Ecuador

Crossing the border proved to be the easy part. I shared a cab between the notorious Peruvian and Ecuadorean checkpoints, neither was rigidly manned, so as expected it was possible to just walk across. Having crossed the line, I quickly pushed on, jumping on the first bus heading north into the banana plantations that dominate this part of Ecuador. The coastal fog that plagues Peru was far behind me and it was late into a beautiful tropical afternoon when I hit the first of a series of roadblocks. People power is often very effective in South America, I’d heard lots of stories about roadblocks in Bolivia but managed to not get caught up in it. Here the protest appeared to be against the governments plans to scrap the building of a new airport, which would have created jobs in an area where there is little else driving the economy other than the banana fields. The angry and bitter demonstrators had been at it for about a week and the roadblock had a resigned air to it - the atmosphere was slightly tense and it was clear that quite a few of the men had been drinking all day.

The bus service had been cut to nothing and it was a good job my Spanish was now good enough to allow me to befriend a few friendly Cuencan’s who knew the way through. However I had to walk fast to keep up and was feeling close to exhaustion and a bit deflated after the robbery, which had taken place only 24 hours before. As the light faded away to an orange glow, I pressed on with a purpose to get past the crowd and onto the next bus. It required another change of bus before we were on our way to Cuenca proper and once there was glad of a comfortable bed for the night in a friendly but seemingly almost deserted hostel.



Cuenca itself fell flat, it rained for most of the day and it just felt like any other colonial city. A bookstore selling a few John le Carre novels came to my rescue and I spent most of the afternoon resting and reading. Feeling somewhat refreshed I got the bus to Guayaquil and then another further north up the coast where I had arranged to meet Stephanie at the Ayampu Eco Lodge. She was lounging in a hammock reading a book when I arrived and had just returned from a 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands. We spent a relaxing few days at the Eco Lodge, although it was mostly overcast and not quite beach weather. Then on our final day we took a boat trip out to Isla del Plata hoping to see some humpback whales.



The island only has a small subset of the biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands but it’s a great place for ornithologists as it is a breeding colony for boobies, frigate birds and albatrosses. The birds here have no natural predators and so you can approach to within a few feet of them and they appear totally unperturbed. My favourite were the blue footed boobies. The name booby is thought to have come from bobo, the Spanish for clown and they certainly live up to their name doing their comic dance in order to attract a mate. We also saw a solitary albatross sitting on its nest guarding the egg but were denied the sight of this majestic bird in flight. The frigate birds were only seen from a distance but with their distinctive oversized red pouches they are a difficult bird to miss. The whales themselves were one of the wildlife highlights of the entire trip. Our boat seemed to be speeding full speed back to shore when we first spotted them coming up for air. They can stay under for quite long periods and if you aren't looking in the right direction when they surface it can be quite frustrating. But the humpbacks were clearly saving the best to last and we were finally treated to the sight of a solitary whale making a series of spectacular breaches, one of which I was lucky enough to catch on camera ! But after feeling a little sea sick on the boat trip, am not sure I would have coped with a week in the Galapagos.



I took a short bus ride north to spend my final 24 hours at the coastal town of Puerto Lopez. There are two main attractions here - the best beach on South America's western coastline south of Colombia and the Carribean and some remaining tracts of tropical dry forest - a habitat that has almost completely disappeared in this part of the world. Part of the attraction of the beach is that its a out of town some 30 minutes bus ride and then a further 30 minutes walk from the road, so doesn't attract much of a crowd. Once there, the sun finally made an appearance and it was warm enough to take my first proper dip in the ocean on this journey. I trekked back to the road through the dry forest hoping to see some wildlife but aside from a few colourful cardinal birds, it remained eerily quiet. Rainfall is down along the Ecuadorean coast and it showed in the appearance of the barren trees which were devoid of life. The region remains long overdue another El Nino year, a phenomenon which is both initally destructive and then ultimately enriching to local ecosystems.



A full days bus ride took me onto the capital Quito and the ultimate 5 day anti-climax. Yes the parks were pleasant, the weather balmy, and the old city was a lovely place to meander around. However there was the business of a new passport to attend to and although the very efficient Ecuadoreans processed one inside 5 working days – it was that last week which drained the final life blood out of the trip and Quito is not a city I will remember fondly having failed to squeeze in any side trips to nearby mountains, glaciers and lush forests. I suppose I couldn't complain too much, I'd managed to fit in plenty of that sort of thing already and yes I was feeling like it was time to head home now. Having travelled from Ushuaia, the worlds southernmost town, to Quito on the equator, it now feels like the trip has come to a natural end.