So, where did we leave you? I think we had just survived the freezing slopes of Cotopaxi and were about to escape what would seem to be every LatAm traveller's least favourite city, Quito. (writes Steve, Annabel's husband and co-adventure seeker)

From Quito - before i continue, apologies to those who don't like all lower case, but i never use caps unless i'm at work, sorry - we got the bus to baños, which is a spa town about 4 hours south of quito by bus. we started our journey in quito's infamous terminal terrestre, where, upon mentioning to the first non-criminal type that we saw that we were looking for the bus to baños, we were moved like stunned sheep from taxi rank, to ticket window to bus in less than 3 minutes. fortunately we still had all of our money and bags when we got on the bus, the loss of one or all of the above being the prime danger in this particular bus station.

baños is a bit of tourist mecca for locals and gringos alike, and we felt finally able to relax a little as the atmosphere was a lot friendlier than quito. in baños we stayed in a great hostel, plantas y blanco for anyone following our trail, where we had roof top breakfasts for less than $6 and i think i put on about 5lbs as a result of all the pancakes i ate. the 2nd morning there we decided to try to the local spa baths, which has water heated by the nearby tungurahua volcano, and is used by the locals. following the guide book's suggestion, we decided to go to watch the sun rise, and got up at 515am and were at the baths by 530am. we paid, walked through and, expecting to see no-one, were confronted by about 40 locals all taking their morning dip. yes, we attracted a little bit of attention. soon after getting into the pool we got talking, or should i say began interacting in some non-language based way, with one slightly eccentric local who was very keen to: tell us that he wanted england to beat brazil; show us his biceps and point us to the cold water that we were supposed to shower under before getting into the hot pool. on the whole we adopted the smile, nod and laugh at the appropriate time response, and it seemed to work.

the next day we decided to do the famous baños to puyo bike ride, which is about 60km, and, so we were told, "all down hill". things were going fine to about 20km... we had seen several good waterfalls and one very impressive one ("madre del diablo", or something like that), and met up with a swiss chap called phillip who continued the journey with us. after about 30km it started to rain a little, which was fine, as it was warm and still down hill. after 35km it started going up hill - what, we were told all down-hill!!! - and then after 40km the rain turned into a tropical storm and we got soaked. nevertheless we continued to about 50km when philip got a puncture and we stopped to wait for the bus, by which time we were soaked to the skin and could pour the water out of our shoes. nice. were we ever glad to see that bus...

things we didn't expect in baños...

1. the animal zoo to be marked on the map as "animal prison".

2. to find the statue of the "virgen de agua santa" in the local church surrounded by blue neon lighting.

3. to be woken up at 520am every morning by the church bells (repeated at 550am, just in case you missed it).

by the time we had been in baños for 3 days we had been rained on every day for about 2 weeks and finally gave in to the temptation of a trip to the beach. so, we followed philip's advice and boarded our first night bus to Montanita, the surf capital of ecuador and, so we were told, the hip and trendy place to go. hopefully they would let us in.

the night bus was not fun. it took us 12 hours to get to the coast and another 2 hours on a local bus to get from libertad to montanita. however, the bus still had some surprises...

things we didn't expect on the night bus from baños to montanita...

1. steven to fall into a roadside ditch while attempting to "use the bathroom" at the side of the road when the bus had stopped to change a tire.

2. twice the bus's capacity in locals to get onto the 2nd bus carrying crates of fish and other produce

3. the locals to start passing said produce around the bus when people started to inquire about it

when we arrived in montanita, it was raining. this was the first rain they had seen in a month. typical. the hostel recommended by phillip was made primarily, if not entirely, of bamboo, and seemed to be full of american surfer dudes trying really hard to be cool e.g. by sitting in the bar area with a guitar. our room was, shall we say, basic and well ventilated (made entirely of bamboo), but for $3 per person per night, what did we expect. we didn't do much in montanita except sit around, eat, shop, drink, play cards and teach steve backgammon (that took a while). it was sunny for half a day, but that was it. after 2 days we were bored and on the third day we left for cuenca...

things we didn't expect in montanita...

