Ecuador Blog 2 Banos, Quito, and Quilatoa

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We spent another few days in Banos taking in the countryside and friendly people, there was a independence festival in Quito (capital of Ecuador) starting on December 1st so we took the bus there, Quito was pretty expensive by South American standards, and not the nicest city we've ever been to it was meant to be dangerous after 10 in the evening and was a busy thriving town and rather disappointingly the festivities weren't properly kicking off for a few days! After 2 days (and visiting the important museums and churches) we decided we'd had enough and headed back to Banos whee we started Spanish school 4 hrs of lessons a day (and about the same in homework!) and living with our teacher Elizabeth. We were very lucky in that Banos was also celebrating 50 years of independence and to mark this every day there was at least one sort of celebration, be it, street parades, downhill bike races, marching bands, car rallys, wooden car races, extreme sports competitions, (skateboarding, and bmxing), famous Ecuadorian singers in the Church and large band performances by night in the market, we were very lucky to arrive just as the festivities were starting not knowing that any celebrations would be taking place before we arrived!! We studied for just over 2 weeks, lots of homework in the evenings followed by talking Spanish to Elizabeth normally for 4 or 5 hours on top of lessons, was hard work being away and studying but seems to be well worth while as our Spanish is now much better - with most people who talk to us understand what we are saying and vice versa! The history of Banos was very in interesting with it being founded in the 17th century it the most odd place for a town really in the middle of the Andes close to the Amazon basin but with mountains surrounding the whole of the city and there being a very large volcano less than 5 miles away peculiar that it was founded. Being the strong Catholic nation there is a magnificent church in Banos and is quite famous all over Ecuador, in 1959, the handyman of the church saw Mary on one of the mountains, once news got out they created a statue of Many one for the church and one for the mountain and ever since she has saved the town numerous times, the latest being1999, when Tungurahua (5000mtr volcano) erupted sending larva and boulders down the river canyon, luckily no harm came to Banos or the surrounding towns as the river canyon is huge at least 100mtrs deep! There wasn't even any ash damage in the town. Mary had saved the city again! The view from Mary on the mountain was stunning we walked up just before sunset one evening and saw the beautiful views of the Volcano Tungurhua, also close to Banos there was a zoo, the last zoo we visited was Singapore which is one of the best zoos in the world so we were dubious of how good Banos zoo was to be - what a surprise!! It was very well stocked and the animals were very happy with plenty of room!! We saw the Galapagos tortoise which can live to be 200 years old and huge! They weigh around 225kgs!! (about 35 stone!), and lots of other south American animals!

After 2 weeks with Elizabeth we moved onto our next destination being the Quilatoa Loop (an out of the way high altitude rarely visited string of villages), and the first the town of Quilatoa 3900mtrs (about 2 miles!!) a very small town (100 people) and not much else except a beautiful sulphur lake in an extinct volcano, it is very similar to Ijen Plateau we visited in Java - Indonesia last year, feel very lucky to have seen 2 of these beautiful natural phenomenons - it was very beautiful we walked down to the sulphur lake which was a good hour down starting at 6.30 am watching the sunrise and missing the cloud that forms at midday, the walk back up was hard work!! At these altitudes there really is hardly any oxygen in the air!! There is a big indigenous market in a nearby town Zumbahu on Saturdays and luckily or stay co-incided so we went along - what an experience! Lots and lots of livestock there, and not so alive!! Chickens running loose, pigs tied to lamp-posts, old men dragging squealing pigs down the road, Llamas and Donkeys being sold, Cows heads for sale, and plenty of sheep and Llama skin!! We headed back into the big town straight after to do some business on the internet and go to the bank, once you are on the Quilatoa loop you are at least 5 hrs from an ATM!! Quilatoa is at 3800mtrs (about 2 miles) high and at that elevation the temperature is pretty nippy!!! In the day we were wearing a vest, long sleeved t-shirt and coat! (basically all of our clothes at the same time!!!) and by night it was even chillier, luckily we had a room at a (very basic) hostel with a wood burning stove which the indigenous lady lit for us around 8pm to warm our room up whilst we had dinner! We spent 2 days here it was so peaceful - no cars - no internet - no hot water (no cold water even at our hostel!!) nothing! And at night the sky filled with thousands of sparkling stars, we have never seen so many in our lives - there was not a sound in the air it was lovely to be so close to nature! Our next stop on the loop was Chugchilan even smaller than Quilatoa, what a beautiful place again to stay, right in the middle of nowhere - again! Unfortunately the rain stalled any walks we had planned but was nice views from our room, the next day we took the milk float to the next town stopping to collect peoples milk from the side of the road in any containers they had going from coca cola bottles, aluminum milk urns and old plastic buckets filling up the water-but on the milk float and then selling onto people who wanted for 1 dollar a litre. Then the bus to the bigger town Latacunga and then another bus which dropped us off on the panamerican highway (long road which gos through all South American countries) then was a steep half kilometer walk uphill in the rain to our country retreat Papa Gayo in the proximity of Cotopaxi. Tomorrow we are going up to the glacier of Cotopaxi and cycling down, the highest point is 4300mtrs!! Hope everyone is well and a Merry Christmas to all! We shall probably be in Mindo in Ecuador for Christmas which boasts a subtropical climate and has a large array of birds and orchids!

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