In Banos, we had heard about a master guitar craftsman, so we set out to investigate. After several abortive attempts to find the place, we stumbled across a disheveled looking workshop that – despite ringing and knocking several times, remained firmly cerrado. On my third visit a friendly man told me that he workshop was […]

Ecuador’s natural landscape is stunning – its buildings are not.  However, as if to counter the characterless concrete blocks, graffiti and street art are everywhere – in glorious technicolor.

Toffee making – every tienda has a personal ‘stretcher’ Horse-riding to the volcano The casa de arbol Swinging into the void In the treehouse

Is completely magical.  From the soaring peaks of the Andes we descended gradually into landscapes where cows, crops and humans perched precariously on vertiginous slopes.  We passed the old site of Quito, raised to the ground by the last inca general, Ruminahui, along with Ecuador’s oldest church – built just 3 years after Pizarro’s initial […]

Cuenca is traditionally, classically beautiful, with gloriously beautiful churches, ancient monasteries with nuns still cloistered forever from the age of 18, fabulous ruins, hills and river.  But it also has its, by turns, creepy and kitschy side, particularly when it came to the various representations of icons of Catholicism… Liberace baby Jesus  Porn star baby […]