New York, USA

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Well we made it here, which apparently means we can make it anywhere. Not strictly true as we’re heading home after this stop. Problems at home have cut our trip short but we’ve had an amazing time and New York was the perfect cherry to top it off. It was a slight shock to the system jumping from poverty stricken South America to one of the richest cities in the world. The cost of our apartment per night would have paid for two weeks in Quito. But it was gorgeous, in a beautiful brownstone building with cool, antique furniture, the comfiest bed ever and a humongous bathroom that was bigger than most the rooms we’ve stayed in. Ok, it was in Harlem but you can’t have everything. We did all the usual touristy things; the Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Times Square, Ground Zero, Wall Street, 5th Avenue and Tiffanys, which for some reason seemed to make Tom uncomfortable, can’t think why. [Clare]

Otavalo Market, Ecuador

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Otavalo is known for it's huge Saturday markets, one of the largest in South America that takes over the entire town. We left at 5 in morning to make the meat market on the edge of town where a chaotic menagerie of cows, pigs, goats, guinea pigs and farmyard animals galore are sold to the highest bidder. It made us want to turn vegetarian. Further into town, streets were overflowing with colour from textiles, beads, spices and the traditional dress of the locals. We returned to our hostel laden with bags upon bags of souvenirs, a donkey would have come in handy. [Tom & Clare]

Quito, Ecuador

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Quito was split over two visits but to spare you blog repetition it’s going in as one entry. We stayed in the Old town, which was the nicest part with streets lined with colonial buildings, museums, parks and the odd Gothic basilica, which we liked to climb and peer out the top of. But the New town had the food, so we spent our days Old and nights New. On the outskirts, there’s a cable car that takes you to 4100m to the top of one the mountains surrounding the city. On a clear day you can see for miles. Quito’s claim to fame is it is built slap bang on the equator line and has a monument to prove it. Ironically the monument was 12-years ago revealed by GPS to be in the wrong place. The real centre of the world is 200m to the right. When you visit you’re shown crazy experiments such as water running in one direction on the right side of the equator and the opposite way on the left, click here to see the video. Tom got a certificate for balancing an egg on a nail. [Clare]

Ecuador, Quilotoa Loop

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The Quilotoa loop is a trekking circuit that circles a huge defunct volcanic creator in the high Andes. For 4 days we trekked through poor remote villages and hopped on busses that winded their way along dangerously high mountain roads, cramming in as many people as possible along the way. We met loads of friendly locals all waving hello and wishing us good day whilst their kids ran up to us asking for pens and sweets. It was great to get out of the city and take in some country life in this beautiful area. It's a great feeling being in the middle of nowhere and I really felt that here. [Tom]

Ecuador, Amazonia

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Once again we made like Tarzan and spent five days camping in the Amazon rainforest, tracking wildlife by foot and canoe and getting circled by 200+ monkeys, which was unbelievably amazing. We visited the home of our native guide, got our faces war-painted, learnt about tribal culture and medicinal plants, ate some large rodents (surprisingly tasty) and drank traditional corn alcohol. Camping in the jungle was a unique experience, though we were slightly cheating as our tent was on a wooden platform and covered by a makeshift grass canopy. But hey, at the sides only canvas separated us from the creepy crawlies outside. Of which there were lots. Each day we awoke and fell asleep to a chorus of croaking, whistling, buzzing and humming with the odd jet engine screech from a howler monkey thrown in for good measure. My ability to sleep through anything came into its own. Tom relied on ear plugs. [Clare]

Ecuador, Baños

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Trying my best not to sound too much like a travel guide... Baños is known as the gateway to the amazon and sits amongst lush green cloud forests, loads of waterfalls and a smoking volcano due to erupt any day. There's adventure sport tours everywhere, tons of hots baths, bars, restaurants and massage parlours. We partook in a bit of all of them. The best bit for me was mountain biking past 12 or so waterfalls stopping now and then to get closer, by means of a rickety cage suspended across a canyon and crawling through tight caves to get right behind another fall called the Pailon del Diablo. Canyoning (or abseiling down waterfalls as it should be called) was great fun too. Check out this video of our guide running down a rather large waterfall. Other highlights include, sitting in a old style box sauna, looking like the heads from Futurama; going out for a mate's birthday and being the only gringos to join over 100 locals at the volcanic baths. It's a hard life. [Tom]

