Sexy Llama!

Hello all, Sally here.
Once again this title doesn´t have any relevance to what I am about to talk to you about, but it will explain itself in time!
So! When we last spoke Ruby and I had just arrived in Nasca, yes? Well, little did we know that as soon as Ruby had sent this post, we were about to consume our weight in chicken. I´m not even kidding, south americans love their chicken, and so when you end up going to a hige bbq chicken restaurant for dinner, we´re not talking about measly little wings, these chickens are BIG! I was saved by Ruby from consuming heart on a stick ("oh, that looks nice, I might get that" "you don´t want that..im pretty sure its heart¨" "...oh) so i ended up having chicken with everyone else. Good move I think.
The next day was pretty significant, as it was the day that we got to visit the Nasca Lines. Wow! For all of you who dont know, these are basically huge outlines in the Nasca desert of animals such as monkeys, hummingbirds, condors, etc. that were carved by the Inca´s many many moons ago. There are many theories behind what they actually mean, ranging from Incan calendars to evidence of alien life. We still don´t know what they actually are, but they are pretty amazing to look at. Unfortunatly, in order to see them you have to be up in the air, ie. fly over them in tiny tiny planes. Yet, we were determined to witness the phenomenon that is the Nasca Lines, so we downed some travel sickness tablets and jumped on the planes, I was on one of the larger 10 seater planes, whereas poor old Ruby got put on a plane that only seated four people, including the pilot! Eeep! Yet apparently she enjoys turbulence so it was a win win. The flight was very bumpy, yet we could see the lines very clearly and it was spectacular! The only downside was poor Vicki got rather sick, even though she was the one with the travel tablets! But she got some great photos, which are at the end of this blog :)
The rest of the day in Nasca was pretty relaxed; I discovered the most amazing ice cream sandwich ever, and proceeded to have two for lunch :) and we spent most of the day on the roof of the hotel watching the city and the sun go down. We couldnt go out that night because we were about to hop an overnight bus (!!!) to Arequipa! it wasnt as bad as we thought, not as nice as the last bus, but still pretty comfortable, with wifi snacks and blankeys :) we arrived in Arequipa as the sun started to rise.

Yet, there is no sleep for the wicked, as they say, so we went straight from our hotel in Arequipa to the Santa Catalina Nunnery! Yep thats right, Ruby entered a nunnery and didnt melt or burn or get chased out! Who would have thought? The nunnery was actually really beautiful, these nuns lived the highlife! Their houses were bigger than Pigeon Cove was! Apparently, rich families used to send their second born daughters to nunnery to pray for the family, along with gifts and money for the nuns and the church. So, really, we were returning Ruby to her rightful place, being the second born and all, although all of you who know her know that she wouldnt have lasted a week, especially with the vow of silence! Teehee, you know its true. But yes it was very colourful and lovely, not like you would expect a nunnery at all!

From there, we split off from the group, as neither of us were keen to try guinea pig for lunch, so we went and had sandwiches at a restaurant on the rooftop of the square :) It was so nice, if a little windy, and we could look down on the whole of the main square and the church (things weve learnt about south american cities; no matter what size they are, there is always a main square and a church.)
Then we went to the cultural museum to see ...the MUMMY! hehe sadly there was no Brendan Fraser (lame), but it was still pretty cool. The mummy aka the ampato maiden aka juanita was found frozen at the top of the ampato volcano, with most of her body and her hair still intact! They have deduced from the body and the artifacts that were found near her that she was sacrificed as part of a ceremony to pay respects to the Incan gods, which the Incans believed were the volcanos and the mountains. Poor girl! But apparently it was her destiny to be sacrificed, and she would have felt it to be quite an honour to be sacrificed for her people. We actually got to see the real live mummy, which Ruby thought was kinda creepy, but I thought it was actually really facisnaing (I totally had a Bones moment :) Yeah.)
Now unfortunatly Arequipa is actually at really high altitudes, so poor Ruby has not been feeling very well at all, damn this altitude sickness! were going to have to strap an oxygen tank to her back for the inca trail!

To make matters worse, the next day we left for Colca Canyon, which is situated about 3,600m above sea level! Oh dear! Now, I was loving the highlands, its so much prettier than the dusty desert, yet poor Ruby was not dealing with it well at all. But we´ve put her on the drugs and the gatorade (shes been recommended to take at least 3 bottles a day!! She´s having to pee like seabuiscut! You didnt really need to know that but, well, im telling you :P)
I looooooooved Colca canyon, apart from Mancora it is my favourite place in Peru so far. Alpacas and llamas roam the mountain side, and everything is just so clean and clear and beautiful. We took a hike to some really nice thermal baths nestled in the mountains (nicer than the ones in Banos...although we still love you Banos, cos you are in Ecuador, which is still our favourite country so far), to try and adjust to walking at such high altitude.. its amazing how just walking straight on flat ground can make you so short of breath up there...cue more sympathy for Ruby and her big lungs :(
That night was one of the most unique things we have experienced on this trip so far. We went to a traditional Quechuan family´s house for dinner, which meant preparing and cooking our own food! Quite different from the restaurants weve been visiting every night, but it was amazing! The people were so lovely, they dressed us up in their traditional clothes, let us play with their pets (an Alpaca named Suma! So cute)and....kill guinea pigs!! I would like to point out that I had no hand in that what so ever, we left that to the boys. Nor did I eat any (no food that still has a face is my rule), but I did have some alpaca (sorry Suma), which was really delicious. Ruby was good and didnt eat either, she stuck to cheese porrige potatoes and rice which was also really nice :) It was such a great experience, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Today we had to get at 5:30am (cue urrrrrrrrrggh its so early), but it was totally worth it as we got to visit the actual Canyon that is Colca canyon. Just a random tidbit of info for you; colca canyon is the deepest canyon in the world, much deeper than the grand canyon. They also have Andean condors there, which are, in one word, amazing. They just glide around on the air currents looking majestic and beautiful, searching for eyes and stomachs to eat (nature nerdgasm!!!) Mmm tasty :P It took them a while to show themselves (divas, always showing up late) but it was well worth the wait. We also went for a hike around the canyon to get a grasp of just how big it was, and to test our hiking skills in high altitude for the Inca trail. So far I am doing fine, apart from being a little short of breath, yet I will still be taking plenty of cocoa tea, cocoa candies and lots of water. The main aim is to get poor Ruby up the mountain still breathing! Yet if worse comes to worse, she will definatly make it up to Macchu Picchu, even if she has to take the train :)

Today we are back in Arequipa, and as a treat for being such a brave girl, I am taking Ruby to see Harry Potter today!!! She is very excited! Sadly, I believe there will be no spanish dubbing, so no sexy spanish harry. But it will still be awesome! Love to you all, the next time we speak will probably after the Inka trail!!!! Get excited!
Love Sally xoxoxox


Me and Ilze getting on our plane!

