Banos to Mancora

After Tena we took yet another long bus ride with the locals and their chickens to Banos. The attraction in Banos is an active volcano that erupted last in 2006, luckily for us it only smoked for the 3 days that we stayed there. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see the actual volcano because of the clouds but were happy enough to see the eruption columns (aka clouds) every half hour or so.

A UK couple that we met in Tena also travelled to Banos so we spent a few days there hanging out with them which was great.

Time on Bus to date = 71 hours
Time waiting for bus = 5 hours
Number of times bus broke down = 2

Time on minivan with 20 other people = 2 very hot hours

Time on Plane to date = 29.5 hours
Time in Canoe going into Jungle = 4 hours
Time in Canoe stuck on sand trap = 20 minutes (Graeme - we felt a lot safer in your boat on the sandtrap! hehe)

Cost of Diet Coke in Ecuador = USD1.5 for 3 litres!!!!!!! Although hard to believe we did mainly drink water here!

We were sad to say goodbye to Ecuador and arrived earlier today in Mancora. We have a lovely hostel but unfortunately the large child-size cockroaches think the same! We plan to hang out on the beach over the next few days before taking yet another 18hour bus journey to Lima. This time we have splashed out though so hopefully no chickens or dogs will be strapped to the roof or in the luggage hold!