No Fixed Plans

We all had breakfast at the hotel before getting on private bus at 11:30. 30 minutes later arrived at a pisco brewing place where we ordered lunch and then went to see the pisco farms and how they make it. The place had rows and rows of plants where they grow all of their ingredients and showed us a picture of the machine they use to make the plants into alcohol. They then gave up about 15 different pisco shots to try (where I chose to not have any) and told us how to buy the bottles and the prices of the bottles. We then went and had lunch (where we realised I was likely to be called Dobby the rest of the trip and that Dobby and Tobi sound a lot alike). After we had 15 minutes to go to the bathroom/buy any pisco that we wanted. We then went back onto the bus for another 5 hours before arriving in nasca, where we went to withdraw money and buy snacks for the next days. However, a few of us were not happy on the way back to the bus as they still do construction after sundown and wet cement ended up spraying at a few of us. 

We headed to the hotel (about another 5 minutes) where we had an hour to settle in before dinner, which  afterwards we all hung around playing a game together before heading to bed.

The next morning, we were told to be ready to go to the nasca lines flights by 8:10am however we were picked up closer to 8:30am. When we got there we had to hand over our passports, pay the 47 soles tourism tax and those of us who hadn’t paid for the tour had to pay the $122USD

We then got an explanation from the guide all of the different geographs (13 total) and shown where we can buy souvenirs. 

We then had to wait over an hour for fog to clear before our flights actually started. 

There was 8 of us in our group, however they can only fit 6 on a plane so they split us into 5 and 3 and the group of 3 were in a plane with some randos. 

The flight lasted 30 minutes and while it only made me feel a lot of pressure from how low we were, it made two of the others feel really sick. 

When we finished, the 5 of us were instructed to go into a white van with two other people we didn’t know who proceeded to drive us back to the hotel while the tour leader waited for the other 3. 

After arriving back at the hotel, we had an hour to chill until we had lunch, which was cooked underground, the steam being kept in by banana leaves and rocks. 

After lunch everyone (bar 3 of us) prepared for the activities they had booked in nasca. 

The other 3 of us relaxed and mentally prepared for the overnight bus we had ahead. 

The day started with breakfast at 8:30am before we got ready to leave. We were supposed to head off at 10am, however due to us forgetting that preparing food and drinks for 14 people and then splitting the check 12 ways takes a while, we ended up being a little late. 

After a quick 20-minute trip to the bus station, we checked our bags in and had some time to relax at a café before boarding our seven-hour public bus. It was definitely a long ride, but it was worth it knowing we were heading somewhere exciting.

Once we arrived, we transferred onto a private bus for about five minutes, which took us straight to our hotel. We barely had time to settle in before heading straight out to the sand dunes to do our only activity for the day.

We jumped into dune buggies and zoomed over sand dunes before giving sandboarding a go, which was so much fun. The views from the top of the dunes were unreal, and it definitely felt like something straight out of a movie.

After all the excitement, we headed back to the hotel where we caught the end of the FIFA World Cup game before getting showered and changed for dinner. It was the perfect way to wind down after such a full-on afternoon.

I made a few phone calls before finally calling it a night. After a day packed with travel, adventure, and amazing views, I was more than ready for bed.

We arrived at around 9:45am, and after travelling it was so nice to finally be somewhere we could just relax a little. The first thing on the agenda was brunch at a little café, which was exactly what we needed after the journey.

After that, we spent some time wandering around town and getting our bearings. A few people decided to head down to the beach instead, but I stayed in town and just enjoyed walking around, looking at the shops and soaking up the atmosphere. It was one of those easy, laid-back afternoons where there wasn’t really any rush to do anything.

We headed back to the hotel and chilled until about 5:30pm before everyone got ready for dinner. Unfortunately, dinner was definitely the lowlight of the day. The service was honestly shocking. One girl in our group waited almost three hours for her meal, by which point everyone else had already finished eating. To make it even worse, the staff tried convincing a few people that the plate of ribs sitting in front of them was actually the steak they’d ordered. It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so frustrating.

After dinner, we had to say goodbye to a few people from our tour group who were leaving, which was a little sad because we’d all gotten pretty close. Once the goodbyes were over though, eight of us decided to make the most of our last night together and headed out to a club. It ended up being such a fun way to finish the day and made for some really good memories.

The next morning started early with breakfast at 7:30am so we could say goodbye to two more people who were leaving the tour.

After saying our goodbyes, we went to another café for breakfast before catching an Uber into the city square. We spent a while wandering around, souvenir shopping, and just exploring. While we were there, we watched the changing of the guards, which was really interesting, but we also ended up stumbling across another ceremony happening nearby.

