Turning it up in Taocazo

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again for more photos see Katie´s flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/katierob

The difference between Colombia and Ecuador for two neighbouring countries, who share quite a common history, is stark. Colombia for all its fincas and coffee plantations really remains quite urban with localized regions of high population and vast areas of mountains, valleys and rivers with not more than a few scattered houses about the place. Ecuador in contrast seemed to optimise the word rural with all but the very largest cities still largely revolving around their respective weekly markets. But although it was much less developed than Colombia it really seemed that every inch of the country as populated and cultivated. So even though it has a proliferation of volcanoes and mountains over 4000 -5000m they appeared gentle and tame (or should that be tamed?) with cattle grazing right up to the snow line. These were certainly not the wild Andies of my imagination.

Our first stop was the famed market town of Otavalo said to have the largest artesian market in Ecuador. Actually every market in Ecuador seems to be the largest of its kind in some way whether the largest indigenous or largest Monday market. It was also the first Gringo trial town I had hit since Rio. While this often means more hassle, more touts, more beggars, obnoxious package tourists and in the worst cases a complete bastardisation of local culture, I was damn glad to get some descent western food for once and particularly good vegetarian fare. The staple plate of the day, basically meat and two veg, was starting to wear a bit thin! Otavalo though was a great town to hang about. The famed market was a brightly coloured knitwear labyrinth and more than a few times I turned around to find that Katie or Kate or both had disappeared into a sea of hats, scarves, shawls, blankets and ponchos and at times I even began to doubt my own ability to get out alive. The next morning Katie and I arose early to check out the local animal market again famed for its size. To me this felt like a real rural market. It had no stalls or pens just a single field packed with cows, pigs, sheep and llamas (although we were too late for those). Inside the field hundreds of people milled about, dressed in their pork-pie hats and ponchos or dark blue saris and white lace, causally stricking up deals as they went. Walking through was like navigating a mine field of rearing cows, squealing pigs refusing to budge and the inevitable shit that graced the ground. It was really a feast of the sensors and amazingly fun to watch in the soft morning mountain light.

That afternoon Katie and I headed to Quito and into the southern hemisphere for the first time in 2 months. This maybe a nerdy statement to make but it makes a good segway into the next part which by the way gets a whole lot more nerdy! On the Sunday we headed just north of Quito to the monument ¨Mitad del Mundo¨ which makes the exact point of the equator and the first place that it was located. I have to say that I even surprised myself (not to mention Katie) at how much I enjoyed walking along or jumping from side to side of the ¨line¨. But soon Katie also embraced the geekiness of it all, well at least until the point where I suggested we weigh ourselves on the equator. (You are actually up to 4 kg lighter on the equator due to the earths bulge!) After a little while though the novelty of it all did wear thin and on a cold wet day with scientology esque music playing for the planeteum the place suddenly took on a very creepy persona and we quickly left.

Contrary to popular western opinion traveling though South and Central America I have always been struck by the length that locals will go to, to look out for Gringos and make sure they avoid any possible trouble. On our way out to the ¨Mitad del Mundo¨ we got on the local bus in central Quito and paid 50 cents each. After sitting down a local guy, maybe 30, found out and told us that we should have only paid 25. The old lady sitting in front of him over heard this and then with unabated outrage started having a go at the bus driver until he finally returned the ill gotten money. News of this soon spread around the bus and from there on out we had an escort of 20 odd outraged people ensuring that we made it the rest of the way out without further incidence. It became quite a scandal on the bus and new comers were quickly informed as to what happen. To be perfectly honest though I really did enjoy the fuss!