Steph, Brogan and Vicki (pre vomit)


The Nasca Condor

The Nasca Monkey

The Nasca Hands

help! There is mustard in my eye!

the title on this blog has no relevance to anything except for the fact that one night i was a dipshit and had mustard on my finger and rubbed my eyes. ohhh so pleasant. this was followed by an intense giggle fit trying to figure out how to say ¨help! there is mustard in my eye!¨in spanish. needless to say i never figured it out due to too much laughter. fail.

so how is everybody?? i hope all is well back in the land down under!
where did we leave u all? i beleive it was in Huanchaco, so once we finished that blog, it turned out that there was a ridiculous evening ahead. firstly by dinner where my mustard to eye incident occurred. It was our last supper with our dear diego before a late night bus the next day and then a new tour guide the day after. so being that we all loved diego muchly, we got him a present and a nice big tip for him and a lovely card of thanks. i beleive after a few drinks this caused some tears to his eye (because honestly, who wouldnt be sad to leave us???) and then the night followed on at... THE JUNGLE BAR....at the beach....huh?
being a wednesday night we were the only peopel to occupy the bar, so we had full access to the drinks and music choice and partied on. cocktails and some swaying induced music was played, followed by us belting out old classics, before a few members of our crew busted out the MJ moves quite well. I do beleive this group is muchly awesome and a night full of fun, tap dancing and more drinking continued.

With hangovers nice and pounding the next day we began our extremely long bus ride to Lima. However unlike all the other buses we had been on previously, this one was absolute luxury! Massive reclining chairs, movies, wifi (where tegan and i discovered we could actually use our phones for wifi often, being that there has been free wifi in all our hotels and hostals...however a massive fail that it took us 2.5weeks to realise). The buses were like business class in planes so it was indeed very comfortable. So after watching movies such as ´The proposal´dubbed in spanish (with exglish subtitles) and seeing sandra bullock singing about sweaty balls in español we finally arrived in Lima, however no one was really keen to get off the bus.
Not wanting to say goodbye to Diego, the majority of us stayed up pretty late playing on the computer and chatting up until about 3:30am before retiring to bed. The next day we went for a walk through the miraflores area of Lima going to visit different parks such as the ´lovers park´. oh how romantic! Lima was very pretty by the coast, but we couldnt spend long because we had to get back to the hotel to meet up with our new tour guide and say our final goodbyes to our new friend.
It´s funny how sad everyone was that Diego was leaving, even a few tears fell from faces when he left. Its a rarity that someone could get along with everybody so well in so many different ways that when they have left they have left a huge sadness as well :(.
We had to keep our cheers up though in meeting our new tour guide for PEru, Oli. he seems pretty cool, and he took us for a walk around the old town that afternoon. the buildings were so pretty and we absolutely loved them. we made our way to the san fransisco church (yes another one) where we had a tour. it was such a pretty church and OMG THE OLD LIBRARY WAS THE BEST. i beleive sally and i were having nerd-gasms just looking at all the old books and spiral staircases, both itching to get our hands on all the centuries old books. I, for one, didn´t want to leave. We then went under the church into the catacombs which was somewhat creepy/some what cool, and i am pretty sure i have now breathed in bone dust. ew. but i did enjoy it immensely (the tour, not the bone dust inhalation).
All in all, the day was a mix of emotions, which can only be portrayed through one facial expression. haha (in joke).
We went out for dinner and then retired to bed pretty early.
The next day we left for Pisco. There wasn´t a whole lot at pisco as the town crumbled 3 years ago due to a massive earth quake and they are all trying to rebuild. So we went out for dinner (as always) and had to ofcourse order pisco sours. the best drink ever! its mighty strong, but mighty delicious, that i think i want to marry it. is it possible/legal to marry an alcoholic beverage?? if so, sign me up!
The next morning (aka this morning) we got up early for a massively packed day of fun. It began with a boat trip to Pesquero island which is full of sea lions and pengiuns and pelicans and many more birds. It was pretty amazing, and we even got to see peruvian boobies! ...oh come on now, grow up you giggling children, its a bird, not the chestal region of peruvian women. sheesh, its like talking to teenagers! (admittedly, i had a bit of a giggle...hehe...boobies). The sea lions were so cute and it reminded me of my pathetic dog wesley, who i am sure was a seal in a past life...or this one...now dressing in drag in a ginger suit.
It was pretty amazing and we got some wonderful shots at all the birds and islands and scenery, i loved it.
We then hopped on another bus to get to Ica. Here there was a ranom lake in the middle of the desert. we hopped in some dune buggies and headed over the massive sand dunes. It was like a big roller coaster and such an adrenaline rush! and who has eaten half a desert of sand today? WE DID! WE DID! The scenery again was breath taking, and i am sure the delerium hit in from the heat in the middle of the desert, i swear i started to see gingers...oh wait, thats sally,...has she been here the whole time...?
We hopped out of the buggies and went sand boarding, lying on our stomachs on the boards and going down some massive sand dunes. so much fun, but it looked completely scary. i nearly didn´t do it, mostly because im chicken, but i am definately glad i pushed my boundaries and did it. it was worth it, and after all, this trip is definately about pushing some boundaries.
Once we were covered in sand from head to toe, we headed back into the town and jumped into the pool. it was bliss after roaming around in the desert for the last couple of hours. And off we were again on the next bus to Nazca. we stopped along the day to climb a tower to get the first hint of the nazca lines during sun set, but we will be going up in a plane tomorrow to check them all out. Pretty excited.
Anyway, thats where i am going to love you and leave you for now, because im tired, and my hands are about to drop off as this keyboard is quite stubborn, and i am not going to sacrifice my fingers for u. no siry bob!

OH, first before i go, there is one quick story that i want to share. remember when we told you that Jo said to Diego ¨Bend over! dont ask questions¨ ?? and then proceeded to leap frog him whilst his pants were down. well she was hobbling around for about a week thinking she had a bruised heel. Turns out she fractured her foot. I am not the only one who breaks their feet when drunk thankyou very much, so as long as she keeps off it for the next few days it will heal as its only a small fracture, so she will be all good to hike Macchu Picchu next week. also the tour doctor spoke to me on the phone the other night about my altitude sickness for the hike, and he gave me more pills. also he insists that i drink 3 bottles of gatorade a day leading up to the hike and during it. Talk about sending me off on a sugar high. I apologise in advance Sally... i shall try to keep my sugar induced annoyances to a minimum. :D its the doctors orders, i swear!

Ok, now i am off like a rocket ;)
I shall see you all on the flip side.
Peace out, stay black, and keep it cooooooool bananas.

Love Ruby xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Muy bien!!!

Hola Chikos!!
We are very sorry for keeping you in the lurch, but we have been away from internet access for some time now and unfortunatly have not been able to update you with our adventures as of yet! But don't fret, because Sally is here again to tell you whats been happening!

