Day 3 - final hike to the canoes

From Banos on the Pastaza river we took a taxi for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Puyo. Again.... a distance Isabela would have had to have walked ... or at least been carried in her palanquin.

At Puyo we met the two men from Sarayaku who were arranging our transport down the Babonoza river via Sarayaku village.

We will be hiking from Puyo to Canelos where our canoes are awaiting us... much like the canoes were supposed to have prepared and waiting in Canelos for Isabela.

fortunately small pox is not an issue these days - the disease being eradicated from the population with only sample strains kept in laboratoies in the USA and Russia.

Internet is likely to be limited or non- existant for some time now. The plan is to hike to Canelos and camp on night before taking dug out canoes from Canelos to Sarakayu where we will camp for a further two nights before continuing our journey in the canoes to the Peruvian border.....

Day 2 - travel to the birthplace and home of Isabela Godin

We travelled to Cajabamba - the town where Isabela was born and where she lived until she set off on her epic journey to travel the length of the Amazon.

Isabela had come from the Peruvian elite and her house would have been magnificent, In 1797 both Riobamba and Cajabamba were flattened by a major earthquake. Riobamba was rebuilt on the site where it is not situated. Cajabamba grew up on its own and her flattened house gave way to a new street with a statue recording her adventure.

Now a school is situated on the site, with a small statute of her marking her significance.

There wasn't much else in the town of note and it was a quick stop before we continued in our mini bus to Banos.

We felt like cheats.

Isabela had not the luxury of paved roads or a mini bus to take her to Banos and her and her part had to walk.

We would stay two nights in Banos to collect supplies and prepare for our journey. Isabela was noted to have stayed in a 'proper' house in Banos.

Day 1 - Arrival in Quito

Quito is 2850m above sea level. It is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz.

I arrived in on October 16th. I hadn't been looking forward to the 18 hour flight from Heathrow, London via a 4 hours stop in Bogota to Quito. But I really shouldn't have complained. It took Jean Godin's party a year to arrive with a 4 months stop over in Panama.

I've been higher than this before....... reaching the top of Mt Kilimanjaro took me to 5890m.

It is located on the site of the old northern capital of the Incas. The Incas completely and intentionally obliterated it in order to prevent it falling into the hands of the conqistadores and later had to be rebuilt from scratch by the Spanish.

The Old Town is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is beautiful with its elaborate colonial Spanish architecture. The rest of Quito - not so beautiful, with its colourful buildings made all the more so by the abundant graffiti tags.

We would stay one night here before catching a mini bus to Cajabamba - the birth place of Isabela Godin and the place where both her story and ours are to begin.

Isabela Godin is not widely known in Ecuador. Oddly enough however, our hotel in Quito was run by a woman, Suzie, who came from Riobamba - very close to Cajabamba - Isabela's birth place. Many years ago Suzie's father wrote a song about Isabela Godin.