Ecuador

Here we are now, in the land of volcanoes and massive mountains. Our last class flight (we got a first class free upgrade, because the flight was overbooked) brought us to the capital Quito which lays in breathtaking 2800 meters altidute. Coming from a country with around 30 degrees celcius we arrived only in shorts and tshirts at only 8 degrees. This was quite a shock for us since our luggage was still in Venezuela due to the overbooked flight (there were some ecuadorian families that were flying with 8! suitcases, which we found out later).

But at the end we got a little bonus (thanks to our great argumentation in spanish) for the 2 day delay of our luggage. Satisfied with our victory we went straight to the market and invested the money in some colourful ecuadorian souvenirs.

In the following days we checked out Quito and the famous "la mitad del mundo" where we jumped between winter and summer right at the Equator.

Back in our little hotel right in the heart of the old town of Quito we later that day celebrated Annas birthday with some good old chilenian wine.

From there we went south to a little nice volcanotown called Baños (like the name says it is full or thermal swimming pools that are heated buy the still active vulcano).
We also decided that this lovely place is the perfect location to sharpen our language skills. In the end we had five days with a private teacher in combination with the daily bargaining for souvenirs that helped us a lot with our spanish.

This was quite a welcoming alternative to our normal sightseeing tours and gave us and our knocked out stomaches some more time to relax.

Completly recovered and full of energy we rusehd into our next adventure in the wild Amazonian jungle of Puyo. With monkeys, spiders, snakes, million unknown sounds and jungle-snacks we had quite a time. Equipped with rubber-boots and mosquito repellend we made our way through the thick jungle vegetation. The tour included also voluntary bridge jumping secured with only a rope as well as swinging on top of the tree tops like tarzan. Both of which Basti could not resist trying.

With our face painted with the traditional warrior colours and a blowgun (Blasrohr) in our hand it made us feel like the still existing Shamans (except they are barenaked with only a tiny rope holding up their manhood.

Covered with mud and rain we happily came back to our hostel two days later.

From Baños, we experienced a spectacular mountain train ride through the Andes to Aulausi. From there we grabbed one of those public buses that took us across the mountains again to the beach in Puerto Lopez. There we met some nice Germans, sister and brother, who were travelling together in Ecuador. We made out the cheapest and best hostel together and enjoyed the nights with cigars, cocktails and talks on our balcony across the beach. We also did a tour to the "poor man's Galapagos", called Isla de la Plata. There we saw the famous blue footed birds very close to us and tons of wales swimming and jumping (too fast for the camera) in the water. It felt wonderful to see these big mammals so close to us.

Rich of experiences again, we moved on to the nice city of Cuenca. Our bus ride was interrupted and we arrived in Cuenca a little later than planned. After some organisational issues we watched the amazing footbal game Germany versus Argentina with some German tourists around us. Very delighted and being proud wearing our German shirts we were greeted with hand shakes and honking cars by the Ecuadorian people.

"Germany will win the World Cup"

was what people told us and what we hoped after this spectacular game.

Our last stop in Ecuador took us to Loja. From there we crossed the border to Peru and arrived after a long but pituresque bus ride in Chiclayo, Peru.