Ecuador

Having left Punta Sal, and crossed another border (last one on this trip) into Ecuador, the first place we visited was Cuenca. This is another old colonial city with many churches, museums, and a couple of small Inca ruins. No photos because my camera got stolen on the morning we left the city.

Then it was on further north to Baños and a fun day of filling out police reports, phoning credit card & mobile phone companies, and trying to sort out an insurance claim. Had a little bit of a chance to look around Baños and at the volcano of Tungurahua which overlooks the town and is currently threatening to erupt (again - last eruption was in the middle of last year). Then it was time to move on again.

Back into the jungle and a few nights staying at the Anacaonda Lodge on the Rio Napo. Most of our time was spent on the water or on short treks through the jungle.

At times we even combined the two and trekked down the rivers. Fortunately I managed to stay upright, unlike many of the group, so managed to get some photos on another replacement camera.

A couple of visits were included: the village of Ahuana on the opposite bank of the river and demos of pottery, and Chicha making (alcohol fermented from yukka), a museum on tribal life. his last one included the chance to have a go with a 3 metre blowpipe. The target was a wooden parrot and one of us turned into an ex-parrot (yep, I admit, it was me - that´s my dart in the parrot´s wing).

Final visit was to a local animal rescue centre and a chance to meet the residents. One of them was more keen on meeting us than the rest and was on the boat before we had even reached the river bank. As well as woolly monkeys, the sanctuary also has spider, and brown capuchin monkeys, black lion tamarins, capybaras, peccaries, and whole load of parrots and macaws.

Then a chance to see some real wildlife when a troop of capuchin monkeys paid us a visit in camp. I missed out on some of the action, only arriving back just after they had raided the bar for some potato crisps. Fortunately, the monkeys were still in a tree behind the bar, so I had a chance to interact with them a little. We also fed them with some oranges (ok, maybe they are not as wild as I thought).

Penultimate stop on the Drago truck is the town of Otavalo for the craft markets (and a chance to bring this blog a bit more up to date). Tomorrow is the last day of travel on the truck and then after a week of free time in Quito, the fun of Spanish lessons and voluntary work on the Galapagos Islands.