Hi All,

Well we´ve been very busy in the past week or so. As you can see we made it into Peru and to Chachapoyas after a very long day but more of that later.

We last wrote in Banos, well we ended up staying there for a few days, mainly because after a 4 hour horse ride on the Sunday we were unable to move anywhere. It was a great ride went up one of the mountains that surrounded the town and had great views over the whole town, the worst part was coming down. It was pretty much straight down the side of the mountain, by the end of it we were both in complete agony. I´ll let Ian have a bit of a rave now as I´m sure he´ll want to say more about it and the next fawlty towers moment we had at the hotel, which we found out wasn´t to be our last of the trip.

Well after the ride we waddled up to an Italian restaurant, in dire need of a treat. Well we stepped through the door and their were 6 or 7 sitting around. So we ordered at around 7 and drank some wine and patiently waited for our food to arrive. Not much seemed to be happening in the kitchen, but with our bottle of wine we were happy. At about 8 a large local women charged in and ran into the kitchen. We joked that it was probably the chef arriving after a paniked phone call. from Ians vantage point he could see her having words to the others in the kitchen, it seemed that we may have been correct. About a half hour later our food finally arrived. It was about 9 by the time we got out and decided that we needed a treat so went and got an ice cream. Ont the way back we sat in the park watching the teenage boys playing this weird kind of leapfrog. The difference with this was that there was one boy leaning with his back on a pole and then four others bent over in front of him all with their heads up each others arses. Then the four other boys would run and throw themselves on top of the boys bent over. To us it seemed a rather perculiar game but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. we arrived at the hotel gates to find them locked, after Ian tried both our keys we realised that we were locked out. We stood around for a moment trying to work out what to do. It seemed like our only option was to book into another hostel. After a few minutes more Ian realised that there was a door in the gate and this was open. So we got onto the grounds and realised that the front of the building was locked. It appeared due to our laughter that the woman that works there was woken wearing her nightgown and with her hair in rollers, she let us in though a side door that lead directly into her bedroom. With lots of I´m sorry´s we managed to make it to our bedroom through fits of laughter.

So monday we decided to take advantage of the hot springs, hoping that they would take care of our aches and pains, I do think that it did help a bit. There were a few baths, first though we had to have a shower which was water that had been diverted from the waterfall that ran next to the baths, as you can imagine it was freezing cold. We then jumped straight into the hottest pool, well after the shower it felt like it was boiling, after a few minutes to adjust we realised that it was pretty close to it, after about 3 minutes I started to get a bit light headed so we decied to try one of the others. This one was beautiful and warm, i could have stayed in it all day. Onto the next pool which it seemed had been filled using the water from the waterfall just managed to get a toe into that one before deciding that it was back to no. 2 for a well deserved soak. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and that was about it for Banos.

Next morning onto the bus to Riobamba and then down to Alausi for the devils nose train trip. The bus ride to Riobamba was awful, we had what seemed like rich ecuadorian tourists on board that had with them two 2ltr soft drink bottles, when you looked closer you could see that stuffed inside them were two parrots that had obviously been taken from the jungle and sold to these people so that that they could stuff them in a cage at home. The whole ride we could see these poor birds that looked scared half to death. Luckily for us they didn´t catch our connecting bus down to Alausi. That bus ride was a relief after the earlier one and we arrived in Alausi mid afternoon.

Well after about a 2 minute walk I think we had pretty much circumnavigated the entire town. This was certainly the complete opposite of Banos with all it´s tourist agencies. It seems that most people catch the train all the way from Riobamba, which we found out the next day. The most spectacular part is from Alausi on which we already knew. We managed to book into a hotel, not to much of a problem since it seemed like we were the only tourists in town. Had a walk up the hill which had a statue of Saint Pedro on it. And that was about it. That night while sitting in our room, there was a knock at the door. It was the guy that works in the hotel asking for payment, which we had already paid. I told him and he went away.

The following morning at 6.30 the owner knocked on the door wanting the keys back, like a bear with a sore head Ian told him we´d leave them in the door when we left.

We got down to the train station to buy our tickets and saw that there were a couple of other tourists in town, got our tickets and were told that the train leaves around 11 and it doesn´t go all the way to the next town anymore due to the danger so only goes down the bottom of the mountain and back up again. Read the back of the ticket to be informed by the small print that timetables were only an estimate. We were to find this out. The train pulled in around 12 which considering wasn´t to bad. All the roof places had been taken by those that had got on at Riobamba. Think they deserved it though as they had been on the train since 7.30. we sat on an flat car, which suited me as the roof seemed awfully high up. We had great views from the side we sat on which we had been told to do by a local that worked at the train station.

