Peru – 1st to 18th September
Finally the day arrived and we were off to Heathrow Airport. We were feeling excited but a bit nervous and sad to say goodbye for a year. Our families waved us goodbye and we were on our way to Lima, the capital of Peru. We had to change planes in Miami, USA so our journey from home to hotel was 24 hours! We checked in then collapsed into bed and slept for 10 hours.
Lima is a very busy city, full of crazy taxi drivers who spend the whole time narrowly avoiding crashing into each other and beeping their horns continuously. We spent a couple of days in the city exploring the impressive buildings in the old town, trying local restaurants in the modern part of town and watching the surfers on the beach. We were offered surf lessons but the water looked a bit chilly! Next stop was a place called Huaraz in Northern Peru. We caught a bus with a company called Cruz del Sur - this was the most luxurious bus I have ever been on. The seats reclined so far you were almost lying down, there was a waitress who served us chicken curry, each seat had pillow & blanket, you could connect to the internet using free wifi, there was so much leg room even Mr Greenhead could stretch out and there was several HD tvs playing films. It was more like an aeroplane!
Huaraz is an amazing place for outdoor enthusiasts like us. It is also very high place - 3000 metres above sea level before you even start walking up the mountains. You can trek, rock climb, ice climb, mountain bike and much more. We decided to do a one day warm up hike to Laguna Cherup (4400 metres) and then a 10 day trek called the Cordillera Huayhush Circuit. 
To organise this trek we hired a guide called Miguel (Mickey) and a donkey driver called Nicole. Each day we would set off with Mickey to climb over a high mountain pass (normally between 4600 and 5000 metres high) whilst Nicole would take all the camping gear and food on a lower path with the donkeys. Then when we arrived into camp the tents would be set up and dinner would be on the go. We even had fish caught from the nearby lake for dinner one night - Nicole was very patient and caught 20 fish. The conversations over dinner were rather funny because their English and our Spanish was rather limited - trying to explain Mr Greenhead's job was interesting and ended up with them thinking he was the president of England! They also made breakfast each morning which was very welcome because it was rather chilly and we needed warming up - our tent was even frozen on 3 mornings. After breakfast we set off at a fast pace, with the aim to beat all the other groups to the next campsite (our competitiveness amused our guide). We only stopped go take photos of the amazing snow capped mountains and have lunch (served on plates with cutlery by our guide). Then we arrived each day beford the rain. The campsites were pretty basic with a drop toilet (hole in ground with hut around it) and a stream, although one did have a hot spring so we could wash on day 5! The water was naturally heated to a temperature of 38 degrees and was collected two concrete swimming pools (one for washing and one for relaxing - both too hot to swim in). If you ever find yourself in Peru I would definitely recommend this trek - the scenery is breath taking and you get used to the high altitudes quickly.
After finishing the trek we returned to Huaraz for a much needed shower, celebratory pizza and pisco sour (local drink) before starting our journey to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. This journey would take us 2 ½ days and 4 buses ( 3 of them overnight). We did manage a quick stop on the way, to see some Chan Chan ruins in Trujillo, but most of them were just a heap of sand or had been re-built!
Ecuador – 18th to 24th September
The buses to Ecuador were again were rather luxurious apart from the one over the border, which was a bit cramped and blew hot air from the air conditioning - not helpful in the desert landscape that we passed through! The border crossing itself was very simple, no bribes required (unlike our time in SE Asia), although we were a little nervous when the bus driver dropped us on one side of the bridge and said he would meet us in Ecudaor - he was waiting the other side of the bridge thankfully. The final overnight bus that brought us to the capital Quito made up for it and we had front row seats so extra leg room! I slept most of the journey but Mr Greenhead kept waking up when the driver took the corners pretty quickly.
Since arriving in Quito, we have spent some time exploring the city and planning our next adventure. The part of the city we are staying in is called Mariscal and is very modern – there is even a McDonalds, KFC and a supertmarket that looks like Tescos round the corner from our hostal. There are lots of expensive cars around and you might think you were in England if it wasn´t for the fact that all the names are in Spanish. We have also visited the old town which is full of beautiful churches and grand old buildings. Whilst here we walked to the top of a high Basilica (church) and had a great view of the city and surrounding volcanoes. Quito is surrounded was lots of volcanoes, they are not due to erupt any time soon but are still called active volcanoes because they could erupt in the future. We got a closer look at one of the volcanoes when we took a cable car up to 4100 metres then hiked and scrambled up to the summit of Guagua Pichincha (4,794 metres). The view from the top was good but the clouds quickly rolled in and we got caught in a rain shower on the way down. Our trekking in Peru meant that we didn´t feel any bad effects from the altitude.
Tomorrow we are heading south to (hopefully) climb the two highest mountains in Ecuador, which are also volcanoes. The first will be Cotapaxi (5,897 m) , then Chimborazo (6,267 m). Our success will depend on the weather and how the altitude affects us because these mountains are both higher than any we have been up before. I will let you know how we get on.
