From Colombia we crossed the border into Ibarra in Ecuador. Immediately our Spanish let us down in spectacular fashion as we misunderstood the price of the local ride into town as $7.50 instead of $0.75. The driver, looking very bemused as we continually refused it for being too expensive, finally resorted to writing the price on Sam's hand...much to the rest of the passengers amusement....stupid gringos!

We finally arrived in Quito late evening and found a nice hotel in old town. With a couple of days to wile away we strolled around taking in some of the charm that Quito had to offer. This didn't take long! Perhaps, we thought, we have seen too many old towns??? Having exhausted Quito surprisingly quickly we decided to take a trip out to the tourist trap that is Mital del Mundo or 'middle of the world'. This attraction, as the name suggests, sits on the equator and allows you the opportunity to jump between hemispheres. Sounds cooler than it really is (especially since strictly speaking its not even in the right place), and after wandering around the centre for an hour or so we came to the conclusion that the whole place had more restaurants and souvenir shops than anything else....it was so over rated it wasn't even funny!

Desperate for something different we headed up to Otavalo for the famous Saturday Market. Rising before the sun we visited the animal market first, spending some time chatting to locals and watching them barter for livestock. Cows, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, and guinea pigs all sat side by side with the kittens, puppies, and rabbits which we presumed were for sale solely as pets....

After this wound up we hit the market proper and spent a few hours picking through the wares and haggling hard, eventually treating ourselves to alpaca jumpers and a pair of mittens each.....oh and finally managing to get a decent price for a traditional Panama hat....apparently they originate from Ecuador and not Panama....who'd have thought!

Shopped out we decided, with a degree of apprehension, to check out the local sporting passion....Cockfighting. At first it all seemed rather harmless. Lots of guys getting really worked up over a couple of chickens pecking at each other. At the end of the match both contestants seemed OK and the referee somehow declared a winner. The owners of the farmyard fowl argued for a bit, the crowed jeered and cheered in equal measures, and plenty of money changed hands. All fairly innocent, good natured, and not particularly cruel we thought (in comparison to some of the things we have seen). It was not until the second fight we saw the true colours of cockfighting....literally! The owners attached blades to the chickens claws and within seconds of the match starting there was a spurt of blood and the bout was over. One cockerel lay on the floor convulsing, it's throat slashed. The owner collected it, took it out the back and held the bird down while the remaining blood drained from it. It took a very long time to die. We reluctantly stayed for one more bout just to see if this was a normal outcome. The third fight went the distance just like the first only this time one of the cockerels was white. It wasn't long before its feathers were soaked red with blood. Both animals ended up being too tired to fight but their owners kept on throwing them together until eventually one collapsed from exhaustion. Having seen quite enough we left...

After having had our fill of bloodsports we decided to get back to nature and visit Cotopaxi where we splashed out for the privilege of staying in a tent with views of this beautiful snow capped mountain. Despite the chilly temperatures the tent was surprisingly toasty and we spent a few enjoyable evenings sitting by the fire in the adjoining farmhouse trading stories with other travellers. Some of the guests were preparing to climb Cotopaxi proper however we decided that a hike up to the glacier which was still at an altitude of 5000m would be enough for us, especially since for every 6 people that attempt the summit at least 2 or 3 fail due to altitude sickness. We battled through a blizzard, well a bit of wind and some snow, up to the glacier, bumping into some Andean Wolves along the way. Once we arrived we admired the views, threw some snowballs and attempted to stick our tongues to the ice... all good fun.

As we left Cotopaxi there was a slight pang of regret for not trying to climb to the summit but we shook it off and headed to Banos.... which literally translates to Bathroom in English....we hoped it wasn't going to be literal... Here we took a long but mostly downhill 35km bike ride with a couple of people we met at Cotopaxi before enjoying the thermal springs for an afternoon. After saying farewell to everybody we headed back to Quito where we had a flight to catch the next day. We checked into what we thought was an OK looking hotel near the airport but on first inspection missed the tell tale signs that it was a love hotel....the huge heart shaped mirror on the headboard should really have given it away! Usually we have no problem staying in such establishments as they are clean and cheap but as a rule only do so midweek. Weekends are their busiest time and so we always avoid them....unfortunately this time we slipped up...

The owners had a few friends staying and were getting progressively drunker and louder as the night went on while a few midnight callers came and went discreetly enough. We have, after all this time, developed a knack for pretty much sleeping through any outside noise and so the partying and associated midnight antics were posing no real problem. However at around 3am we were woken by a guy knocking on doors and trying to get into peoples rooms. After trying ours several times and ignoring our politely yelled 'vamos'es'  we decided it was time to open up and gently 'pursuade' him to go elsewhere. We flung open the door and to our surprise standing in front of us was a guy naked as the day he was born...only slightly hairier. As he tried to stagger into our room we gave him a solid shove and he collapse into a heap undoubtably resulting in carpet burns on both his cheeks! We slammed our door and he resumed his attempts to get in with added vigour and a lot of shouting. Finally the owner dragged him away and we proceeded to have a huge argument with him about how we really didn't pay to have naked guys trying to get into our room....he didn't care that much!

Early the next day we shook off our lack of sleep, did our best to wake everyone up in the hotel in revenge for the previous evening and headed out to catch our eagerly awaited flight.....we were off to the Galapagos Islands and we were expecting nothing less than big things!!!