Mas photos - Up to Machu Picchu

View when you first arrive

Along the jungle trek

Postcard shot

Awesome rocks

Our group just before we started the downhill ride

Mist coming over the mountains at Machu Picchu

I love Monkeys!!!

On top of the world - Waynu Picchu which overlooks Machu  Picchu (Massive drop behind me)

Walking along the river bed

Mysterious Mist ;)

Little pull yourself along cable car to cross the river

View from above Machu Picchu

Exercise and Shopping

So feeling better on Wednesday was back to the markets as usual! Also officially got to start on the whole teaching english thing, though more accurate would be spending an hour and half entertaining some kids and making sure they dont run off anywhere! So Wednesday evening we went and played basketball after work which was seriously tiring as we were doing 5 a side but using the whole court, and as usual we were feeling the altitude a bit. Then there were quite a few people leaving this weekend just goone so Thursday we all went out. This included Monica and Byron who run the charity and whose house is the volunteer home. Everyone had a pretty awesome time, and came off a little worse for wear, mostly due to the large pitchers and fishbowls we got for free! lol Then turned out that at about 2 Monica and Byron had gone to pick up one of the new volunteers from the airport in a taxi, but still pretty out of it, anyways Monica like fell asleep half way through the ride, then when they got back to the house, two people were sitting locked outside and a taxi with the others had just arrved back and they had to support one of the others into the house!
So come Friday morning we were a couple volunteers down ;) Nevertheless had enough to play football in the evening, though i came off a little worse having ended up in goal for some time!
Saturday like all of us, 21, went to Otavalo, which is this massive market a couple hours out of Quito where people come from all over to sell their things. Got some good bargains and did me some present shopping. Though had to also buy a giant duffle bag as my new hand luggage otherwise i won´t be getting all that stuff home! lol Have to say though my best buy of the day came as we were leaving and were passing this cake shop where i got an awesome strawberry tart for $1! It was one of those ones with the kinda custardy fillings and the bottom was chocolate lined aswell! :)
Sunday was a bit more of a chilled day and we headed into Mariscal to the artesan market there for a lil more shopping then went to this Mexican restaurant for lunch which was pretty good. Then spent the afteroon chilling in the center in a coffee shop called Chocolate republic that had all these free samples to try ;)
Also went up to the ´Panicillo´or something like that which is this viewpoint in the middle of Quito, up a massive hill and has this giiant angel statue up top. Anyways got a taxi up there and asked him to wait as we were told it´s really dangerous to walk down. So had a wander around and i discovered all these new modes on my camera which entertained me for a while. However, when we went back our taxi man had abandoned us and there weren´t any other taxis or anything around. Asked the most unhelpful tourist police man who said to just wait as we shouldn´t walk down. Had to wait like 30 mins for one to turn up, and was pretty windy up there!
So then Monday was another chilled day, debated going somewhere but instead just lounged and caught up on some Wimbledon for a while. Also actually tidied my room to such an effect that when Edwin came home he asked me what had happened, and didn´t believe me that i´d done it myself! He even called Marie to show her aswell ;)
Then past couple days have been all normal at the markets and am still doing ´teaching englsh´inthe afternoons, which on Tuesday disolved into facepainting then bodypainting. I came off slightly better after telling a kid ´touch me and die´when they came at me again with the paintbrushes. On the other hand Nik and Elise had both their arms completely coated in paint! Kids seemed to enjoy it though and it definately made the time go quicker! Then this morning I found my new favorite niño who just smiles, jumps up and down and holds your hand, doesn´t really seem to talk/be able to, he just says ´mira´every now and then!
Also, have been keeping up with the exercise/runnning though we´ve now progressed to this like exerciise video which is actually really hard. So i´ve been up and over at the other house by 7 every morning for our little sessions! Though we had the perfect spot up on the roof, we got kicked off as apparently someone below us complained! Anyways, hopefully this whole running at altitude thing will improve my fitness :)
Then tonight we´re going out again as it´s technically Erin´s last night, as we´re having family time tomorrow night and she leaves like 3am on Sunday morning! Planing repeat of last week ;)

