Ecuador Quito Spent nine days in Quito to learn Spanish, It is the capital of Ecuador and is just a big South American city. Polluted, a bit dangerous and at 2,900 metres extremely high. It's the second higest capital city in the world and lies between a volcano and a set of smaller hills forcing it outwards to 50km in length. The Andean City is located in a valley at the foot of the active volcano Pichincha. Although Quito lies only 13 km south of the equator, it always has a springlike climate so Aileen had to ditch all the thermals [View Full Entry]

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We left Quito after only one day when we checked out the Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world monument that marks where the equator crosses through Ecuador), wash some laundry and catch up on some internet time. We were heading to the Black Sheep Inn, an ecolodge that we had read about that had great reviews with regards to its sustainable living, recycling and permaculture setup. The lodge is located in a more remote area of Ecuador, near a village called Chugchilan, which is nestled within the Andean Ranges. We were picked up at our hotel by the flying [View Full Entry]

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After the weather in Tena turned bad we decided against hanging around or heading deeper into the jungle, so instead we headed for the decidedly drier, though somewhat cooler highlands and the Quilatoa Loop. The Loop is effectively the route that covers all the villages/towns that surround the crater lake of a dormant volcano. The loop itself is very long - needing a number of buses to manage to go the whole way around. After catching the daily bus that went in an anti-clockwise direction, 4 hours and quite a few bumps later we were in the small village of Chugchilan. [View Full Entry]

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Ecuador is SO beautiful. I really can’t even describe it - it’s simply breathtaking. For my last part of vacation before school starts up again, I went to a place about 6 hours away to basically hike in the middle of nowhere. We left early Friday morning to take a 2 hour bus in order to take a 4 hour bus. We caught our buses no problem, walked 2 minutes through this tiny town, put our stuff down in our hostel, and then set off down the road not knowing exactly where we were going. We were about 12,000 feet above [View Full Entry]

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Day 30: Tuesday 29th July - A close escape from a landslide As part of my acclimitisation programme for climbing Cotapaxi I've been recomended to travel the Quilotoa loop as its between 3000-4000m above sea level. The ride around the loop is supposed to be through spectacular scenery. My destination today is Chugchilan which is half way around the loop. Getting there is half the problem, there is only one bus per day in either direction around the loop and it leaves around noon from Latacunga which is a 2 hour bus journey south of Quito. I make it to Latacunga [View Full Entry]

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WOW. It seems to me when you stay in a place long enough to absorb some of its rhythm, the people then become the adventure. As many of you know, I will graduate from college this upcoming May (GULP) and in order to delay finally becoming a big kid a little bit longer, I am looking for ways to get paid to have further adventures in South America, focusing on women's health and medical anthropology. One of the ways I could do this is through a Fulbright scholarship and so I have spent the past week tracking down some folks to [View Full Entry]

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After barely sleeping in my leaky room in Quilotoa, I simply wanted to get out of that town, despite feeling tired and a bit ill. Atahualpa and Maria left with a guide at around 8:30 AM, and I stayed behind curled up in my bed, leaving periodically to stand outside when the sun peeked through the clouds. It was still in the high forties at around 9:30, so I decided to pack up and leave, instead of waiting for the 1:30 bus. It was the only way for me to warm up my body, so I began to walk back to [View Full Entry]

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So the trip is almost over, and unfortunately, I have been out of touch for the last 8 days or so, so instead of trying to put it all into one blog, I am going to break down where I left off last time up until Chugchilan, which was 4 days ago, and then I will do a different entry for Cotopaxi. I feel like so much has happened since the last time I blogged from Cuenca, so I will try my best to put the good details in here, and then in the next entry I´ll give a full detail [View Full Entry]

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Quilotoa Loop - Central Equador You can reach Chugchilan by milk truck or by catching the twice daily bus from Latacunga. Fours hours bouncing around next to cartons of yoghurt seemed like a bit much and so we opted for the ´comfort´of the bus. It´s a few cents extra but we have the pleasure of a ride that confirms every stereotype there is of rural South American public transport. It´s bumpy and the switchbacks as we ascend the mountainside are hair-raising (literally true for Bron only, obviously), we share the cabin with sacks of grain, 3-foot tall toothless farmer types carr [View Full Entry]

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The next day was sunny again, and everything went fine on the hike to Isinlivi. I had to hike down into the Toachi Canyon again, a bit further north this time. Beautiful, green landscape again, and the river glittering int he sun. On the way down I passed a carpenter-cum-painter, and I purchased a rather crude painting of a local village scene from him. High up o the other side I chatted a bit with an oldabuelita (grandmother) with her grandson, and later on with a couple of kids. Other than that I did not meet many people during the entire [View Full Entry]

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