Ecuador

Quito
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Quito is the capital of Ecuador, with a population of about 2 million people. It is about 2,800 metres above sea level, but after spending much of the previous few weeks at altitude, this wasn't a problem for us. We liked Quito. There were plenty of green areas, good restaurants and lively nightlife. We spent over a week here, taking classes in Spanish and Salsa Dancing (more about that later). We spend a lot of time exploring the city, going for long walks and enjoying the wide variety of cuisine on offer.

Salsa Classes
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We decided to take Salsa classes in Quito, taking classes for an hour each day for five days. We learned five or six of the basic steps over the course of the lessons from Paulo, our teacher. It was great fun - it took us a while to get going but once we did, we fairly burned up the floor! We even managed to bewilder Paulo with a couple of our moves that he never knew existed in Salsa. We are looking forward to using what we learned later in the trip.

The Amazon Rainforest
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The Amazon covers an area of about 7 million square kilometres in total. To put that into context, it's about 90 times the size of Ireland. We went to the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon, about 8 hours from Quito. We visited an indigenous community, where we learned a little about their lives. Many of them marry at a very young age - 12 or 13 - and have up to ten children. We took a canoe trip down one of the rivers, with dense jungle on both sides. After a long hike in the forest, the group finished off the day with a dip at the foot of a waterfall.

Banos
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Banos is a town famous for its thermal springs. We arrived on a Sunday morning, and the place was really busy. There were probably 15 or 20 baths in total, with the water temperature ranging from freezing to quite hot. It reminded us a little of the saunas in Korea, with families enjoying the time spent with each other, moving from one spring to the next.

The Middle of the World
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Mitad del Mundo is a place north of Quito where the equator passes through the country. A 30 metre monument marks the spot, with the four sides of the monument facing North, South, East and West. The latitude is marked with a yellow line, giving a good photo opportunity for the tourists to put one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. There is also a museum inside the monument giving detailed information of the indigenous communities in Ecuador's different provinces.

Peru

Floating islands
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We crossed the border to Puno in Peru, a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We went on a tour to see the Uros - a group of artificial islands made of reeds. We got off to have a closer look at one of the islands, where we were met by the island leader. He explained to us that ten families lived on that particular island, in homes also made of reeds. Once an island is created, it lasts about 100 years. Fishing used to be the main source of income for the people on these islands, but now tourism is their main source of income. There are schools on a few of the islands, which cater for children on all of the islands. In total, there are 42 islands with a few hundred people living on them.

Cusco and Machu Picchu
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When we arrived in Cusco we weren't affected by the altitude sickness that a lot of people suffer from as we had become accustomed to the height in La Paz
As Fionn had been to Machu Picchu before we decided to go our separate ways for a few days - so Fionn got stuck into the computer to do some work and I hit for the hills to go on the Inca jungle trail. There were about ten people in my group, mostly Spanish and French speaking. Day one consisted of some downhill biking...the best kind of biking in my opinion! Day two was a toughie, hiking and climbing - very difficult but very rewarding when we reached the hot springs at the end. Day three we enjoyed some zip lining in the morning - I would really recommend this to adrenaline junkies, it was brilliant. In the afternoon we did some more hiking. Day four was amazing - we reached Machu Picchu. I can't describe the feeling you get when you walk around such an amazing place - hopefully the pictures will do it some justice.

Huanchaco
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We both felt like we had spent enough time in the cool air of the high altitude so we headed down from the Andes to the Peruvian coast! Huanchaco is a beach town about eight hours from the city of Lima. It was quite busy in Huanchaco as there was a surfing competition taking place. We rented chairs and an umbrella and sat on the beach for a few days.

Mancora
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We wanted to make our way as close to the Ecuadorian border as possible but having not received our complete fix of the beach air we stopped off in Mancora for a few days. Mancora is about 8 hours north of Huanchaco, and was more developed although it only had umbrellas on the beach - no chairs. The water was fantastic, nice and clean with great waves!

Bolivia

La Paz
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We decided to go to Spanish school for a week in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. La Paz is in the Andes, about 3600 metres above sea level, making it the highest capital city in the world. The altitude wasn't really a problem for us, although when walking around the city you would often be short of breath. Our school was about 5 minutes from where we were staying, with Karen taking 4 hours of classes every day and Fionn two. We both had one to one classes with our teachers.

Street markets
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Sometimes the whole city of La Paz can feel like a giant street market. There is a big population of Aymara people in Bolivia - an indigenous ethnic group whose people wear very colourful clothes. Many of them set up temporary stalls in the towns and cities of Bolivia to sell their wares. Fruit and vegetables are the most common products, but the stalls really sell anything and everything. In the area where we were staying, the stalls shut at about 6 or so, but different areas of the city had night markets, where the trading continued.

The coca leaf
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The coca leaf has been a big issue in Bolivia for years. It has been chewed and used for making tea by the indigenous people for centuries, but is very controversial as it is also used as the raw material for cocaine. The current president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is a former coca farmer who made his name campaigning for the rights of the Bolivian people to continue growing the leaf, in opposition to the US government who have tried to sponsor programs to eradicate it. We went to the Coca Leaf Museum in La Paz for a few hours - a very interesting place with information on the history and uses of the coca leaf. Mata de coca (a type of coca leaf tea) is a common drink in La Paz, and we had a few cups in our time there.

Lake Titicaca
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Lake Titicaca is on the Bolivia/Peru border. It is the largest Lake in South America, and is about 38oo metres above sea level with a surface area of over 8300 square km. The Isla del Sol in one of the largest islands on the lake, and was a sacred place for the Incas, who believed the sun god was born there. We took the boat to the Isla del Sol, which took about 2 hours, and we spend the day walking the length of the island before returning home. It was a lovely sunny day, and we had some great views of the lake on our walk.