Ecuador - Hit and run...

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August 11th 2010

Published: August 12th 2010

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Sorry but we are not at home

ECUADOR

OK, Ecuador was next and probably it deserved a bit more, but we had a time limit, so 8 days were all we could give it. Coming from Colombia, the first thing we noticed was the ease of calculating bus fares: each hour in the bus = 1 USD. Stupid detail, but compared to the bus fare 'hassle' in Colombia we loved it. Guess that this detail doesn't interest you that much, so we won't elaborate more on it. Upon request more´useless´details can be given.

Ok, here the blog really starts then, I guess... Otavalo.

Shopping Frenzy...

From the border we headed immediately to Otavalo. We timed our trip to be there on the weekly Saturday market, and yes: there was a market, a huge market. The local come every day to Otavalo to sell their goods, but on Saturday the size quadruples and the tourists flock in. The quiet main square where we had our street food the night before (yummy mashed potato balls with some kind of meat with a beer....) was transformed in a tourist frenzy. All the 'normal' streets were also blocked with stalls and I guess that the tourist buses from Quito do their

Colombia - Ecuador border

We met a group of Colombian students who come here every Friday afternoon to practice English with Western travelers.

own little parade as well... We went early to the animal market and had a good time there. Watching the locals from the nearby Andean villages coming her for trading cows, piglets on leaches and please do not forget the ladies with the guinea pigs. Not sold as pets, but as food. FYI: it actually tastes a bit like rabbit, just be a bit careful with the bones...) . We saw tourists with huge bags and indeed good deals could be made there, but we just bought 2 small bracelets for 0.50$ each with the colors of Ecuador (and Colombia and Venezuela). I lost mine already...

Watching the Birds

From the market we walked with some detours to the nearby 'Parque de Condor', where indeed condors are being held. The main purpose is education for the locals (condors and other birds of prey have a negative reputation in Ecuador). The center is also helping wounded / weak big birds and returns them back into the wild whenever it´s possible. But OK, we came for the show: twice a day there is a show where big birds fly and snatch pieces of chicken midair... But alas, there was basically no

Quechua ladies

Local villagers trading over cute guinea pigs...

wind, so the bigger birds just hopped a bit, but did primarily a pretty damn good impression of wax statues.... Only the falcons really flew and did their act. Still lovely and impressive. The condors we saw were just in cages and cannot be released anymore into the wild.... But they can procreate! Yuheeee!

Walking back to Otavalo the clouds set in and rain followed. So we needed cover. Where else can you get better cover then in a cock fight arena? So we went there and watched the fights. Pretty nice and fun to see the wads of money change among the gamblers together with the bottles of beer and whiskey... The poor birds looked pretty nasty though after the fights...

Casi Mitad del Mundo

The following day we set off to Mitad del Mundo (Spanish for Middle of the World), a small 'village' just North of the center of Quito. The sole reason of its existence is: Tourism (and a claim that the equator was thought to pass through the 30-meter-tall monument). Built to make that somewhere around 1736 a Frenchman 'proved' mathematically that the equator was there. Guess that the equator is also the namesake

Mr. Shaman

The local shaman "lecturing" to the crowd and healing with his miraculous potions...

of Ecuador... FYI locals say that among other things, placing one foot in the northern hemisphere and the other foot in the southern hemisphere makes you stand right in the equator and weigh less at the equator. We haven´t checked this, but one question popped up in our minds and that was in which direction the water turns when you drain a sink: clockwise or anti-clockwise? The direction differs on both hemispheres, but how about precisely in the middle? However, the entire structure is about 240 meters South of the true equator, which was not precisely located until recently, with the advent of GPS technology.... Overall, we tick-marked it, got a funny stamp in our passports and left the place within ~ 1 hour: BLOODY TOURISTY!!!! Watching from the bus the grey concrete mass called Quito, we were happy that we just went there to catch another bus to Latacunga. Although it is said that old-city Quito is really nice.... we do not know.

Our brief summary on Latacunga

Here is our brief summary on Latacunga:
*Cute square, but not special. Yes, nice cobblestone streets and whitewashed walls, but after seeing plenty of similar town centers.... YAWN.....
*No bars.

The girls who sold to us the bracelets...

The bracelets are multi-purpose: yellow-blue-red are the main colors for Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. I lost mine already....