Before leaving Quito we meet with Kate again for one last dinner before we headed our different ways. Kate deciding that the mountains weren’t really her thing headed back to the beach and Katie and I down to the Quilitoa loop and small town rural Ecuador. We had to first head to Latacunga were we planned to spend the night but upon arriving we found the town so uninspiring that we were forced to leave immediately! We wanted to get to the small town of Isinlivi but it was already late in the afternoon and we were at least a couple of hours by bad road away. Not sure where we would end up we hoped aboard the first bus going in the general direction and when this terminated in the next town we got a cab as far as we could afford to take it. In the end we were still an hour or so short of our destination but found ourselves just outside of the small town Taocazo in a beautifully set farm homestead. Really it was just so nice to be out of cities and back in the country again after what seemed like weeks. Walking around the area the next day we passed a small school with music playing loudly from with in and decided to have a peak in. One of the teachers though saw us and came running over but to our surprise asked if we wanted to come in and watch. It turned out to be the local school dance comp with different teams of boys and girls performing their routines, in traditional poncho and sari dress. We sat and watched for an hour or so, although we began to get about as much attention as the dancers themselves. The performances were great but you could see how school kids are the same the world over. A few of them took it very seriously but most only did enough to prevent themselves from looking stupid while at the same time trying desperately not to show any enthusiasm.

The bus we finally took to Isinlivi, although being the most direct, took us along a high bumpy windy mountain path and took twice as long as expected. I had started to feel worse for wear after my scrambled egg breakfast, not helped by the ride, and when the bus hit a bog in the road we decided we needed out and hiked the rest of the way to the village. We did beat the bus there but it retrospect was not such a great idea ultimately culminating in me having a vomiting fit seconds after we arrived at our hostel. Our hostel the ¨Llullu Llama¨ (baby llama) was an amazing eco-friendly place set on the side of a hill, overlooking a gorgeous valley and which had a great homeliness to it. It was run by a lovely Dutch lady who grew her own veggies and was obviously very active within the town and the neighbouring communities. Although it was hard to fully appreciate in my state, if there were ever a place to be sick in South America this would have to be it. I should also mention here the fantastic job Katie did at looking after a somewhat mournful me.

In desperate need of a good walk and terrified at the prospect of catching a bus out of this village we decided to hike to the next town, Chugchilan, when we left Isinlivi a couple of days later. It was a gorgeous hike, made a bit easy by our pack horse Niño, over a couple of ridges and down a steep river valley but as we found out there is no such thing as an easy walk to a neighbouring village in Ecuador. Although still in gorgeous surroundings we didn’t much like Chugchilan and for the first time in Ecuador nor did we much take to its people. We had been pre-warned about this and that this part of the loop had long been a main stay on the gringo trail, resulting unfortunately in what seemed like a deep resentment within the local population. After just a night there we made or way to the Quilitoa crater lake but greeted mainly by drunk locals we decide that we too had now had enough mountains and headed straight for the Pacific.

Lowland ¨Latino¨ Ecuador was a completely different world from the indigenous Andies and it was hard to image that such distinct regions existed within the same country. The coast was a return to the barren dry landscape we had left on the Colombia Caribbean but we found a beautiful oasis in Hostel Mandala in the fishing village of Puerto Lopez. This was another amazing eco-friendly place that did a huge amount of work protecting whales on their year migration north. Our days returned to their previous lazy ways with morning swims, big lunches and beers and cocktails at sunset. It was a quite a splurge for us but one we really need. On an evening stroll up the beach at sunset I finally saw my first Hawks Bill Turtle but unfortunately not in the circumstances I would have wished. Looking old and tired it had come up on the beach to die. Several attempts to return it to the water had been made but it was just not interested. Laying completely still except for a few occasional last gasps for air we watched it for ages until a group of local fat women came up and kicked it to see if it was alive. It was obvious that a turtle like this was quite a find and although on the one hand I respected the idea of it being recycled and going to feed a lot of people (hopefully not just these fat ladies), I was furious that it was not given the respect to die in peace. I tried standing around and defending its honour but eventually I had to concede that I could not stand there all night. Feeling defeat and sad for the turtle I eventually left scowling at the women as I went.

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Photos

Local sunday afternoon volley ball match
Volley ball seems to have taken over from soccer as the national Ecuadorian Andian sport theory has it because everyone got feed up with climbing down the deep gorges to fetch the ball