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Published: March 29th 2010
Had it not been for a few kayaking buddies from way back when, I dont think I ever would have left the Zona Cafetera. I certainly wouldnt be sitting here in Tena, Ecuador, whitewater kayaking the headwaters of the Amazon River. As the date of our upcoming rendezvous in Quito rapidly approached, I hopped an 8-hour bus ride from Salento to Popayán, breaking up the 24 hour trip from Zona Cafetera to Quito into 3 tolerable days.
Popayán is known as ´The White City´for its whitewashed city walls. The entire city plaza is stunningly absent of color, especially last week; Popayán is most famous for its Semana Santa, or Holy Week, processions. Last week the streets were rumbling under high scaffoldings as painters chipped, spackled, smattered, and refinished every wall in the city center in a dazzlingly bright absence of color to reflect the perfect whiteness a holy city should radiate. I would have tarried longer for the Catholic spectacle, but I had to keep moving.
Next stop: Ipiales, a sleepy border town with nothing terribly special to show for itself except the Santuario de las Lajas which should probably be the 8th wonder of the world. I havent formulated the words to describe my awe. I am not a diligent Christian, but the experience was moving, to say the least. Here is a link to a photograph of the sanctuary I ripped off another website:
I saw a lot more military check points south of Salento. Not surprising, as we are nearing the Amazons, which is where the FARC and other paramilitary groups like to hang out. I havent heard of tourists encountering any problems recently, and one guy I met who had been here working at NGOs for the last 7 years told me its very uncommon for the FARC to kidnap tourists... unless they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The border crossing into Ecuador was a little too easy. There was no bag check, no drug dogs, no armed militia interogating you for previous military service (thank god), etc. I simply crossed a little bridge on foot, got my passport stamped, and I was in Ecuador. Not exactly giving drug smugglers a hard time, are they?
Quito
is
huge.
We drove through the city for 40 minutes before reaching the bus terminal, then another 20 from there to the hostal. Its intimidating size kept me in for the night, that and the pain in my rear from all the bus riding. When I awoke I was surprised to hear dozens of birds chatting away in the palm trees in the plaza of our hostal. For a metropolitan area, Quito retains its lush, tropical ambience. I admired mossy vines and blushing orchids growing from tall fig trees (also known as ficus trees) as I lost my way a dozen times trying to find my friends´ hostal, but I finally arrived, and the four of us headed out for breakfast and sight-seeing.
Pete was just as I remembered him: tall, blond curly hair, sarcastic, and a face that is all chin and not enough of those sharp green eyes. The other two gentlemen I met for the first time: Daniel, a friendly, harmless skirt chasing pilot from Colorado, and Mark, a good old boy from Alabama and lifelong friend of Daniel's. I enticed them to accompany me to a basillica I´d been drooling over in travel brochures for the last few days, and the trip was rewarding. Besides being a stunning example of gothic architecture, the Basilica de Voto Nacional also features a literally breathtaking 6 flights of steep stairs followed by a walk across a sketchy wooden plank through the church ceiling. But wait, there´s more. At the end of said sketchy plank-walk there´s a rod iron ladder that leads to more rod iron ladders that take you to the first window of the church steeple. A spiral staircase followed by an outdoor iron staircase with steps no wider than four fingers leads to the upper steeple, and by now you are definitely saying your prayers, believe you me, especially since it happened to be raining that day and my life was kept in check by a now wet strip of metal and some shaky handrails. Its weird to think that of all my experiences on this trip, the scaredest Ive been was in a church. When we descended back to steady ground, all agreed that a beer or three was needed, and for the steep price of $6, we got a 5 course meal with a glass of wine to boot. But who has just one glass of wine at dinner?
In the morning, we picked up our gear and our faces off the floor and headed for the Amazon. More gorgeous mountains, rivers, lagoons, paramos, Dr. Seuss-like trees and plants, cloud forests, rain forests... you know, just another drive through Ecuador. We met our guide, Jaime, grabbed our boats, headed straght for the Quijos River. The Quijos is a solid class III with some possible IV rapids thrown in, and seeing as I havent been in a kayak in 4 years, I felt I was a bit over my head (no pun intended). The second rapid scared me straight out of my boat, but on the 4th rapid I got my combat roll back, flipped many times after that but was able to successfully recover. I highly recommend seeing Ecuador by boat. You descend to the bottom of the country in crystal green water, to the lowest parts of the beginning of the Amazon, where giant spiders hang on cave walls and orchids hang from 100m cliffs dripping with mosses, lichens, and ferns. Waterfalls cascade from rock ledges, and you can paddle under them and watch water fall in singular slow-motion drops from the top. Jaime says there are monkeys around, but I have yet to see one.
Yesterday we did some creek boating, which means more rocks to hit if you flip upside down... or thats what it means to me. It was a beautiful day, more waterfalls, orchids, weird-looking birds, and the water was a fun fast solid class III to IV minus. But after flipping a couple of times and dragging along the bottom of a creek, my back, knuckles, and right shoulder in particular told me to take today off and have some Ibuprofen and maybe a beer while Im at it. So that is what Im doing.
This entry is getting rather drawn-out, so I hope yáll have enjoyed it long enough to wade through the long-winded stories of peril, danger, and beer-drinking. I swear Im doing more than partying overseas, but some experiences are easier to describe than others. I have had dozens of interesting, meaningful conversations with both locals and travelers. I have eaten and drunk weird foods (next on the list is guinea pig, by the way), danced salsa and cumbia until sunrise, seen a shooting star from the peak of a snow-capped mountain in the Andes... how do I describe these events with the vividness and perspicacity they deserve? Maybe I should get someone else to write about them, like a ghost-blogger. I´ll see what I can find around here. Dont be surprised if my next blog is written in beautiful Spanish.
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Aurita
non-member comment
Ecuador
It rocks! I loved it! Have fun, chica!