Quito

Que lujo, el avion es desde luego mi medio de transporte favorito. 1h30min para ir de Panama City a Quito, nada de buses de noche ni ferrys interminables esta vez. Y las vistas de Quito desde el avion, impresionantes! 
La ciudad esta construida entre las montañas y hay que decir que los dos primeros dias hemos estado con un ligero mal de alturas. Lo tipico, dolor de cabeza leve pero permanente y el corazon que se pone a 100 al subir 5 escaleras. Esto a 2850m, a ver como estaremos de acostumbrados para la llegada a Peru y Bolivia y sus ciudades a 3500m y mas...
En la parte vieja de Quito hay una iglesia llamada Iglesia del Voto Nacional y por 2$ se puede subir hasta arriba en el campanar. Las vistas son mas que simpaticas. Toda esta parte esta llena de iglesias y museos por lo que merece una buena pateada.  Por la tarde nos vamos a la zona de Mariscal donde estan los restaurantitos y bares con buen ambiente. Si bien es cierto que por la mañana no hemos visto turistas, por aqui si que hay algunos. No hemos podido resistir a la tentacion de tomar un chocolate caliente en un sitio acogedor aunque nos ha costado al rededor de 5$ ( suficiente para pagar 4 menus en las cantinas....) En nuestra defensa, alegaria que no es facil pasar de verano a invierno de un dia para otro. Despues de los 30 grados de Panama, los 15 de Quito con vientecillo de la sierra se asemeja mas al espiritu navideño.
No te puedes ir de Quito sin haber pasado por Mita del Mundo. Es un monumento que marca la linea del ecuador. A un lado de la linea estas en el hemisferio Norte y del otro lado en el hemisferio Sur. A 300 metros mas alla hay un museo muy interesante (Museo Inta Ñan) que explica gracias a diferentes experiencias, los efectos de las fuerzas gravitacionales y el efecto de Koriolis. Un ejemplo claro es el sentido en el que gira el agua en un lavabo, dependiendo del hemisferio en el que estas. Tambien comprobamos lo facil que resulta colocar un huevo en un clavo si estas justo en la linea del ecuador...
Por la tarde pillamos un bus para ir a Riobamba. Dejo mi mochila en el compartimento de arriba pero despues de un rato me da mal rollo asi que lo dejo a mis pies. 15 minutos despues, una chica que estaba sentada mas atras se acerca a nosotros y nos dice que tiene la impresion de que nos han robado algo de mi mochila. Al mirar, efectivamente, mi camara de fotos ya no esta.... Me doy la vuelta y le pregunto al chico de detras que Que c--- pasa! Despues de unos 5 minutos de jaleo en el bus y mirando por todos lados y preguntando, nos damos cuenta que en realidad son 4 personas que estan metidas en el ajo. El conductor del bus esta de acuerdo para pararse cuando haya un coche de policia por lo que aprovecho, sin saber muy bien a quien me dirijo (en ese momento no se quien-quienes son los autores del robo) para comentar que mejor que me devuelvan la camara y que no hare historias con la policia o que si de lo contrario no la devolvian, nos las ibamos a ver con la patrulla. De repente, una mujer grito que habia encontrado la camara en un asiento de atras...enfin, solo un susto que podria haber acabado mal.  

Aqui teneis unos videos nuestros, con la mitad del cuerpo en cada emisferio!

Riobamba
 A 4 horas de bus de Quito, Riobamba es mas pequeño y es famoso por el Volcan Tungurahua y por un tren que sale dese aqui y serpentea por los andes hasta Alaui. Como llegamos de noche no vemos el Volcan pero si que se aprecia la fina capa de ceniza que cubre la ciudad a consecuencia de una erupcion la semana pasada. Pillamos el tren al dia siguiente y son 7 horas de trayecto por unos paisajes sorprendentes. La parada por el pueblo de X tambien es de agradecer, tanto para comer un buñuelo de banana y un morocho (leche con maiz) como para ver con viven los locales, la gran mayoria siendo indigenas. La parte final del trayecto la hacemos en el propio techo del tren y esta bien chevere. 
Con otras 4 horas de bus hacemos la union con Cuenca en la que contamos quedarnos al menos dos noches para descansar un poco.

