The Scenic Route

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We ended up staying a week in Cuenca. Both of us have been battling some kind of Ecuadorian crud for awhile now & it was starting to drag us down, So, we decided to just chill for a few days and see if it would help. Luckily it did. During the rest up period we managed to do a few things around town. I read in one of the guide books that even if you are suffering from church burn out you should visit the Cathedral Nueve in Cuenca, so we did. It was in fact amazing. The ceiling was so high. Huge marble pillars inside. While we were inside there was some kind of singing, chanting, ritual under way and the acoustics of the church were actually beyond comparison. I was spellbound by the voices and the way they just echoed around the church. But for me the thing I thought about most was the men that spent most of their lives working on this massive structure over the course of over a hundred years and most of them never seeing the final result of all their work. The stained glass windows were imported from Europe and were the most intense I've ever seen in terms of vibrant colors. The tiles for the domes were brought in from Czechoslovakia.
One of the great discoveries of Cuenca was a Columbian restaurant we discovered. We Quickly became huge fans of arepas. They are just a simple thick corn tortilla topped with what ever you choose. We had some really good ones over the course of three nights, but the best was a veggie arepa that had a base of refried lentils and was covered with fresh veggies and avocados.
After a few days of taking it easy we decided we were up to the task of visiting Pargue Cajas, just an hour up into the mountains from town. The Parque is right at 13,000 ft. and is really a beautiful place, it exceeded our expectations by a mile. There are hundreds of lakes in the park, it is primarily a paramo terrain but there are pockets of polylepis trees in some hollows and a few scattered here and there. The trees are remarkable for being the highest altitude growing tree in the world. The natural treeline is 10,000 to 11,000 ft. , these guys grow at 12,000 to 15,000 ft. They look like big bonzai trees. We went through a thicket of them that was difficult to pass through even with a trail. The parque was defined by tall, jagged peaks in every direction, lots of lakes, and many small rivers and creeks. We Chose a 5 hour hike that took us around two large lakes, through a polylepis thicket and across several creeks, and of course some mud. It was simply wonderful. Even thought the mountains in the Andes are shaped much different than Alaska, it reminded us of the Brooks Range. There were tiny, mountain wildflowers everywhere. We were so happy that we were patient enough to rest up and take this little adventure at 13,000 ft. instead of moving on. After our day in the parque we walked across the road and flagged down a bus, and were back in Cuenca in an hour.
The next day we began our adventure to the coast. We decided to go with the road less traveled and took a bus to Riobamba. It was socked in and raining the whole trip, so we slept most of the way. Once in Riobamba we stumbled on to a great parade involving nothing but children. It seemed like it was kids from classrooms grouped together, although there were some kids that were too young for school in the front. It was cool because each group had it's own costumes and music and did a little performance as they went by.
The next day was Saturday Market in Riobamba, and it was one of the best markets I've ever seen. Most big markets days take place in a big square or several squares. This one was in the streets. Street after street in every direction was filled with street vendors selling everything from fruit & veggies to mops and huge blocks of cane sugar. People from all over the mountains come to the market to get there supplies for the week. It was amazing, the people just took over the streets. Anyone foolish enough to drive through the area was, for this one day unable to intimidate people on foot. It was really special. The streets with fruits and veggies were just amazing, beautiful, beautiful food.
The next morning we got up early, made sandwiches and took a taxi to the bus terminal. On the way, there was suddenly this giant mountain in front of us. We asked the taxi driver it's name and he said, Chimborazo, Which is the tallest mountain in Ecuador at 20,700 ft. At a traffic signal stop I rolled down my window to take a picture just as the light changed. The driver saw what I was doing and just sat there through all the honking from behind until I got my picture. So, there is one good taxi driver out there. The clouds have not been kind to us during our travels in terms of seeing the tall mountains but today that came to an end as we were treated to a rare day of blue skies in the Andes. We also saw The Volcan Sangay, and had a wonderful view of the cone shaped Volcan Cotopaxi. On our drive to Latacuga we drove right at Chimborazo and then around it. It was a real treat. Then Cotapaxi appeared and we drove right at it. There were also a couple more snow capped volcanoes that we didn't know the name of. After two months in the clouds this was totally unexpected and a real special morning. In Latacunga we went back to the Hotel Central where we had stayed before and the Senora Viola greeted us like long lost family. She was so nice. After we got settled in to the same room with a view of the plaza that we had before, she invited us to her living room for coffee and her and Donna had a good chat. This was our first backtracking since leaving Quito and it is always comfortable to return to a place you are familiar with. The roof of the hotel offered perfect views of Cotapaxi and another very needle like snow capped peak.