Week 2 in Quito and Quick Trip to the Coast

So weeks here go by pretty quickly as have Mondays off and then last week took Friday off aswell to head to the beach. Still was working with the kids in the markets and am actually learning the words to the millions songs we do now through sheer repitition, which i imagine is how the kids do it aswell!
This weeks colour was red, so instead of sticking paper onto a fruit, the little ones were painting their apples red! And actually tons of little kids with paint really wasnt as disastrous as you might think! Then the middle ones were completing shapes and colouring them in certain colours, whilst the oldest ones had to write 3 words out beginning with certain letters that they sometimes confuse, like B and V. Also, there was one girl who must´ve been about 8 who couldn´t wirte but hadn´t said anything so when she first gave me her sheet, witht he first couple she´d filled out, i asked her what it said, and she couldn´t tell me. So I was like, you wrote this yeh? so you must know what it says, but she just refused to talk and went back to her friend. So started watchign them and they would huddle over the paper whilst her friend wrote the answers for her! At first I thought she just didn´t want to do it, and it wasn´t till i asked her if she could write that she actually said anything! So we settled on i´d write it for her and then she´d copy it out aswell.
Then on thursday afternoon i was supposed to be switching to teaching english in the afternoons, but they had a meeting about it that afternoon, so went along with Tim and Rachel, only for us to be told it´d been cancelled just the person who knew hadn´t told anyone! lol So got the afternoon off effectively, so went into mariscal to find my friend (from Arequipa) who´d just arrived in Quito.
Got back home about 8ish and the other people I was going to the beach had already gone as the plan was i´d meet them there, but got a call saying they´d missed the bus and next one wasn´t till 11.45 so figured might aswell go with them!  But went home first to sort stuf and have dinner. Though ended up finishing like 3/4 bottle of Ron with Marie/Edwin whilst waiting as we all decided we´d had long days! lol
It´s a 7hour bus ride to the beach we went to - Atacames. I found it alright as basically just slept the whole thing though apparently the others said it was really hot due to lack of windows and was an appaling driver along a windy road! Glad i missed that ;)
Arrived at like 7 in the morning so got one of these little mototaxis down to the beach, there was only 4 of us (Me, Erin, Megan and R.C)  so we all fit in one. Wandered for a while finding a hotel then headed to the beach to chill for a while. I gave in to buying sunglasses for $5 as was basics impossible to sit on bewach without them! lol Got me some nice Ray-Ban´s ;)
After couple hours on beach reached boredom so we went on an hour boat ride for another $5 just for something to do, and got to see some of the other beaches nearby and a giant rock covered in birds!
Everyone was still knackered so after that and some lunch we hung in the room for a while. Again boredom kicked in so we decided to have a few drinks to pass the time and then headed to a bar after bout 6ish. Were way too early for any kindof happy hour, but our bar tender was definately off in the head as we paid $5 for 4 cocktails all worth $4/5 each? lol Had a really random night, and went for some amazing pizza run by this old italian guy whos been living here for like 20 years. Then erin said she was jkinda tired so we dropped her back off at the room then went back out.
Tested out a ton of the bars, went for like an hour walk on the beach, rented out one of those mototaxis for half hour, our driver was awesome he even took photos of us with an imaginary camera! lol and we think we made it up to like 60 before he slowed down and started doing donuts! Also saw these amazing street dancers performing in one of the bars aswell, o and did karaoke in some random lil place, don´t think we were overly well received! lol
Next morning we didn´t leave until just before we had to check out like at 11.30. Then just went for breakfast and then got a mototaxi to the buses to check times(actually ended up being same driver as previous night, what are the chances!) lol But when we got there there was a bus leaving in like 15 mins so we just decided to get on that one! Luckily this one had A/C though had the weirdest, most appaling selection of films. As we were coming into Quito though we passed an accident where like the front on a lorry had crashed into a building and was half sitting inside! Got back to Quito in the evening and had a quick dinner before going home as the famnily weren´t expecting us back till Sunday plus they were at a wedding anyways so we assumed they´d still be out.
Now, I´m a pretty heavy sleeper as most of you probably know so it takes quite a lot to wake me up. Anyways, about 3.15 in the morning I woke up and was just like wtf is that noise, there was lights on and singing and just noise. Took a little while for me to suss that the family had brought some of the party home with them and they must have all been totally wasted! They had a guitar and were clapping, shouting and singing seriously loud! lol Anyways i was told they went to bed maybe around 5/5.30 but i fell asleep so not sure. Anyways, next morning, Edwin was still blatently drunk as he wandered into Erin´s room at like 9 looking for lost shoes, then just sat in a chair for a couple minutes going ohhh my head. Then came to look for these mystery shoes in my room (he told me later that what had happened is someone had gone round hiding other peoples shoes! lol) Marie on the other hand was just in pain and had a seriously bad hangover, so wasnt in the best of moods! They were kinda funny as she was obviously annoyed at him for still being drunk and he also managed to lose the key to his wardrobe with all his clothes in! lol As it was fathers day we attempted going out for lunch but no-one was really hungry so just came back and chilled at the house.
Round about this time I started feeling ill and have been dying of a fever, headache and sore tummy hasta today! But masses of sleep and t.v watching with a litre of ice cream was a sure fire cure! ;) So yeah having not left the house really since sunday minus a few quick outings, not much to report! But will let you know how the rest of the week goes!

