When we got to the border of Ecuador, we were first directed to stand in a queue to get the exit-from-Peru stamp and then to stand at another one, even longer, to get the entry-to-Ecuador stamp, the officials literally sitting right next to each other, behind the same table. All that done, it was time to get our bike's papers sorted. The only problem was that the lady at the transportation office didn't even want to discuss the possibility to let in a Paraguayan motorbike with no proper paperwork. So we were officially in Ecuador and the bike was officially out of Peru but not allowed to enter Ecuador.

We spent about a minute discussing our options:
a) skip Ecuador, go around it and enter Colombia directly - no roads between the two countries, only rivers, so a bit difficult
b) go to another border crossing and try our luck there - but that would have meant waiting the two lines again (to exit Ecuador and enter Peru) and get the entrance papers for Peru for the bike again (slim chances at the other border crossing as well)
c) sell the bike. to who? in the border zone? we are not legally allowed to sell it so doing it right under the eyes of border officers was probably not really a good idea
d) drive into Ecuador and see how far we get. there is always a possibility to pay off the cops...

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| This is what 6.50USD gets you in Ecuador (twotmeals and a beer) |
a) skip Ecuador, go around it and enter Colombia directly - no roads between the two countries, only rivers, so a bit difficult
b) go to another border crossing and try our luck there - but that would have meant waiting the two lines again (to exit Ecuador and enter Peru) and get the entrance papers for Peru for the bike again (slim chances at the other border crossing as well)
c) sell the bike. to who? in the border zone? we are not legally allowed to sell it so doing it right under the eyes of border officers was probably not really a good idea
d) drive into Ecuador and see how far we get. there is always a possibility to pay off the cops...
Naturally we chose the last option, because we save a lot of money by traveling that way (5 dollars buys us 300km) and we don't want to give up our freedom just jet. Not before we absolutely have to.
We passed quite a few different check-points during the weeks in Ecuador, including the transport-office one right after tho border, and one where they were confiscating motorbikes for lack of paperwork, but luckily we have either been waved pass or we have sneaked pass behind a truck/bus. The fragility of our situation did make us cross through the country in quite a straight line, in order to minimize our possibilities to encounter any more police checkpoints than we had to.
Back in Peru (a few weeks earlier), when our clutch's cable decided to break just as we were hitting the road out of town, we were lucky enough to meet a fellow motorbike enthusiast on his way home from Dakar (the famous desert rally). He leant us a helping hand and while he took Erik to buy the missing part, he also invited us over to his place in Ecuador. So his house in the town of Cuenca was where we were first headed after our illegal sneak-in.

On our way to Cuenca (climbing up to the mountains again of course) we found a fairytale land - everything was incredibly green, from the lush tropical forest near the coast to the field- and meadow covered hills. All were dotted with houses that were not all rich, but all taken-care-of (some paint in the last 10 years and quite neat) and the fields had white and black cows who looked like out of postcards. Higher in the mountains, there were white foamy clouds forming different shapes around us. In addition to that, the wind wasn't freezing cold even at 3500m, which was pretty nice.



And then we were welcomed to Cuenca which was like a breath of civilization and European culture. The feeling was further enforced by the fact that we were staying with a higher middle class family (cleaning lady/cook, collection of vintage motorcycles etc), who of course claimed to be middle class. We felt very welcomed and at home both at our place to stay and in the town itself. There were some alternative people in Cuenca, clean and modern supermarkets (of course we still could not find many things we were graving for, but a few basics) nice architecture and many people who had some level of English.


After pampering ourselves for a few days, we started heading towards the jungle town Puyo, where we had promised to become volunteers for a while through workaway to experience something new and cut our spending for a while as well. Of course we had some tourist-stuff to see on the way as well - the incan temple of Ingapirca and the town of Baños, where I made us climb on a top of a hill in search for a nice walk. I hoped that the hiking track would be sometimes upwards, sometimes level... but it turned out that every single step was so steep and up that we couldn't even properly walk on straight ground after all the climbing. But we found some more amazing views and a swing at the end of the world.

