South America, Ecuador

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We arrived in Quito on Easter Saturday to the emptiest airport we´ve ever seen! How many times has your luggage beaten you to the carousel???

Quito has one of the best kept Old towns in Sth America, very picturesque setting and beautifully restored buildings. The city itself is in a valley surrounded by volcanos, not that we saw the tops of any of them, they were always covered in cloud, and every single day without fail it rained in the afternoon!

We met up with our German friend Frank (that we met in Venezuela and Colombia), his Ecuadorian wife, and their daughter, and spent a nice couple of days being shown around by them. Frank had a friend who had a jeep, of which we all jumped in (us in the back!) and went for a day trip to the mountains west of Quito. The next day we caught up with them again and went to Mitad del Mundo - the monument on the equator line just north of Quito.

From Quito we headed south to Quilotoa lagoon, where the scenery was awesome! We hiked down into the former volcanic crater, and then a hard climb back out again, which wasn´t helped by the fact that we were at around 4000m altitude.

The next day (after a very chilly night in a hostel at the top of the crater), we caught a bus to Baños, named after its hot thermal springs. Another pretty town set in a valley at the base of a volcano. From here we did a day trip to Volcan Chimborazu, where we drove up, then hiked the last 200m to 5000m, and then mountain biked all the way back down in the snow and rain and very cold wind! Back in Baños, we hired a buggy for the day and visited the nearby waterfalls. Good fun, but probably could have walked quicker! A nice town, but it was tainted by the fact that we got robbed at the hot springs! US$150 was taken out of our bag that we left in the ´secure´ storage area 😞

Next stop was Riobamba, a city that was nothing terribly exciting, but it was meant to have been where we caught the devils nose train. Unfortunately, landslides had blocked the track, and we had to catch a bus 4hrs down the road to meet up with the train at Alausi. However a pleasant surprise in Riobamba was that we got to see a bullfight, which Russ had never seen before, and the top of a volcano (Chimborazu) finally!

In Alausi, the markets were quite interesting, but the train ride that followed wasn´t! What was once a main form of transport for the locals, is now only a tourist ride. You can´t even ride on the top anymore which is the main attraction! Had we known this we wouldn´t have bothered.

After another hair raising 4hr bus ride we arrived in Cuenca... another nice colonial city, but by that time we were pretty immune to beautiful old towns. Plus it was very expensive, so we didn´t spend too much time looking around.

Our last stop in Ecuador was Vilcabamba, which we´d been looking forward to ever since Matt and Krystal raved about it back in Februrary. We stayed at Izhcayluma hostel (which they recommended), which is a resort at backpacker prices. We spent a few days there to recharge and loved it!

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Photos

Day trip from Quito
Day trip with Frank and his family, only seats available were on the back of the ute!

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Russ and Frank

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Bobs, Frank, and Gisette

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Hummingbirds at Bella Vista lodge, 100km west of Quito

Pichincha
Mitad del Mundo, the monument on the equator line just north of Quito

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View from the top of Mitad del Mundo

Quilotoa
View from the bus on the way to Quilotoa Lagoa

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Locals and their identical hats on the bus to Quilotoa

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Quilotoa Lagoa (former volcanic crater)

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Before the half hr walk down

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Still all smiles, not fully aware of the mission ahead..... a 1hr walk back up, and all at about 4000m altitude!

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One of the locals outside our hostel

Comments

[Charlotte]

Wish we were still with you!
Loving the update stories, loving the photos. It's bringing back all the great memories. See you both soon-ish! x