Where we last left you, we were about to hit the streets of Cuenca. Well we did that, and let me tell you, Cuenca is a beautiful city; it is esentially like the old town in Quito, except ALL the buildings are colourful Colonial Spanish creations and they are JUST SO PRETTY I'M GONNA DIE!!! We went to the San Francisco church (yep there,s one here too, they arent very imaginative with choosing church names), the flower markets, which were so pretty, and Diego gave all us chickas a red rose (naawwww), we went to the fresh fruit and vegetable markets, and the Panama hat factory, which was pretty damn cool - the hats are still woven by hand by the local women, and then sent to the factories to get shaped and dyed by the machines. We took lots of photos wearing silly hats, and Ruby even ended up buying one, which you will probably see in later photos when we visit the Brazillian beaches. We also went to Central Museum, where we learnt all about the native Inca people, and how they were conquered by the Spanish, which made me and Ruby sad, as they pretty much decimated whole cultures and belief systems so that there are really only stories and replicas left to show the indigenous heritage. But we also got to see the shruken heads, which was pretty cool, if not slightly gross- yes, I'm talking actual human heads being cut off, their lips sewn together and then put in a solution that shrinks them to about a third of their natural size. Ruby is under the impression that she is going to do that to me at some point on this trip, but I don't like her chances. I'm going to mess that bitch up!

After that, we were supposed to go on a hike in a national park, but we ran into some problems, as Ruby had her four hundred dollar jacket stolen, and I had some troubles with my bank, so all in all the rest of the afternoon was a bit of a fail as we ran around trying to find out how to call home and contact insurance and stuff. The only way we could cheer ourselves up was, of course, chocolate ice cream. Yeaaah.

That night, however, was not a fail, infact it was the biggest unfail! We had llapingachos for dinner, which is just cheese surrounded by mashed potatoe and deep fried...if you know me well, which most of you do, I was in heaven as it is essentially my favourite food coated in my second favourite food. Best ever. I miss them already (they are traditionally Ecuadorian, and we are now in Peru :( ) I also treated myself to a 5 dollar margarita, which was delicious, best meal I've had in a long time. It also happened to be Tim's birthday, and in honour of the occasion Diego bought some fireworks. That's right, fireworks. And these weren't just any firworks, these were black market, the place where you go and buy extra livers and kidneys fireworks. Ok, well maybe not that serious, but they weren't particularly legal. So we decided to go into the square outside the restaurant and let them go. No big deal, right? Just letting off some fireworks in the main square of Cuenca, right next to the San Francisco Church. So, Tim set on up and lit the fuse, and we all stood back and watched, not really knowing what to expect. Well, we certainly didn't expect him to hit the San Francisco church. I'm not even kidding, that bad boy collided with the bell tower in a shower of sparks as we watched from the ground in horror and amazement. Its probably safe to say that we're all going to hell.
The rest of the night was lots of fun; we went to a couple of bars, had some drinks, did some more dancing (still no salsa, sigh), and well, when tequila is involved, it gets a little messy. But all you need to know is that everyone got home safe with all their limbs and belongings :)

The next day was PAINFUL! 6:30 am start after getting in at 3 is not fun, so safe to say we slept the whole way to Mancora. This is where we crossed the border into PERU!!! Some fun facts about peru: Their currency is the Sole, they get around in Tuk Tuk's (i think thats how you spell it) and everyone is a lot more intense and pushy than our laidback Ecudorians. And they dont have empanadas or llapingachos, but they do have Inca Kola, which is so tasty its probably what Napolean would have drunk...if he was a bit strapped for cash, and there wasn't anything else going...haha no but seriously is delicious.

Our first stop in Peru was Mancora, which is this adorable tiny beach town (yay for being at sea level) populated with beach markets, surfers, tuk tuks and beach side reastaurants and bars. It was so nice to take a couple of days just to relax, soak up some sun and do some shopping. The place where we stayed was called Kimba's lodge, and it was sooo nice, we had our own little beach hut, a hammock, a pool and a bar, it was just lovely. There were many hours spent sitting by the pool drinking rum and coke, talking shit and enjoying the sites. I had to follow Ruby to the police station

ahaha got you there didn't I! it was just to make an incident report for her jacket for the insurance company, but they totally gringo taxed her ass and made her pay like 8 soles for it, which really isnt that much, but it was still pretty funny. Then we attempted to have lunch on the beach (what restaurant runs out of chips and bread?) before having pasta and a cute little cafe in town, did some shopping, and chilled the fuck out! It was great.

That night, however, was something else. After dinner, Ruby and I decided it would be fun to go night swimming in the ocean, fully clothed mind you, a favourite past time of both of ours, which was wonderful, and we managed to get Diego in on it too...crazy Ecuadorian. We had to go back to the hotel cos Ruby was wearing denim and the fact it was wet made her very uncomfortable, but after that, we headed back out to a beach side bar for Pisco sours (a very strong famous and delicious peruvian cocktail) flaming sambucca and some very silly photos. You can feel that summer is coming in Mancora.

Thankfully, we didn't have to leave until 12 noon the next day, yet once we got on the bus it was another 10 hours...well more like 12 hours -_- to get to Huanchaco, but we made it!!! So that is where we are now - it is very similar to Mancora, except perhaps not as condensed and touristy. Today we went to the Chan Chan ruins,which are the remains of an ancient palace, and was very cool, I totally had a bones moment :) And a wander around the town, which is very colourful. Tonight is our last night with Diego as our tourguide, and we shall miss him muchly :( :( :( WE LOVE YOU!!

Hope all is well at home, we love and miss you very much
Adios
Sally xoxoxox

To Cuenca!!!!

Hello all, its sally here, ruby is nursing a pretty nasty hangover so I´m taking over blogging duties for today. Ok..i may be exagerating on the severity, but well, its what I do :P its all with love though.

So today is going to be a little bit less of an overload of information, as we took it pretty easy after our action packed last few days. Yesterday, being the lazy sloth like creatures that we are, we decided to rest our aching muscles and opt out on the hike up to the Volcano in Baños in exchange for a much needed sleep in and some chill time. We treated ourselves to a soak in the Thermal Baths round the corner from our hostel, which are nestled beneath mountains and a little waterfall, yet high enough to see a complete view of the city. Just lovely! Although both Ruby and I, despite our serious sun exposure, are still very pale compared to the local folk, so we stood out like the pair of gringas that we are, and attracted a lot of blatent stares from children and their parents, especially me with my flaming red hair and pasty pasty skin. But oh well, it was extremely relaxing and we stayed there for about two hours.

