Had a 4 hour bus drive in our private mini van, being our final bus journey of the tour, to Quito. (that everyone on the tour agreed to pay extra for to arrive safely). Excellent trip at a normal speed. We noticed public buses swerving around corners, zooming past us only for us to overtake them when they stopped to pick up or drop off passengers along the route. We checked into the hotel and went for a walk through a couple of large parks and the old town. We tried to book accomodation at Hotel San Francisco de Quito for 2 nights after our tour finished, but it was booked out, so we ended up booking into the Chicago Hostal instead. We had lunch at Govindas a large soup, lentils, rice and salad and a fruit drink, for $1.60 each. In the evening we packed for our jungle expedition as we were only allowed a small day pack.
17th Headed off for the airport for our short flight to Colca. We boarded a 70 seat Focker F-28 jet for the 25 minute flight over the Andes to the Amazon Basin. With these small planes they have to calculate the weight for the atmospheric conditions, the temperature increased markedly from the time of everyone checking in to when we were due to take off so they had to get someone to volunteer to get off the plane.
The flight was good, only a little turbulance when we were above the mountains in the clouds. We were picked up at the airport by a big open bus and taken to the dock where we caught a motorised longboat for a two hour cruise down the Napo river. The river was murky brown and flowed very fast, there were many logs and other debris in the water that the driver had to navigate around. The river was very wide, around 400m, but only a couple of metres deep. When we arrived at the shore we had a 15 minute walk along a slipery moss covered boardwalk made of bamboo,
then a ride in a long canoe to reach the La Selva jungle lodge. We were greeted with a tropical fruit drink and nibbles of cheese and biscuits, empanadas, salami & chicken pieces. We were then shown to our lodges (Huts built from palm and bamboo).
This is our hut which had a warm shower and two beds with mosquito nets and a hammock on the veranda. We had a trip on the lake in the afternoon on a long canoe looking for wildlife. We saw a few birds and they showed us the cats claw plant used in herbal medicine. The highlight of the trip was to watch the squirel monkeys having their last feed for the day on their way to their nights resting spot. They were jumping from tree to tree and some of the smaller ones missed their targets and did a bit of a free fall to catch a lower branch. Unfortunately the battery in my camera died and I did not have the spare with me. After dinner we did a night time insect walk around the gardens. We saw insects, frogs, a snake and a couple of huge tarantulas, this one was bigger than our hands.
18th 6am wake up call for breakfast at 6.30am. We set off on the long canoe at 7am for our walk to the native house.
We had a 30 minute walk through the jungle along the river bank. We say many pretty flowers, ferns and fungi. We also encountered a 1metre long poisonous snake that the native guide had to pin down with a stick he had made a little V at the end of, so we could pass.
At the house our guide picked a cocoa pod and we all had a taste of the fruit inside. The seeds are what they make cocoa out of. Catriona bit hers in half to have a look and it was purple. The father who lives in the house with his wife and some of his 9 children (the older ones are married and have their own huts on the property) was in the hut making a fishing net, he stopped when we arrived and we all introduced ourselves. We were given a taste of the drink they have in the morning to give them energy. It was made from alcohol and a mixture of plants that our guide said was like natural red bull. We then painted each others faces. See Davids art work on Catriona.
We were then show how they catch the animals with a blow gun and were all given a go. Amanda was the only one in the group who managed to hit the target which was a cocoa pod about 10 metres away.
The father of the house is wearing the blue cap and holding the darts. We caught a motor canoe back to the dock where we walked back along the bamboo walkway and were paddled back to our accommodation . We then lay around in hammocks until lunch as it was very hot and humid. After lunch we again rested and at 3pm we went for a walk to the butterfly farm. We were shown all stages of the production from the eggs to the larve, catapillers and finally the butterflies.
After dinner we went for a night canoe to try to spot Camen but as the water level was so high they were hiding closer the the banks under the bushes. We did however spot a very large snake high in the branches of a tree and a frog on our canoe.
19th 5.30 am wake up call for 6am breakfast. This shot is of the lake at 6am.
After breakfast we went for a walk in the jungle to a observation tower built around a huge tree. The platform is 35metres high, the tree being 45metres is approximately 200 years old.
We had 360 degree view, giving us a fantastic view of the jungle canopy below. We were able to see many birds from our vantage point. Some of the birds we took photos of were the golden collared toucanet, yellow tuffted woodpecker, plumbeous pigeon, grey capped fly catcher and the forktailed wood nymph (humming bird) below.
We also saw many other birds including toucans and macaws. After a couple of hours bird watching we went on another walk through the jungle. Our guide pointed out interesting trees and ferns showing us the different medicinal plants along the way. Many of the plants are now commercially produced by drug companies. A group of small squirell monkeys and capouchian (not sure of the spelling) monkeys passed by overhead high in the tree canopy. We then rested again before and after lunch as it was another hot day and in the afternoon we went on another jungle walk where we met tarzan and took a picture, see below.
