one year+one girl+one panda hat = one epic adventure!

Teresita Rosita has officially been on the road for one whole year!

Time has flown, and time has crawled and she's seen a lot and not seen much at all. She's made plans and changed them - over and over and over again.

So where do we find our little adventurer one year from the time she packed her bags and headed off into the wilds of South America?

Well... Not too far from where she started actually. And she'll be back in Mexico in a couple of weeks just to complete the circle good and proper.

 Teresita Rosita is in Honduras. Finally facing her fears of the deep and getting her scuba on like a pro. No more submerged freakouts. No more not being able to breath. Totally cool, calm and collected is this little explorer. Three dives a day, seven days a week and Teresita Rosita is now officially an Advanced Open Water Diver with a fish ID speciality. She does so enjoy spotting and identifying those little underwater critters, especially while floating upside and peering into coral caves and crevices.

All of this is happening because Teresita Rosita is getting truly spoilt by her dad who has come to visit his long lost child as she intrepidly travels the deepest darkest, not at all scary, corners of the world. It definitely is a nice change from living out of her green backpack in the caves and dungeons and storage rooms she's learnt to inhabit on her journeying.

 But that's now, and lots of other things have happened in this past year that need to be elaborated on, including how on earth she managed to find herself in Honduras and what has kept her occupied these last twelve months of existence.

 So it's gone like this.

 Mexico - Colombia - Ecuador - Colombia - Panama - Honduras - Mexico (soon enough, anyway). Talk about traveling in circles. I'm pretty sure the plan was a lot more linear than the one just outlined, but these things happen for a reason, and it turns out Central America is a pretty awesome place, and Teresita Rosita can see herself spending a decent amount of time exploring the group of little countries that form this commune of banana republics.

In her time on the road Teresita Rosita has climbed many a volcano, swam on many a tropical beach (be it Caribbean or Pacific), seen many a big city and met many a fellow traveller she has not wanted to part with (but has inevitably). It has been a year of new places, new faces and new experiences. And Teresita Rosita and her panda hat have loved it all.

Rock concerts, hostel work, boat trips and bus trips. Tacos, banana chips, fried chicken, guacamole, coconut ice cream, guanabana and more fried chicken. Old friends, new friends, new friends now considered old friends.

But I digress.... Everyone knows what this girl and her hat have done and seen and felt. What's new? What's the haps? Tell us the good stuff!

Teresita Rosita made it to Panama, yes. And there she hung out a lot with Colo Rùccula and got to know the high rise lined capital and its heat and chaos and general awesomeness. They ate CHEESE! (Trust me, that's a big deal). They snuck into Donald Trumps hotel to hang by the pool. They explored the old city and rode bikes at sunset.

Then Teresita Rosita went back to San Blas and lazed on tropical islands for a few days - think coconut palms, white sandy beaches, snorkeling, boating and general lazing.

Then she went inland and went crazy for carnival. There was water, water and more water. And beauty queens and dancing in the streets and fireworks going off under your feet and more water sprayed from all directions so our girl and her panda were well and truly soaked to the bone. It was wild, and mad, and heaps and heaps of fun.

But after five days of so much carnival-ing Teresita Rosita decided it was time for some rest and relaxation. She went north to the lovely gringo-a-fied town of Boquete, to its river and good food and sleeping in hammocks to the sound of bubbling water and overall general tranquility.

For one whole day.

Then she decided it would be more fun to climb Panama's highest peak.

At midnight.

Five and a half hours and 3547m up, with a torch and the stars. It was tough. It was fun. The chocolate along the way was amazing! And the sunrise... Totally worth the effort!

With the Caribbean on one side and the Pacific on the other, Teresita Rosita watched the lights fade in the cities below and the sky turn orange and pink and blue and bathe the world below her in its glorious warmth. She defrosted her unmoving hands, ate more chocolate, and basked in new day and the fact that she was pretty darned lucky to be experiencing a something so unique.

It's moments like these that make a small girl and her panda hat feel truly alive and happy that right here, right now, they are off exploring the world, seeing things and places and people that they could only look at online from their desk back in the so-called-real world.
Yep, she was one lucky panda hatted explorer this one.

