Week 1 of our G-Adventure Tour-Equador......tick!!!

acoupleofflowers

Sep 16, 2019

4 min read

So I (Katy) am currently writing this from my sick bed on our first day at a beach resort in Peru! Woe me I know!!! But until the point of getting food poisoning on our last night in the country, Equador, you’ve been a pleasure!

The tour started in Quito just after our last blog.We met our G Adventure’s guide and 9 lovely ladies! Yep, Chris is currently the only man which he is obviously loving!!

We swiftly moved deep into the Amazon jungle to a home stay run by a lovely local family. As you can imagine a homestay in the jungle means back to the absolute basics...no hot water, no electricity and of course no WiFi! However, they had dogs so I was a very happy lady!

The 2 nights spent in the jungle were interesting to say the least, I think we probably slept for around 4 hours across the 2 nights, between us!!! But it was so worth it for the views and activities we got to do!

Day one and we got ourselves prepped for canyoning in the jungle so we were issued very attractive wellies!! At this point one of the girls in our group screamed out in pain claiming she’s been bitten! Now everyone reacted pretty calmly as I think we all thought it was just a joke... but no, scurrying from her wellie emerged a massive spider!!!! Not what you want to happen just before venturing into the depths of the Amazon! Luckily it wasn’t deadly and she recovered pretty quickly but that may have been one of the reasons sleeping was so tricky that night!!

Canyoning was so much fun! We scaled waterfalls and waded through beautiful scenery! Definitely worth the sleep deprivation!

We did a jungle walk later that day where we got to try the Amazon’s blue clay fresh from the source straight on to our ageing faces! I think you’ll agree that in photos going forward from that point, we definitely look no older than 24!

The next day one of the sons of the family took a few of us to the local river where you can swim in the natural pools created by the rocks, the views from here were amazing, the water was freezing and the typical yoga pose on a rock photo was on!!!

From the jungle we took a lovely bike ride to our overnight stay at one of G Adventure’s lodges on the edge of the jungle where we had hot water, WiFi and no immediate risk of spider bites!

From here we got early transport via one of Equador’s public buses!!! Hmmmmm! Interesting to say the least but all part of the experience!

We landed in Banos a super cool little town with lots going on and lots to see!

We visited the swing at the end of the world on one of the ( non active ) volcanoes!

We loved this swing and the cool picture ops you can get from it and it clarified to us that Equador in general are let’s say, relaxed about health and safety!!! Looking back at the photos we were probably only one lean away from disaster but worth it for the pic!!!

The next day in Baños was a free day but we managed to pack it full to the brim as it was my (Katy’s) 35th ( I know, I can’t believe it either!) birthday!

It started with a cute little pancake breakfast in a place called Honey (if you’re ever in Baños) and was followed up by an awesome time zip lining and mountain climbing in the gorgeous surrounding hills!

We spent the afternoon on a horse back ride! This particular ranch was linked to our lovely hostel (La Floresta) and the owner took in to account if you had ridden before when choosing your horse! So this meant a couple of us got lively little horsies and were able to gallop up the foothills of the volcano!!! SO MUCH FUN! Chris was given a stubborn one ( I wonder why?!) but even he had little canter and really loved it!

That evening we went for dinner, drinks and a bit of a dance. The group had organised cocktails and birthday cake for me too! So cute!

Luckily the next day we were all pretty tired after our night out so our 12 hour bus ride was quite useful to catch up on missed sleep!

We arrived in Cuenco that evening and following a good sleep we had a free day ahead of us.

Now when your G Adventure guide tells you there is the option to go to the local hot springs and spa for the day, you’d be silly not to right? So that is where we spent the whole day, mud bathing, hot springing, contrast pooling and of course getting a lovely massage!

So Equador our time in you is nearly done and all we have left is a delightful (please note the sarcasm) night bus to cross the boarder in to Peru. Just as you’ve managed to drop off, you are swiftly woken at 1am to go through customs at the boarder and have all your bags manually checked by the security team who sadly don’t have modern day scanners! So we were back on the road by 3am with just a short 2 hours left until our next destinatio.

We know that our first stop in Peru is 3 days at a beachside hotel with 25 degrees predicted so we let the night bus slide!

Stsy tuned for our Peruvian adventures!