QUITO

Okay. So we ended up in Quito a little earlier than we thought. Its the capital of the country and in the end, we decided it was a pretty cool city. It was divided into an old and new part both being quite cool. Stayed in a mega touristy area which gave us a rash, but meant that we were able to eat Curry, Lebanese, Fish n Chips, Swiss burgers and American icecream. Yum.

Now, for those of you travellers you will know how you can get unappreciative of old churches etc. when you´ve seen a million of them, however, in the old part of the city we found this church and it was absolutely amazing. So huge and gothicy and so very cool. We were able to climb all the way to the very top point of the steeple and clock tower. Quasimodo (the huntchback) would be proud. It was ridicously high and freaky and great. You can obviously tell we loved it.

Top, the outside shot of the church....we cant remember the name! Something with a B, and above, Jarrod and Joel down one of the arch ways on our tour with one of the 10 priests (if thats what he really was).

Us heading down the walkway which is across the top of the vaulted ceiling of the Church. You can see the domes either side of us. The photos are a bit blurry as the whole joint was pretty dim.

Here is a shot just before we were about to climb the steeple...looking at one of the two the clock towers. The photos obviously dont show how high we were but we were freakin high.

This shot was taken from the very highest point you could climb, OSH would have had a field day with this place! At this point you could secretly climb outside and sit on a little platform with the Gargoyles and co. Totally freaky. If you look at the above photo you can see the last flat section just below the point of the clock tower steeple....thats where we were sitting. It was so very, very high.

PLAYAS AND SALINAS

After Jambeli and a stint in Guayaquil (the biggest city of Ecuador of 4million) we headed to Playas and Salinas. Got severely burnt lying on the beach......ate at little beach bars. The most popular holiday locations for Guayaquilians.

Salinas...the Mt Maunganui of Ecuador.

While in Ecuador, the build up for the elections was on. Everywhere we went throughout the country we stumbbled across rallys and demonstrations. We each had a party we were routing for...the result....the computer crashed! The whole of Ecuador gets to re-vote on the two parties who were in the lead.

JAMBELI - ECUADOR

Our first pit stop on entering Ecuador was Jambeli Island off the coast of Manchala, the bottom of Ecuador and the banana capital of the world, seriously amazing amount of banana trees. Jambeli is a tourist Isalnd but for Ecuatorians rather than Gringos, we just so happened to be the only ones on the Island as it was off season. Stayed in a cool bamboo bungalow with some hippies and a crazed Dutch woman. Swam in the warm, warm ocean with the stingrays. Really cool, slightly run down Island.

Jarrod (stud) (he wanted us to write that), lounging on the way out to Jambeli Island.

This is a pic of our homely bungalow....spent many an hour laxing reading on the deck or in the hammocks.

The beach of Jambeli.....got attacked by dogs as we walked down it one night. We threatened them with sticks, showed who were the bosses.

SOME OF OUR FRIENDS SO FAR

So far in our travels we have come across many different people who have helped us out immensly or have hung out with us. Here´s some photos of a few of them...

Dave and Barb Miller. Our family in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Thank you so much for looking after us during our stay. You are total legends.

Dani Llosa and Carmen Miller. Our hot dates for our last night in Cochabamba and a great meal at La Estancia. Thanks girls.

The Trout Fishers of Cusco. They weren´t really our friends but we had breakfast while they had lunch in the same restaurant 3 days in a row and they always wore their trout fishing jackets. There were alot of trout fishers in Cusco but we´re not sure where the water was. (They don´t know we took this photo)

Eva and Liliana. Our hostel family in Lima Peru. There were alot of laughs at us for some reason, but always smiling and very lovely people. Even walked us to the bus the night we left and served us breakfast at whatever time of the day we wanted.

CONTINUED

Us with Susy and Dani Llosa after a delicious lunch in Cochabamba, Bolivia. (Perdon Jorge, la foto con usted no salio)

Us with John and Nelly Wry and there kids after he took us quadbiking in the dunes of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

The Salar de Uyuni crew. Very cool cats. Sabrina, Elfrin, Lila, Valentine and us.

Jake the American. We stayed in the same hostel with him in La Paz, Bolivia and he joined us on our downhill mountain bike ride.

Here we are with Gladys and Mirian, by far our favorite of many friends we made in Cusco, Peru. They worked at the best Mexican restaurant. Love the Chimichangas.