That night however, we decided that it was time to experience a bit of the local nightlife, so after dinner diego took us to....a rock bar?! hahaha it was actually really fun, we knew all the songs (think late 60s to early 90´s pub rock, or those of you who are playing in Melbourne, whats on high rotation on Gold FM) and the beers were cheap. Ruby had sex on the beach...in cocktail form of course :P sadly there are no beaches in Baños, just thermal baths, and sex at the thermal baths doesn´t have the same ring to it, and is probably illegal. And I had my first ever Tom Collins, just cos I decided the name was cool, and it turned out to be a really nice gin cocktail nom nom nom. And cos Ruby bought it for me, it made it all the extra special. Although I´m not sure why, I think she might be hoping to share my bed at some point on this trip...hmmmm....I´d better watch my drinks from now on, especially since diego taught her how to make roofies.
Although if she does, Ill just report her to the police. In fact I could do that already, as she has now shown her true colours to me and the group as a serial bar theif! But before you get out your pitchforks and torches, let me explain. At the back of this place there is another bar that wasn´t open, but thats where we were sitting and drinking and playing pool etc. and Ruby spots a tin lined up with all the other empty display bottles on the bar, called...wait for it...Brogan´s Irish Liquer. So those of you who know Ruby´s alter ego is Brogan, who is just as if not more crazy than Ruby, and so she decides, with the coaxing of our drunkard company to aquire the empty tin. And now she´s going to keep her underpants in it. True story that.
ANYway, soon we decided that it would be fun to go dancing, so we went back the leprachaun which had a lot more happening in it than yesterday, yet still no salsa, as they were pumping the house music instead. It was still great fun, however, as we got our dance on until the place closed at around two. Getting home was a little more tedious than expected, yet we all made it back to the hostel safely thanks to Diego and the other male company, but not before Jo decided that she wants to leapfrog diego as we´re walking through the park (I believe the words were "Bend Over, don´t ask why!" Hmmmm...) which was hilarious, although she did unfortunatly screw her ankle pretty bad as a result. But other than that, it was a great night had by all.

Today was pretty much a wright off, as we spend about 10 hours on a bus trying to get from Baños to Cuenca, which was extended considerably because of a pretty serious car crash involving at least three trucks. More exhausted than hungover, Ruby and I slept most of the way here. But Cuenca is a beautiful city, of what we have seen so far at least, and we cant wait to go and have a look around tomorrow :)
Hope everything is well back home, we miss you and love you all :)

Signing off
Sally xoxo

Jungle Fever

hey all you happy bloggers!
yes we have been to the amazon and survived malaria, jungle fever, tarantulas, aaaaaaaaand rabies! hoorah!
there has been so much happening in the last few days and so much to write, but this keyboard is so stiff and is giving me the shits, so hopefully i will get it all down before i throw the computer out the window. so here goes.

we last left you in Quito, Ecuador. i did love that place but i was ready to move on and begin some real adventures with the new friends we have made on our tour. the next adventure was to the amazon jungle. the bus trip took 5 hours to get to Tena, a town just outside of the jungle. there seemed to be a lurgy and stomach bug already beginning in our group, so for some the bus ride was very uncomfortable, especially through the windy roads. strangely it was the four people that went to the markets that have been sick, so its probably a good thing we got lost and didnt make it in the end. phewf!
The bus trip to Tena was AMAZING. the scenerary of the Andes and the jungle region is indescribable. i cannot beleive my eyes as enormous mountains and valleys stretch out in every direction. once we hit Tena we stopped for a bit of ecuadorian lunch at a little cafe. the menu for us; beef soup (consisting of only the insides of cows) and chicken rice stuff. needless to say, NO SOUP FOR ME! ew. actually only two people got the soup, and only one actually ate it. hehe.
The next bus was so jam packed, and as we reached the humidity we were all basically on top of each other sweating like pigs. great imagery really isnt it? the guy behind me kept putting his elbow in my face..oh what fun.

We finally arrived at our jungle lodge Coto Cocha. SO beautiful. I thought that it would be extremely basic, but there was a bar and it was pure luxury. Sally and I had our own cabin (number 11) and we were pretty keen to change out of our sweaty clothes. once we did this we took a small boat ride down the Napa river in the jungle and stopped off in an indigenous Quechua tribe. here we were shown how they lived, and made their pottery and panned for cold (cue someone on our tour saying "why dont they pan for gold this way, its far more efficient, it seems silly they would do it that way"...followed by all of us wanting to cringe. yeah there has been alot of things that this particular person does that makes us all uncomfortabley laugh and cringe on this trip so far).
we also got to play with the traditional blow guns, and i managed to hit the target, even if it bounced off. we had our faces painted by the tribes (although our tour guide painted mine. we have decided he is an epicly awesome guy, i will get to that more later though).
we then took the boat back to our lodge and got ready for dinner. it was such a great way to get to know everyone alot better, and then we all sat around a camp fire talking. turns out our guide diego (more of a friend rather than a guide now) loves Glee (which continued with enthusiastic conversation by the both of us) and he thinks Aussies say "G´day Cobber" and "cool bananas". truth be told i do say "cool bananas" so he was half right, hehe.
I also forgot to mention the most important part of the evening. it began to storm and rain in the jungle, and we sat on our balcony only with a candled lantern enjoying the sounds of the jungle amidst the rain. for all of you who know me well, you will know how this was such a significant moment for me, and i began to feel more free than i have in a long time.
either way, we went back to our room with the hopes that there were no spiders in our room, only to find a giant green grasshopper, which we named Gerald. our deal with Gerald was that he could stay in the room, as long as he didn´t crawl all over us in our sleep, which he happily kept.
We woke up in the morning so refreshed, only to find that Gerald invited a friend along. a Giant brown grasshopper, which we also named, Harold.

The next morning began with a big breakfast of fruits and eggs and fresh juices, before we got into some gumboots to take a big hike through the jungle. The day was ofcourse humid as to be expected in the jungles, and we set off. it was absolutely beautiful scenerary again, and i cannot even begin to describe it. we were shown local plants and their remedies, and even were shown the plant used to make roofies...lol? also before we knew what it was, they described how to make it, haha, so i am now a whiz at making the drugs.
The hike proceeded, and we got to see some interesting bugs, and birds and butterflies, and even a tarantula cave (no spider...THANK GOD!). it was quite muddy and there were alot of rocks to climb over using every limb in your body, so it was quite slippery so we had to take it fairly slow. Diego tried to help me over one rocky, muddy area, and i was like "thats ok i am fine"...i really should have taken him up on the offer as i proceeded to stack it big time and fell on my ass in the mud. yes...there was laughter.
Once we had gotten deeper into the jungle, we came to a beautiful little waterfall and we all went for a much deserved swim, some jumping off the rocks into the water, or just a relax. it was an amazing experience, and i loved it.
we began our hike back through the mountain all wet and muddy to get back to our boat.
This is where we hopped into giant donuts and just drifted down the Napa river for about an hour. so relaxing and so much fun, although i kept going down with the current when we were supposed to finish up, as i couldnt make it to shore in time...woops! so the men in the boats had to come get me. hehe. I also managed to get a little but sunburnt (as did Sally) but it was definately worth it.

