SmaviesAdventures

Active Volcanoes Abound See part one here Banos The view from Casa de Arbol So with the train ride complete we left Alausi in the afternoon and headed off towards Banos. We really struck gold with this journey as the bus company we had originally planned to travel with turned us towards a different company that let us leave earlier. Not only that but the bus route actually took us straight past the end of our road and we were able to hop off there, score! So off we trotted down towards our accommodation to be greeted by Bruno the barking sausage dog, he just barked at us a lot. Our apartment was a small two room flat that had been built on top of another building. We had a simple kitchen and a large back bedroom. The views from here were fantastic and we could see all the way to the Tungurahua volcano. We later discovered that this volcano last erupted in 2014, not that long ago... From here we watched the beautiful sunset before going to bed as it had been a long day.

Part 1: Heavenly Domes to Hellish Noses The Journey The Heavenly Domes of Cuenca Our journey to Cuenca was a disaster. We'd found that we could take a bus from the nearby Chiclayo overnight and arrive easily in Cuenca in the morning where our accomodation had assured us that we could check in early. So we left from Trujillo and took of towards Chiclayo, the bus journey was easy enough, we even got given food as part of it. However upon arrival in Chiclayo we headed off towards the terminal that we'd read about, the busses left there every hour, easy! The terminals in Chiclayo are not centralised so they all lie around the same street, the terminal we needed however did not exist... in a panic we go to several different terminals to ask if they go to Cuenca, no one knows. Eventually one sent us to a company called CIVA who said they didn't but we could try a different one near where we came in. So off we went to this terminal, who informed us it was the company ne

Can Can in Chan Chan Looks like Cake So we hung around Ica for the day before we left. We were doing one of the awkward overnight busses. The busses here are great, more leg room than planes and quite comfortable seats, the toilets are questionable though... Despite this however the busses are great and make a good way to do long distance travel for a much lower cost. The only problem is the akward hanging around for the day, which is what we're doing today to go to Cuenca . Ica was great though, left our bags at the hostel after our late check out and went and had a really good pizza. We then caught our taxi to the Flores terminal. In order to go to Trujillo we had to go through Lima which has a variety of singular bus company terminals and other busses as well. We knew roughly the area we wanted to get to in order to just cross the road to another terminal towards Trujillo. Flores was the ideal company, but when we arrived we discovered that they actually went to Trujil

Heading North Upon leaving  Peru , we headed north through Chiclayo to Cuenca where we headed along the Andes and down into Colombia. From Ipiales we headed towards Cartagena on the north coast.  Below are the posts on our time through here. Ecuador Cuenca, Alausi and the Nariz Del Diablo        Banos, Latacunga and the surrounding        Colombia Ipiales Las Lajas Sanctuary Bogota Into the mines for the first wonder of Colombia Medelin The House of Culture in Parque Botero Cartagena Colourful houses of Cartagena Overview European Ecstasy Adventures in Asia Pacific Paradise Southern South American Splendour Central Celestial Scenes Incan Delights