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Published: April 13th 2009
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From One Extreme to Another
I´m writing this update by candlelight in a fabulous cabin with extensive views of misty mountains, at Santa Lucia Cloudforest Reserve.
We have just spent the last 2 days in noisy bustling Quito (capital of Ecuador) and I can´t quite believe that after a 1 1/2 hours bus trip that wound its way through the mountains, a very bumpy 4WD trip (30 mins) and then a 1 1/2 hour hike that climbed 400m in 2km that I´m sitting here and all I can hear is the rain on the roof and the crickets happily chirping away.
We spent our first day in Quito locating the bank and office to pay for the Santa Lucia trip and our trip to the Amazon and although this in itself was not interesting we managed to see a lot of the old town and the new ¨tourist¨town areas fo this city with 1.3M people.
Our lasting impressions of Quito will be :-
- smog and more smog (don´t worry that you can´t breath due to altitude sickness!!)
- streets choked with taxis, cars, buses and trams all using their horns
- shoe-shine people on
every corner
- beautiful old buildings now rundown
- shops that sell washing machines and motor bikes
and the street vendors who sell everything - shoelaces and innersoles (do they have a shoe fetish?), fruit, empty CD cases, snacks and sweets, lotto tickets, icecreams in buckets of dry ice and a myriad of other things.
On our 2nd day we caught a local bus out to Otovalo and its famous craft markets. The bus trip was 2 1/2 hours and as we were the only tourists the little children onboard were not quite sure what to make of our pale skin (one little boy even braved touching Bobs hand to see if he felt the same). The markets were great, so many lively colours - beads, woven rugs, hammocks, clothes and bags - with every stall holder wanting us to stop and buy and bargain.
Before the long bus trip back to Quito we visited Parque Condor, a birds of prey and owl refuge. Not the best cages for these birds but we felt a little better when we realized that all the birds had been injured and could not of survied in the wild.
Santa
Lucia
Day one was a very pleasant day following a trail to a series of waterfalls. When you start at the top of a mountain, all walking means walking down and then the inevitable up and up and up. Santa Lucia community has banana, sugar and coffee plantations. We had a fabulous afternoon tea of brewed Santa Lucia coffee with freshly popped popcorn - YUM!. The food has been great, they only have meat twice a week so I´m in my element with fresh fruit and vegies.
Day two we walked part of the trail to the birding towers - we didn´t make it that far as the first 35 minutes took us 2 hours or so !! as we followed humming birds and other birds and tried to photograph the amazing flowers.
Day three our last day we were up at 4am to walk the 2 hours to the lek (aka parade ground) of the brightly coloured Cock of the Rock bird. The males have bright red head and shoulders with black wings and a white belly. They prance around the branches making a din to attract the females. the show was well worth the
early start.
Back in noisy Quito now after 3 fabulous peaceful days. Tomorrow we are off to the Amazon for 4 days.
Ciao.
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