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Published: November 24th 2009
Guayaquil, Ecuador was the first stop of our journey. After 8 hours of flying and overnight in a Lima hostel which was more like a disco tech then somewhere to sleep, it was nice to get situated to get some rest. After reading some of the guide books, we half-way expected to get beaten and/or robbed by a pick pocket gang like in Slumdog Millionaire. But, with security guards or police officers on every block, our worries were unfounded. Overall, we enjoyed Guayaquil with its newly developed Malecon on the waterfront (similar to SFś embarcadero) and the central park with all of its iguanas roaming around. It’s a place that still hasn’t been discovered by tourists…so don’t wait too long to visit!
Next, off to the famous Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. Some of the sights: the Charles Darwin Center with Lonesome George (the last tortoise of his kind), marine iguanas that can swim (found only in Galapagos), blue footed boobies, giant sea turtles, schools of dolphins, and one penguin. Alas, we didn¨t see any sharks or but Jen did snorkel next to 3 spotted eagle rays. The water visibility was poor so the pictures only showed some dark blobs. The
Dolphins in the Galapogos
A school of dolphins next to our boathighlight was swimming with sea lions and having a couple swim right at us. Check out the video on Jenś facebook page.
After a 4 hour van ride through mountainous roads in the dark and at speeds that would make Nascar drivers cringe, we finally arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador. Cuenca is a historic colonial town that has a nice Spanish feel to it. The people are incredibly nice. We think it is directly related to the amount of ice cream shops and bakeries in the town. We visited the central market and ate some of the best roast pork we’ve ever eaten. The stalls in the market aren’t the most sanitary, but if you tasted the pork, you too would risk dysentery…it was so good we tempted fate twice. Ice cream, pastries and roast pork, no wonder everyone is so nice.
Banos was our next destination. The small town is famous for its thermal baths. We were forewarned by the guidebook to not visit the baths during the weekends but we did not heed such advice. We entered the bath closest to our hostel, which happened to be the most popular bath in town, to find about 100
people in a pool the size of a jaccuzzi at a big resort. People were shoulder to shoulder. We walked right out and did not even bother putting our feet in the water.
Side note on bus rides...many feel the bus rides in South America can be tedious. We decided to make it an educational experience. We learned that there seems to be no passenger limit laws on buses. We also learned that Ecuadoreans have also perfected the stone face stare that communicates “Why the hell are you on our bus”. Lastly, we learned that throwing vast amounts garbage out the window while the bus is moving is perfectly acceptable (not that we did it). Luckily, no live poultry on board.
Our next stop was Latacunga. This was our stopover to explore Cotopaxi; standing at over 5800m, this volcano is the highest active volcano in the world. Luckily, we arrived during the Mama Negra Festival. Words cannot describe the scene, but we’ll try. Several different bands play in a procession, all playing the same song; some bands dressed in traditional garb, while other bands are dressed as Bee Gee rejects, black face painted horseman dressed similarly to court
Atop Cotopaxi
Highest Active Volcano in world and super windy! We were at 4,400 meters above sea level. jesters prance about squirting some white milky substance onto the massive crowds, cross-dressing men stumble about, men carrying full roasted dissected pigs carcasses on their backs with bottles of liquor and cigarettes attached to the pig, and during all this commotion, there are “bartenders” walking along with the parade, offering a cloudy brownish liquid to anyone brave enough to drink from bottles which look like they were found on the Titanic, and it seems everyone there is brave enough. Yes, it’s one of the largest parties we’ve even seen.
We stayed in Quito for a couple of nights. The historic center has nice colonial buildings but the place is a ghost town at night. As far as colonial towns go, we liked Cuenca much better. We head off to Peru next!
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Sung Chin
non-member comment
love reading about your trip
way to go guys! thanks for the update, and can't wait to read about your next adventure. make sure you have plenty of pepto too.