There were these men wearing white masks with painted faces, and they had what looked like llamas on their backs. I still have no idea if they were real or fake. They were dancing around in circles while whipping each other as part of the performance, and before I knew it, one of them had pulled me and another girl over to take photos with them. It was completely unexpected, slightly intimidating, but also hilarious.

After that, we headed to a shopping centre to browse the clothing stores before grabbing lunch at an Asian restaurant. Once we’d eaten, we walked over to see the Paddington Bear statue, which was such a cute little stop and definitely worth seeing.

Later in the afternoon, we went back to the hotel for a bit to relax before having to say goodbye to another two people from our group. It definitely felt like our numbers were getting smaller, which was a strange feeling after spending so much time together.

In the evening, we had a group meeting together where we also got to meet the new people joining before heading out for dinner together. After dinner, I went back to the hotel, packed everything up, and got organised for the next day’s adventure.

Our overnight bus was mainly smooth sailing due to the lack of a boarder crossing (which pleased many of us). 

We started with a 10am brunch. The portions and type of food pleased everyone as it looked more like a dinner than breakfast and everyone was starving. It was then followed by a Peruvian shot, which we were told was to ease the stomach. 8 of us didn’t want it so we peer pressured two of the guys into doing 5 shots each (they informed us later that 40% alcohol does not, in fact, sooth the stomach, but rather the opposite.)

We then headed for an orientation walk though out the town. After which, many went to a cafe followed by a sports bar to watch the FIFA World Cup game whereas a couple of us split off to rest at the hotel before heading off on our own wander. 

We quickly realised why they don’t have many tourists as there was just about no activities for us to do other than walk around and look at what everyone was selling. We ended up walking for about 3 hours with the only purchases being 2 slices of cake and a T-shirt. 

We went to dinner around 7pm and all headed back to the hotel for an early night as we were all tired from the overnight bus. 

The next morning we had a private tour planned where we got to see the Moche Countryside, Fertility Huaco, Huacas of the Sun and Moon and Chan Chan ruins. Throughout the whole tour we got a history lesson on how the cultures interacted with their land. We got back at around 6pm where half of us decided to pick up stuff from the supermarket and the other half decided to get maccas for dinner, where we all headed back to prepare for the overnight bus

Our adventure officially started with an overnight bus at 9pm. I tried to get some sleep, but it wasn’t the most restful night knowing we had border control in the middle of it.

We arrived at border control at around 2:20am, and the staff decided to take their sweet time (at one point we were fairly sure one of the two was asleep). By the time everyone had made it through, it was already 6am. Safe to say we were all exhausted.

We finally arrived in Máncora at about 8:30am and jumped into little tuk-tuks that took us to our resort. After dropping our bags, we all headed straight to breakfast before spending the morning relaxing by the pool. It was exactly what everyone needed after such a long night of travelling.

At 2pm, we went on an orientation walk around town where our guide showed us where to find the ATM, where to exchange US dollars, and where the local police station was.

We grabbed lunch afterwards, although it took so long that our food didn’t come out until nearly 4pm. After eating, we wandered back to the hotel to relax before everyone met up again for dinner at 7:30pm. We were all still pretty tired from travelling, so it ended up being an early night.

I woke up around 8:30am and wandered down for breakfast at 9am. Most people had already eaten, so there were only a few of us left.

After eating, most of our group signed up to go on an ATV tour. We headed out in the afternoon, starting around 4:30pm, and it ended up being the highlight of Mancora, however about six of the ATVs broke down during the ride, so there were plenty of unexpected stops while everyone swapped vehicles or waited for repairs. Even with all the mechanical issues, we still had so much fun driving through the dusty trails, on the road (which we all questioned whether it was legal) and on the beach. 

By the time we got back around 7:30pm, we were absolutely covered in dirt. We all showered and spent ages trying to rinse the dust out of our clothes before meeting up for dinner together.

After dinner, we watched a bonfire being lit on the beach, which was such a nice way to end the day. Then it was straight to bed after another full day.

Everyone was up for breakfast at around 8:30am, and we decided to spend our last day in Máncora taking it easy.

We hung out by the beach for most of the day, soaking up the sunshine, swimming, chatting, and making the most of our last few hours there. It was such a chilled atmosphere and the perfect way to finish our stay.

Although we officially checked out of the hotel at 6pm, we stayed around until it was time to leave later that evening. We had dinner at the resort before heading off, and one of the highlights was watching four people from our group learn how to make Pisco Sours. It was so entertaining, and of course everyone had to taste-test their creations afterwards.

Finally, at 10pm, we hopped back on another overnight bus, ready for the next stop on our adventure.

