In the last couple weeks I went from the coast of Peru, through the freezing Andes, over to the sweltering rainforest, and now I'm up in Ecuador. It feels like I spent more time getting to these places than actually being in the cities. But sometimes it's not all about the destination! The places I went were not very touristy so there actually wasn't that much to do when I got somewhere. The mode of transportation I took from city to city was usually a combi, a shared taxi. The car just waits until there are four people who want to go to a certain place, then we take off on the highway--a dusty, winding dirt road. Usually the "4" people actually turned out to be 8-10, many of them kids. Kids under 5 don't have to pay, but that also means they don't get a seat. So they sit on laps, the floor, or on top of our luggage when it's a station wagon. Let me tell you, it's not too fun to be in a stuffed car with screaming kids for hours at a time! Especially when it's so hot and the road is super bumpy. But that's how things are done there.

Other signs that you're in the jungle:
You are dive bombed by butterflies that have wings as big as your hands.
Your hotel provides you with just a sheet on your bed, and, if you're lucky, a fan.
In a restaurant you are served by a shirtless, shoeless guy. Yes, I do kind of question the sanitation of places like this, but I try not to think about it.

In one of the cities, I took a hike to find some nearby ruins. I ended up getting lost and never actually found them, but the scenery was spectacular and I found a cool piece of pottery on the trail. I probably could have sold it to some museum, but I just took a picture of it and left it there.

It seems like things cost more here in Ecuador than in Peru. This may be due to the fact that Ecuador recently switched its currency to the US dollar to prevent the excessive inflation that it was experiencing. I crossed the border via a rarely-used route so there was nowhere to change my Peruvian soles to dollars. It's a good thing I happened to have $12 with me from home. That was enough for lunch, dinner, and the six-hour bus ride to the nearest city with a bank. Oh, side note about the buses down here: lots of them have a button that the driver pushes when we pass through something stinky. It pumps heavily-perfumed air into the bus to relieve our poor nostrils of the nasty smell. It makes me laugh every time they use it.

My hotel tonight is right by a casino, so maybe I'll head down there to waste a few cents on the slot machines. They're called tragamonedas, which literally means "coin swallowers." How fitting.