After the touristy stuff, we made our way down from the mountains on the western side, where the Amazonian rainforest starts. We found the house that we were supposed to be starting our voluntary workers career and talking to one of the volunteers living there, discovered that the conditions of work and living were less than perfect, to say the least. There were two shacks with bunk beds in them for sleeping (not better than a tent), a gas stove to cook on, an outside shower with no hot water (pretty standard here) but the worst part was that there was even no electricity. And for having the privilege to use all these wonderful facilities, the owner of the place expected us to work five days a week, four hours a day without providing any food, drinking water or anything else. And the work itself wasn't even for some greater cause - it was just this lady's garden (if it was for some local community or nature restauration project etc. it would have been different) . She had actually written about the living conditions on her workaway profile but since she was the one who offered us the position, I only read through the text that she had written me about the job in her e-mail, where she had conveniently not mentioned that we won't get much back for our work. In addition to that, she had stopped answering my e-mails just after I had asked her "is there anything else we need to know about of bring with us?", which we assumed was because of a bad connection (she did have internet at her own house. and electricity) or being very busy.

So we weighed our options for about half an hour in front of her house (luckily she wasn't at home at that moment) and decided that we will have the same (or better) living conditions camping randomly by a river... and we don't have to work 20 hours a week for it. Besides, the cheap camping options around here cost 2,5 dollars per person per night and for that price you already get electricity, wifi, proper kitchen and sometimes even hot water. So we did something that neither of us have ever done before. We just turned around and ran away from the promise we had made. So much for our careers as volunteers. But sorry lady, you have to give at least something back.

Instead, we chose a random town on our way north to stay for a few days to rethink our life and make plans. When we settled in our little hostel (camping for 2,50) in a small town called Puerto Misahuallí, it turned out that we were only one day away from The Carnaval and of course we had chosen the most famous town for the carnaval in whole Ecuador. A reminder: we have a history during this trip of accidentally being at the place where masses of people gather during some important celebrations. So unknowingly we visited the Iguazu falls during the first weekend of school holidays (you actually had to fight for a spot to see the falls); Alto Paraiso in Brazil during some big long weekend holidays, (half of São Paolo had invaded that small town); Cuzco during Christmas and New Years (the Inca capital - most famous place in whole Peru to be for New Years); the small coastal town of Huanchaco just before the Pope's visit and now Puerto Misahuallí for the carnaval.

Since we had found a pretty nice place to stay, we decided take our curse as a blessing and stay for the carnaval. Now what exactly is the carnaval? The most famous ones are in Brazil - the Rio de Janero one, with all the semi-naked people dancing in a big parade. We had the parade as well, although it was pretty small (the whole town is about three streets wide in each direction) and well... not so naked or so Brazilian (Brazil = showing a lot of skin, big round buts with not much cover, glittering make up and exquisitely big fancy head dresses). Of course you had food stalls, farmers market, bands playing, people drinking and dancing, some competitions and many other ways to celebrate. But the main object of all the celebration seemed to be to make each other as wet, colorful and messy as possible.

I happened to be at the beach during the main day of the carnaval (the celebration goes on for four days) and during that time I saw people splashing each other with water (followed by pouring flour over people in some places), throwing eggs, spraying special carnaval foam on each other, smearing different colorful or shining powders on each other's faces, throwing eggs and so on. Of course I was a special target with my blonde hair and white skin. It was all fun for a few hours but after a while I grew tired of it. Plus my Colombian companions started to get excessively drunk and repetitive, so I headed back to hide in the hostel for the rest of the carnaval. I still have some blue in my hair as a reminder of the celebrations, which doesn't seem to wash out as easily as I expected.




Next, we headed just 30km away from Misahuallí to visit a local guy that we had met during the carnaval. He lived at a house, right at the edge of a jungle, which they had once used for organising jungle adventure tours and some voluntary projects. The house was right next to a river, surrounded by lush plants of the jungle with drinking water coming straight from the ground. So we decided to do our voluntary work there instead, as we actually had our own room with electricity and everything, plus a nice crowd of people (a Spanish girl and two Argentinian guys also visiting and volunteering for a place to stay) and a really relaxing atmosphere. We took turns cooking and helped around in the garden or building a cabaña for an hour or two a day.