And you know what? This one year mark is no-way near the end of it. Because even though she had to say "hasta pronto" to her partner in crime, Colo Rùccula (there were tears, there were hugs, there was "this is not goodbye"), she's got another bad influence heading her way ( I'm looking at you Fran Bear!) and way too many adventures up her sleeve than she knows what to do with. I reckon it's pretty safe to say that we haven't seen the last of Teresita Rosita and her travels.

Not by a long shot.

Hi Ho Silver Lining - Teresita Rosita FINALLY makes it to Panama

Teresita Rosita finally made it somewhere new and is currently settling into her new digs in Panama City. It was so long, and thanks for all the fish Colombia and helloooooooo Panama!

The last months in Colombia passed as they do when you're working and have settled into a routine. Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula worked and worked and worked a bit more. Bogota was generally pretty cold, but pretty cool as well. There were many moments enjoyed wandering to parks, finding new graffiti, exploring graveyards and holding fiestas for various annual occasions in the form of Christmas and New Years. In a brief summation - there were Hawaiian skirts, pineapples, and spicy guacamole.

Teresita Rosita ventured off by herself for a brief foray into the steamy valley of Cali where she danced her socks off every night for a week and unfortunately participated in the not-very-pleasant-at-all tradition of going to a bull fight. Not cool. Not cool at all.

It was a whirlwind break from the drizzly capital - Cali defintiely lived up to its reputation as the salsa capital of Colombia. Teresita Rosita as usual had amazing fun and made a group of new friends she didn't want to leave behind, but suddenly it was new years eve, Bogota and Colo Rùccula called, and the beginning of 2013 was upon her. And with a new year, it was time for new adventures.... The dynamic duo packed their steadily diminishing backpacks and hit the road again.

They stopped in Medellin and caught some cable cars, ate their weight in delicious cake, saw a million gazillion Christmas lights, soaked up the delightful heat that finally defrosted the Bogota cold from their bones and definitely did not participate in the open mic night held by the hostel they were staying at!

And then it was off to even warmer climes... 14 hours or thereabouts and Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula climbed off the bus and into the suffocating heat of Cartagena and the Colombian Caribbean coast. It was the sort of climate that encouraged absolute nothingness. So it was pretty lucky for the girls that they only had one thing on their to do list - find a boat to Panama!

Unfortunately their usual method of just rocking up and everything falling into place didn't work as well as planned in high season.

All the popular boats were completely booked out and unless they wanted to wait around for about 2 weeks there was no way they'd be getting on one either. Unfortunately they weren't at liberty to be doing that much bumming around right at that moment.

It was time to take matters into their own hands. So off they trotted to the docks, to some round about communication issues and some waiting in the scorching sun, but eventually they had not only met a captain and seen a boat, they were booked in and ready to sail off into the sunset and to Panama. And with only two days wait.

So they melted in the heat some more, checked out sunsets from the old wall surrounding the city, took photos of countless balconies and ate empanadas and pizzas prepared by one of the countless Argentinians who had taken over the city. And now that I mention Argentinians, it wasn't the last time Teresita Rosita would find herself outrageously outnumbered by these southerners of the Latino world, oh no it wasn't....

Boat day came and the girls packed up their belongings once more and prepared themselves for the ocean (read sea) crossing they had before them. What they hadn't prepared themselves for was being part of a boatload of these lovely creatures known as Argentines.... Yes, Colo Rùccula did carry a passport proving her citizenship of said country, but she was quickly transforming into a semi-Australian, and these Argentinians were a breed of their own. So without going into it too much, for that would ruin the absolute awesome-amazingness of the whole experience, let's just say that luckily for Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula they had brought a couple of good books with them and they were pretty good at entertaining themselves without the help of any third party.

But the boat, the boat. It was all about the boat, and the sea, and sailing and islands and swimming and five days of utter paradise. Wait, scrap that. Three days of utter paradise. Two days were spent in a haze of giant swells, knock out sea sickness pills, groggy sea gazing and half a ham and cheese sandwich. There were some dolphins too that helped to break up the monotony a bit. But then they arrived and it was a-ma-zing!!!

Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula found themselves gliding into the most tranquil turquoise bay either of them had ever seen, a backdrop of white sand and coconut palms completing the perfect picture. And they swam and lazed and swam and ate fish and got sunburnt all over their Bogota-bleached-sun-deprived-lily-white-bodies.