Ecuador, Mera

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It's always nice to get off the gringo trail and experience local life in a completely natural setting. Despite being beautifully positioned on the verge of both the Andes and the Amazon, Mera is barely, if at all, mentioned in any guidebook and rarely visited by tourists. We were here for two-weeks as volunteers helping to construct Merazonia, a new 220-acre animal reserve that will eventually house rescued trafficked animals. It was physically demanding and dirty work. There were no power tools and we were in rainy season. Sometimes we were knee deep in mud struggling under huge stretches of metal fencing or sacks of rocks while mosquitos dive bombed us from overhead. But it was tremendously rewarding, and we got to use machetes. Would definitely recommend volunteering here if you get the chance. We created trails through the forest, built bridges, constructed the quarantine enclosure and helped out with anything else that sprung up. The project has been running for four-years but set backs such as squatters on the land has made it a lengthier process than the organisers had banked on, but it's almost there and they hope to move onto the grounds and start taking animals in soon. In the meantime, there were plenty of dogs to play around with, including a lovely stray called Limpy that I got particularly attached to and wanted to bring home with me. Sadly English quarantine laws were against me but after much ear bashing I convinced the reserve to find a good home for her out here, which made me feel a lot better about saying goodbye. Thanks guys, you the best! [Clare]

Ecuador, Guayaquil

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I was telling Clare how gutted I was we wouldn't be able to see the new Batman, but thought to myself "forget about films Tom, you're in Ecuador, you geek!". But then Clare had a quick search on the old internet and turns out Guayaquil (Ecuador's largest city) had an English premiere two weeks before the UK release in South America's only imax cinema, with tickets available :) So we stayed for a few days and checked out the city. Our cheap hotel was in one of the grittiest downtown areas I've ever been in (no photos as I didn't want to get my camera out), everything noticeably improved the further we walked away from it, cleanliness, air quality, people. I'd say the the best bit about Guayaquil was Batman. [Tom]

Ecuador, Montanita

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Montanita was once a tiny little fishing village with no tourist industry and even less visitors. It's now a full-on hippy hangout with hostels and fruit bars on every corner after someone figured out it had the best surfing in Ecuador. Except when we were there when water was as flat as a pancake. It's a very chilled place but at the same time a bit contrived, more like how someone imagined Bondi beach to be rather than a traditional slice of latino life. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just different. As we couldn't surf we settled for a run on the beach, a tibetan massage (very authentic...), a few smoothies washed down with local beer and some generous portions of not-so-local fare. [Clare]

Ecuador, Montecristi

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Where did you get that hat? Not Panama that's for sure, the name's a lie stemming from the days the hats were shipped that way on route to the rest of the world. If you want the creme de la creme of Panama Hats, Montecristi is the place to be. Handmade from the workshop of Jose Chavez Franco to be precise. We know, we did our research. Which may seem a little geeky but we wanted a very special hat for a very special person so only the best would do. Getting to Montecristi was an experience in itself. It's a long way off the beaten track and involved clinging on for dear life as we hung out the door of an overflowing bus that careered round cliff edges at death defying speeds. The hat buying was plainer sailing, though we did get a hell of a lot of looks as the only westerners in town. Jose's workshop was a higgle-de-piggle-de array of all things hat, most of which were plonked on our heads at some point during the visit. We were privileged to see Jose in weaving action even if it was only a demo model, the real hats take about three-months to make and are so finely strummed together they can be rolled up for easy transportation then popped back into shape as if new. Pretty impressive considering they're made from grass. [Clare]