Into The Jungle....

Hey, umm wrote this last week but kinda forgot to press post, soooo read as if was added last week! ;)
So got up early Saturday morning, after having spent the previous evening having a few tragos with the fam! ;) And playing some cards aswell obvs.
Had to get a trole bus to the main bus terminal and then we had like 5 mins to buy tickets and run and find the bus as we decided to just get the next one leaving! Btw there were  of us who went in the end. Anyways, is a really pretty ride to Tena, having said that being 5 1/2 hours I did sleep the majority of it!
Arrived in pouring rain, so went and got us some lunch at ´happy pollo´! :) Was actually pretty good though not really big enough. Then by the time we´d finished thankfully it had finished raining so we headed into town to find somewhere to stay and after trying a few places, settled on a nicish one where we could all fit in one room, that was down by the river. Next up was to find a tour agency for the next day. Some people wanted to do more trekking and others wanted to do less and maybe go see some other things, so we settled on a half day trek followed by lunch and then heading to some waterfalls. We were really glad in the end that we chose the company we did as it was run by this really nice couple and everything was awesome. It cost us $35 for the day which was a lil less than the average. So we rolled up to the office at 8 the next morning and were picked up in the truck and driven to their jungle lodge (which is actually also their house, and if we´d known we couldve spent the night there aswell!) But was a really nice drive as was heading more into the jungle about an hour out of Tena. This house also had its own swimming pool which was pretty damn cool! So get there and get given our wellies to go walking in, and the guy also brings out two really cute monkeys that live around the house, and then not so great lil baby tarantulas :( Luckily they couldn´t find the ones that are supposed to be as big as the boots we were wearing! They also had these two really ugly dogs, though they were kinda cute at the same time! lol
Anyways, we got 3 1/2 hours of trekking, which included several explanations of medical properties of plants/trees we were passing which was quite interesting. Then we got given like a mini lunch of snadwiches, apples and biscuits. Also highlight was getting to swing on this massive vine like something outta Tarzan! Was totally awesome! ;) Was lil surreal like being there and thinking wow this is the amazon, but the views were pretty insane!
Then we had lunch back at the jungle house and had half an hour to then chill in the pool before heading out again towards the waterfalls. Also got to stop off in this town we passed through where they have ´monkey beach´and anyone who knows me is aware of my love of monkeys so that was awesome as there were so many of them there, and they´re really clever how they nick food off people, and we could totally see this one monkey eyeing up this guys cigar! lol Anyways then was only another 10 mins or so to the beginning of the walk to the mini waterfalls. Took maybe 30/45 mins to get up there but was really cool. We got to like jump off the rocks into the pool at the bottom and you could get behind the waterfall aswell! Was an amazing day all in all. Then we all decided to ride out back on the way home in the truck so got a better view of everything.
Then totally random, as we were riding into town, I saw this bus and then like double took, and was like ís there a dog riding the roof?´lol and we were just all like how did it actually get up there?!
So yeh we got back maybe around 6 and were all pretty knackered by then. So just kinda chilled, checked buses for next day then wennt back to out pizza restaurant for dinner. Lady told us it´d be a 20 min wait, but considering night before had taken an hour and this night was even busier we figured it might be a while longer! lol
Also, there are street dogs here everywhere and when me and Tim went back to the hostel to get water before dinner, one of them like pushed passed us and made it into the hostel. Then everyone was like shouting at us to get it out whilst they all hid inside and stared out the windows! So finally got it out and then like the owner guy properly kicked it as it left and then started chucking rocks at it which seemed a lil extreme! Then this same stupid dog followed us into the restaurant before it got kicked out, then was waiting for us afterwards and followed us when we went to buy snacks. So then we were like well theres no way we can let it in again as it was still following us as we went back to the hostel, so Tim volunteered to carry on walking and got it to follow him whilst we all sprinted inside then slammed the gate closed. Dog realising what had happened was like jumping up against the gate so i had to lock it to make sure it didnt push it open.Eventually Tim also managed to escape crazy dog and get inside aswell!
Anyways, next morning went to nice little cafe next door for breakfast where they had these awesome stuffed pancakes with banana and chocolate! mmm :) Then we had planned to visit this ´park´in the town where they apparently had lots of animals, etc. However we were told that as theres no bridge to get there, u have to shout accross to the island, hope someone hears you and then rows across in a canoe to take you there. Unfortunately it seemed no-one heard us! So we ended up taking a bus home around 10.30 and got back home around 5ish or so Monday afternoon.
Was a really cool weekend trip as didn´t think i´d get to the jungle, and even though was a little shorter than ideal, was really fun! :)

