Jungle!

Up around 8:00, packed, went for breakfast, to the bus station and asked some bus companies if they are running tomorrow. Everything is normal, all bus companies have their normal schedule. We want to get to the Peru border tomorrow, so we bought a ticket from Loja to Zumba for 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. Zumba is the closest town to the border, still about 1.5-2 hours away. Then we bought a bus ticket to Zamora to see another part of Parque Nacional Podocarpus today. My Rough Guide says the bus ride from Loja to Zamora is worth the price alone.Lisa got an email from Kirsty, there's apparently protests in Peru too, and she's having problems. She booked a 3 day white water rafting trip and it got cancelled because of protests.The drive to Zamora was awesome. Massive waterfalls, one after another after another, at the edge of the road, huge ferns, etc. Everything you'd expect in a rain forest!Our hostal in Zamora is bottom of the barrel. There aren't that many choices, and Kieran wanted cheap. I've stayed in worse, but the other three were not happy. Jason and Lisa wouldn't even sleep in the bed, instead opting to sleep in their sleeping bags on top of the bed. Cockroaches, mold, dirty floors, piss on the floor of the bathrooms. My bed linens were very clean, though, so I didn't mind.We hired a taxi to take us to the Podocarpus, got there about 2:30, and asked him to pick us up at 6:00.Beautiful rainforest, Lisa and I showered under a massive waterfall. With all the rain that has fallen over the past few days, the rivers are swollen. It rained all morning and stopped when we got to the park, then it started again when we got back.When we got back to town, we went for local food (again...it's called almuerzo, usually soup, then rice and chicken parts, or a tough piece of beef or a small fish, and a bit of veggies....it gets old very fast, but it's super cheap).So, our hotel and both meals for $8 today!Back at our room, to distract us from the cockroaches and piss and mold, I had a small bottle of local alcohol I bought before the Galapagos, so we drank that. There's no toilet seat on the toilet either, so Lisa has a tough time squatting over the toilet bowl.