Ecuador.

We decided to avoid any difficult border crossing and chose to fly directly to Quito. At an altitude of 2850m compared to Bogota at 2625m we were prepared for the change of altitude and how it may affect us, what we didn`t expect or know, is that Quito is the city built on a hill, or rather a mountain. I don`t think I could be a mountain bunny, as these hills are killing me! Altitude and steep hills just don`t mix. After relaxing for one day to acclimatise, we dived right in with the must see sights in Quito and visited the very famous Otavalo Market, which as per every other must see in Quito, isn`t actually in Quito!

Otavalo market, a 2 hour ride into the hills above Quito is huge, there is no other word for it. Often described as a tourist trap, maybe it is? but so worth a visit. I have never seen as many llama jumpers, scarves, ponchos, hats, jewellery, bracelets, stuffed alpacas in one place before. A truly wonderful market, but best enjoyed with 2 things in hand, cash and a willingness to barter. Look, but don`t touch unless you are willing to make an offer. Personally I am not a bartering kind of bunny, I prefer to have a price tag wafted under my bunny nose so that I may either waffle with interest or hop away. We 2.1 bunnies also found it rather difficult to weigh up the merits of an alpaca blanket, when one hour previous we passed the Mitad del Mundo monument, aka The Equatorial centre of the world. Its the Equator and you want me to buy an alpaca blanket?

Quito Historic centre. A place we were advised to stay on our visit to Quito. Not sure why. It is pleasant enough walking around, and definitely an older part of the city, but nothing really to write home about. We have found a couple of pleasant squares to wander around, but mostly it is a historic centre of tiny local shops selling just about everything under the sun, eg we have a road drilling equipment shop next door to our apartment, with a sewing machine shop nearby, on the next street is a buckle shop, and a chocolate shop next door to that, whoo what a find (more about Ecuador chocolate later) We loved the Basilica which we can see from our bedroom window. Two huge towers, with two big clocks neither of which tell the correct time soar above us. A few dollars each to enter. we wandered freely around the upper basilica ramparts, (not the church itself) via a set of stairs, the type you would normally find in a car park, not your average squishy uneven winding staircase of hell that you usually associate with an old church building. Brave little bunny climbed the stairway to heaven, which gave us two older bunnies the flutterbies just watching her. A metal almost vertical ladder over the city lead to a small church spire, no health and safety here, just go on, up you go if you fancy. Even brave little bunny had wobbling legs on her return down the equally vertically stairs. Of course there was the proverbial cafe at the end of our climb where we bought rather good coffee with an even better view of the city and its Angel.

Quito Angel monument. or Virgin of the Panecillo. Not a lot I can say about this. It looks great looking out over the city, but we were warned that under no circumstances should we walk anywhere near it. Taxi yes, walk, nope. We decided to give it a miss as the Basilica views were more than satisfactory.

Mindo, another must see when in Quito, that isn`t. Mindo is a place we were really looking forward to visiting, and it didn`t disappoint. We had a shaky start to the journey after we found out that the 11am bus that we wanted only left from the `other` bus station. Quick taxi, and caught it with minutes to spare. Another 2 hour beautiful scenic journey and we were dropped off at The Cock on the Rock. A large red bird monument sat above a sign pointing to Mindo. Only one other sign and that was Taxi. so there we waited. We didn`t wait long before the best taxi driver in Mindo appeared. We were not to know at the time just how brilliant this taxi man was going to be. Gonzalo is his name. Not only did he take us to our accommodation (oh wow!) booking.com The Temple II Mindo, but he waited for us to check in, then took us to our chocolate tour, collected us, picked us up after dinner, picked us up at 7am for birdwatching, to the waterfall hike, to the butterfly farm, and at each time waited for us. Gonzalo, remember his name.

Mindo chocolate tour, El Quetzal, excellent and very recommended. Not only did we get a personal well informed demonstration of the various stages of chocolate making, an informative tour of the orchard with the various fruit trees, the tasting session was pretty yummy as well. Note of caution, when the guide says `place a little powder on your tongue` he really does mean a little, not the large spoonful that big bunny swallowed and darn near choked on! finding out the hard way that dry coca powder is intense! The town of Mindo is tiny and quaint reminding me very much of old western movie sets. Many of the shops and houses were wooden, with old rickety balconies and wooden handrails. Chuck a horse rather than a llama in the street and it would look neither lost nor out of place.