After some lunch we were going to go visit an animal refuge. where they saved the animals from the black market and kept them save and gave them a chance to heal.
We waited for the local bus to come pick us up, but it was so late and when it finally did arrive it was jam packed. so the driver suggested we sit on top of the bus, on the roof. we thought he was kidding, but apparently not, so we climbed the ladder and sat on the roof. Diego seemed to have a few reservations, trying to figure out if he would get in trouble by letting us, but he soon joined us. and yes there were boxes of beer on the top of the bus (no that we could drink any of it) but we proceeded to spend half an hour sitting on the roof of a bus driving through the jungle areas. it was amazing!!! i have never felt so liberated and free and i knew then, that the adventures were really starting. it was perfectly safe there were grates to hold on to. but i cannot describe how much fun it was. those who stayed back at the lodge were definately missing out.
WE made it to the refuge in one piece :)
there were so many cool animals, such as an anaconda, and monkies just running around and playing. i managed to pick up the monkey, but he was definately determined to give me a few nibbles, hehe, but it was cute. i also got to cuddle and hold a 9 month old leopard. it was the cutest thing, it sucked on the ladies fingers like they were a babies dummy.
We were shown around the refuge and finished at a lake watching the sun set. Two of the guides from the lodge were with us, and they made us girl some pretty head dresses from the reeds, it was so sweet. they also (with Deigo) made this huge speech about how they had a gift they wanted to give one of us because they liked our group so much, and how the gift will bring luck for everyone on the trip, and they gave it to Stef, a girl on our tour. she was so happy to get the present and so shocked, so she proceeded to unwrap it from the leaves they had wrapped it in. once she did she burst out laughing. they had made a giant black penis out of mud and roots, as a joke present. IT was sooooo funny, and so unexpected, and you could just see them chuckling to themselves in the corner. many many jokes about the present proceeded afterwards, particularly because it was make from spikey roots, hehe.

We had to get back to the lodge for dinner, but we found out that the bus didnt come for another hour, so we were stuck by the side of the road waiting. Now alot of people here in South America travel in the back on Utes. its alot of hitch hiking, so a truck came past and they pulled over and we all hopped into the back of the ute. when in south america, why not do as the south americans do. This was turning out to be my favourite day by far. after many jokes about how close we all were from each other, and how one of the guys was sitting on Diego´s lap, we made it back in one piece. one thing i really love about this tour, is it is all about sustainable travel and doing things locally. which includes transport.
We went back, and had some dinner and the workers at the lodge found a tarantula to show us...i did not want to be near that thing at all.
It was such a good chance to talk to everyone in the group as well, which i really enjoyed, everybody here is really awesome.
We went back to our room after some time, only to find that Harold had brought a friend in for a party. A BIG HAIRY SPIDER!! this is the part where we became like girls and shreiked and spent quite alot of time trying to figure out what to do with it. we then heard the voices of the guys in the cabin near us saying "yeah, we arent gonna help u with the spider, sorry girls!"....Dam them! hehe. once i found enough courage to get out the door (the spider was on the door) i went back to the common area and found Diego. he is our hero, he came back to our cabin and got rid of the spider for us, and he shall now and forever more be dubbed, Diego - the real spiderman. our hero. hehe.
The next morning he proceeded to tell everyone that we were afraid of the spider no bigger than a penny. lies. all lies, it WAS HUGE!!! hehe. I spent the entire of the jungle stay making a net out of my sheets so that nothing could get in and kill me. paranoid perhaps, but we have made it out of the jungle alive.

The next morning was BUCKETING down with rain. oh i wanted to dance and flail in the rain while we waited for our bus to leave the jungle. needless to say we all got drenched completely, especially Diego, as he was being chivalrous and did all the bag transport stuff for us, so that we could stay on the buses nice and dry. The scenery was again so pretty on this bus trip, but the roads were extra windy which didnt help the people who were still sick. we made it to Baños alive and the rain had stopped. we had a nice lunch together as a big group and some people went for a hike up the hill to the volcano, and us girls decided to wander through the town together. we had a coffee or coco tea at this cute little shop and just enjoyed being a bit more relaxed. it was so nice to chat to everyone, and again get to know them better.
We then had dinner all together and decided to sit on the roof of our hotel in the rain drinking wine from boxes. even classier than cask wine. It was me, Tim, Sally, Diego, Jo and Ilsa who had great conversations (sometimes more information than actually required by some haha) on the roof while drinking and listening to music under the rainy and yet still starry sky. its moments like these that i will forever remember!
The next day was to be a busy one, and we had also learnt how to say " i am hungover" in spanish, haha, very important. we decided to hire out some mountain bikes in the morning and ride up to several waterfalls. who would have thunk that i would VOLUNTARILLY bike ride mountains for 17kms...and then do a hike at the mountains. INSANE, but it was definately worth it and the waterfalls were amazing! we even got to crawl up in this little cave to stand behind the roaring waterfalls, and got absolutely soaked. we hiked back up to our bikes where a few of us got picked up by a bus to spend the afternoon going white water rafting between two national parks.
Our guide was really awesome (and quite cute actually!! haha) and we had an amazing time going down the rapids. sally got to sit on the front of the raft during some bigger rapids, and kept falling back into the boat and snorting the water, haha. there was a group of Americans and Canadians on another raft at the same time with another company, and everytime they got close we had splashing wars with our paddles. i loved watching the expressions on our guides face, because there was alot of child like cheekiness going on, and he would be splashing everyone with a look on his face that i could only describe with the words "doo doo doo, wasnt me!".
There was also a giant rainbow over some of the scenary, and it was just so amazing.

we got off the rafts later and drove in the little bus all the way back to baños. our guide pumped his CDs loudly, (practically house music and stuff that we listen to in clubs) and it got me revved up to go out that night. so we had dinner and decided to go out on the town. we went to this cute little bar/club that was called lepracaun and it had so much fantasy pictures all over and an open fire place/bon fire out the back. we didnt dance but we definately had a few drinks and spent a while chatting to Ilsa and Diego, who both have so much interesting stories to tell (ilsa is from Latvia and has been living in IReland for the past 4 years). Diego took hold of Sallys camera and went a bit snap happy, so we now had photos of down his top, his beer bottle and a few of us. our rafting guide also showed up and had burnt on cd photos for us from our rafting, which was so nice of him. All in all it was such a good day and we are literally having the time of our lives.

Today we are still in Baños writing this blog for you, and letting you all know we are alive. we are also going to the thermal baths, and perhaps going out again tonight. Tommorrow we are off to Cuenca, and we are so excited to see what other adventures are in store for Ruby and Sally.

We miss you all alot, and hope you are well.

Much love
Ruby xoxoxox

ps i know have RSI from typing all of this, you better appreciate it, haha.
pps, i managed to not throw the computer out the window. hoorah!

