First day in Equador

We have arrived Loja in Equador, can already really tell the difference from Peru to our new destination country. People are more westernised dressed here, and the shops are more equal to what we could expect at home (they even have flat screen monitor in the internet place!). We did a good choice going northwards (as opposed to southwards): Every 100km north, we are delighted to find an new luxury item around (like drinkable water, butter, strawberries and mangoes), the latest being an almost full corn bread (as opposed to the white buns they normally eat). Going south would be an continuous misery as every day would cost us a new sacrifice. Peru was a great place, and we will always look back at the place with wonderful memories.

We will look for a place to buy an English travel guide today. Peru did not offer many book stores, and the once they had stocked few English books, and no travel books. It would be practical to have a guide in the first place, because it is hard to find a good English stocked book store without a travel guide (if they even have one). 

Loja is situated at approximately 2100 meters and is surrounded by mountains. The road north is asphalted, but is long and windy. As we have only a few weeks left now, we might skip a ride to the next town north. Once we are there, the landscape will be flat at approximately 3000 meters. We both have a dream of climbing the mnt Cotopaxi, an active volcano at 5897 meters. We still have to check whether this can be done within our level of experience and equipment. Once we get our travel guide, the plans will probably materialize.

For the observant reader, we can explain why we did not choose to do canoe down the river Maranon. The Austrian consul in Peru impressed us with a very detailed description of the area, including the speed of the river. There are illegal drug and wood trafficking in the river area, and some of the river stretch is classified as a class 5 rapid (ca 7 meters waterfall). It is probably not a clever idea to do this with an open canoe.....

Maria, Erik's half Peruvian flatmate from Edinburgh also passed on a warning from her father: "He is Peruvian and when he went after uni with 5 of his friends he was the only one who did not die (three of them were shot)". This is some years ago, but still to be taken seriously. Our conclusion was to skip the whole river idea and head north to Ecuador, a country we have heard many good things about.

At last, we have attached a picture of all our blog visitors. Thanks to our faithful readers, and thanks to our travelling friends giving us a lot of exciting countries!