A bittersweet day
After leaving Guayaquil we headed to Riobamba, which is a the starting point of the famous Devils Nose Train Journey and dominated by Ecuadors largest dormaint volcano Chimbruzo. For trivia buffs the volcano is 6310m and is the furtherest distance from the centre of the earth, due to the earths equatorial bulge. We decided on a day trip which encompassed a short hike from the first refuge at 4800m to the second refuge at 5120m, a whole km apart, which took us over an hour as we were exhausted due to the lack of oxygen. For those of you who cant visualise how high this is, most sky divers never jump from this high, unless they are oxygen assisted!

Well seems like bad luck is following us. We were having a great day hiking to the second refuge then we mountain biked back down through the national park spotting LLama and Vicnor on the way. On the last leg I continued alone as Kim was getting wind burnt (she now look like a racoon! :) and so Kim followed in the 4wd with the guide. A kid ran out in front of me when I was riding through a village and so I swirved to miss the kid, flipped and landed with my full body weight onto my left shoulder. It seems after seeing a doctor and specialist that I has a disstended ligament and the clavical has seperated from the scapular, which in laymans terms is that my collarbone has been lifted about 8mm from where it should be. Sounds bad but all it means is that it has to be strapped up for two weeks so it can heal. In travel terms its a bummer really as now all our plans are out the window, more mountain biking, rafting and hiking was planned. Just getting on and off buses with my luggage should be interesting! Oh the joys of travelling! I think someone is trying to tell us not to be in Ecuador.

On a brighter side we had a lovely Valentines Day together. Wondering around Banos which is a little village nestled in between rolling green hills with views of a volcan, name I cant spell or remember but it starts with T (theres 10 volcanoes in Ecuador far too many for us to remember!!!). Then we had a nice dinner in a mexican resturant just across the road from our hotel. Yes not Ecuadorian food as its all crap, very very greasy and all deep fried, we have decided so its any other nationalities food we can get our hands on. So far we have done ok. Well we had better get back to our travels and try and get it right for our last three weeks in Ecuador.

On Monday we went to the Oz Consulate. It was bizarre from the beginning as it was inside of an insurance company office rather than a dedicted building. The Consulate dude was not in the office and we were told to return on Tuesday. We said we would wait. The reception rang again to the consulate secretary and she said that he was away in Washington till next Monday. We then asked the receptionist can we talk to the secretary, well she called her twice and went to see her personally but she was not coming down to see us. Instead she gave the receptionist the address of the Oz embassy in Venezuala where we had to send the application, as the consulate was only an honorary position and could only provide information. No good to us as we didnt know the cost of the new passport, two weeks was the the time frame they gave us which was too long, we are in Ecuador to travel not get stuck in a big city and wait for a new passport and also who is going to witness my application as it needed to be an Oz citizen whom I had know for more than two years so Kim was out of the question. Finally after waiting for 3 hours and more badgering the secretary said to the receptionist at noon they would call the Oz embassy in Venezuala so we could talk to them. At 1.30 the lady at the Venezualan embassy called and talked me through the process. I now have to contact someone in Australia to verify who I am, as the embassy will be calling them and also my mum has to take muy birth certificate to the passport office in Newcastle so they can ID me. Next stop our end was to the FedEx or DHL office so we could send the paperwork to Venezuela and then in three weeks on our way to Peru we could stop into Guayaquil and collect it. Got another cab (luckily they are cheap and with our little spanish we can now bargain them down) the Fed Ex office told us that they do not send anything to Venezuala now because of the political situation. We asked every so nicely if they would call DHL for us, which they did and DHL said they could send it but not to the embassy only to the DNL depot in Caracas and someone would ahve to collect it from there. Oh great now we had to call Venezuala and see if anyone could collect it from the depot. Went back to the consulate but they would not call again for us so back in town we have tried to call them but no answer. Several hours later we got in contact with the embassy in Venezuela and got it sorted. And I thought travelling was meant to be fun!!!

I´ve now finished my second week of spanish lessons, and feel confident enough that I can make myself understood in most situatons and more importantly understand when people reply (or most of it).

We left our little beach paradise yesterday and were heading to another one, we caught and "executive" bus which is a couple of dollars more, but you can´t get on without a ticket, you get patted down and bags checked when you get on, therefore no dodgy characters(wish we had gone executive last time). So on these buses you have aircon, movies and the seats recline to almost horizontal!! We were supposed to get off and change halfway to Guayquil at a town called JipiJapa(The J`s are pronoused as a H), But the silly driver bypassed the town and didn´t tell us. We were going to go to Guayquil anyway so we just arrived one day early(and I missed the best surf spot in the country).

So that´s where we are now - Guayquil, Ecuador´s second largest city. Our guide book describes it as hot, humid and dangerous, with little to offer the tourist. Why the hell are we here then? Because it´s the only place I can get a new passport. But in the defence of the city it is faily pleasent with a brand new waterfront development and although it is hot and sticky, there is usually a cool breeze. Infact the center of town is much nicer than in Quito.

Here for the next couple of days, out of neccessity. But there is a wildlife reserve closeby and well probably get some use out of the olympic size pool.

What a shocker of a week!! On the way to the bus station in Quito we got our daypacks slashed on the packed trolley bus, but luckily nothing was stolen. However the gods were not looking down on us that day. When we got onto our bus to Canoa, a fellow asked Kim to see our bus tickets, we assumed he was a conductor. He pointed to our seats and helped me off with my daypack and placed it in the overhead luggage compartment. I went to take it down a minute later to keep it in my lap but it was already gone. I told the conductor and we both ran off the bus to look for it. He immediately told a policeman and we all ran through the bus terminal looking for a bag but that they did not know what it looked like. I soon realised I weas going to find my bag and made my way back to the bus. During all this Kim had been trying to stop the bus from leaving as the real bus conductors were on the bus and ready to go. We managed to work out from the locals on the bus what had happened. Apparently when the "conductor" assisted me with my bag he pushed it down the luggage rack so his accomplace could grab the bag and pass it out the window to a thrid party. We have to give them credit for a well executed scam.

But that is not the half of it. After spending the next 9 hours on the bus stewing over the robbery we arrived at Canoa, befriended a fellow traveller who was fluent in Spanish and made our way to the local polcie station. We made a statement of what happened and what was stolen (all our expensive stuff plus passport and airline tickets - they scored well) and we were told to come back Monday to collect the typed up report. Great no dramas.

For the next week the police station was closed. When it was finally open again we spoke to another policeman with our broken Spanish and had to report the robbery again. When we collected the report it was inconsistant with our statement and with what was stolen. Furthermore the statement stated that we reported the robbery two days after it happened and therefore we may have travel insurance problems. Bugger.

On a lighter note our time spent at Canoa on the beach has been quiet pleasant. I have been surfing everyday and the Spanish lessons are coming along reasonably well, but we have discovered that is can be quiet confusing and difficult. Every word has several spellings and pronunciations depending on past, present or future tense as well as if it is for me, you, we or they, and the rules for those are regularly broken!

This weekend we are heading south to another beach then onto the sceond largest city in Ecuador so I can arrange a new passport and airline tickets. After that the travelling really starts and our itinerary that Kim has worked out it full to bursting for the next 3 months! That should take our minds off the problems of the last week.