Fail Day, or the day that Ruby said goodbye to her sheet

Alas, the rumours are true, the sheet has indeed left the building, or at least our room, possibly for the laundry. Ruby is very sad, as her main source of overnight entertainment has been removed. That´s right, no more ghosts, no more shadow puppet concerts, no more flailing. It is a sad day.

On that same note, today, for us, was a bit of a fail. Well it depends how you look at it. Ruby and I decided it would be a good idea to get up nice and early with the intention of taking a two hour bus ride to the Otavalo market town. We did not realise how ambitious we were being, with our very poor spanish, yet we got on a bus at around 8:30am, all bright and chirpy. We thought we knew where we were going, yet it appears we are less clever than we thought (surprise surprise) The bus we thought we were meant to catch didn´t appear to exist, yet luckily an alternative was provided for us, in English and all. Hurruh, we thought, we will make it there after all. So, after a confused conversation with a South American bus terminal attendant, we got on another bus, which we assumed was bound for Otavalo. We were wrong.
Do you guys remember the Simpsons episode where Lisa tries to catch the bus to the Springfield Museum, and ends up taking it to past Crackton? Well, thats kind of what happened to us. We should have got off at Crackton -_-
So instead of taking another hour one way to Otavalo, we ended up taking a one and a half hour round trip through the south of Quito. Well, at least we got to see the south of Quito.
But wait, theres more.

We were determined not to give up, so after further consultation of the intructions, we GOT BACK ON THE SAME BUS!!?!?! in order to try and make a connection to Otavala from another terminal. This, we found, also failed. After nearly four hours of bus travel, we never made it to the market town. BUT, as it turns out, they had a mini market happening in the Mariscal Foch square, so Ruby still got to satisfy her shopping needs, and I got to eat empanadas, which are essentially deep fried cheese parcels covered in sugar. So all was not lost.

Random things we have learnt today.
- Quito has a LOT of stray dogs. It makes us sad.
- All chains of deep fried chicken are hailed as mini shrines of deep fried goodness (its not just KFC apparently)
- we are not as good at navigating the Metrobus as we thought.

So that was our day! Tomorrow is.......THE AMAZON!!!! WEEEEEE! no buses required (except to get there)

Ruby will send her love once she comes out of mourning.

Love Sally xoxoxox

Llama, Llama, EQUATOR!

Hey there all you most wonderful people (i mean that to everyone except you of course...yes you, stop looking behind you. i am actually speaking to you.)

Now that we have all those pleasantries out of the way, i will begin to update you on our day. it was stranger than most, which i will get to eventually, but the biggest happenings and events of our day consisted of going to middle earth. yes. middle earth. where there are hobbits and elves and dwarves and giant evil eyes that form giant armies of orcs!
ok, not quite, but close. technically we went to middle earth, but by that i mean THE middle of the earth. But first to get there, we had to take a bus. And this is where our story begins.

WE woke up this morning only to see the faces of Ecuadorian men outside our two story window. THIS is not a joke. It scared the crap out of me, to roll over and look out the window, and to see two men straight outside. perhaps they were watching us sleep up on the second floor of the building with their special powers to fly, or float (perhaps they used the force to float???? you only have yourself to blame for me thinking that tegan, you are the one who told me thats what they used the force for hahahaha), or the more likely and truthful scenario was that they were painting the outside of the building, and we had just forgotten to shut our curtains before we went to bed (clearly we should except men outside our windows, duh!).
Anyway, after strategically sneaking out of my bed to shut the curtains when they weren´t looking so i could shower and change, we began to get ready for the day. We had a serious hankering for pancakes that we had to satisfy (thats traditional ecuadorian food right??) and we set off to the metro bus stop. After strolling along, we finally reached it and jumped on towards our destination. The bus got off at a depot a little further on, which threw us off, because now we had to find another bus to get to where we were going. after a few people pointing us in the right direction after seeing our confused faces (and then still going the wrong way) we finally got onto the second bus we needed.
We actually made a few friends on this bus, with one little girl spending her entire trip staring at us with wide eyes, not sure whether or not to trust us strange beings from another planet (or country, i dont think she had decided what we were), she finally waved a big goodbye to us and smiled as she got off the bus with her mother. I think she finally decided that we were cool. phewf, glad we got her approval!
Our next friend was a lady who we were sitting next to, who tried to have a conversation with us through the art of pointing and mime. she was very sweet, and i thought it was about time i bring out my exquisite interpretive dance skills to tell our long and harrowing story, but she got off the bus before i could. what a sad time. We also got to hear "i will survive" come over the bus speakers, and we were ready to break out in kareoke! (also i should add, there are ALOT of kareoke bars here)
EITHER way, we made it to our destination, the center of the world! There isn´t much there to do, apart from cheesey touristy things such as posing and standing on both sides of the equator line (yes, we were in two places at once, the northern hemisphere and the southern), but it was definately worth the whole $3.5 it cost us to get there, just to say we had.
BUT more importantly, we jumped up and down in joy, and squealed a little when we spotted our first ever south american llama! OH MY! yes, i do not kid you....a llama!!! i know, amazing right!!!....right??? ok, yes we are losers, but we got many photos of llamas, and sneaking up on llamas.
We sat there for a while, and watched the llamas, and every time we turned our heads for a split second and back, the llama was suddenly closer to us. so we sat, watching and waiting for them to move, but as the saying goes "a watched llama never moves".

We also discovered that every celebrity has a llama twin. so having discovered this wonderful info, we began naming our new llama friends. We are now proud to say that today, we met Shaggy the llama, Sean Paul the llama, AND....OBAMA-LLAMA!!!

After our bus trip home, we decided to sit in a cafe near our house, which involved some terrible songs, such as Fergie being played (we hadn´t been given our bill yet, so we couldn´t run away). We also changed the words to "California girls" to represent our Melbournian roots, (as well as earlier in the day creating a new version to the spice girls hit, "when two become one" which of course became about llamas).
Our sit down session in the cafe also consisted of some creepy older man staring at me every five seconds and dancing in his chair (Cue asking for the bill, and then running away). Also on our walk here to the computers, i got stamped, as in some guy branded me with a rubber stamp on my arm as i went passed. Now i am not sure whether that means i have now been initiated into some kind of mafia, but as i told Sally when i awoke this morning, i have indeed dedicated myself to a life of organized crime, so i am ready.

This is all we have for you so far, we are about to go meet the people from our tour, and we will head to the markets tomorrow for some shopping.
But before we go, there are a few fun facts that we have learnt about Quito that i would love to share with you.

* the green man at the crossings, tweets like a bird.
* KFC´s are like 7/11´s...on every street corner, and can sometimes be as big as a mansion...no joke.
* as mentioned previously, kareoke seems huge here.
* Cabs chase you down trying to get you to hop in so they can drive you somewhere, and you are forever shaking your head at them.

