went arse over on the remains of some fruit i think, on the way to the truck so that wasnt a good start. richard-one of our rugby watching drinking partners thought he would come too and found it very amusing when i turned up with blood everywhere;but once i was back onboard frida it was all good.
was great to be back on frida, seemed like yesterday i was up in the cab talking crap with andy or in the back annoying everyone; was actually 6 months ago now.
headed up to otavalo for probably one of the biggest most famous markets in latin america. had a few mechanical issues on the way-did more truck bitch work in an hour than i did in 12 1/2 weeks first time around.
the market itself pretty much engulfed the whole town and i took the opportunity for some good wandering and to fully stock up for all the summer celebrations that i could think of. richard and i were playing soccer with this little kid near the market one day and i was absolutely rapped when i managed to nutmeg him! the fact he had done it to me twice before was a slight downpoint; but it was much harder for me cos the ball barely fit between his legs!
also saw some cockfighting one night which was pretty brutal, but still another thing ticked off the list.
then we were off to papallacta via the equator at cayambe, home to some very nice hot springs and some very cool views of the local volcano. was very nice sitting in the hot pools at night drinking rum and checking out the stars. good to be back in my hemisphere too.
i took the opportunity on this drive to introduce a few more innocent people to the future worldwide phenomenon that is 'fannystack'; what a game. good from us rexi.
my spanish has also apparently developed to the point where i was able to translate for this old swedish couple who wanted to know a few things.
watched the whole town of papallacta just about, move rocks and dirt from one side of the road to the other from very early in the morning before we set off inland. they left me by the side of the road near tena as they headed off into the jungle and i fought my way onto a 30 seater maximum local bus with at least 50 other happy punters minimum; back to normal! was great to be back on the truck again and see mel and andy, got me a bit nostalgic and bought back a lot of very happy memories.
had a bit of a look around baños and cuenca before getting over to denise in guayquil for the weekend. back to the coast after a few fun weeks up in the highlands. would definetly say that ecuador is up there with bolivia on the very interesting/scary road scale; not that it slows the bus drivers down though!
really enjoyed my time in guayaquil with denise and her family, and when they slowed their speaking down to quarter pace we could even have a conversation! they were all really nice and although guyaquil is a big city it has some beautiful parts, and i found myself quite liking the place.
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