Our bus arrived at 8:50am after being delayed 50 minutes however we still got to the hotel around 6pm. We weren’t able to do much on the bus due to it being a public bus and it only doing minimal bathroom stops. 

We went to dinner around 7pm where we watched the Ecuador World Cup game and saw them draw and how different teams react to that before we headed off to bed. 

In the morning, majority of the group decided to head off on a half day tour of the national park in Cuenca, however there was a couple of us who wanted a slow day (and didn’t want to pay the $40-65USD to do it) so we stayed behind. Me and one other went for a brunch at a different hotels cafe where we were seated upstairs and got a good view of the new cathedral. After eating we went and saw all the architecture inside of the cathedral and ended up hearing the end of the sermon before we went for a wander around outside, trying to find the Cuenca sign. We stopped in a $2 type shop to get some nail polish as one of the guys had made a comment the day before about letting the girls paint his nails. 

We ended up looking up where the Cuenca sign was and made the 15 minute walk over there. It’s positioned outside of a market and we went to look at the stalls. I ended up buying earrings, however this was more due to the fact that I needed an earring back as I had lost one. We made our way back to the hotel where we dealt with checkouts (I checked out, she paid for a late checkout) and we hung out in her room a bit, looking at the photos that our group had uploaded. 

We then took our books to read in the public park for a couple hours before putting them away and meeting the rest of our group for an early dinner. Afterwards we all hung around before our 7:30pm meeting where our tour leader explained what the next few days would look like before we made our way to our overnight bus. 

We left the hotel at 8am under the impression that we would be arriving at the hotel at 4:30pm but did not until 6pm. We started on a public bus for about an hour and a half (which is a little chaotic in and of itself). 

We then transferred to a private bus where we drove for 20 minutes before stopping to do a waterfall walk. On the way back we stopped at a cafe where we all got to take a sip of a traditional Ecuadorian alcoholic drink that was warm and had passionfruit. This took us to 12:30. On the way up we had a chance to buy souvenirs, which many of us did before heading to lunch. 

The driver then had a surprise for us by taken us to this “cable car”. This place took the car part very seriously as they had one line with a metal cage painted like a train that 9 of us could stand in at a time and was more like a standing up zip line. None of us realised until after that the rope looked very freyed at the end.

We then headed to these treehouse swings (which was the one stop we were all aware about) that also had Guinea pigs that were being raised for consumption. 

Everyone took a turn on the massive swing and took photos of the hummingbirds before finally heading to the hotel. 

This is where we got explained all the activities we could do for the next day and signed ourselves up. The choices were horseback riding, canyoning, zip lining and parasailing. The company set it up so you could do 3 of the 4 activities and while majority chose to do 2, there was one couple who did 3. 

We then had dinner and afterwards a few chose to hold a book club I hung around in the room. 

After my roommate came back at 11pm we decided we wanted to get a card for one of the girls birthdays the next day so we set off on a wander. We went into 3 different shops before finding one that had a happy birthday balloon and a happy birthday gift box that we bought, planning to just cut one of the sides to make it a card instead of building it. We then messaged everyone else to come sign it before 8:30am (when the canyoning was due to start and 30 minutes before we planned to head off for breakfast) and went to bed. 

Forgetting that we told people to come to the room early, we thought that we’d be able to have a sleep in. Instead we were awoken at 7am. 

This, however, gave us plenty of time to get ready for the birthday girls breakfast where she got given the balloon and card. We then headed looking for souvenirs before 3 of the 5 of us headed for ziplining. 

The first zip line we all went solo before starting to scale the side of a mountain (with harnesses). This somehow caused me to have 2 massive bruises on my legs. 

This however led us to our second zip line where we got the chance to go tandem together. 

We then headed back up the mountain to look at the photos they took before heading back to the hotel for lunch. 

Then we got the chance to go parasailing (which majority of our group did). This took us a few hours as at one point we had to wait for the wind to die down. 

After heading back to the hotel we almost immediately went to dinner where the group all got to try Guinea pig. The staff then brought out a cake and we all sung happy birthday (they sing for much longer than we do in Australia) before it got taken away and  we all got served our main meals. 

After dinner a few of us decided to go out for drinks in a karaoke bar, where we stayed until 1:30am before heading back to the hotel for our 7am wake up alarms (due to having to leave the hotel at 8am).

The second offical day of the tour was spent with 6 hours of travelling to Tena, were we were doing a homestay in the Amazon. We finally got there at 2pm (after leaving at 8am) where we had lunch, quickly put our bags away and then proceeded for this nature walk. During this walk, we all started getting these mud masks on our faces, where at the end we were interrupted due rain starting to pour. 

