Ginny and Duncans Big Adventure

So this is it.  D-Day.  The official end of not only Ecuador and Peru travels, but of My Big Adventure, and of this blog-diary.  Four and a half months of world travel, coming to its final close. It's not terribly exciting to write about long transit journeys, and definitely not worth taking pictures of airports (at least not unless you're wearing an anorak), but this was quite an epic final leg, and so deserves a short mention. We set off in the dark, at 4am, with a taxi showing up as planned (we had had our doubts that it would) and driving us down the middle of the road all the way back to Puerto Lopez where we were catching the 5am bus to Quito. That all went according to plan, and we heeded the advice to keep our hand luggage on our laps, to deter thieves stealing from overhead or under the seats. Our 'executive' bus was fully booked, but not crazy like the one we'd taken a week earlier.  No vendors hopping on and off at random intervals, but bizarrely we...

Our cabana... We left Puerto Lopez after our morning coffee at Cafe Blanche on the beach, as had become our habit over the few days we had here, Ayampe bound.  Ayampe is a cluster of dwellings about 9 miles south of PL, situated on a long beach, with regular rolling waves.  It's very different from Puerto Lopez.  Besides being clean, it's very much a surfer's paradise and our lodging at Finca Punta lived up to the stereotype.  Individual cabanas made of bamboo and thatched with palm fronds, nestled into the hillside, a 5 minute walk down to the long wide bay.  The dining room/lounge area was decked out with sofas and surf boards where we were greeted by Santiago, the manager and waiter-come-surf-instructor, Sebastian. Our cabana was perfect - views of the ocean, surrounded by palms, banana trees and bougainvillea, with a hammock on the balcony. We unpacked and wandered down to the beach.  Despite the clouds, it was a gorgeous temperature and the sea w...

On the bus! We left our slightly dodgy hotel straight after breakfast, for the Terminale Terrestre; the main bus station.  Guyaquil is the largest city in Ecuador, and the bus station is huge, and located within a massive shopping mall. It was also already bustling at 8am, as we maneuvered our large backpacks through to the bus counters.  Thank goodness we'd done our recce on arrival so we more or less knew where we were going.  With over 70 bus companies running services all over Ecuador, we were very glad we knew which company we needed and quickly bought our tickets, making our way to the bus stands.  We'd heard the buses don't wait long, so you have to be ready and waiting when they pull in, otherwise you'll get left behind.  A bus pulled up in the next-door stand. New, shiny, with air con and WiFi; this bus malarkey was going to be OK.  Then ours pulled up.  So dirty you couldn't see in or out of the windows, and looking a bit long in the tyre...