1. to be confronted by a 4 inch diameter spider in the shower cubicle (it didn't survive).

2. a local school girl, on a school trip, to ask if she could have her photo taken with steve.

3. to be followed up and down the beach for over an hour by a bitch and her highly enthusiastic dog suitor (you can come up with your own graphic imagery).

4. none of the restaurants to stock food or drink; every time we ordered, someone would go running out to buy the ingredients and the drinks.

cuenca is a long way from montanita, and so we began our trip with the 5am bus from montanita to guayaquil. unfortunately, it didn't come and so we had to take 2 buses to guayaquil. no problem. the bus from g'quil to cuenca was the nicest we had been on and we settled back for the 6 hour ride. after 45 mins it stopped and an hour later the driver gave up trying to re-start it. it would be an hour until the replacement arrived. while on that bus we had been overtaken by a bus to loja and annabel had said "oh look, there are direct buses to loja". from this simple observation steve had understood "oh damn, if i had known that we would have got a direct bus to loja" and, so, when a loja bus went past our stranded travellers, steve flagged it down and, in an unusual show of masterfulness, told annabel to get on it and, in an equally if not more unusual show of obedience, annabel promptly did so with no questions. (for those of you at the wedding, it would seem that the training of the tiger is following on nicely from the taming of the tiger...hahaha). once on the bus, annabel turned to steve and said "you do realise that loja is another 5 hours beyond cuenca, don't you". steve did not realise this. that was 1030am, and when steve asked the driver when they would arrive in loja he was a little surprised to hear "seis or siete", 6 or 7pm. oops. in the end it was a scenic bus ride and all was fine, and we arrived in loja at about 1830.

things we didn't expect in loja...

1. the taxi driver didn't try to rip us off.

2. all the hostels were terrible.

3. we found a bank that accepted both the switch and visa cards.

4. anything really exciting to happen and, as you can see, we weren't wrong.

from loja we went to vilcabamba, in the valley of longevity. the bus was a toyota hiace, rather than a bus, and the 1.5hr journey was suitably crowded as a result. on arrival in vilcabamba we thought we had discovered a ghost town as it was practically deserted. the same could be said of the place we had chosen to stay, which was 4km up a dirt road and appeared to be completely closed when we arrived. we eventually got in and got a room and the totally laid-back american owner told us all about his hot water. there was no hot water, which was pretty cruel given that we had been on cold showers for 5 days and were really looking forward to it. steve was not amused and sulked for a good half hour or so. the next day we set off on a 2 day trek into the podocarpus national park, which was interesting, and we stayed in a mountainside lodge with beds that were about 5 feet long. not great.

after vilcabamba we said farewell to ecuador and crossed into peru. our journey started at 7am, or didn't as the bus was late, and continued on through piura (peru) and, via a second bus on to Chiclayo.

things we didn't expect on our journey from ecuador to peru...

1. the driver's co-pilot to jump off bus to put some coins in the money slot of a statue of a virgin - there were/are lots of them - by the side of the road: this is slightly unnerving when you are crossing mountain passes.

2. the bus to swerve to avoid 4 piglets running across the road.

3. to see more donkeys than peak season on blackpool beach.

4. to encounter friendly peruvian immigration police at the border - yes, annabel did have to explain that "buenas tardes" was "good afternoon" in english.

5. the world's most helpful taxi driver in piura, who took us from the bus station to a cash machine and on to our onward bus station with no ulterior motive but to be be helpful for the agreed price.

we spent only one night in chiclayo, and enjoyed its busier streets and general big city feel as there were people around, there were bars, shops and lots of life. i think we were suffering from city withdrawal. what we didn't enjoy was the disco right behind our hotel that played until 230am and kept us awake until then.

things we didn't expect in chicalyo...

