Photos so far

Right, there's lots of them, and I must warn you that not all of them are that interesting or make sense.... AND I haven't put titles on them.... but here are links to the albums of all my photos on the trip so far.

Hope you enjoy them all, and don't say I didn't warn you about how many there are!

Ecuador 1: Quito, Mitad del Mundo, and more Quito.

Ecuador 2: Otavalo, Cotopaxi, Quilotoa and Baños

Ecuador 3: more Baños, Nariz del Diablo train, Cuenca and Vilcabamba

Peru 1: The Andean road into Peru, Temples of the Sun and the Moon, Huaraz and the Cordilliera Blanca.

The next few weeks will revolve around Cusco, the Inca Trail, and then Arequipa I think. So hope you like these photos as there's lots more mountains to come!

And so to Peru

Well, its three weeks into the South America leg of this trip, and I've now made it to Peru. And it was quite an effort to get here too! Left Loja in southern Ecuador at 7am, and arrived here in Piura, northern Peru, at about 5pm. Yes TEN hours, and we (Tom from the USA, who I'm travelling with for a bit) are due to spend another six hours to head south to Trujillo tonight, and then... hopefully.... we'll have another eight hours tomorrow morning to Huaraz.

That trip should be worth the time though as Huaraz and the Cordilleria Blanca part of the Andes are supposed to contain some of the most beautiful and breath-taking scenery, hiking and trekking on the whole continent.

So, with three hours before our bus leaves, what do you do on a Friday night in an incredibly hectic and hot city such as Piura (which I hope to leave still having all my valuables and other bits attached to me). Head for the Internet of course!!! If anyone has any other bright ideas then please let me on a postcard to the usual address! Haha!

A volcano in action

This is the sight that welcomes you to Baños. The local volcano shooting a column of ash and dust high into the air, just as it has done for the last 6 years or so since it became active again. It took two years to be down-graded to amber than yellow alert, and for life to return as to locals reclaimed their city. (click the photo for a bigger version.. I hope.)

So now to Baños!

The scenery in the Andes is quite literally breath-taking (especially when trying to climb it!). The roads winding away from Latacunga to Quilotoa, and here arond the town of Baños provide beautiful look-out spots from which to take it all in. On our hike up the hill, we met a very friendly local, Carlos, who works for the civil defence force in monitoring the very much active volcano that currently overlooks the city. Officially no-one should be in this city, but its been on yellow alert for about 4 years now and no-one seems particularly concerned as daily life continues fairly normally.

Not again!!

Laslo and I consider the enjoyment of a hike at 4000m for the second time in two days, and also the possibilitiy of an eruption, and how much fun that could be!!

Laguna Quilotoa

Izzy considers going for a swim in the lake that's formed inside the crater of Quilotoa. Another active but largely dormant volcano in central Ecuador. At 4000m high at the tip of the rim, its another breathless hike down into, and back up the crater.

Real celebrations!

Laslo and I decided to celebrate in a slightly different way! Someone in the climbers refuge decided it would be a great idea to sell beer there... so what else could we do?! "Possibly the highest beer in the World?!" Haha!

Reward!

Here Laslo and Kate (on exchange from Germany and Belgium) relax with Izzy at reaching the refuge. Kate had brought some of her birthday cake from last week to celebrate with (which Izzy really enjoyed!)

Volcan Cotopaxi

This is from the climb up the currently dormant Volcano Cotopaxi, in central Ecuador. From the car park at 4500m to the climbers refuge at 4800m may not seem a great distance, but the altitude and soft volcanic sands make it very slow and hard going.

Mmmmmm!

Apart from steaks, South America isn't really known for its food. Well, in the market town of Otavalo, there are fantastic bakeries that happen to sell delicious slices of cakes for just 50c... perfect as dessertfor hungry "gringos" and polarbears alike. You have no idea of the will-power it took to not eat this straight away. There's only a few people who I know that make better cakes... but I won't embarrass them on here as I'm sure they already know.

...OR is THIS the Mitad del Mundo?!

Actually they all are, but strictly speaking the first one is 270m out. Yes, that's the monument that has been placed where the French explorers calculated the equator to be about 300 years ago. However, the ancient pre-Inca tribes had plotted it ontop of the hill (hopefully you can see a small mound where a semi-circle and tree mark the spot), and this line goes exactly through the equator, which has its own unofficial museum next to the "official" one.

The unofficial one that actually goes overthe equator is best, as here you get to try balancing an egg on the head of a nail (which I managed to do and got a certificate for - yeay me!!!), something which is virtually impossible off the equator apparently, watch the water go down plug-holes different ways, and loads of other cool stuff.

... Or is THIS the Mitad del Mundo?.....

(See that little mound on the top of the hill?... thats the important bit!)

Is this the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the World)?...

Izzy's making friends

Time for a decent update I hope! In Quito, Izzy made friends with Dan (from Bournemouth). Here they are checking out the UNESCO World Heritage site Old Town, which is overlooked by the "Virgen de la Quito".

"Goodbye" to the North!

Just a quick entry for this occasion. I´m leaving Otavalo today (which is just North of Quito, and the equator) and heading South. So this means, that unless something really unexpected happens, I´ll be in the Southern hemisphere for the next two months until flying back to Canada.
Now this may not seem that important in real terms, but, when most of your life you get used to the rest of the world mostly being south of you, it kind of messes with your mind to have that totally reversed. (Kind of like someone saying Cardiff City are a really good football team!!!)

So on that happy note I shall wish you all a Happy Easter, and see you on the flip-side (of the Globe)!

More Niagara Falls

As Izzy was going, Amanda & I decided to go along as well.... just to keep her company of course! So here we are infront of the Canadian "horseshoe" Falls. How Izzy got her paws on the camera I don´t know!

Izzy visits the Falls!

Before leaving Canada for South America, Izzy took a day trip to Niagara Falls, and very impressed she was too. I´m hoping she didn´t have any ideas about jumping in for some fish!!

Izzy was loving the look of all that ice from the American Falls.