Really we couldn´t find any. A local guy called Latacunga at night actually a cemetery...
*2 nearby volcano´s, and:
*CHINESE FOOD!!!!
The last item needs an explanation, I guess. We arrived pretty late in L. on Sunday, so we were hungry and thirsty. The lady from the hostel could recommended us a Chinese restaurant nearby. Good choice for several reasons:

great taste and loads of meat and real fresh veggies in the stir-fry
huge portions. That large we couldn't finish them, which indeed doesn't happen very often. We doggy-bagged and enjoyed the next morning an excellent breakfast.
cheap
they sold beer!!! Shops can't sell alcohol on Sundays, so the 2 large beers we had there were enjoyed a lot

But on the 2 nearby volcano´s, one is totally extinct and has a lake inside. The name: Quilotoa Volcano Lake (3,914 m, last eruption: 1797). We went there to 'train' for the other volcano. But ok, we went by bus and a pick-up to Quilotoa. Checked in at a cheap hostel (10 USD pp, incl diner and breakfast: good deal) and set off for the hike on top of the rim of the volcano. Beautiful views of the

All very yummy (part I)

The bigger animals, and...

crater lake and sheep. We went to Quilotoa to try ourselves in semi-altitude. The height difference between the highest point of the rim and the lake is ~500 meters. The hike itself ~18km. We did it in 4 hours, including a stupid detour (no details will be given). The next day we hiked 14km back to the nearest village called Zumbahua to catch a bus back to Latacunga. So we considered ourselves as tested and approved for the next volcano: Cotopaxi.

Expedition Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi is the second highest summit in the country, reaching a height of 5,897 m (last eruption: 1940), higher than 5,800 meters of the Everest Base Camp we reached in Tibet by jeep (sorry, Erwin and Winnie). But the tour company said we had to test ourselves first in Quilotoa, and if all went fine we were 'allowed' to do Cotopaxi. So off we went for this real mountaineering trip. The van brought us to ~4,500 meters, from there just our feet. Our backpacks stuffed with hiking equipment and loads of cloths (FYI: at night it gets -20C...): 2 sets of pants, gloves & jackets: thermo & windproof. Mountaineering boots + clamp-on´s, harness, headlights and gracious

All very yummy (part II)

...the small animals!!!!

thermo head covering hoods.

We went first to ~4800 meters to the 'refugio' where we would have dinner and spend the night. After the hike to the refugio we went just a bit higher up to have some fun on a glacier. Good views of the mountain top and blue sky!!! Later we had our food and went to bed at 7pm. At midnight (!) we were woken up and had our breakfast with some coca-tea (very good against altitude sickness, and we needed it. We woke up with headaches...). At night the cold makes the 'path' up to the summit more stable, so indeed at 1am we set off in the pitch dark. Clouds covered the sky and gentle snow was falling. After 2 hours the snow wasn't falling anymore. Instead it was blown hard into our faces: The wind had picked up big time. Still no moonlight, so Agi, I and our guide could see not much, but our headlights. We could also see in a distance the headlights from other small groups. After another 2 hours we used clamp-on´s and ice picks on the ice. Ropes between us in order to catch if someone falls. Pretty

Guinea pigs...

Tastes just like rabbit.

hard, but strangely fun... But upon the ice we were passed by other groups who were already on their way back: the winds were blowing too hard and too unstable.... So after a while (5 hours uphill) the decision was made: we go back.

Expedition Cotopaxi: FAIL

Too dangerous. Pity, but ok. We went back down and at 6am we were back at the refugio. We slept a bit and at 9am we went back to Latacunga. The sky was still gray, snow falling and the top of the mountain could not be seen... We made it to ~ 5,300m... Everest Base Camp is still higher, but this still was really worth the effort and the experience. Guess we'll do something like this again.

Baños: the place for relaxing off our muscles

From Latacunga we took a bus straight away to Baños, the place meant for complete chill out and fun. It´s a tourist paradise with thermal bathes, great hikes, mountain bike rides, massages. We spent here 3 nights. More precisely: we wasted away here 3 days/nights. We can happily confirm that we did not do any of the above touristy activities but had nice long sleeps, excellent

Condors!!!!

In Parque de Condor. It didn't fly, though....

western food (oh my God, the Italian restaurant: will never forget it), watched some movies and danced! This latter point is very relevant, as most of the time dancing in this region means salsa with bad music (at least for us bad), but we finally found places where we could dance to music closer to our likings. So we had lots of fun in Baños and it was a good closure for our trip in Ecuador.

Heading back to Colombia

On Sunday we realized in Baños that we had to move our asses up North if we wanna make it back to Colombia on time. So we took a long bus ride up to Otavalo and stopped there for the night. It´s so nice sometimes to return back to places where we had been before. And this time we could have what we missed here earlier: the divine fruit pies in "the pie shop" of Otavalo. Old ladies doing real old-fashioned pies in many flavors, so yummy!

Next morning we started early as we had a 3-hour bus ride ahead of us in order to reach the border. This time much more waiting, for some reason Mondays are

Guess what's for lunch?

difficult at all work places. Anyways, we made it to Ipiales at around 2 pm, which is the border town on the Colombian side. And we stopped here for one reason: Chris wanted to sleep with the nuns (!).

Apparently some years ago a person saw the Virgin Mary appearing on a rock in the nearby canyon, so a sanctuary was built on the spot right away: on top of the gorge. Very interesting construction, guess if it was built 100 meter more to the left or right, would have cost much less, but would have been less authentic too, right...? So we stopped here for the night, slept in "Casa Pastoral" which is a hotel run by the nuns. The hotel rooms were converted from cells into rooms, so you can guess the size. Nice clean and cheap though, good for a holy rest before the 12-hour painful bus ride back to Cali. But for a good reason...

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