Our trip continues – soon we go to the jungle!

We are on the road again!

Right after Christmas, Thursday morning we said Good-Bye to our appartment in Cuenca, which served us for the last 5 months.
Here are some picture. (we were paying $130/month rent, plus monthly $12 for electricity and $3 for the water)

We got to the end of Cuenca and FINALLY started to hitch-hike again, as in old good times 🙂

Our destination that day was Guayaquil – the harbour and the biggest city in Ecuador. After fresh weather in Cuenca with elevation of 2400m above see level, this harbour welcomed us with a humidity and terrible heat. We had an opportunity to remember what does it mean to walk in a t-shirt and sweat like hell.

Our host here is Juan Pablo, the member of HospitalityClub and CouchSurfing. In his place we also met a Peruvian traveler Carla. She hitch-hikes(!) and does it alone(!).

The distance between Cuenca and Guayaquil is not huge, but we needed to 3 cars to cover it in 5-6 hours. The route goes through Cajas National Park with spectacular views. Symbolic or not, but we were welcomed to Cajas by two charming llamas fighting with each other.

You are probably interested in our “plans” 🙂 Here is the rough idea for the next 2 months:

We spend 4 days around the New Year’s Eve in a Banos de Ambato town, which attracts travellers by natural termal baths, as it surrounded by a couple of volcanos (one of them is the highest, 6310 meters, inactive volcano in the world[?]).

From Banos we head towards the capital – Quito. Here we want to meet representatives of Servas and become a members of this hospitality organization.

After Quito, we will travel around the villages for another 10-14 days and then will jump into the Amazones jungle area. 18th of January is our last day in Ecuador (immigration gives max 6 months per year).

Then we will face a lot of challanges by making our way via the jungle rivers until Iquitos – the city in Peru, which is considered to be the world’s largest city without road access (only planes and boats).

Trip to Iquitos might take from 1 to 4 weeks, as there is only one cargo boat which transports people on the river Napo from Pantoja (first village in Peru after the border) to Iquitos (about 700km – 4-5 days).
Of course, there might be some more options to travel that route, but we can find out about it only when we are in the jungle.

Before the trip via rivers we still have to search for hammocks and the mosquito net. Additionaly, we should wisely by lots of food supplies, as in the jungle besides the rice people mostly eat meat (and we are kind of vegeterians, NO to meat, but YES to fish).

That’s it for now,
Augustas & Katja

Check also our “Rio Napo Guide – travelling from Coca (Ecuador) to Iquitos (Peru)“