Cuenca
A unas 4 horas desde Alaui, llegamos a esta pequeña ciudad de los Andes. El centro es precioso, con plazoletas decoradas, llenas de colores para las navideñas. Estamos hospedados en la casa de una familia. El desayuno es de los mejorcito que hemos tenido hasta la fecha y el padre, economista de formacion, nos cuentas como era el Ecuador de hace unos años y los cambios culturales recientes. La verdad es que hemos venido aqui para descansar un poco de los trayectos de bus y tren asi que estamos encantados de charlar con este hombre. Tambien aprovechamos para ir a unos baños termales no lejos de la ciudad. No es nada turistico y es gracioso ver a los locales en los baños turcos. Un letrero dice: "Prohibido afeitarse"... y la verdad es que soy el mas peludo de todos con diferencia. Y no solo lo digo por la barba...

Cuando nos vamos de Cuenca el 18 por la mañana, no tenemos ni idea de la que nos espera para cruzar la frontera con Peru...Nos vamos en bus hacia Machala para cruzar ahi y llegar a Tumbes. En la seccion de Peru os cuento la que nos liaron... Nos vemos ahi!

Quito
Our first city in South America, which we arrived to after a nice short 1h 30m plane journey from Panama City.  The fact that we flew there really made it feel like the end of one part of our journey and the start of another...beats long bus rides anyday! Flying into Quito was also pretty impressive as its just stuck in the middle of the mountains, plus at its 2850m above sea level its pretty breath taking. We felt the altitude a bit at the start with slight headaches and being totally out of breath after walking up 2 steps but nothing too bad. There are lots of things to do in Quito with its many churches and squares, its trendy Mariscal area where all the tourists hang out and also the fact that its a short bus ride from the ¨¨ center of the world¨¨. Yes we couldnt miss that, a visit to the equator,  so we got the crowded bus and headed to the center of the world. It was a fun place to spend a few hours as it has a line running down the middle of it where the equator is, dividing the world´s two hemispheres, so you can jump from one side of the line to the other and go from being in the southern hemisphere to the northern one. There is also a deadly outdoor museum nearby where you can do all sorts of tests which show that the gravational force is different at the equator etc. For example if you pull the plug to let water out of a sink on the equator the water runs straight out but in the southern hemisphere it swirls in one direction and in the northern hemisphere the opposite direction. Plus you weigh less at the equator which is always a good thing....think ill move there to live :-) After our visit to the equator and a few days discovering Quito we had to get moving and start our trek down through Ecuador to make sure we got to Cusco for Christmas as we had the Inca Trail already booked for the 26th. So the plan was to get the bus from Quito further south to Riobamba, however getting the bus turned out to be more of an event than we planned. After we got on the bus, Antoine feeling uncomfortable at having left his bag above him in the luggage rails took it down and put it below his legs. Then however after about 10 minutes of the journey another tourist came up to us all shocked and told us to be careful as she thought someone might have been trying to steal from our bags. Thinking that was impossible as they were at our feet, but checking just in case, Antoine opened his bag and found that his camera was missing. The first thing he did was turn around and ask the guy behind what he had done with it, but of course everyone played dumb! We were not willing to give up that easily so we didnt allow anyone to get of the bus and started to search the bus for the camera, eventually we found the charger hidden under some other bag so we knew the camera had to be somewhere as well, whoever took it was still on the bus. After searching and not finding it we told the bus driver to go straight to the police and that no one was getting off until then. This was a good way to threaten everyone and eventually before getting to the police station some woman surprisingly found it in her bag!!!!! It turned out there had been four of them in on it! The whole situation felt a bit unreal, searching people on the bus, not letting anyone off, threatening them with the police etc..... but at least it had a happy ending and we continued on towards Riobamba with our camera. :-)