But it was worth it, and as they were rocked to sleep by the gentle waves lapping outside their cabin that night they thought to themselves "Life can't get any better than this". But it could and it did. Sunrise over the swaying palms, and a wake up dip in the Caribbean and a day sailing past island after palm lined island until they arrived at their next personal tropical paradise, with some more swimming, more lazing, more eating, more swimming, more relaxing.

It was a hard life but someone had to do it. And then, just as our girls were getting used to the life of leisure, of gently rocking boats and brilliant aquamarine seas, it was over. They sailed into Panama feeling like proper little pirates, salt drenched hair, sun baked bodies, the irresistible urge to say "Arrrr" at the end of each sentence.

They stepped ashore, made their acquaintance with this new country, this new continent, it's food, beverages and crazy drivers and then they found themselves in Panama City - home to skyscrapers, panamanians, heat and who-knows-what adventures to follow...

Back to Bogota, or, If it ain't broke why fix it?!

And so... Teresita Rosita was back in Colombia. And what does one do when you're back where you started from in the first place? Why, go back to all the places you've already visited of course!
Sure, some of the places didn't really warrant a revisit. Pasto, for instance, was just as bad the first time around as it was the first. Unfortunately for Teresita Rosita and gang, the border crossing had, for some strange reason, taken a tad longer than planned and rather than rocking up at their actual destination at 3am they opted to stop off in the delightful city of Pasto, with its friendly atmosphere of "stop and you will be mugged, killed, or at least spat on".

At least Teresita Rosita and Chancho Dan were able to find a tasty espresso, which had become a daily mission for the group since they had banded up. And Colo Rùccula stumbled upon some Yucca bread (one of her favorite things in the world) that was not only good, it was the best she'd ever tried. But apart from these highlights, the group still didn't linger for long and it was onwards and upwards and back to Popayan.

There Teresita Rosita saw loads of things she'd seen before and a few things she hadn't. The group had found some locals to stay with through a group that involved something to do with couches and surfing and these "surfers" showed the travelers some typical sights, fed them typical food and took them to a "typical" salsa club. It was interesting... And then up, up and away once more.

A delightful bus ride involving open windows, hot tropical air and good music later and the motley crew found themselves in Cali, for an all-too-brief stopover. Sure, Cali had was a little dirty and felt a little on edge, but it also felt like they had just arrived on the coast even though they were in a valley at least 4 hours from the beach. In Cali, they ate guanabana ice cream, drank sugarcane juice, sweated on the local buses and managed to stop themselves from buying anything neon, which the locals seemed to favour just a bit.

And then, it was back to Salento and La Serrana where Teresita Rosita had organised to stay put for a while and help out all the old friends she'd made there. While Chancho Dan and Colo Rùccula were still there the group explored the countryside, crossing rivers, getting chased by three-legged-rabid dogs, getting drenched in the daily afternoon downpours, but more than anything drinking loads of coffee.

Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee
Hmm, Teresita Rosita had a slight case of deja vu for some reason.

But then it was time for the others to leave - they had things to do, places to see and all that jazz and Teresita Rosita was left all along in the green mountains to chill out, hang out and enjoy the fresh country air. She ate good food, drank much more coffee, went walking, got lost among palm trees and made a few new friends (she couldn't help herself really, and that panda hat didn't help in her cute factor much).

But she was missing her traveling buddies. They'd done so much together, seen so many things and tended to get on pretty well as well. Colo Rùccula was up in Bogota, and while the prospect of being back in a cold, rainy big city wasn't the most appealing thing to Teresita Rosita, being back in cahoots with her monkey hatted best bud won the competition, so off she set again.

A nine hour/one book length bus trip later and the deadly duo were back in action. And Bogota would never be the same again! Especially not the precious livers of its inhabitants or the backpackers traveling through her scenic streets. Teresita Rosita and her panda were put in charge of the bar at her new hostel of residence, and while the little angel stuck to her fizzy apple juice and lemonade, she soon learned how to mix up a mean margarita and mojito and lovingly plied the guests with her creations.

She and Colo Rùccula had soooooooo many new friends. Friends they took out sightseeing, played games with and then said goodbye to. It was great and it was awful. It was fun and it was torture. But it's hard not to make friends when you have a smiling panda or monkey on your head and when it came down to it, what was travel and adventuring without meeting amazing new people. Unfortunately amongst all these amazing people that came and went, Chancho Dan (who had rejoined the girls in Bogota after his foray down south) decided it was time for him to go home too. Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula planned to meet him Panama in the new year, but we all know how the best made plans turn out, so they had one last fiesta and waved their Chancho hatted buddy adios.

