Blogs from Imbabura Volcano, North, Ecuador, South America

Troy, Nicole, and I climbed Imbabura on Sunday (March 29) and it was definitely an adventure! We had to leave at 5 am, I think partially because they wanted to be back in time for the soccer game, but it was good that we left that early because we needed ALL day. We started from 3400 meters and summited at 4600. Our hike up was for the most part good. We started having warning signs about our guide's level of knowledge on the way up when we were bush-wacking through knee-high grass instead of going up the trail that we could see from where we were. We also climbed straight up a rock face, pretty much basically rock climbing without ropes where if we would've fallen we would've died, and then when we got to the ... read more

San Clemente is a communidad indigena in the North of Ecuador, near Ibarra. The DED (Deutscher Entwicklungdsdienst) has worked with them to prepare them for a "soft" ecotourism. I found this village through a guy, Volker, who works for the DED and who I met by chance during my first days in Quito in the Parque Metropolitano. I stayed with the Guatemal family who are the leaders of the project in the village. They have one guest room with four beds. This was one of my best experiences so far in Ecuador. The family was incredibly friendly and cordial. Their house is beautifully decorated, extremely clean and tidy, the food was delicious and I felt very welcome. Laura showed me how to make bread which we were frying in a large ceramic pan on the outside ... read more

Hey folks, I´m in Quito right now after a long day yesterday. My flight that was supposed to depart yesterday at 4:30 and land at 9:45 in Quito turned into a flight that departed at 5, was diverted to Guayaquil because of bad visability in Quito and eventually landed in Quito at 1 am, so I got to the hotel at 2 am. This is typical of Ecuador though, you are told that you are going to Quito and you go to Guayaquil, you are told that you will be there in 5 hours and it takes 10. Right now I am writing from the tourist area called La Mariscal, or if you like, gringolandia. There are lots of bars, dance clubs, hotels, places to eat and the largest English language bookstore in South America, which ... read more

I decided to travel to the Imbabura province during some time off. I headed towards Ibarra, which is the capital of the Imbabura province. “The White City” (Ibarra) lies at the foot of the Imbabura Volcano. It’s 115 km northeast of Quito, but it takes like 3 hours to get there from Quito (because of the roads and the mountains but mostly due to the fact that the bus stops for every single person even though the bus is completely full). I was super impressed when I got there, it’s a very attractive and clean city. Ibarrarenos (people from Ibarra) are friendly and welcoming. I spent most of my time in the downtown area (Old town). I explored the area by foot, admiring the many parks, churches and the cathedral. There was an earthquake in 1868 ... read more