Round the world with Michaela and Tom

The day is nearly here...19th October 2010 and we are going to be heading off on our travels round the world!! It seems like we have been saving and planning forever and the day is finally getting close.

We start of in S.America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay) then head to Australia, South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam) then China, Japan and India wohoooooooooooo!!!!

We are going to try and keep a blog of stuff we get up to and pics off course - we will see how internet access goes and how much time we get to write on it!!

YOU CAN CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO MAKE IT BIGGER AND YOU CAN COMMENT BELOW EACH POST - A FEW PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING!!





Monday, 15 November 2010

Overland Ecuador

OK so first we need to update you on our 16 days touring Ecuador over land!!!
We had a fantastic time visiting cities, towns and villages from the north to the south of Ecuador. The group was amazing and we made lots of new friends from all around the world and from every walk of life! Our original group included people from Canada, America, Germany, Sweden, Greenwich (the other middle of the world!!) and Scotland and of course our guide Giovanny from Ecuador. Thanks guys for making our trip so memorable we had a great time with you all and look forward to the reunion!!

Its hard to remember the amount of things that we did but heres a few!! We trekked in the jungle, took part in some local jungle traditions, white water rafted, panned for gold, slid down local waterfalls and chilled out in the natural pools, visited the local school to play games with the kids, saw Liga v Cuenca in the Ecuadorian league, visited local farming markets, partied with the locals in Cuenca for their All Souls day/Independence Day celebrations (amazing fireworks!!) and Hiked a few Volcanoes!!!!

In the Jungle:



White Water Rafting:




In BaƱos we tried the local dish Cuy which is Guineapig (well Tom did and decided he would stick to steaks!!). We also played a local game with some kids we bumped into - you had to bet 5cent coins on odd or even marbles falling into two holes! We also had the energy for a wee nite out, a few beers and a bit of salsa!!


On the way to Cuenca we stopped on top of a mountain for lunch with a view! In Cuenca we bought some Panama hats and really enjoyed the fireworks and celebrations for All Souls Day and Independence Day but forgot the camera!! We also visited the local graveyard which was being decorated for All Souls celebrations. Very interesting to see whole families out helping to paint, clean and decorate the family graves.



After that we headed to the local markets in Otavalo. There were lots of tourist stalls selling jewellery, art, rugs, ponchos and funky pants (i think im wearing mine in some of the galapagos pictures in the next post!!). But the big recommendation was to get up very early to see the local farming market!! The smell was stinking, the noise of squealing pigs was disturbing, the sight of animals being dragged on ropes to the pick trucks of their new owners was interesting but it is all under E for experience!!!!




Finally we made it back to Quito were we started our trip and headed out to watch a local football match. It was between La Liga (one of the teams from Quito) and Cuenca. They are the top two teams in the Ecuadorian league but the match was pretty one sided with the home team winning 2-0. The atmosphere was good and it was definitely an interesting experience queueing to get into the match with the locals! Kids got in free so it was nice to see so many local kids there and we only had to pay $6!!


After the match we were sad to say goodbye to Neil & Caroline our super DHLers, Andreas the kid (hopefully we will meet him again in Peru!), Donna the legend an example to us all, Katja the shopaholic (we hope u made it onto the plane with that bag of yours!!) and Lija the massage Queen. Chris, Anna-Lena and Anders came with us for the next adventure to the Galapagos :o)




1 comment:

  1. I had so much fun traveling with you guys! Bummed I am not still there, but excited to follow your experiences - until next time!

    ReplyDelete