And then there were two! And what adventures they were going to have together during the remainder of their time in Colombia? Stay tuned...

A slight change in plans, or how to overstay your visa in Ecuador...and get away with it!

The answer to our previous answers was, in general, a resounding NO! No, Teresita Rosita did not leave the country before her visa expired. No, she did not head south. No, she did not get to eat tasty Peruvian food.

She stuck with her fried chicken and rice, she stuck with Ecuador and stuck with working at The Secret Garden with her new bestie Colo Rùccula. Yes, she had spent so much in the Galapagos that she couldn't actually afford to go back home, but that really didn't factor too much in Teresita Rosita's decision making. She was enjoying herself too much in Quito to think about leaving...

 ... at least she was for a while.
Then things changed...

The rainy season started in Ecuador, and with the change of weather came a change in atmosphere in the hostel. The lovely happy times, changed into not very happy times. Sure, there were good changes in the form Teresita Rosita's new friend, Jungle Dan, with his Chancho hat, who had started working with the girls and their animal hats.

But there were bad changes as well, and to cut a long, incredibly interesting and dramatic story short, the friends decided it was time to move on and they left!

Now, Teresita Rosita had been adamant that she would continue south as she had always planned, this was, after all the South America trip she'd been planning for years and years. But the thought of parting ways with her new friends, who were both heading north, and the thought of missing out on the amazing food and equally fantastic weather of Central America swayed our little traveller. South America could wait a little bit longer - Teresita Rosita assumed it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. North it was!!!

Though not before the band of misfits decided to go all the way south to Vilcabamba (yeah, it was pretty much in Peru!) and relax a bit after the hectic last days in Quito. They ate pizza and hung out with the crazy expat gringos that inhabited the place. They went walking through the country breathing in the fresh mountain air. They reminisced about the good times they'd had in Quito. They laughed about the bad.

And then they went all the way back north again. A brief stop in Cuenca to look at churches and street art, another pause in Quito to say a final adios to all the amigos that they'd made there, and then the border.

The dreaded border.

We all know that Teresita Rosita may have overstayed her visa by just a little while. And the prospect of crossing the border was a tad daunting. Maybe they were going to fine her, or arrest her, or - it didn't bear thinking about - DEPORT HER!!! Her palms sweated. Her heart fluttered. Her eyes flittered. They were onto her, she just knew it. This was never going to work. Why had she overstayed her visa? She was going to end up sharing an Ecuadorian prison cell with 20 other prisoners AND their families.

She waited her turn in the immigration queue. She sidled up to the window. She slide her passport under the glass. She tried to look nonchalant. Her panda tried to look innocent. The official typed some stuff into the computer. A warning message flashed on screen. With a big red cross on it!

Eep!
"Miss, you have overstayed your visa by 62 days".
"Oh, really? I didn't realise. What do I do sir?"
"You must DIE!!!!"

.....
Well, not quite.

Teresita Rosita didn't get arrested, she didn't end up in an overcrowded South American jail, she didn't pay a fine, and she definitely didn't die.

She had to go ALL the way around the corner, photocopy her passport THREE whole times, give the copies to the official and then she had to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And three and a half hours later, just when the friends had given up hope that they'd get out of the country before dark, the official called them over, found the forms that had, most likely, been sitting on the desk the entire three and a half hours, printed something on them, and gave the girls their exit stamps.

That was it.
They were free.

They skipped across the border back into Colombia. They got fresh stamps letting them in and then they were off again. Ecuador was behind them. Five months of volcanos, beaches, blue footed boobies, and sunsets over Quito were over. Colombia was ahead of them with a whole lot of places that Teresita Rosita had visited before, but also a whole lot that she hadn't. And she was determined to see as much of it as possible in the 90 days she had been kindly given. Definitely NO more!

How To Swim with Sharks and other adventures - Teresita Rosita visits the Galapagos Islands

OK Teresita Rosita never planned to go to the Galapagos. In fact she was determined NOT to go, seeing as she was going to be traveling for the unforeseeable future and that much money for that little time just wasn't an option in the whole scheme of things. Gee whiz... $2000 could last a savvy backpacker at least a couple of months in Bolivia if not more.

But...