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| The centre if Cuenca was pretty hip |

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| Everybody put their best clothes on to go to the elwctions |

And then we were welcomed to Cuenca which was like a breath of civilization and European culture. The feeling was further enforced by the fact that we were staying with a higher middle class family (cleaning lady/cook, collection of vintage motorcycles etc), who of course claimed to be middle class. We felt very welcomed and at home both at our place to stay and in the town itself. There were some alternative people in Cuenca, clean and modern supermarkets (of course we still could not find many things we were graving for, but a few basics) nice architecture and many people who had some level of English.

After pampering ourselves for a few days, we started heading towards the jungle town Puyo, where we had promised to become volunteers for a while through workaway to experience something new and cut our spending for a while as well. Of course we had some tourist-stuff to see on the way as well - the incan temple of Ingapirca and the town of Baños, where I made us climb on a top of a hill in search for a nice walk. I hoped that the hiking track would be sometimes upwards, sometimes level... but it turned out that every single step was so steep and up that we couldn't even properly walk on straight ground after all the climbing. But we found some more amazing views and a swing at the end of the world.

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| Ingapirca - an aincan temple |
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| BañosBis surrsurrounded by waterfalls |

So we weighed our options for about half an hour in front of her house (luckily she wasn't at home at that moment) and decided that we will have the same (or better) living conditions camping randomly by a river... and we don't have to work 20 hours a week for it. Besides, the cheap camping options around here cost 2,5 dollars per person per night and for that price you already get electricity, wifi, proper kitchen and sometimes even hot water. So we did something that neither of us have ever done before. We just turned around and ran away from the promise we had made. So much for our careers as volunteers. But sorry lady, you have to give at least something back.


Since we had found a pretty nice place to stay, we decided take our curse as a blessing and stay for the carnaval. Now what exactly is the carnaval? The most famous ones are in Brazil - the Rio de Janero one, with all the semi-naked people dancing in a big parade. We had the parade as well, although it was pretty small (the whole town is about three streets wide in each direction) and well... not so naked or so Brazilian (Brazil = showing a lot of skin, big round buts with not much cover, glittering make up and exquisitely big fancy head dresses). Of course you had food stalls, farmers market, bands playing, people drinking and dancing, some competitions and many other ways to celebrate. But the main object of all the celebration seemed to be to make each other as wet, colorful and messy as possible.




Next, we headed just 30km away from Misahuallí to visit a local guy that we had met during the carnaval. He lived at a house, right at the edge of a jungle, which they had once used for organising jungle adventure tours and some voluntary projects. The house was right next to a river, surrounded by lush plants of the jungle with drinking water coming straight from the ground. So we decided to do our voluntary work there instead, as we actually had our own room with electricity and everything, plus a nice crowd of people (a Spanish girl and two Argentinian guys also visiting and volunteering for a place to stay) and a really relaxing atmosphere. We took turns cooking and helped around in the garden or building a cabaña for an hour or two a day.

The difference of jungle and other climates is of course the humidity. So after washing our clothes we had to wait for four days until they actually got almost dry. And of course there are more insects - trying to get a grasshopper out of your bedroom with a body as long as your palm is quite a challenge and meeting a spider of the same size in the kitchen can be quite startling. And of course the closest shops (5km) don't sell things like cheese or sausage... and the choice of vegetables was limited to onion, potato, tomato and capsicum. And of course there is a lot of what you would get in a RAINforest during the RAINY season. My helmet started molding after being inside a house for three days even though half of the walls were made out of nets to make the house breathe more. Nothing was ever completely dry in the jungle. But all in all, it was a nice and relaxing time. The barefoot local jungle people chilling by the roads already started nodding to us and got used to us as well.