Quito

So having arrived Saturday night, I basically just went straight to bed and didn´t wake up till 12 hours later! So in the morning went for a walk with Edwin, Emy and Erin (House dad, lil 2 year old and housemate) (lol all start with E! ;)
Anyways, so he showed us around a bit, where important things were, then went down to the massive mall. And i really mean massive, it´s insanely huge and has like every shop you could think of! So we wandered around there for a while, then went to the internet cafe across the road from the house, which is amazinng as is really clean, great computers/equipment and roughly seems to work out about 1cence a minute!
Then we were due back at the house at 2 for lunch. The way it´s set out is you enter through one gate but then there´s two houses, ours and the parents/grandparents. Anyways, so we go into theirs and sitting round the table is like 20 family members as it turned out it was someones birthday! Wasn´t expectiong that and they all turn to look and greet the gringas. Lunch was potato salad, chicken and an unidentifiable meat. I thought it was maybe beef, though slightly strange tasting and really chewy/stringy. Anyways, the rule of thumb here, is f it looks odd, tastes odd and you don´t know what it is..... you DON´T ask. Unfortunately my housemate wasnt aware of this and mentioned how much she liked the chicken and then politely enquired as to what the other meat might be ....
....it was a tongue :( hell of a lot harder to stomache after that! lol
So once lunch is over they bring out the massivest cake ever, then all the stuff gets moved to the edge of the room, out comes the boom box, on goes the music, ands its time to bailar! ;) So after an eventful afternoon, returned home to descansar.
Monday morning was our official orientation and a chance to meet all the other volunteers. So is about a 15 min walk to the office and currently there are about 24 volunteers, so quite a few. Anyways, noone actually works on Mondays but every other monday theres a meeting at 10 in the office which everyone goes to, although some people weren´t yet back from their weekend trip. So met people, got told what  we were getting ourselves into and what roughly was the setup for the week. So basically in the mornings, except for the one or two who have spanish lessons then, everyone goes to the markets. Basically we go to different markets everyday, and do activiities/games etc with the kids there who have to go to work with their parents. Then in afternoons some people teach english or have spanish lessons and tghe rest work in the markets again. At the mo i´m all day markets though am hoping to change this to teaching or something as my short attention span is having issues with the repetitiveness. But is still really funn and you can see that the kids really enjoy it aswell which is what counts. Also we were told that a lot of them have really hard lives at home ad are beaten or abused so they get a lot out of these sessions which kind of just give them a break from it all.
So that´s how the days go, and then we´re back arounnd 5/5.30 depending how far away market is. Or like on Wednesday we run the session in a local park.
Quito has nice view in sense its surrounded by all these hills and then where we live in the south looks slightly more run down, though has an amazing bus system and these massive modern malls! then theres the centro historico which is more kinds colonial looking buildings, then theres the north which is more modern.
So in the evenings, we´ve done a little exploring/playing games with Emy. Then on Tuesday it was Byron(guy who set up charity) ´s birthday. So we went over to the volunteer house for a mini fiesta. Then on Wednesday we played cards with the fam, and i think i may have found someone as competitive as i am in the form of my host dad! lol Then last night we went out to Mariscal, which is like the touristy disctrict in the north, and it looked like it couldve been anywhere in the world! But there were like 22 of us so everywhere we went people were trying to convince us to go to their bar/club. Went home relatively early tho, like 1 after some nuggets ad chips! ;)
Today, we only had a half day as there wasn´t market this afternoon. So just been chilling really in the amazing internet cafe, as being so amazing this is the only time i can get a computer as come 5 its packed all evening! lol
Then tomorrow there´s a group of us heading to the jungle for the weekend, so that should be cool, and I´ll let you know how it is!
But for now, all seems good, having a nice time (especially after I discovered i can sit on the roof with my music and watch the world go by!) and our family is soooo nice, not to mention their daughter is the cutest thing in the world. Every time we walk through the door its ´hola amigas´ then she like follows us around saying amigas amigas! Plus shes easily amused by like everything! ;) Though her favorite tv show is this awful cartoon called maka paka, the title character being like this grey blob with donut rings as ears and on the top of its head, then like the weirdest thing is when it goes to bed at the end of the show it curls up hugging a giant rock! lol but im gonna be here for her birthday so thinking of buying a massive piñata and filling it with sweets etc! as think that would be entertaining ;)