See, the thing with working at a hostel is that you're always talking to people, and the thing with working at a hostel in Quito is that you're always talking to people who are either going to, or coming from the Galapagos. And the thing with hearing really awesome things about a place over, and over, and over, and over again, is that you start thinking that maybe you should just bite the bullet and go yourself.

And so one day, Teresita Rosita took a big chunk out of that bullet and bought herself a plane ticket out into the middle(ish) of the Pacific Ocean. And then she packed up her little green bag again and jumped on a plane.

And it was all damn exciting, until she touched down and saw everyone else who had booked their pre-organised boat tours, or hotel pickups, or personal guides, or whatever it is that people do when they're organised and have money and head off to a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere.

You see, Teresita Rosita had not done this. She'd figured that seeing as she was now a veteran of Quito and generally all things Ecuador, she didn't really need to plan anything, that she could just rock up and talk to people and work things out as she went along.  But then, it wasn't at all like that when she arrived and she was scared and alone and didn't have Colo Rùccula to keep or company, and maybe her Spanish wasn't that good after all and she should have stayed in Quito where she knew stuff and stuff....and stuff.

But she wasn't in Quito anymore, she was in the middle of nowhere, on an island, by herself, and there was nothing else to do but buckle up and enjoy herself and go find herself some blue-footed boobies to make friends with. So she did!

Well, first she met a fellow Australian (surprisingly, they're not hard to pick when you run into them overseas) and they decided to hang out and explore the archipelago a bit together. They saw their first sea lion, jumped off some cliffs into crystal clear fish-filled water, ate lobster and generally decided that the Galapagos was the most amazing place on earth - ever!  But that was only just the beginning...

Teresita Rosita then decided that even though it had been over ten years ago (damn, she looked good for her age) that she'd last been diving, seeing as she was in the Galapagos it would just be silly not to don a scuba tank and try and spot some hammerheads. Good idea?

Well yes... and no.

Teresita Rosita had figured it'd be more or less like riding a bike, but the whole breathing under the water thing turned out to be a bit more complex than balancing on two wheels. She put her head beneath the waves and FREAKED OUT!

She gulped at the air that just didn't seem to be coming out of the regulator and came back up to the surface. Maybe she should have thought this over a bit more before she got on the boat...

No!

She tried again.

No dice....

Back at the surface she freaked out some more, then pulled herself together, took some more heaves of air and descended again.

And then there she was. She was under the water and she was BREATHING! Humans were not meant to do this crazy stuff but our little traveller was now a human fish and she was ready to seen what the Galapagos had on offer.

Sharks!

That's what there was.

Sharks, sharks and more sharks.

And you know what?

Teresita Rosita grew up in Australia and had the fear of sharks ingrained into the very blood that she was sure these supposedly "friendly" Galapagos sharks wanted to devour. Swimming next to a whole school of them really isn't conducive to conserving air either, nor is seeing hammerhead after hammerhead emerge from the gloom and glide gently back into it. Teresita Rosita gasped up her air, maybe not purposefully trying to use it all up as fast as possible in order to get away from those nasty sharks, but it certainly helped.

After that excitement, Teresita Rosita decided maybe she should take things a bit easier, so she decided to take a peaceful boat ride over to another of the Galapagos islands, San Cristobal.

Relaxing....

Not so much.

Turns out the Galapagos aren't exactly the tropical, tranquil paradise everyone thinks they are. Turns out there's a whole lot of open water in between each island. And turns out open water is pretty damn bumpy in a little speed boat that only holds 15 people. Teresita Rosita however,  made it unscathed, and without the aid of the seasickness pills she'd had the forethought to buy before leaving the mainland.

And it was worth the pain, because San Cristobal was a paradise within a paradise. Teresita had her first swim (of many) with frolicking sea lions and sea turtles. She wandered along deserted beaches and snorkeled in crystal clear bays. She ate amazing seafood and then decided to splash out and booked herself on a cruise for a 6 whole days! She was gonna do Galapagos the proper way.

And...


It was AMAZING!!

She felt like the biggest fraud fraud of all as she boarded the luxury yacht, and got shown to her own cabin with its own little balcony and bathroom with fluffy towels and a shower looking right out over the waves lapping at the edge of the boat. There was a lounge and a sundeck and a dining room and a bar and, and, and...

It was AMAZING!!!

