Next we headed northwards to Cotacachi famous for its leather goods where for lunch we sampled the national delicacy "Cuy" - guinea pig spit roasted and served with beans, potatoes, other vegetables and salad. Cuy was washed down with tree tomato juice, a jungle fruit related to the tomato but more sour. Both are an acquired taste. Still with taste of rodent in our mouths we moved onto the Cayambe with the little-known equator monument called "Quitsato" in the shape of a huge solar clock which has been confirmed as precisely on the equatorial line by satellite technology. Although less grandiose, it was more informative than the more famous official government site. Our final stop for the day was "El Quinche", another cathedral, before passing over the 4100m pass of the Cordillera de los Andes (rim of Amazon basin) and arriving to Papallacta (pronounced Pa-pa-yac-ta) in the Cloud Forest for our second night stop. The hostel was not the best we stayed at and acquired the nickname Faulty Towers, with its own Ecuadorian version of Basil Faulty.

After a cold night at the hostel we were rewarded the next morning with an early dip in Papallacta´s hot springs. The springs comprised of 10 pools of steadily increasing temperatures and also a cooler plunge pool of 0'c for those brave (or stupid) enough to try it out... From Papallacta we continued east to the warmth and humidity of the Amazon Jungle by part paved, part rough jungle road to San Pedro. From here we boarded a motorised canoe to the Yacuma jungle lodge, where we were stopping for the next two nights. On the way we stopped to visit the little town of Misahualli where Capuchin monkeys run wild down by the riverside and are always ready to relieve the unwary tourist of their possessions.

Yacuma Lodge is in its own area of primary and secondary rainforest on the Chontayacu River, a tributary of the Rio Napo, which is the largest tributary of the Amazon River. It was dark by the time we got there the first night so our only contact with the jungle was being soothed to sleep by the sounds of the rainforest. Next morning after a hearty breakfast we set off on an approximately 3.5hr jungle trek to be taught how rainforest animals and plants were used for food, medicinal purposes and building materials. It was hot, sweaty and at times treacherous underfoot as heavy rain overnight had made the paths slippery. Even the "main highway" between two villages was a muddy donkey track. In the afternoon we visited "Amazoonico", an animal rehabilitation centre in Selva Viva, a 13km2 reserve of primary forest, 1.5hrs away from the lodge by motorised canoe. Here we came face-to-face with ocelots (wild cats), tortoises, terrapins, various birds, monkeys, jungle fowl and wild pigs, although many were contained within wire mesh enclosures. Afterwards we returned to the jungle lodge for dinner and were again soothed to sleep by a chorus of frogs and grasshoppers.

Intro / Quito | Old Town/Equator/Market | Quitsato/Cuy/Hot Springs/Jungle | Puyo/Banos | Volcanos