1. great croissants
2. cheap t-shirts
3. loud nightlife

from chiclayo we headed to the beach again, but this time to a "fishing village" (a label which legitimises the destination for the 'hard core' traveller but which doesn't change the range of souvenirs, restaurant touts and english language menus) called huanchaco. it was very nice, and we stayed in a great hostel called casa suiza. up until this point we were beginning to think that we were practically the only people travelling in south america as we had seen / met almost no one at all. this changed. at casa suiza we met a lot of nice people and continued to travel on with a couple of them. we also got a lot of negative reports about the quality of the "things to do" in peru, which was slightly disheartening, though on balance has probably helped us to make better decisions on what to do and what no to do. anyway...

things we didn't expect in huanchaco...

1. to get lost on the way to the ruins at chan chan, only 6km away from our hostel.

in huanchaco we met up with a swiss girl called franzy and a canadian chap called michael who were both on their way to huaraz, and so we got the night bus to huaraz with them and decided to do some trekking together.

the night bus was better than the last one, and we watched "training day" with denzel washington for the first couple of hours, which was pretty good. we arrived at about 6am, found a hostel and set about planning our trip which involved finding equipment, a guide, some donkeys and food for 5 people for 4 days. when you haven't slept the night before and when you don't know the people that you're travelling with this can be a challenge, but as it happens we got through it all ok and in no small part thanks to franzy's excellent spanish skills.

the next morning we awoke at 520am and, packs on our backs, set off to find the bus that would get us to the start of our hike. if you haven't been to this part of the world, one of the amusing things about it - once you get used to it - is that the bus will find you before you find the bus. let me explain - as we walked along the street where the buses were rumoured to stop, we were discussing where we wanted to get to and in no time at all we had a couple of guys around us shouting "vequeria, vequeria, directo, diez soles..." etc. this can be a bit much at 630am, but we eventually agred to travel with them and after changing buses once - no, it wasn't direct after all, what a surprise - we arrived at the start of our hike at about 1130am.

we had been told that it would be easy to find a guide and some donkeys there. hmm. we got off the bus and found only more british people, going in the other direction and waiting for a bus. fortunately we found a guide - an "arijero", or something like that - with 2 donkeys, agreed our price and set off. the first day was fine as we passed through the valley and climbed to 3850m from a start at about 3200m. we camped, our guide returned to his house - back at the start - to get his jacket and we set about purifying some water and making dinner. that all went ok, and the fact that we ate it all was a testament to how good anything can taste when you've been walking for 5 hours. i won't do more than mention the pit toilets (but, yes, "pit" is short for "cess pit" and it wasn't nice at all).

the next day we walked for 7 hours, climbed about 1000m and saw some amazing views including glaciers, lakes, valleys and rock formations of the cordillera blanca (if you want to look it up on the internet, mountains like alpamayo and huascaran were passed along the way, and are just stunning). fortunately, there were no attempts to climb any of these mountains.

the third day was, thankfully, all downhill and, contrary to the guide book and the wishes of our 'paid by the day' arijero, we finished the walk that day. that was yesterday, and here we are in huaraz recovering from our exertions, from 3 nights with no sleep and hoping to get our laundry done as we are out of clean clothes. tomorrow we will get the night bus to lima and from there we'll go on to arequipa/colca canyon, cuzco/macchu pichu and then onto bolivia.

things we didn't expect in huaraz...

1. to be camping in the andes at 4200m (there was a frost on the ground in the morning).

2. to narrowly avoid getting ripped off by our guide and his cronies - the locals - on our way out of the national park at the end of our walk.

so, that's all for now. you should know that i - steve - wrote this whole thing and that annabel hasn't even seen it so, if i've bored you senseless then you can blame me and feel pity for my poor wife who has to put up with this all the time. don't worry, annabel will be back next time...