When she was not up top watching the islands and the waves rush by, Teresita Rosita was snorkeling with more sea lions, disturbing the marine iguanas as they sun baked across the footpath, watching blue footed boobies do their wacky dances and generally doing the good things in life, like eating more seafood, watching sunsets and getting gently rocked to sleep by the waves each night. The only downside was getting off the boat and the whole world continuing with its gentle swaying back and forth for the following week, but hey, can't have everything can you?!

Teresita Rosita's final stop in the Galapagos was the biggest, yet least developed island of the archipelago, Isabela. Another 2 hour, spine jarring journey and our girl and her panda touched down upon the sandy shores of Isla Isabela. And there, they didn't do too much really. They met some lovely people with whom they rode bikes, climbed mountains, visited beaches and then danced the night away over the high tide that covered the vast beach each evening. They sun baked, hung with the iguanas and visited hundreds of baby giant tortoises. They snorkeled with more sharks and avoided crashing with swimming turtles.

And then it was time to go.

Two weeks in the Galapagos had flown by, and with a heavy heart and a much lighter bank balance, Teresita Rosita returned to the mainland with a new stamp in her passport and one day left on her visa.

But did she leave the country like she should have? Did she continue on her southern trajectory as she had planned? Did she finally make it to Peru to eat Causa and Lomo Saltado and Ceviche as she had planned?

You'll just have to stay tuned for the next episode of Teresita Rosita Travels to find out, won't you?!

Teresita Rosita makes a friend - Quito, a girl named Colo, and pineapple, delicious pineapple

Teresita Rosita is on the road again....finally. And heading north again. Of course this wasn't part of the original plan, but hey, what are plans for, if not only to change them? So what has led our little adventurer to head off into the blue again? Surely she was content in her new home in Quito? Hadn't she decided to stay there for the foreseeable future? Well, let's retrace her steps over the past few months and see what transpired in the little country known as Ecuador..

We left Teresita Rosita just as she had started working in a hostel in Quito, a city most people avoided but that she had fallen in love with and eagerly explored every chance she had. But how did she get there in the first place, because she had originally been one of those foolish souls who weren't even going to step foot in the place.

Well...

We all know Teresita Rosita had left Australia because the idea of work made her little panda covered head ache, but after being on the road for as long as she had she felt maybe it was time to stay put for a time. And it just so happened that in this lovely place called Cotopaxi there was about to be space to work as a volunteer. Ah, fresh mountain air, snow capped volcanoes, sparkling streams, green meadows, llamas and a jacuzzi, what more could a girl need? Well, Teresita Rosita was sold! She just had to make a quick visit to Quito to check it out and talk to the boss to get everything organised.

But, lo, upon entering the bustling city nestled in amongst the mountains, her changed once again. Within minutes of being there, Teresita Rosita found herself working at a hostel there instead! And it turned out she really liked it there. Not only that - she made some friends too! Teresita Rosita and her lucky panda hat now had company. Working at the hostel with the best view in town was Colo Rùccula and her smiling monkey hat, and before you could say "Hola, que tal? Me llamo Teresita Rosita" they were firm friends. And what adventures they had...

They went to the middle of the world and tried to balance eggs on nails and wobbled along the equator. Teresita Rosita also thought it would be a good idea to play on an elephant shaped slide. It was not such a good idea after all. Teresita Rosita found herself not sliding down the slide at all. She found herself in a very awkward situation instead. It looked a bit like this...

Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùculla visited the Virgin of Quito up on her little loaf of bread mountain and hugged the world at her feet. They ate coconut ice cream in plazas, they discovered zombified religious art in a monastery inhabited by midget tour guides, they listened to classical music in a church coated with gold, they visited their juice lady in the market for guanabana (amazing), mora (super amazing) and coco (absolutely incredible, especially when mixed with either of the other amazing options) juices and every Sunday they went to the central plaza to get their faces painted with the rest of the children.

And so passed the weeks, and then months. And then our intrepid duo went exploring together. Teresita Rosita had been in the mountains for much longer than she cared to think,  all that altitude was making her light-headed - it was time for the beach!

The animal hatted girls took an overnight bus that took 5 hours to drop them off in the middle of the night in a little town called Puerto Lopez. It wasn't the nicest place to be around at 5am so they kept on going until they reached Montañita. It was there Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula were introduced to drinking out of whole pineapples and half watermelons and with all the fruit juice they proceeded to imbibe, there was actually very little time to actually lay on the beach as they had originally planned. After three days they had had more than their fair share of juice as well so they thought maybe it was time to move on.