Riobamba
Four hours in bus from Quito is Riobamba. It is a small town famous for two things, the huge active volcano beside it (Volcano Tungurahua) and a well known train ride which starts there. We arrived at night so didnt get to see the volcano but it was def in the background as it was puffing smoke and the town was covered in ashes. It wasnt very pleasant breathing in all the ashes in the air but the locals seemed convinced that it wasnt going to erupt so that was the main thing! The reason we were there was to get the famous Riobamba train which creeps through the Ande mountains towards Alaui. We slept the night there and got the train as planned the next morning at 7am. The train journey was every bit as impressive as people had told us, it lasts for 7 hours and the scenary is amazing. The whole journey is through the high Ande mountains so we had the opportunity to see small traditional Andean villages with the indigenous people in their bright clothes, go along ridges with huge valleys dropping on either side and even sit on the roof of the train to go through the scariest part of all known as the Devils Nose. The Devils Nose is a windy part of the line where the train goes around the mountain with nothing on one side except a huge scary drop into nothing! Of course sitting on the roof of the train would not be allowed at home so you def have to do it! 

Cuenca
Another four hours in bus from Alaui, the end of the famous train ride, is Cuenca, a pretty little village in the Andes. We decided to spend a few days there to rest and recover from our bus thieves and mad train journey. It was the ideal place to spend a few days as it is a gorgeous town. We got a taxi with two french girls to a nice family run hostal and all of us were delighted with the place as it was more like staying in a family house than a hostal. The owner would cook us huge breakfasts in the morning and sit talking to us for ages telling us all about Ecuador and his life. Since we were there to rest we also made a trip to a local outdoor hot spa and turkish baths....we deserved it!! After a few days we had to leave Cuenca, say goodbye to our Ecuadorian family and move on towards Peru. We would have loved to spend more time in Cuenca but Christmas and the Inca Trail were getting nearer so we had to keep moving. 

Ecuador - Peru Border (the worst in South America!)
Since we had been told by locals and tourists that the border from Ecuador to Peru was the worst in the whole of South America, we decided to take the safe option and get a bus that would take us all the way from Ecuador to a town on the other side in Peru. So we left Cuenca and headed by bus to Machala, where we were due to get another bus straight to Tumbes in Peru. The journey was going smoothly until the bus driver, instead of taking us over the border at Huaquillas into Peru stopped and told us he could go no further as the bus had broken down. Since we figured that the bus had not actually broken down and it was just that he didnt want to drive over the border we made a fuss and got most of our money back. However that didnt solve the problem of getting over the border and into Peru. There was no other option than to walk through the chaotic border town and over  into Peru. It was then that we realised that it was in fact as everyone said, the worst border crossing in South America. The place was overflowing with all types of dodgy characters and of course seeing us as walking dollars no one would leave us alone. In the end Antoine and I, along with four other girls who were also on our "broken" bus, piled into a car with two Peruivans who promised not to rip us off and take us over the border control and on to Tumbes on the other side. It wasnt the most comfortable journey ever seeing as there were 8 of us squashed into the car but in the end we made it to Tumbes. Here the four girls got out as they were staying there but Antoine and I wanted to go to the bus station to go to another surf town further down the coast. Unfortunately the taxi driver didnt like the idea of us getting the bus for only 1.40 dollars and wanted to take us there himself for 40 dollars! ummm no! Since he was being quite insistent the only way we saw out of it was to tell him that we in fact would stay in Tumbes for the night so he could just drop us at a hotel and be on his way. However realising that we were just trying to get rid of him to then head to the bus station he decided to stalk us outside the hotel and didnt leave until we were actually forced to book into the hotel for the night, eventhough we had no intention of staying there! Once we eventually got him persuaded that we were going to stay there for the night and he left, we made a quick dash for the bus station and booked a night bus out of there to Trujillo further down the coast. We werent planning on going there but we decided that anywhere was better than staying in Tumbes! The guy at the hotel wasnt too pleased that we broke our reservation but there was no way we were staying in that hell hole. After another 5 hours of feeling uneasy we eventually got the night bus and left Tumbes behind. It was def a bit of a scary experience and probably one of the times on our whole trip when we felt the most insecure. Never go to Tumbes unless you have to!