While waiting at the Banos bus termainal to head out to Riobamba, a good portion of people I had met at the hostal made an appearance. They were catching the same bus that I was, some heading onto the buses final destination of Guayaquil, or were changing at Riobamba to another bus into Cuenca. I was…

The town of Banos is an adrenaline junkies haven. I’ve not seen so many rafting, climbing, jumping and nature defying tour companies in the one small town. It’s a tourist town for sure, but like so many tourist towns in Ecuador it’s filled mostly with South American (predominately Argentinian) tourists and a handful of gringos. The bus…

After spending 2 weeks in Canoa it was time to make the conscience decision to leave. This is a lot harder than one would think when you’re surrounded by a beautiful beach, great weather and cheap beer. Finally I summoned the courage to pack the backpack and jump on the bus to Bahia, the main…

One of the most stressful decisions on this trip so far has been where to spend Christmas and New Years. Trust me, after only having to worry about street maps and whether this bus is actually going to where I want to go, I had to think long and hard on how to approach this dilemma. …

Tonight is the last night in Otavalo. What was to be a 5 night stay turned into 7 nights. For most people this would be a week longer than planned, but when you’re surrounded by the Andes it’s hard to just walk away and say yep I’m done here.  There’s just something so serene looking…

A two hour bus journey from Quito leads to the town of Otavalo, famous for this Saturday markets. There’s a lot more than just the markets that make this town great, there are no less than four volcanoes surrounding the area, three lakes and several small villages. It takes some hiking to get around (or…

The TeleferiQo is an amazing cable car that takes you up 2.5km along the volcano Pichincham, making it one of the highest in the world. The summit is another 3 hour hike that I decided wasn’t the brightness idea to attempt. Even at this height the altitude was taking some getting used to, and I’m…

Because I’m such a giant baby when it comes to getting stabbed with needles, the option for the Typhoid vaccine in pill form was a blessing. I was already sacrificing my arms with Hep A/B and Yellow Fever jabs, so it was a little hard to pass up an oral vaccine that lasts two years…

As fate would have it, I’m in Quito at the time it’s going nuts wrapping up the year for being the Cultural Capital of America for 2011. It’s been non stop entertainment, and even now at 9pm there’s a swarm of people marching the down street outside the hostel banging drums and generally being noisy!…