When we got back Catriona went for a dip in the lake with the piranhas and anacondas. Maren actually caught a piranha and had it for dinner.
20th 5am wake up call as we had to catch a 10am flight back to Quito. Our powerboat ride took a couple of hours as we were going up stream and the water level had dropped considerably from our journey down leaving many exposed sandbanks. The driver at one point had to double back to find deeper water. The flight back was smooth and the landing was good. Had lunch at a place near our hotel $1.50 each for soup, main, desert and drink, what a bargain. In the afternoon we caught a taxi with Gui and Victoria to the equator. Very touristy where we had fun taking pictures of the two of us standing either side of the equator line and also straddling it.
We had our final group dinner at Q resteraunt and bar. We had a few tapas dishes, our mains and some coctails/ beers. We said fairwell to Julio and everyone at around midnight and walked back to the hotel with Gui and Victoria.
21st Saw Gui, Victoria and Julio at breakfast and said our farewells again. We went to a camping shop and purchased a few pairs of hiking socks before checking out of our hotel and catching a taxi to our new hostel. We then went for a walking tour of the old town to take some photos. Our first stop was San Francisco Plaza and Church which is being renovated. Next was the cathedral where there was a baptism taking place. We walked to the Plaza Grande and the Presidential palace where the guards are dressed in little soldier costumes (like the nutcracker).
We then walked the unfinished Basilica. We bought our tickets for $2 thinking we had to pay to go inside the Basilica, however the ticket was to climb the tower. We climed to the top of the bell tower, where 1/2 way up there was a cafe that we stopped at and Catriona had a hot chocolate and David had a beer. We also walked across through the roof cavity of the basilica to climb the steeple.
It was quite scary on some of the ladders. 
We were absolutely amazed at the places we were allowed to go and the excellent views of Quito we had. For dinner we caught a local bus back to where we had been the previous night. We went to the Vino i Tapas restaurant and had the $16 all you can eat and drink menu.
22nd We went for another walk around the old town to try to have our photos burnt to DVD, however being Sunday almost everything was closed. We caught a local bus to the Quicentro shopping mall to try to find Catriona some joggers however they only had up to size 9 and she takes 9.5, so no luck. It was raining when we left the mall so we got wet getting back to the hostel.
23rd Last day in Quito. We woke to a sunny blue sky so decided to go to the telerifico (Cable car). We checked out of the hostel and caught an electric bus to Santa Clara stop and tried to walk up to the base station. We stopped to ask directions and were told it would take 2 hours and we would be better off getting a cab. We managed to hail a cab and found that we had been walking in the wrong direction. While waiting in line for the car we chatted to an American guy from Los Angeles, who´s wife was from Ecuador. As usual half way up the car stopped and we were left swinging for about a minute.
At the top the clouds started to roll in, but we had a few sunny breaks as well.
Headed back down and walked back to the area we originally stayed in and had all our cards burnt to a DVD. On the way we stopped at McDonalds for lunch, reminded us of McDowells from comming to America.
Catriona had a wash, cut and blowdry for $5 USD, what a bargain.
We walked back through the park 
and arrived back at the hostel where we had left our bags at around 5pm, picked up our bags and headed off to the airport. Found internet kiosk at the airport to update the blog.
We had lunch at around 3pm in a little restaurant then found a park to have a lie down in. We set off again around 5pm after taking this shot back at the Palace and the Cathedral.
We headed up along Gran via past theatres, shops and lots of traffic. The final stop on our walk was Plaza de la Cibeles and the ornate Palacio de Comunications. We had Tapas for dinner on the sidewalk outside a bar near Plaza de Emperador Carlos V.
We stopped to see Alfonzo XII mausoleum, Palacio de Valasquez and the Crystal Palace (below) which was once a green house but is now an exhibition centre.
We stopped to have a siesta here as well, then set off to view the old city gate (see it at the end of this garden bed David is standing in front of)
We headed off back to the Prado
where we viewed many paintings from the 12th - 15th century. There was also an exhibition of paintings by Goya. After we had finished at the gallery we walked back to Plaza Santa Ana for a wine, some beer and a plate of olives and pig fat! We didn´t realise that is what it was when we ordered it.
3rd - Todays walk was pick of the plazas. Only 28° today. We started off by walking to Plaza Lavapiés from there we headed all over Madrid city centre. We stopped off just outside Plaza Mayor at this café
for a coke and a coffee. Then off again all over the city finishing at Plaza de Chueca the gay capital of Madrid, where they were getting ready for some kind of festivities, mayge something like Sydney´s gay and lesbian mardi gras. We had a very late lunch at around 5pm and spent the rest of the evening bar hopping.
