colchisikms

On the 10th of January we headed north to the town of Saraguro, a small town of only 6,000 mainly Kichwa inhabitants. Saraguro is known for its resistance to Spanish conquest, being the only group to have done so in the area. On the tourist trail, Saraguro is known for its ‘traditional’ market. Women and…

On the 7th January we arrived at Zamora in the very South and West of Ecuador, which dates all the way back to 1549. The Spanish had to abandon the city once they had established it, due to the Shuar revolt of 1599. The ruins of the city were not found until hundreds of yeas…

On January 7th we grabbed some breakfast at a café across the street from our (dodgy) hotel. I decided to try an Ecuadorian specialty called empanadas de verde. These are empanadas filled with something nice (in my case, cheese) but made using a green plantain ‘shell’ instead of one made from maize or wheat. These…

On January 6th, Tuesday, Colin and I took a day trip to the Puyango Petrified Forest. We did a lot of research trying to figure out how to get out to the forest from Loja – we estimated it should have been 2 or 3 hours away from Loja. Not so much. The Puyango Forest…

On January 3rd, a Saturday, Colin and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Loja where we found a hotel on the plaza with a room for us. We didn’t realize until later, but the ‘hotel’ was also for ‘by the hour’ room rental… in fact, the room next to ours was one of…

On the 20th of December Colin and I caught our flight back to mainland Ecuador from the Galapagos. Guayaquil city may be the largest city in Ecuador, but it isn’t exactly the most picturesque port for a return. In fact, with the combined pollution, crime, scary drivers, and big city attitude it was one of…

On the 11th December we were waiting for our new guide, as unfortunately our guide Victor was taking the holiday period off. To cut a long story short, we got a terrible replacement guide called David Waldemar, who was a complete twat. My review of him is on tripadvisor, so other people can hopefully avoid…

The flight into Santa Cruz was enjoyable. We had got the cheapest tickets we could find, which are from Guayaquil, the closest city to the islands. It was a lovely day, sunny, and the Pacific Ocean below us was a deep blue, with perfect white clouds dotting the landscape all around the plane. Now, you…

We arrived in the popular beach tourist town of Mancora on November 27th, and decided to try and find a nice place to stay with a pool. Luckily our moto driver took us to one, and we checked in to a place just off the main walking street, in front of one of the beaches.…

On November 26th we checked out of our hotel in Chiclayo and headed for the city of Piura, the first city the Spanish Pizarro founded in Peru and named after the Quechua word for abundance – “pirhua.” It wasn’t exactly a beautiful place we discovered, nor cheap. We looked at quite a few hostels before…