Locational Update

So, managed to slip out of Baños without the vocano erupting on us, and heading south we arrived at Cuenca. Very pretty town with loads of collonial architecture, we stayed a couple of nights and then headed south for the border. We traversed the foothills of the Andes, then headed down to sea level and the Pan American Hiway. Good to be at low altitude and have some clean dense air to breath. When I say clean, it's actually quite clean. Well, a bit mucky. Ok, sometimes it isn't quite possible to cut it with a knife. The amount of fumes coming out of the finely tuned* engines of the various lorries/busses/carts/putt putts is a sight to behold. Anyhow, we were barrelling along the road south, looking for a petrol station to fill up the 2,000 litre tanks on the truck. Pulled into the first station - no diesel here. Oh well, next one eh!? No. Nor the next. In fact, we pulled into every gas station on the way to the border with Peru, and nowt, nix, zero, rien. Now the cab, where Brenden, our leader and driver resides, and the main bit of the truck, where we all sit, is completely seperate. However, as we pulled away from the last gas station before the border, I'm sure I heard him say something along the lines of 'gosh darn it'. The reason being that diesel is roughly twice as expensive in Peru as in Ecuador. So not to fill up in Ecuador would cost around US$1,000. So, back we went. Or rather, back Brenden went, while all the rest of us hung around the border town reading, listening to music of playing cards. Still, if that's the only glitch that happens, we won't be doing too badly. Brenden eventually arrived back with a full tank, but it all added around 3-4 hours to an already long day. Arrived an Mancora rather late, with no room at the Inn, so we free camped on the beach. Got a good fire going, the stars were out and the waves were lapping gently on the shore. Everything works out for the best.

Mancora is a chilled out surfer dude/hippy drop out kinda place, with nowt much to do except surf and relax. Which is what I'm currently up to.

*Lie