut our trip from 3 days to 1 and a half, we did get to see some awesome scenery though in Zumbahua, Quilotoa and Chugchilan.

Following our aborted trekking trip, we thought it best to nurse our mosquito and flea bites in Riobamba for a couple of days while waiting to take the infamous Nariz del Diablo (devil´s nose) train from Riobamba to Alausi. I have to say, for a town where ´not much happens´ (Lonely Planet), Riobamba was a good place to chill out for a couple of days. We were transported there in a bus presided over by a huge poster of Jesus (most of them are!), which meandered through mountain tracks, by the side of which the occasional shrine to Mary appeared (they are all over the place - bus stations, roadsides, hotels, swimming pools...these people take their Catholicism seriously). In Riobamba itself we encountered no less than three parades. One, continuing in the religious theme, which was in homage to Mary and Christ, and had dancing, singing, chanting, buses topped with shrines, kids kneeling in prayer, and took a good 30 minutes to pass. Another was something to do with the hospital. And one which we have no idea about. It was colourful. The shoe shiners on the street that we encountered in Quito resurfaced, still pursuing Ruth and I down the street with a plaintive ´por favor´ (even though Ruth was wearing flip flops and I was wearing gold ballet shoes - what on earth did they think they could polish? Our toenails? Honestly!) Other than the parades, Riobamba seemed to have a superfluity of trainers shops, pharmacies and photocopying shops. We are not sure why, but the best theory is that they do a lot of sport, repeatedly injure themselves and have to go to the pharmacy, then have to photocopy the documents to send to the insurance. If they have insurance, that is...hmmmm. There were many singing rubbish trucks (really) which, like the deathly buses of Quito, announced their arrival cheerily with a tune. There were also two impressive snow topped volcanoes in Riobamba. And, of course, the main reason for being there, the train. The train took five hours, zig zagged through mountains, and had to perform a switchback (whereby the train goes forward on one track, then reverses up another track in a ´devil´s nose´ style (?)) to get up a fairly sheer rock face. Ruth and I sat on top of the train :-) Fun!

From Alausi we went straight to beautiful Cuenca, which is a colonial town and utterly gorgeous. Unfortunately we spent very little time there in our hurry to get to Peru, but both of us said we would love to return. The route across the border was an interesting experience. The bus from Cuenca to Machala, then Machala to Huaquillas was uneventful. But getting from Huaquillas (Ecuador) to Tumbes (a mosquito filled hole of a town in Peru) was a pain in the proverbial backside. Firstly we had to get a taxi to the immigration office with the only taxi driver around, who did not have a marked taxi and swore he would only charge us $1. This resulted him recruiting his friend, a plain clothes immigration officer, who insisted on ´helping´us by doing our forms for us, at which point I panicked about not trusting them and demanded to stand in line like everyone else, then I confiscated the taxi driver´s car keys so he couldn´t run off with our stuff. After immigration, we ended up in the taxi again (there were no others!) trying to get to Tumbes to catch our bus to Mancora, when the driver tried to get us to pay $30 for the journey (the guidebook says it should be $5-7), which we managed to get down to $18. And when we arrived in Peru he demanded it in soles (Peruvian currency), not dollars, then drove us to a cash point so I could pay in soles. By this point we knew we could trust the guy, but still knew he was going to rip us off. We thought our troubles were over, but Peruvian buses are an ordeal too! We had to wait half an hour to have seats allotted, then had fingers prints takes, video footage made, *and* had to stop at a checkpoint to have our bags searched!! At least we know we weren´t on a bus with muggers or smugglers. A really annoying experience, but hey, we got here.

Our first stop in Peru is Mancora, Peru´s answer to Ibiza. It´s hot, sunny, sandy, full of backpackers, surfers and westerners, and jam-packed with mototaxis and seafood. Loverrly. Today we chilled on the beach, tonight we´re going out (a novelty as it´s the first place safe enough for us to go out on our own at night) and I am loving it. I´m a little sad to leave Ecuador, land of singing rubbish trucks, but very excited about Peru...more to come soon!

Hasta luego xxxx