Sunday 25 March 2007

I'd rather be a forest than a street...



Hello. We're back.

It's taken some time, but we're finally back in Nottingham. We left Ecuador at 08:05 on Saturday morning and after a brief stop in Miami to enjoy at first hand the somewhat arcane customs procedures of the USA, we finally landed in London at 06:35 this morning.

It's been a long day, so I hope you'll forgive me if I save the interminably long rundown of what we got up to for another day.

For now I hope it will suffice to say that we had a brilliant time. Ecuador is a remarkable country of diversity and contrasts.

Where to begin?



We sat and watched a volcano erupting.



We climbed snowcapped mountains on the same day as we crossed the equator (it's certainly the only holiday I've been on where I have needed to pack my sleeping bag, my down jacket and my skiing gloves as well as my shorts, a big sunhat and masses of insect repellent).



We sweated it out in the rainforest as we fished for piranahs, watched toucans flying overhead and tried to avoid the spiders, mosquitos and the many other forms of insect life.



At various points in our trip, we travelled by car, by bus, on foot, on bikes, on horseback, by canoe, in wobbly open cable cars, down some rapids on a set of lashed together inner-tubes and on the roof of a train as it wound its way down some switchbacks carved into the side of a mountain.



It was a brilliant way to spend 22 days.... although I have to say that I will be quite pleased to be sleeping in my own bed tonight.

How are you?

13 comments:

  1. Welcome home ST. Once you've settled in I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip. Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good to see you both back safe and sound.

    The Twitter updates have been cool - but I'm looking forward to hearing all about it in person - tea before the gig on Weds?

    ReplyDelete
  3. ali_knapp@yahoo.co.uk25 March 2007 at 21:57

    Welcome back - you were missed!

    Looks like a cracking holiday, look forward to hearing all about it!

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. You both look well, but what's that growth on your face?

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh boy it is good to be home...

    ReplyDelete
  6. very good to see you safe and sound

    ReplyDelete
  7. welcome back to the blog world. Looks like you had an excellent time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If we had to pack for that many climates we'd never be able to move our luggage, light packing is not a forté of my wife and I.

    I hope you packed your brown shorts for that roof-top train journey; I'd be papping myself!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ah, good to see you back - have missed your chat!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think that Ecuador more than qualifies as a reason to not make a Nottingham blogmeet. Given the choice, I suspect many would take that alternative!

    Fabulous pictures by the way and thanks for having dropped my place too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm excited to hear about your adventures. The pictures look lovely...and seeing a volcano erupting (from a safe distance, of course) is actually one of my dreams.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It looks like you had such a good time! Glad you're back.

    ReplyDelete