As planned I only stayed with the tour for the Ecuador sections and I am sitting at home watching Hazel lead some of my favourite sections of South America.
We left Ecuador two days before the earthquake which has now claimed over 500 lives. If you are thinking of visiting Ecuador, don't be put off by the quakes. While the aftershocks will continue in the severely damaged areas in the North West, most of the tourist areas are in different parts of the country and are only slightly affected or not impacted at all. The Galapagos and Amazon are unaffected, the Andes tourism facilities are all operational and the airport at Guayaquil is open. Possibly the best help you can provide is to continue with your plans to visit.
Of our original group of 16, half continued on to walk the Inca Trail. Hopefully one of the group will write a blog of this to fill in more of the gaps and provide photos. There were a few challenges with bureaucracy at the start due to two of the group using newer passports than they booked with. Several found the walk quite challenging as it it climbed to 4,200m, but everyone was pleased to find that there were slower people walking the trail. The sense of accomplishment, the history and the scenery were great compensation. I also gathered that a 3:30 am start on the last day was not a favourite - especially when the train didn't get back to Cusco till 10:30 that night.
Len, Allan and Catherine will be arriving back in Wellington today while the others continue on to Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni. This last week is pretty hard travel and I suspect everyone is already feeling ready for a holiday - after all good travel is not the same as a holiday.
Ross
We left Ecuador two days before the earthquake which has now claimed over 500 lives. If you are thinking of visiting Ecuador, don't be put off by the quakes. While the aftershocks will continue in the severely damaged areas in the North West, most of the tourist areas are in different parts of the country and are only slightly affected or not impacted at all. The Galapagos and Amazon are unaffected, the Andes tourism facilities are all operational and the airport at Guayaquil is open. Possibly the best help you can provide is to continue with your plans to visit.
Of our original group of 16, half continued on to walk the Inca Trail. Hopefully one of the group will write a blog of this to fill in more of the gaps and provide photos. There were a few challenges with bureaucracy at the start due to two of the group using newer passports than they booked with. Several found the walk quite challenging as it it climbed to 4,200m, but everyone was pleased to find that there were slower people walking the trail. The sense of accomplishment, the history and the scenery were great compensation. I also gathered that a 3:30 am start on the last day was not a favourite - especially when the train didn't get back to Cusco till 10:30 that night.Len, Allan and Catherine will be arriving back in Wellington today while the others continue on to Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni. This last week is pretty hard travel and I suspect everyone is already feeling ready for a holiday - after all good travel is not the same as a holiday.
Ross
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