I must now love you and leave you. Sally sends her love also.

Love Ruby xoxoxox



monument of the equator. aka...middle earth.

CHEWBACCA IS THE WOOKY!!!

howdy all, so i thought i should update you on my recent academic learnings.
this has absolutely nothing to do with our trip, but i am definately now an expert on star wars.
no i haven´t watched the films, but who needs to when i have Sally to explain it all to me!
So here is what i have learnt.
Anikin Skywalker is not Darth Vaders son, but is infact Darth Vader. who knew??? and Darth Vader is evil.
Luke is the son of Anikin/Darth and he has friends. one of which is Han Solo who helps people and has a wooky. he also drives a ship of some description.
Then there are Jedi´s. they use the force. and have green lazer sticks called light sabres.
Yoda, the old green man, is the master of Jedi´s, but Jedi´s die alot and finally yoda dies too. but peacefully, not with blood and guts and screaming.
Luke becomes a jedi and has a major crush on Princess Laia (who at one point wears a gold bikini) and wants to have major fun times with her. but then he goes "oh shit, she is my twin sister" and discovers that incest is actually wrong.
So Laia gets it on with Han Solo (Not Hans, he is not German apparently).

At this point in the conversation i wanted to find out about the other characters so i asked "so who is Chewbacca" pretty much what followed was Sally smacking her palm against her face in frustration and exclaiming "Chewbacca IS the wooky!!!".
Wow, mind blown. but before all you star wars nuts hate me, i made friends with a chewbacca (or a man dressed like one) quite a few years ago, so i should be forgiven :P.

Apparently all other wookies are dead. Then there are robots, and one of them is made by anikin (before he went all evil) and the other sends a message from laya to Obi Wan Kinobe (not sure how to spell this...) and at this point i was like "WHO THE FREAK IS OBI WAN??" apparently he is a jedi and he dies fighting darth and then becomes a ghost and takes luke to the yoda man.
Then apparently there are siths, and they are bad and use the force to float (amongst other non decript things).

Most of this conversation was spent with Sally sobbing into her hands from my lack of understanding of Star Wars, but really i think i did quite well :)
Now i can go to ComicCon and blend in with all the other nerds, and wow them all with my knowledge "hey dude dressed as chewbacca....did u know you are a wooky??"


I think i may have scarred Sally for life, and she may now end up in a nice room with padded walls and a pretty white jacket. (and she thinks i´m crazy!!!)

I hope all you star wars fans will forgive me for my previous ignorance :) but now i am up to speed and can speak geek! hoorah!

In reference to this, Sally blames you, miss Dani-ani-anikin Skywalker, for her mental decline in trying to spark off this topic after i mentioned ur starwars reference name. woops. also apparently your not the good guy. coz anikin is bad :)

Much love and light sabres!!!


I will now get back to our holiday and not disturb you with useless information. :)

Love Ruby xoxoxox

Donde esta el buey (Where´s the Ox?)

That is the question....yet one that shall be answered at a later time.

In the meantime, here is the story of our day. Thankfully, it is not as crazy as yesterday (Ruby is now red like her namesake and not at all blue ala Smurfette), however, I think they may have given her some special kind of drugs or herbal meds or SOMETHING! because she is currently off her rocker, well even more so than usual. For example, last night she spent at least an hour wrapped up in her sheets, pretending to be a poorly constructed ghost and singing Somwhere Over the Rainbow. This isn´t like the llama porn incident, this ACTUALLY HAPPENED! And, I would like to state for the record that I was not looking up llama porn, I was studying the intricate dynamics of llama courtship. Honest.

Back to the story.
Today we ventured into the Quito´s Old Town, a collection of Colonial Spanish buildings in the center of Quito. To get there, we had to take a trolley bus (imagine if a bus and a tram had a baby), and let me tell you, Ventura is heavanly compared to their bus systems, you should not take it for granted. On the plus side, it only cost us 25cents.
The Old town is so pretty, all the buildings were lovely blues and yellows and pinks, even the banks were gorgeous. We visted the Grande Plaza, the Cultural Museum, which was this huge pale yellow and white building, filled with ceramic sculptures, a sundrenched courtyard and BOOKS! so many books, it kind of reminded us of the state library in Melbourne, except so much prettier. We then went to the church of San Francisco...yep we walked all the way to San Francisco...nah just kidding :P Let me paint a picture for you, every inch of the San Francisco Church is covered in gold leaf. I´m not even kidding, it was unbelieveable. Unfortunatly, it closed at twelve, so we didn´t get to spend much time there, but Ruby snuck in a sneaky photo of the breathtaking ceiling. An elderly couple also took a shine to Ruby, although for what reason we are still not sure! Haha I kid, they were adorable.
And they didnt steal our stuff, which is always a bonus.
Then we decided to visit Calle La Rhonda, and although it was very obviously positioned on our map, it took us a lot longer to find than it should have. We most probably looked like lameass tourists scratching our heads and looking at maps but we finally made it there...only to find that pretty much everything was closed. Sadface :( but it was still a really lovely street, and we had pleasant strole in the sunshine and took more photos. So many photos.
THEN, we took a taxi up to La Panecillo, which is where the statue of the Virgin of Quito lives. She´s quite large, made completely of aluminium and so is hollow. So what other logical thing would there be to do than to go inside her (thats right, we entered the Virgin of Quito....there´s no way you can say that without making it dirty, so we´re not even going to try). The views from the statue were splendid, hence more photos (we got a bit snap happy). From here we headed back to La Mariscal, which is where we are currently staying, for lunch, yet not before I was invited to dance on the street by a middle aged creepily limbre man, which I respectfully declined.

I think now we are up to date dear friends. Tomorrow we are going to stand directly on the equator....thats right, we will be in the southern and northern hemisphere AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME! Yeah. And then on saturday we are off to Otavalo markets which is very exciting. And then onto the Amazon (insert squee here :) )
We hope that all is well at home, lots of love to you all.
Oh, and one more thing.
Shut up woman, get on my ox.

Love Sally xoxoxox


The Virgin of Quito (oops...not anymore. Surely this is blasphemy of some kind. We apologise. We are young and ignorant.)


Calle La Ronda


Church of San Francisco

smurfette

hey all you bloggers, so here is the latest update, and i personally, think its the coolest one yet, so hold onto your seats and/or llamas because u may just fall off!!

So we begin our 3rd day in Quito with some delicious pancakes and our first taste of south american coffee (mmmmmmmmmm......droooooool), and then ended up at an Ecuadorian hospital.

The end.