Back to Puerto Lopez they went, to give the town a second chance and actually do some sight seeing and beach lazing. They saw whales too lazy to leap out of the water and rode in nearly exploding tuk-tuks to a gorgeous nearby beach called Los Frailes, where Colo Rùccula finally had her first swim an actual ocean!

And then it was onwards and upwards, through the awesomely named,it not-so-awesome Jipijapa, to a quiet but not-so-quiet town called Canoa. It was Colo Rùccula's birthday (the actual reason why the girls were out of Quito) and so once again the beachy part of the trip was neglected for more fruit juice and dancing in a bar shaped like a boat until the early hours of the morning.

And so the beach holiday that didn't involve too much beaching was over and while Colo Rùccula went back to work like the slightly more responsible person she was, Teresita Rosita took off for....wait for it.... THE GALAPAGOS!!!!

Time flies when you're having fun

When Teresita Rosita's coffee high wore off she didn't know who she was, where she was or how much time had passed. She spent the next little while piecing her experiences together into a coherent sequence of events and this is what she came up with...

It was almost 6 weeks ago, maybe more, maybe less (Teresita Rosita has lost her ability to judge or keep track of time) when we left our adventurer in the coffee region of Colombia. And yes, she did drink a lot of coffee, but there comes a time when one must stop with the drinking and continue with the traveling. So that's what she did. She set off by herself again and kept on with the southern trajectory. Her first stop was Popayan. Popayan was a very white place. Not white like people white (she was in Colombia, and like Mexico most of the locals were not of the lightest skin tone) but lots of white buildings - white churches, white hotels, white houses, white government buildings, if Teresita Rosita had been wearing white she would have been perfectly disguised...

In Popayan, Teresita Rosita did the thing tourists do. She wandered around the white streets, took photos of the white buildings, got cured by a wacky Mexican man who spat on her hand, burnt some ash on her, gave her some religious cards and then asked for $10000 for payment. It was a blast.

From Popayan Teresita Rosita then took a 6 hour pothole ride to the ancient Mayan/Incan/Aztec site of San Agustin. Know how there are those infomercials for the fat jiggling machines, endorsed by d-grade actors around the world? Well you don't need one if you ever decide to take the bus to San Agustin. Where there should be road there was mud, gravel, the occasional log, and the even more occasional small lake. With her knees around her chin, a large Colombian lady wedging her into her sit, Teresita Rosita jumped and bumped herself to the crossroads that lead to San Agustin, hopped on the back of a motorbike and boom, was in town and horse riding herself around some ruins.

Ruins probably isn't the right term for San Agustin. Its better described as lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of statues. Teresita Rosita saw statues carved into mountains, painted statues, freestanding statues, monkey statues, scary statues, silly statues, big statues, small statues - yeah lots of statues.

And then she jumped and bumped her way back to Popayan, and then down down down to the 'dangerous-est' border in South America - Colombia and Ecuador. Here she got her passport checked by some 'scary'  Colombian officials, strolled across the border and then got her passport stamped by some more 'scary'  Ecuadorian officials. Hmmmm it was pretty scary...

Wooooo! New country!

Colombia had treated her well,  she had been to the beach, fed the mosquitoes, trekked the jungle, danced the night away in the cities, drank too much coffee everywhere and gorged herself on enough banana chips to keep a small nation alive for the next decade. What would Ecuador have in store for her?

Well.... Lots actually. She hung out in Cuenca and drank more coffee and ate bread and cheese and chocolate with Steph and her parents. She went to one of the largest craft markets in south America and had the sensation of drowning in the flood of rainbow ponchos, shawls, blankets, scarfs, Beanies, gloves, socks, table clothes, wall hangings, Jewellery, shoes, you name it, it was there and rainbow coloured She ate roast pig from the market - whole roast pig complete with head. It was tasty. She didn't eat guinea pig, not yet anyway. She went to thermal springs, climbed mountains and rode bicycles.

 She did so many things, so many things that need to be described in more detail, so we will leave Teresita Rosita where she is right now, on a terrace in Quito in the sun, where she is 'working' hard as a volunteer at a hostel, having a 'break' and taking it easy while she explores the beautiful city and avoids getting mugged on a daily basis... it's tres relaxing....