The Amazing Race

On arrival back from the jungle we were told that there were bus strikes in Ecuador and we were no longer able to continue on to our original destination. The tour guide said it was hoped that they wouldn´t last any longer than a few days but that the longest strike had gone on for over a month. We were however told that there were activities around the area we were stuck in, and it was decided that canyoning would be our next great adventure.

We started our day at 8am, loaded 15 of us on to the back of a ute and set out for our first roadblock - abseilling down 7 different waterfalls ranging from 7-35m in height. There were a few other waterfalls along the way which we had to jump off as well. It was a day full of challenges, mosquitos, snake sitings and scratches from rock faces. At 7pm that night with the last abseil over and done with we made it back to our starting point. The ute which had been smoking on the way out was now completely out of working order. Luckily for us there was a huge dump truck (the wheels were much taller than me) there and we all climbed into that for the 1 hour journey back into town. The ride was relatively comfortable, as long as you positioned yourself correctly on top of the sand pile. Half way through the ride, the ute that had been out of order was now trying to pass us on a slight inline... 5mins later there were 9 happy canyoners in the back of the dump truck, star gazing and chuckling about the fact that as well as us, the dump truck was now also towing our original means of transport.

The next morning we were told that we had 20mins to pack our bags and be on the bus, ready to head back to Quito so that we could hop on a plane and leave the strike area. So after 7 more hours on a bus, we were back at our original starting point...