After drying off, showering and changing, we all went down to dinner, which was broccoli soup, fish that we deboned while eating, and plantain. After that, most stayed to play cards while a few of us ended off to do our night routines. 

The third day of the tour started early due to us doing a waterfall walk. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, mushed banana mixed with stuff that we couldn’t quite figure out (but was still alright), and a piece of pineapple. 

We then got a history lesson where we got shown different talag symbols and had the meaning explained to us. 

We then started our waterfall walk, which took about 3 hours as there was three waterfalls to climb up, just using rope to help pull us. They kept getting harder and harder as we kept going. We ended up at this waterfall which we all took pictures with but were told we weren’t going to climb up due to safety concerns. We started to head back down (which to many was scarier than coming up). We all changed and headed down to lunch. We all got green beans, carrots, rice and potato and while I got some kidney beans in a sauce, everyone else got chicken, still on the bone. 

After lunch we all hung around for a bit before most went on a nature walk to learn about medicinal plants while a few of us hung behind to read. 

We got collected before dinner to learn about marriage ceremonies and performed one ourselves (I was the bride) and then headed off for dinner which was lentils for me, monkey for everyone else. We all hung around a bit before going to bed.

Day 3 we all started early at 8am for breakfast before 7 of us went to do white water rafting

Before we started we were all a little scared that we were gonna die (nerves which was not calmed by our guide telling us to gather for our “final” photo) but it all turned out fine, with us being on the water for about 4 hours. We only hit one really turbulent area where everyone got thrown out of the boat (except me and the guide) before we headed off to shore and back to our group. 

We had to pack our stuff and then head to a different lodge where majority went off to cycle (again I stayed behind) which took them about 2 hours. We had a snack before dinner, learned exactly how they make chocolate and then went and had dinner. We all headed to bed decently early due to our travel day the next day starting at 7:20

When I first got to the hotel, we were told we had to pay $10USD each to get into our rooms, but after I paid they let us both in, Millie (the other tour member) on an IOU. We put our stuff away and then went out to look at some of the shops (most were closed as they tend to open at 10am and it was 9:30am) and to get Millie some USD. We gave up with the shopping (and were both desperate for a shower) so we decided to go back to the hotel and try again later. 

However, after the shower Millie felt like sleeping so I decided to go out by myself. I took some photos and saw some of the food options, which is where I realised I hadn’t eaten for 18 hours. I settled on this cafe, where I got an iced coffee and vegetarian sandwich (which was stuffed) for USD$7.80. 

I went back to the hotel and ended up crashing for 13 hours. 

Now, it was the offical start of the G adventures tour, however we weren’t actually doing anything with the group until 6pm that night. 

When I woke up at 3am, I called my mum and after started to look up some tours to do for that day, as I didn’t want to stay at the hotel for the whole day. 

I found this one that was a private tour that started by going up the cable cars to the top of the mountains. The tour guide explained that the mountains are often given male and female personalities (some are considered children too) and that their people often see them as protecting them. 

After coming down, we saw this neo gothic church, which was the first in Quito. There was a massive Spanish influence within the design. There’s 24 provinces in Quito so they had 24 different stained glasses to represent each province. They also put in a lot hearts, to represent being welcomed into gods heart. If you stood towards the front of the church and looked through the heart, you could see a Virgin Mary statue that stood on a hill through the window. 

We then went to this chocolate shop where I got a demonstration of exactly how chocolates made, from the fruit to the shelf. He let me taste the fruit and crack one of the beans. He explained that the shells get made into these energy tea shots and let me try it. He then showed me the machines they use to make it into the liquid chocolate and let me taste it at different stages. He then started showing me all of the different chocolates that he sold and let me try each, as well as this blueberry praline he had in a different cabinet. 

We then trekked through some of the streets, where I realised they let people walk on top of roofs to take photos with no safety equipment. 

Then it was time for the equator line. They went through the process of chocolate making again (however in no where near as much detail), showed us some native animals to the Amazon as well as hunting tools, and then took us to the main event. We did an egg balancing challenge (no one in my group did it but two people in the group before us did) and then we had to walk in a straight line with our eyes closed across the equator line. I was the only person in my group able to this. 

After this, I went back the hotel where I was planning on just relaxing in my hotel (it was about 2pm) but then a couple people in my group were planning to go to the shops so I decided to go with them. We went looking for a different atm and ended up back at the hotel at 5:30pm, which gave us just enough time to get organised for the group meeting/ dinner. We all meet, introduced ourselves and got informed about how the first two weeks were going to go. We then got taxis to dinner (and Ubers back) where we all started getting to know each other a little better before all of us wanted to go to bed and get ready for our early morning the next day.