Hola Todos!! Estamos a Ecuador!! Back to using bad keyboards and sitting in tiny internet cafes for us. Heres a quick update before we jump on an overnight bus to the Amazon jungle....After a 11.5 hour flight from the beautiful, sunny Auckland with our huge packs (seem to be heavier than our packs the last trip, no idea how that happened) we reached Santiago de Chile. The flight was good, no hiccups, good movies and okayish food. Santiago was....er different...we managed to find our way through the millions of taxi drivers and found the local bus. Passing through poor communities and tons of rubbish we reached the centre of town. Once there, we walked for what seemed miles to find the local attractions, musuems etc. But with no avail as our guide book seems to be really bad for directions. So i braved it and began the spanish...asking directions and getting the correct way. My spanish confidence is coming along quickly actually and I have managed to converse alot..tels well impressed and so am i actually! The day was cloudy but this didnt matter, we climbed up Santa Lucia to see the view of the city and the Andes mountain range that surrounds it. Absolutely stunning. Tel tried his first Empanada which is like a cheese pastry..it rocked. We did the tourist route after this and checked out the cathedral and a few museums. Really great, large city but not the prettiest we have seen. We took the metro to see my friend from University, Becs, she took us to her amazing apartment that her job pays for. It has a city skyline view and a roof top spa. Wow. After a lovely dinner in a restuarant we were absolutely shattered we had walked around all day and had a massive overnight flight so we hit the bed, with glass window views of the city as we fell asleep.
The next day started with a trip to the airport on the local bus and our flight with Copa Airlines to Panama. As we flew to Panama we had cloud line views of the Andes for hours, it was amazing. Snow capped Andes coming out over the clouds, incredible view. When we were landing in Panama we could just see jungle for miles. I wish we had time to stop and check central America out, but hey ho theres next time!
We flew in Quito, Ecuador which is 9,350 feet above sea level (10% less high than our sky dive in Africa) and were met by a taxi to take us to our hotel. On route we spotted many prositutes, dogs and mountains..i know funny compination! Today was spent walking around, checking out the city itself and sweating in the heat. We went to see out Amazon tour agent, who gave us the tickets and bus directions to our unfortunately over night bus to the edge of the Amazon. From there we are met by guides who will take us by canoe to our lodge in the middle of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Will update you more on this when we return. Right now I am freeking out alittle that my hands have swollen so much i cant get my rings off, side effect of the altitude maybe?´Hasta Luego mis amigos!
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