To Ecuador, where new and old ends meet

After being issued with a temporary Passport I was beach bound! After being in altitude for over 4 months I was very happy to be a sea level again, I could actually breathe, and did not wake up in the middle of the night with a dry month and bloody nose, which are the common features of living in Altitude! I took a 17 hours bus, sounds long but was no means the longest, I have now calculated that I have spent over 300 hours on a bus, which is over 10 days, that is a lot of time, but is the only way to travel in South America! So in Mancora, which is a bit  of  a dead, chilled beach town in the north of Peru, I could swim in the Pacific, sun bathe and just enjoy without having to worry about passports or the stress of city life. Bering low season, everything was empty, even the gringo population did not fill the bars and clubs on the sea front, but after 3 days of lying on a beach, getting tanned/burned, there was more beach to explore in Ecuador and Columbia. Boarder crossing, a lot easier than I initially though, you literally get a bus to the boarder and another one, to the next place, easy! I ended up in Cuenca, I pretty colonial town which seamed to rain a lot, a type of weather which I haven’t really had to deal with a lot here, and reminds me too much of home. With some friends I picked up we explored some market towns, one is where they make the original Panama hats, in Ecuador, being me I spent a while talking to the lady who works there and asking why they are such a cult item, she had no answer, just that is where the money is!

Being in the only South American country where I had been to before, with dad 4 years ago I was able to remember similarities, and after exploring a museum on another rainy day, I came across the indigenous group the Tsachilla, who live in the Lowlands of Santo Domingo, these people I lived with, when I was 15, chilling with the children and the animals while my father was trying to make me teach and farm the land, neither which really worked but it was an amazing experience, which planted the seed, which lead to me travelling in South America by myself 4 years later! Cuenca was nice, but a bit too rainy and I had more beaches to explore, one being to party town on Montañita, I knew it was no cultural experience, but I wanted to have a good time by the beach and that’s what I did for 4 days, met up with old and new friends  and enjoyed the infamous cocktail alley, no joke! A street full of cocktail stand!

However it was not the for me, after meeting people who had been there for weeks a decided it was time to move on , to another beach town, called Puerto Lopez, a fishing town,  where you could see the fish being brought in the morning and smell the stench! This place was know for the Isla de Plata, another poor mans Galapagos island. Seeing humpback Wales really made it, these beautiful animals that are 15 meters in length are special animals of which I felt privileged to see! Also there were such beautiful beaches, some of the best I would say, with crystal water and white sand! Not something we have at home! However the city beckoned and I had to go to Quito to do more admin work about my VISA, which is now causing problems as I go home via the US without a real passport. This now seams to be sorted so I can continue to enjoy the remaining time of  my trip, the endless 7 and a half moths is coming to an end, in about 6 weeks I will be gracing all you Londoners will my presence and endless stories of which you will be bored with after the first week! So I must fill these last weeks with more wonderful experiences and stories, keep safe, and I´m on the home stretch!