As soon as we got off the train we ploughed onto a Gringo bus and headed to Cuenca. Luckily the local that advised us on the best places to sit on the train also ran the bus service so we had the best seats on the bus, while some poor guys had to stand for 3 1/2 hours. Since the bus was completely full of tourists we expected a race to the best hostels. So before the bus had stopped we were out at the side getting our bags out and finding the newest looking cab for the sprint into the town centre. Well the cab wasnt exactly new, but the driver made up with it with agression. We arrived at a good hostel and luckily got the last room. Following us the herds were turned away. What a lucky turn!

Cuenca was lovely, alot of great colonial churches and public buildings, and an English Cafe!! Since our usual breakfast has been bread, fruit with or without muesli or normally nothing we decided to indulge in a full heart stopper minus the black pudding and fried slice. Well it was divine, as I type my mouth is watering. You don´t know how lucky you are in blighty!

After a full day in Cuenca we decided to move on. We had heard about a town further south past Loja called Vilcabamba, reknowed for its San Pedro (Trippy cactus) and the fact the locals appear to live past 100.

After a very long ride, we arrived and decided to stay in a large hostal/hotel with all the non typical Hostal facilities like Jacuzzi, steam room, swimming pool, all you can eat buffet breakfast etc. Since it was late on the first night we bedded down with some books and read. Well around 9.30 we heard grunts and moans from outside. Then a girls voice saying ¨Tom wake up!¨ this seemed to go on for a while to Ians and my amusement,she most have roused Tom slightly as we could hear these loud groans, then there was silence for awhile and we thought she had managed to get him off to bed. Next thing she was back and more insistant. It seemed after a bit she managed to get Tom to wake up and we sat an listened to him throw up for what seemed like an eternity. Then there was silence.

Then next morning we woke and after our filling breakfast we saw a bloke that was looking a little worse for wear, so we asked if he was Tom. No came the reply, why. we explained that we had spent the good part of an hour listening to him and he explained what had happened. There was a bar down the road that served a liquor that was distilled with snakes, it was called snake juice funnily enough. He and his mate Bart had been down ther for dinner and there was a english couple in the bar. It appears Tom had tried this snake juice and said how awful it was. That had pricked up barts ears and after being told that there was a record of 7 shots of this being drunk by a Afghan guy, Bart decided to go for the record. It appears he had broken it by downing 9. Now you may ask why we had heard Tom and not Bart, Well tom had only managed to drink 6 and a half so he was still slightly conscious, it appears that bart was catatonic and was passed out on the basketball court. Now Shanta´s (the Bar) is about 50 yards down the road from the hostel. The owner of the bar had had to come up to the hostel and get one of the workers to drive the truck down to pick them up as non of them was capable of walking. Tom got up a little after 2 in not to bad of a state. Bart managed to crawl out of bed around 4 covered in sick, with a limp. So for the next three days we hung out with them drinking in Shanta´s I managed about half a snake juice and Ian managed the rest of mine and another. After seeing the state of the others after drinking loads of it we decided we had better stop their, and it tasted like shit.

Not much was done in Vilcabamba, apart from hang out by the pool and sit in the jacuzzi. Ian managed a walk up to the lookout with a few of the others and got chased by a bull, and the boys played some football while I watched. It was a great relaxing few days. Which little did we realise we would be so thankful of.

Tuesday we manged to drag ourselves away and caught the bus south, for our crossing into peru. We got as far as a town called Zumba and decided to rest for the night. I think it is about 100 kms from Vilcabamba, which took us about 5 hours, Ian and I are still trying to figure out if they base the distance between places as the crow flys or if it is the length of the road. The scenary was amazing and well worth the time it took. Zumba it appears doesn´t get to many tourist through and we stayed in a little local hotal that had no hot water a bed that was certainly made for the short and it appears extremelly skinny locals. So after a fitful sleep we got ready for our long day ahead. Managed to get some deep heat into Ians damaged back before we had to jump on the local transport of a truck with seats on the back of it. After an hour and a half we had arrived at the border. We received our exit stamp promptley and walked across the bridge to Peru. Well it appears that not to many tourist come this way and someone was sent of to find the guy that works for the immigration department. After about 20 minutes he was found and we managed to get our entry stamps into Peru. Now no buses plough this route which must be a first for South America. so into someones car and off to the next main town. 2 hours later we arrive in San Ignacios, then it was the mini bus ride from hell for three hours onto Jaen. Where we expected to be able to catch a Grande bus. No it appears again no buses on this route so into another persons car for a 45 minute ride to Bagua Grande, again we were deluded into believing that a big bus awaited us, no just another persons car for a 3 hour drive to Chachapoyas. We arrived completely exhausted at about 8.30 after getting on our first Bus/truck at 8 that morning. It was well worth it though the scenery we drove through ranged from lush forest to almost desert. It was a shame that we missed the last hour and a half due to night fall.

We plan to stay here in Chacapoyas for a few days so we can visit Kuelap an ancient Inca fortress, and Karajia, the city of the dead.

Hope your all well, Ian and Megs