:)





.....haha tricked ya! ok, i shall fill you in, i just wanted to savour that moment of you falling off your llamas (at this point i would also like to mention that i was not infact watching llama porn yesterday, Sally was just trying to delfect from the fact that it was her that was indeed into the animal porn...i swear its true, when we lived together i came home to her listening to lectures on animal reproduction!! i heard some odd things on those days...... :P)

ANYHOO back to the point. so after breifly reading some emails from the parentals who were worried (as parents do) about me being short of breath and the fact that i have just spent 36hours on a plane and having a previous blood clot, they suggested i go visit a dr just incase. it was then that we noticed i was actually blue. apparently oxygen isnt my friend currently, and its avoiding me like the plague. THE PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGUE. so it turns out i have the plague....
again with the lies! i just cant help myself.
ok, back on track!
so we went to the hospital, and had to walk around alot saying "Necesito un medico que hable ingles" (i need to see a dr who speaks english) and being sent to a few places, we finally got in to see the nurse (i think one of the security guards took pity on my confused face). the nurse kept asking me questions to fill in a form, none of which i understood (cue confused face and alot of "no entiendo!" - i don´t understand) a nice lady who was there with her daughter decided to help out and translate for me....THANK FRIGGEN GOODNESS!!! i wanted to hug the living guts outta that lady for all her help.
so we waited around for a dr in my charming hospital gown, and a dr came for us....yeah she didnt speak english (cue more confused faces) so she went and got me a dr who did. so after all that hooplah of "wow, ur kinda blue" i had an ultra sound on my leg to rule out any chance of another blood clot. i was worried for a while when a nurse came into my ultrasound room as the dr was giving it to me, and she started to pat my leg like she was reassuring me, or felt bad for me....haha didnt fill me with confidence.
Either way turned out i was fine, just some bad altitude sickness and lack of oxygen so they gave me pills and sent me on my way.

I must say, i was hoping they would hook me up to some oxygen, as i miss it so, but noooo, just gave me the drugs. those south american drug lords... hehe, just kidding! she was very lovely.

Poor sally had to wait around, and for that i apologise, so we shall see some more of the sights tomorrow, as for me, i am gonna get up on those drugs!

on the plus side...we got to spend the day surrounded by south american doctors ;) wey hey hey!
Even miss sally got chatted up in the waiting room by some creepy guy. (which she says she did not enjoy...do we beleive her?? :P i kid i kid!)

Also it has come to my attention that sally and i might have a war of the words on here, bagging each other out, but i should add the disclaimer that its out of love and fun times :)....i swear.... :)

Anyhoo, thats my glorious story for the day, i hope you didnt bruise yourself too much when you fell off your llammas and such, but i know a good south american doctor if you need one! I also hope you arent too upset that i shall live to annoy u all again, lol.

Must love you and leave you now my amigos!
Peace out, stay black (or blue in my case) and remain oxygenated!!!

Sally sends her waiting room love to ya.

Love Ruby xoxoxoxox




MY DOPPELGANGER!!! hehe




Not my actual doctors....just incase you were wondering. would have been cool tho!

Cable Cars and Cocoa Tea

Greetings!!!! This is the first blogpost from Sally, as Ruby is currently fulfilling facebook duties and googling llama porn :P I cannot say that my posts will be as abusive as hers, but if you´re into her special brand of tough love then I will try my best.

So! We are still chilling in Quito, which we thought was quite a small town, yet today we discovered that it was infact a sprawling city about 5 or so times the size of Melbourne. Oops! We made this discovery when we decided to take a cable car up the side of Volcan Pichinchas, which happens to be a still active (but extremely lazy) volcano. Poor Ruby was still suffering from altitude sickness, so I drugged her up and we set off on our adventure. After an extremely cheap cab ride (four dollars to get all the way up the first hill), and a very long ticket line, we were speeding up the mountainside on a cable car with some very excitable south american tweens, who were certain they were going plunge to their deaths. The most amusing thing about this ride though was the smell of the vegetation, which Ruby and I both decided was very similar to a special kind of herb....thats right, ecuador has their own natural stash of green growing on the side of a volcano...well we´re not really sure that that´s true, but its the conclusion we´ve jumped too and will believe until proven otherwise haha.
The views from the top of Volcan Pichinchas were amazing, we can´t wait to show you photos! Ruby was still a little queezy and even I was short of breath, so we soon retreated to the Tea Republik for some Cocoa tea, which is supposedly supposed to reduce altitude sickness, but I just thought it was really yum!!
So yes that was our day! Tomorrow we´re going to spend some time in the city, eating pancakes, nerding it up at the Cultural museum and going down to see La Ronda, which has a reputation for inspiring poerty art and music! Very excited.

Love to you all! Ruby sends her love too, if I can tear her away from the computer...she sure loves those llamas!!!

Sally xoxoxo


Volcan Pichinchas :)

36 hour plane flights= death

Why hello there friends!
We have safetly arrived in Ecuador, after some serious long flights... seriously annoying and plain crap!
Nothing much happened on the planes, played chess on the tv´s against sally - pleased to report that i am the winner of the world when it comes to chess :). we had to move around alot on the flights because they didnt sit us together originally though, so that was an effort at times, but it all worked out.
first a flight to sydney which was an hour, then 2.5hours of waiting around....then a flight to Auckland of about 4 hours (which we hastilly downed some burger rings and fries in the break), then another hour of waiting around....then a flight to Chile, a whole 10.5 hours of that flight, with a 3.5hours of waiting around....then another 5 hour flight to Ecuador (but not our stop) and then another 1.5 hours of waiting on the plane to refuel plus pick up more passengers.... and then after one more 1 hour flight WE MADE IT!!! HAZZAH! can´t tell you what a releif that was!

during one of our stop overs, we snuck into a toilet cubicle together so that sally could give me an injection (so that i dont clot up and die) and i´m sure that looked quite a bit odd to all those around watching two girls sneak into a cubicle together with an exclamation of "ouch!" coming shortly after.
also during this stop over in Santiago we wandered around the duty free sections only to find, Boost juice, and Starbucks coffee....clearly haven´t moved too far from home haha.
While we were pondering how weird that was, we look over at the screen and UP POPS JUSTIN BEIBER! apparently we travelled so far to see justin beiber singing while break dancing at a bowling alley. and then that was followed by miley cyrus and the johnas brothers. Most annoyingly it was beiber music that followed us around on the planes and stop overs.

We got to our hostel FINALLY and crashed. the hostel is quite cute and small, and thankfully the owners speak a bit of english. this is defiantely not the case everywhere else, as we went for a walk through town today, and we just stared at people who tried to speak to us, because we had no idea what they had just said to us.
I have a bit of altitude sickness with some dizzy spells/headache and some queasiness (similar to that of a hangover actually) as Quito is the second highest city in terms of altitude in the world. Sally is doing fine with it however (for that she must die... i kid i kid!) plus there is alot of pollution coming from their cars that smells really bad and makes me feel sicker.
Turns out we need to give props to australia in reduces the pollution in the air. who knew?? hehe




City of Quito above and the cathedral we visited today below. such a pretty building

anyway, thats all we have for now, i must love you and leave you. Sally sends her love also.

Ruby and Sally xoxox