The next morning we caught a bus to Quevedo. The bus ride went from the east side of the Andes to the west side and then down into a tropical cloud forest and finally the tropical lowlands in Quevedo. The Andes were beautiful as we climbed to the divide and descended into a fantastic tropical cloud forest. It was just so lush and I'm sure we saw every shade of green there is. When we reached the lowlands there were lots of bananas, maize, and coconuts growing along the way. Quevedo, is so far off the gringo trail that people all over town were staring at us. The guide books pretty much dis it, but we found it a great place for a one night stop. There is in fact not much to do there, but the main drag was very colorful. There were street vendors in front of the stores for at least a 10-12 block stretch and it was fun to walk along the street & check it out. The owners of our hotel were really nice and friendly, we chatted with them quite a bit. Everyone else we had direct contact with was also super friendly. We had a conversation with a young woman who had never been out of Quevedo, and she had no idea what or where Alaska or Canada was, but she was super curious. We also found a wonderful place to eat. No question that we had our best chuleta of the trip and the fixins' were also great. As an added plus we had the greatest waiter in Ecuador, what a gentleman. People like this man are the real joys of travel. It was in the mid 80's & very humid there but we found a heladeria on the way home after dinner and had air conditioning in our room, so it was all good.
The next morning we caught a bus to Portoveijo. We climbed back up into the tropical forest for most of the trip before dropping back down into the lowlands just before Portoveijo. Portoveijo is said to be the hottest town in Ecuador. This totally canceled out any chance we might spend a night there. Instead we caught another bus to Bahia del Caraquez. Along the two hour drive through the tropical lowlands we went through a major agricultural area. Lots of rice paddies, maize, beans growing on fences, and other crops. The Bahia at it is called is a small peninsula at the mouth of the Chone River and the Pacific. It is a quiet little town with not much going on. Very little beach but a. pleasant place to spend the night.
Once again we were up early and on our way. We did at least have breakfast for the first time in days. After eating, we walked to the river and caught a panga ferry for .35 cents across the bay to San Vicente. Soon, we were on a bus to Canoa, our final destination on the coast. We found a nice hostal called Coco Loco, owned by an Alaskan woman and her Mexican husband. We are right on the ocean with a second floor room and the ocean right there. Canoa, is a very funky, mellow beach town. Dirt roads, simple thatched roof hotels and a long, long stretch of beach. The surf is nice with 6-7 foot waves and the water is warm. The temp here is 85+ during the day and it drops down to 75 at night. The good news is "LOW HUMIDITY". We haven't been in the ocean for a few years and it really feels great. I even did some body surfing yesterday and actually caught a few waves. (I have witnesses) We met a wonderful Argentine family almost as soon as we got here and we became fast friends. The dad is a sax player and loves 50's-60's jazz. The two siblings, a young man just out of high school and his sister in her final year of high school really connected with us and we had many long conversations with them about each others countries and culture. Just a great family and we really enjoyed hanging with them. We only have a short time left in Ecuador and were undecided on how long to stay in Canoa. In the end it came down to a super bowl party here at the hostal with a bar-b-que (hot wings), long walks on the beach in the mornings, beautiful weather, cheap beer, and plenty of inexpensive seafood to eat. Not to mention the fact that we are a little bus weary since traveling up from the south. So Canoa it is until Monday when we return to Quito.

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