Rubbish Buses

So bus didn´t arrive in Mancora till 12, so only 1/2 hour late is pretty good going for here methinks! However, turns out my cheaper bus didn´t have A/C so just had to open all the windows. Also was basically just locals, and two canadian girls aswell! Anyways, takes about 2 hours to reach the Peruvian ´check-out´point where you get your stamp to say you´ve left peru. This border crossing is considered one of the most dangerous in South America just due to it´s weird setout. Cause after you check out of Peru you drive through a tiny town across a like 10m bridge and your then technically in Ecuador and have to drive through another little town before reaching the Ecuadoriann ´sign-in´office. So there´s this big stretch of no-mans land as ur officially stamped out of Peru but not stamped in to Ecuador yet! I just thought it was ridculous as after we crossed the tiny 10m bridge into an identical looking town, the guy next to me was like this is ecuador.
So then we arrive at the Ecuador office and there´s just all these people sitting around outside as it transpires that their ´system´doesn´t actually open till 3am, and we arrived at 2.20! Was seriously hot hanging around and also was just so tired, i just wanted to go to sleep! And even though we started queing at 3, they didn´t start stamping people for a good nother 20mins. So then  by the time we leave there it´s almost 4! So arrive in Guayaquil at 8.30 in the morning. They have this massive bus terminal which is more like a shopping mall combined whçith a bus station. Was tired though so just got the next bus to Quito which was at 9.
However this one again had no A/C and was full of locals! At onne poinnt on the journey we passed a thermometer which happily informed me it was 39c! Also my window did not open! Now this journey typically takes 8 hours, at a stretch 9 on a bad day..... we arrived in Quito 11 hours later! Was not impressed! Only good thing was we stopped for lunch like 4 hours in at some random roadside restaurant.
So, was supposed to arrive in Quito like 5 in the afternoon, didnt get in till 8! :(
Bus terminal in Quito is really nice though, really nnew and looks more like an airport! Anyways, took me a lil while to work out how to phone to say I was here and could someone please pick me up! But about 45 mins later I got picked up by my new Ecuadorian family! I had thought I´d be living in the volunteer house but turns out I was with a family instead, though they live onnly 2 blocks from the volunteer house!
The couple have a reallly cute 2 year old, and also someones dad lives with us aswell. Then more parents/grandparents live next door. Not really sure exactly the relation yet as have met so many family I get confused. There´s also another girl in the same house who´s from the states, though is 33. However she doesn´t speak any spanish so was rather relieved to discover I do as they don´t speak english! lol
Anyways so after 20 hours of travelling on buses, I made it to Quito!

Chillin in Mancora

So did genuinely spend the next two days just chilling on the beach! Did have lil mishap when went for a swim in the sea, then fell asleep on the beach only to wake up with like a glowing red tummy! lol however i blame it on the malaria medicine i´m sporadically taking as it says the main side effect is an exaggerated reaction to the sun! Thursday night was Karaloki so was basically a bunch of drunk people murdering previously awesome songs! So sat in the bar with other people from my dorm, had a few drinks and made fun of the terrible singing! ;) Even though I´m on a money saving spree figured should have couple drinks as officially the ´dry law´kicked in on Friday(they´re not allowed to drink the two days before the elections). Having said that lying on beach next day, never been offered so many beers in my life! Apparently it´s shouldn´t sell in stores and can´t be drunk in public!
But found a couple more good meals around and had me some more Ceviche aswell :)
Had to hang around on Friday will late as bus wasn´t due till 11.30, but gave me some more beach time and all in all was nice to have a couple days of nothingness. Though defo couldn´t have stayed there for ages, like I think there was this one guy there who´d been there for 6 months?!