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| Prices for gallon in USD |
Ecuador left us with quite pleasant memories - the friendliness of people was a whole different world compared to Bolivia or the south of Peru. We actually felt welcomed in Ecuador. 5 dollars worth of petrol bought us more than 300 km and everyone was happy to sell it to us (another reference to Bolivia). The food still has a lot of rice and chicken but you have also some choices with a sauce instead of just meat and some inventive ways of preparing things (like making a sauce out of vegetables and meat, plus I guess we are getting used to the rice as well. Although we still try to avoid it, if possible because we know that in most cases it is not avoidable anyway.

But the biggest difference is the traffic. In Ecuador, they have the 'give way' and 'stop' signs in front of roundabouts and big roads. Ok, they are still South-American, so they may not always follow it, but they have an understanding of the concept that "sometimes I am not the most important one; sometimes I really need to give way to the person on the other road". And that changes so much. The roundabouts actually work around here (without having to install traffic lights both before and in the middle if roundabouts) and when you are driving on a big road, cars are less likely to suddenly appear in front of you so that you have just a few meters to stop or dodge them (again: still happens, but about ten times less likely).


In addition, Ecuador has such a variety of different climates on a relatively small territory. They love to say that you can have a breakfast on the beach, a lunch in the mountains and the dinner in the jungle. It would be a lot of driving for one day, but it is true - it does serve many tastes.

With all these positive qualities put together, if anyone told me that I have to choose one South American country to live in, I would choose Ecuador without even thinking about it.



But I don't think I have appreciated Estonia as much as I do right now ever before.
-we have the freedom and possibilities to travel
-our bureaucracy has been made much easier thanks to all this e-riik network - the fact that you can do most procedures of government-related stuff over the internet. we took part in the last elections while in Brazil
-The supermarkets have such a choice of food (although in Ecuador, you have limes the size of melons and fresh lemongrass growing in the garden). so easy
-people are more educated and know something about the world. even the ones that aren't the smartest ones have some wider knowing that there is a world outside our country and it is different
-people dare to be different from others - a lot of alternative culture
-the houses have to be pretty-damn-well-built to keep the cold out and have a heating system. Everywhere all over the world, in the "warm" countries, they have to put all their clothes on when it drops under 10 degrees because you can see through the houses. And chilly weather is not something that happens only rarely
-people respect each other, privacy and each other's time more. promises are kept more

But the biggest difference is the traffic. In Ecuador, they have the 'give way' and 'stop' signs in front of roundabouts and big roads. Ok, they are still South-American, so they may not always follow it, but they have an understanding of the concept that "sometimes I am not the most important one; sometimes I really need to give way to the person on the other road". And that changes so much. The roundabouts actually work around here (without having to install traffic lights both before and in the middle if roundabouts) and when you are driving on a big road, cars are less likely to suddenly appear in front of you so that you have just a few meters to stop or dodge them (again: still happens, but about ten times less likely).


In addition, Ecuador has such a variety of different climates on a relatively small territory. They love to say that you can have a breakfast on the beach, a lunch in the mountains and the dinner in the jungle. It would be a lot of driving for one day, but it is true - it does serve many tastes.

With all these positive qualities put together, if anyone told me that I have to choose one South American country to live in, I would choose Ecuador without even thinking about it.



But I don't think I have appreciated Estonia as much as I do right now ever before.
-we have the freedom and possibilities to travel
-our bureaucracy has been made much easier thanks to all this e-riik network - the fact that you can do most procedures of government-related stuff over the internet. we took part in the last elections while in Brazil
-The supermarkets have such a choice of food (although in Ecuador, you have limes the size of melons and fresh lemongrass growing in the garden). so easy
-people are more educated and know something about the world. even the ones that aren't the smartest ones have some wider knowing that there is a world outside our country and it is different
-people dare to be different from others - a lot of alternative culture
-the houses have to be pretty-damn-well-built to keep the cold out and have a heating system. Everywhere all over the world, in the "warm" countries, they have to put all their clothes on when it drops under 10 degrees because you can see through the houses. And chilly weather is not something that happens only rarely
-people respect each other, privacy and each other's time more. promises are kept more
-many other things as well
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