South America

Another border crossing, another stamp in our passport. The border crossing we passed through to get into Ecuador was the most hectic yet. There was a busy town right in the middle of no man's land, we drove straight through the market in our huge, orange, tourist truck which seems to scream LOOK AT ME to the locals. Sellers were offering us watermelons, lemons, apples, bread and sweets through the windows of the truck. This wasn't a normal border crossing - Where was the pervy security guards? Where were the boring queues? Where was the border? We had to drive around to the outskirts of the town to find a badly signposted shack where we could get our passports stamped. They obviously aren't that concerned with immigration in this country. The landscape that we drove through changed almost instantly. We had come from quite arid Peruvian farmland to lush rainforest and huge banana plantations.

Dee had been sick for a couple of days now and I was woken from a short nap by her gripping my arm tightly with a open-eyed, panicked look on her face. "I need to go to the toilet, NOW". This wasn't the kind of toilet she could cross her legs and wait. I had to explain to the driver that Dee is not well and ask to stop at the next convenient point. We stopped at the next layby and Dee shot into the nearest banana plantation to donate some free manure in front of a farmers kid. She looked mortified when she returned. "That was one of the worst experiences of my life". After we drove off, about 5 minutes later, I got another grip on my arm. Dee really wasn't feeling well. After we stopped at a service station - proper toilet - she took enough medicine to stop a (brown) river flowing and we journeyed to Cuenca without further incident.

Cuenca is a nice little touristy town in South Equador with a lot of churches. We were told the next day would be the last opportunity to buy essentials for our excursion into the jungle (lots of mosquito spray!). Unfortunately it was a bank holiday in Ecuador and all the shops were closed. There was a marathon being run in town which was on TV then we walked outside to the street and watched it in real life for a while. We managed to draw some new currency out from a cash point. Ecuador's real currency fell through a few years ago, so now their only currency is the American dollar, so I can finally use the $1 bill I've been carrying around since Los Angeles almost a year ago.

That evening we found a nice tapas restaurant and we could finally afford to buy wine again ($15 a bottle - half the price of Peru). The meal was one of the best we've had in South America and for 2 courses and a good bottle of wine (and beer) cost $50 for both of us - living in luxury and within our budget!

The local shop sells a litre carton of wine for $1.80. I think we are going to like Ecuador.