Waterfalls hike next. Gonzalo again, picked us up and took us to the start of the hike, which begins with a ride on the Tarabita cable car. for something so small, open sided, higher than the trees tops, it was the most fun thing we have done in a long time. The hike to the 5 or 7 waterfalls, well documented online so no need to elaborate here, is challenging. think mountain goat type challenging. Ignore those blogs that say ` a 35 minute hike` tosh !! Many parts of the trail have handrails, whoopy do, but even so, it was a long hard slog and very steep in places. Worth it? The hike yes, the waterfalls? meh..I`ve seen better and unless the waterfall is particularly really dramatic I`m not much of a waterfall loving bunny. Would I do it again? Yes, but only for the enjoyment of the jungle environment rather than the love of waterfalls. The ride back on the Tarabita cable car was even more fun on the return, as we had a four legged passenger with us. A dog named Princessa hopped on board and casually rode the cable car to its start point.

Hummingbirds, tropical birds and butterflies next. Once again Gonzalo picked us up at dawn and drove us to his choice of bird watching venue. Not disappointed. Local knowledge is everything. A house? at the side of the road? Absolutely. San Tadeo bird watching. A back garden with the most fabulous bird watching set up, right there in front of you, no binoculars required this time, no craning your neck to find that elusive yellow beaked flying whatsit, these beautiful birds, were right there in front of your noses at eye level flying, eating, feeding, and generally just doing what birds do best. This bird watching bunny cant remember a single variety, but they definitely came in blue, red, green and blue, black with white stripes, pale blue and yellow varieties. And breakfast. The property owner made breakfast for us as we watched the birdies eating theirs. Then just as we thought we had seen it all, Gonzalo pointed us down a path that lead to the most fabulous view point, looking out over the cloud forest of Mindo, and hummingbirds. These tiny beautiful flying birds were everywhere. Multiple feeding stations had been set up, along with a large number of little bottle caps filled with nectar that you could hold up for the hummingbirds to come to you. some little birdies chose to hover as they drank, other perched quite happily on your fingers as they drank. I had a particularly distracted little birdie sat on my fingers who kept licking my hand as his aim for the nectar continually missed. I assume he was a boy....

Butterflies. Not as cute as the hummingbirds, but still fascinating. A quick look around the pre butterfly nests, the cocoons/chrysalis etc..then into the butterfly house itself. 1000s of them flying freely around us. so so many different colours and sizes. worth a quick visit if you don`t mind flying whatsits, but have to admit 2 of the 3 bunnies in our little party got the heebies as butterflies settled on our bare arms. Birds are decidedly easier to cope with.

