Quito, the Amazon and Banjos (and a number of spews)

So arrived in Quito several days ago. South America is pretty cool! Pretty random place I must say. Had about a 30 hour journey from Wellington to Quito via Auckland and Santiago, planes weren't too bad and me and Corry made a friend on the Santiago-Quito leg. Had a few drinks on the plane which didnt go down that great. Arrived in Quito about 9pm local time and had a taxi driver waiting with a sign for 'Anthony Corry' which was rather exciting. Hotel Casa Kanela was all good for us. Woke up thr next morning and went exploring. Up the teleferico (cable car) to get some good views of Quito at 4100m above sea level. Met a nice German girl called Katrina who showed us around Quito. The Basilica was awesome and we got some great views of Old Town and the Virgin statue 150m up the clock tower. Went and scratched around Old Town for a bit which was really interesting, cool architecture and street layout etc. Met our tour group that night and went out for dinner, good bunch of ppl. 5 guys and 10 girls - corry liking the odds. Next day went to Otovalo to a local market (saw a cow give birth) and a tourist market where we had a go at bartering. corry has taken to it like a duck to water. also went to a condor park - some amazing birds including Andes Condors and Harpy Owls. Also went to the equator line which was sweet. Went out for dinner with a bunch of ppl that night to a local restaurant, yummy food, my first pisco sour and free tequila at the end of the night. Ecaudorian ppl are really friendly and helpful ppl. pretty chilled out way of life. next day was off to the jungle, corry was sick with a bug and had about 5 spews, including two on buses. eventually reached the accomodation outside of Tena. Really nice. went and saw a local family and saw how the indigenous ppl do things - some of it was rather ingenious. got painted up like local ppl and had a go shooting a blow pipe, then went for a swim in the Napa river. after that had a chilled out night at the bar on the cerveza. next morning we went for a walk in the jungle and for a swim at a waterfall which was excellent. then went tubing down the river which was awesome and very relaxing. of course corry fell out going down the rapids. i started to get sick after lunch and had a couple of epic yaks, one with some serious nose chunks. they came out of nowhere, literally within 5 seconds of feeling shit your blowing your guts. so i had a lie down in the arvo while corry headed off to an animal sanctuary. apparently they rode on top of a local bus which was pretty loose. i was laid pretty low so no dinner for me, but the locals bought me some herbal tea to my room - as i say they really are marvellous ppl, very friendly and helpful. although then i woke up at 1am in the morning and blew it all out. next morning we left for Banjos with a couple of public bus rides, i handled them fine cos i had nothing in my system anyway. Banjos is a really cool city, lots of adventure sports. after lunch (where i had a yak at the restaurant) i had a lie down while corry has been hiking up the volcano. that brings us to about the present time, im feeling much better so going out for dinner. corry not back yet but im sure the hike will have been cool - gutted to miss out but got a couple of days of white water rafting, canyoning, abseiling, biking etc coming up. we are thinking of hiring a 2 seater mototrised buggy and driving around Banjos tomorrow too.Will get another post up soon to let everyone know next set of news. Loving it here and having a great time! sorry i have tried to make this extensive but definitely missed out some stuff, los siento amigos. asta luego!