Quilotoa Lake. From Mindo back to our home in Quito for one night, before setting off again this time to Quilotoa, another must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t.. Long taxi ride in the opposite direction this time to the bus station, one bus to Latacunga, then a second bus to the village of Quilotoa. Around 4 hours travelling time in total. We were dropped off at the village entrance which is gated, you pay a small fee for which you get a ticket that you then show at a second gate. As we entered the village our hostel was right there in front of us. I shall decline to tell its name as there are far better places to stay. Nobody in sight, reception dark and deserted, shouting yielded no replies, what now? Ah, why wouldn`t the gate lady be the hotel watcher, across she came and despite her very best attempts to reassure us that all was well, we declined to leave our bags in the non attended hostel and instead wandered around the deserted town with them. Lunch at a llama cafe was pleasant enough, just relieved that we were the only customers. Dead bunnies move quicker than he did. From there we decided to go and see the main event, the beautiful blue Quilotoa Lake. Instagram you are a pain! Yes, the lake is gorgeous, but brilliant blue it is not. Even the following day when we had clear blue cloudless skies, the lake stubbornly remained lovely shades of blue/green/turquoise, but never brilliant blue. Quilotoa is a well advertised tourist destination, so you would expect clear paths to the lake, not exactly, just follow your feet in between two houses, up an incline of grass and gravel to a very well trodden path that looks down into the long extinct volcanic crater, now home to this beautiful lake. The lake views are spectacular, but so are the clouds. I took 3 photos, beautiful lake, pure clouds, beautiful lake, and my photos are less than 4 minutes apart from the first photo to the last, such is the speed of the cloud movement. Given that it was quite late in the day and getting chilly, we decided to check if our room was ready. The room was, but was it a room or a fridge? We have never been so cold, nor stayed in such an overexaggerated described room. We were given a heater, but said heater after being on all night failed to dry a slightly damp pair of socks. If the darn room hadn`t been prepaid we would have left and found alternative accommodation The relief finding 4 blankets per bed was tangible. After a long chilly night, we rose early and set off once more for the lake. Major tourist destination it may be, but for whatever reason we were still the only tourists in sight as we walked through the village. After much debate, fit little bunny decided to venture down to the lake edge. How steep? How far? A mind blowing 40 minutes of downhill walking, before she reached the waters edge. Chubby bunnies one and two decided they had more use acting as baby bunny bag watchers. It was truly glorious sat in the sun watching the ever changing lake colours, watching chunky alpacas being led to various scenic spots for the proverbial pose with an alpaca photo, and watching puffing tourists clambering back up the hill. 2 hours 50 mins later the little bunny reappeared red faced and exhausted. The guide map gives an average down time as 35 minutes, with a return time of 1 hour 30. Sure thing if you are of the super fit variety, but be warned, little bunnies fit bit watch declared she climbed the equivalent of approximately 120 flights of stairs.

Shopping day! We really would like a drone. We are seeing the most amazing places, and to be able have an additional birds eye view of these places would be awesome. Research showed us a choice of 2 shopping malls not too far away. One definitely had a drone shop. Mrs Bunny is hopping (sorry) to find a few bits of clothes that are missing from her bunny bag. Mall one, Scala, not bad, out of town nothing particularly special, quite a good number of shops, but not quite what we were looking for. To Mall two we went. This one is called Quicentro and bless my bunny ears, it was everything we could have hopped for in a shopping mall. All our bunny senses came into fruition as we toured this beautiful shopping centre. turns out Quicentro shopping mall is in the heart of the new city of Quito and what a direct contrast this area is compared to the historic centre. This area is the dogs doofers compared to the historic centre. Pretty sure you wont get $28 per night room here, but if I had a bigger bunny backpacking budget, I would very much have preferred to have stayed in this area of Quito and visited the historic centre, than stay in the historic centre and visit the new.

Mitad de Mundo. translated, Middle of the World City, or The Equator. when in Ecuador you just have to visit the equator. Situated 28km north of Quito (another must see when in Quito that isn`t) its a short 30 min taxi ride away. We paid a small entrance fee and were delighted to find so much more than we were expecting. Quick few photos at the monument, probably a shop and a cafe, then home again were our initial thoughts, but how wrong we were. Very much a tourist destination, but well planned out , neat, tidy and exceptionally pretty. There are a large number of little tourist shops, restaurants, an area dedicated to recreating original indigenous housing, (who knew they had flat screen tvs showing video documentaries of the Amazon) hmmm, slightly odd, but we ran with it. A beer museum, where Mr Bunny decided to burrow under for a while, a chocolate museum that of course had to be investigated at length,(ginger and lemonade chocolate, oh yum) a planetarium, Spanish commentary only, and an egg stand amongst other things. Egg stand? Apparently for some clever scientific reason you can balance an egg on a nail whilst at the Equator. Never one for science, I`m sure the more academic amongst you will understand why this is possible. Or in my case impossible. Yes I tried. Yes I failed. It needs patience and a steady hand, and I appear to have neither. Mr smug face bunny obviously had to have a go, and yes I admit, he succeeded. The smallest bunny also succeeded albeit with a sleight of hand magic. The Monument itself is the centre point of the whole park. Standing tall with its large world at the peak it just begs you to take the `hold the world in your hands photo`. There is the yellow equator line that runs the length of the park, but if you want to take the same photos but less tourists in your photos, go to the back of the monument. Exactly the same view, except without the door, and the numbers showing the latitude and longitude. We had quite a bit of fun here taking photos of ourselves walking the equator. There is a viewing platform at the top of the monument, which is actually quite large inside. If you chose to walk the stairs there are displays and information on each level which are quite interesting to read. Free to enter, it is well worth venturing to the top, how many times in your lifetime will you get the chance to say,` I`ve been to the top of the centre of the World`

Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano located in the Andes mountains, approximately 30 miles north of Quito. ( another of the must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t) the second highest summit in Ecuador it is the highest active volcano in the world. And we climbed it. We booked ourselves a tour from Quito with active adventures ( oh how I wish I had paid more attention to that tour operators name) as we couldn`t find a way to get to Cotopaxi via alternative means. The bus picked us up at 7am and we were driven along with around 12 other bunnies to our first stop, breakfast. There we were told prior to leaving the mini bus, was where we could also buy hats, gloves. scarves if required. The shop owner repeatedly hugging himself saying Cotopaxi, brrrrr. We chose not to buy anything, hoping that our jumpers, gloves, buffs and puffy jackets would suffice, I mean its a national park, how cold can it be? Famous last words. Its very cold. and very windy. From there we were driven along a flat road, how nice, and a brief stop to pictures of the Volcano and Alpacas, you can never have enough photos of either. Onwards we went and then entered the national park itself. How quickly the landscape changed. From a few trees at the start of the trail, trees that apparently belong to another county, don`t ask me why, then onward to the most barren wilderness ever. Flat plains as far as you could see, with some hills, but no trees, just short stubby bushes here and there, and horses. Wild horses. Seems there are over 1000 wild horses just roaming freely around the National Park.

We came to a brief stop, and the guide addressed the bus, Hi guys, can you see that building with the orange roof over there on Cotopaxi mountain? That`s our next destination, we are going to hike up to that, its the refuge. Woah!!! whadda ya mean hike ?!!! I couldn`t see any orange roof? Why? Cos my bunny eyes weren`t looking high enough!!! Granted the little bus chugged a fair distance up the mountain, but I assure you it stopped a very long way from any building, never mind one with an orange roof. Walk. Hike. humph, I was relieved to know that I didn`t need to keep up the patently obvious super fit hikers who set off with the lead guide at one heck of a pace, instead I got my very own slow bunny hiking guide who, along with my very patient Mr Bunny patiently bunnyhopped every step of the way with me, nagging cajoling and albeit false promising me, `just another 5 mins`. We zig zagged up that darn mountain for nearly an hour, every step getting harder and harder. We started at very high altitude, but this climb was taking us to the snow level. I swear I needed an oxygen tank. Then just as I was to collapse and die, there it was, in all its glory, a building with an orange roof, and a sign that said `Welcome to Cotopaxi refugio, 4800 metres above sea level` How high is that, well for comparison Everest Base Camp is 5364 metres. I had made it. This chubby bunny with 2 wonky knees made it. I couldn`t have been more proud of myself. The rest of the group managed several cups of hot chocolate as they patiently waited for me, whilst I managed a bite of a chocolate bar, before being told that it was time to descend. The descent, via a shale and sand scree type surface, took 20 mins, such was the terrain and the incline. Yeah!! made it, and what did the guide say? `right guys, time to get the bikes off the van, and we are going to downhill ride all the way to the lagoon` WHAT!! 3 minutes these 2 female bunnies lasted, being terrified out of our bunnies wits at the steep, fast, shale covered rutted road on bikes that didn`t really suit our bunny butts. Mr bunny continued on his bike, riding along side around 4 other nice steady bike riders, whilst the remaining members of the group passed them like blurs on the Tour de France. Little bunny and I were allowed to put our bikes back on the bus, and get them off again on the last flat part of the ride. This bunny then realised that to pedal a bike that was too small, meant bending knees past their capabilities. cue the most ungainly half pedal tiring bike ride to the finish. Would I visit Cotopaxi again? Yes, absolutely. would I climb it? or Ride a bike? Not a chance.

Ecuador. A country that has far exceeded our expectations, wonderful in every way. The journey continues as we venture ever onwards, this time to a Bucket List destination. The Galapagos Islands....