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Published: June 15th 2007
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Ecuador...
Words can´t describe the amazing scenery, simple beauty and unique lifestyle and culture these people live by. It is untouched and trully a travellors ¨chocolate mud cake¨....
The Pichincha tribe are the origional people to settle in ecuador like the Inkas are to Peru wars between the tribes were eventually settled by a Pichincha princess marrying a Inka prince.. and there we have a solution to that problem!!!
Quito is a city buried in a valley with towering snowcapped mountains as a backdrop to cobble stone streets and funny little men and women dressed in ponchos, hats and little shoes selling freshly deep fried empanadas dripping with oil..but .. oh so good!
There are two main parts to Quito, old Quito and the Mariscal area which is also known as ¨Gringo land¨ where are the bars and clubs are. Gringo being the common terminology for anyone thats not Ecuadorian and you dont need to open your mouth for them to know!!!!
Old Quito is very similar to the small streets of Europe, however at the same time vastly diferent. Poverty is prevelant its not uncommon to see children in the streets begging for money or
trying to sell fake flowers. One little girl in particular who would not be more than 6 with a 6 month old baby on her back wrapped in a shawl tied around her body spends her days walking the streets trying to sell fake flowers or begging for food and returning to her mother with her collection, we have seen her from 10 in the morning to 2 in the morning wandering the streets and her home is a street corner a few blocks away from the main tourist area, where her mother and her other sibling lives.. i say sibling as they are so dirty and young its hard to tell if the child was a boy or a girl. Another little girl barely 4 yrs old on the streets efficiently organising her little box of lollies in an attempt to make them as presentable to foreiners as possible was probably one of the most demoralizing images I will take with me from Quito. No matter how prepared you are its difficult not to shed a tear for the pure sorrow you feel for the situation. It brings to your attention how lucky you are, more so than any
tv footage can prepare you for or can have the same impact as scenes like this have in reality.
We visited a small town 3 hours away from Quito called Banos for 3 days which is amouse for its thermal baths. The bath is at the bottom of a waterfall with once again the picturesque mountains in the background as you soak up the minerals. We also took a few friends from Quito with us,.. will, tom and tom and met some fantastic irish friends!!.. oh and managed to fit some white water rafting in.. level 4 rapids!! great fun!!!!!!!!
Equador is on the Equatoral line commonly known here as Mitad del Mondo, middle earth. The Inan museum being where the ¨real¨ line is apparently, but hard to dispute when shown some very tricky little demonstations of how the forses effect things on the north and south fo the line. One thing that was interesting is they had a small tin trough on legs with water in it, a hole in the bottom and a bucket underneath. On the equatorial line the water in the trough fell straight down into the bucket with no swirl to the left
or right. however when they picked up the same trough and placed it 2 meters from the line and placed the same water in the trough, unplugged the hole the water drained in opposite directions respectively on either side of the line in the north and south of the equator.....interesting!!??!?!
We have started spnich lessons and moved from our hostel accomodation to our humble abode further away from the city in a more suburban area. The sisters we are staying with are more than welcoming and a big busty hug when we met them was more than we expected! Pictures of our accomodation highlight that this experience is by a far one of the most humbling and as my father may call it ¨character building¨ experiences on this trip so far. ... and we thought cold showers in the hostels was about as bad as it would get... im sure this is the first of many!!!. With a bright sunny stream of light through our rather large window as our 6am wake up call, traditional latino music flowing freely through the doorless house and 8.30 am breakfast .. theres no rest for the wicked in this house hold!!
Mountaineering and climbing as an addiction in Ecuador. Quito is surrounded by 12 volcanos most of which are active and one which is expected to erupt in the next 50 yrs and bury quito never to be seen again. When a local is asked how they can live with this fear the response is a govial, nothing to worry about last time ´she´ erupted it was on the other side... not Quito side!!.. no worries!!.. a bit of ash doesnt hurt!! ..
So far weve climbed mount Rucu which is 4600feet above sea level. To put this into perspective mount bulla is 1805.
Stats.
High 2,500 to 4,000 metres
Very High 4,000 to 5,500 metres
Extremely High and over 5,500 feet
There above 25% less air at 4400feet than in quito and quito is at 3000 feet so breathing is quite hard until you aclimatise.. but the views are incredible!!!.. worth it!!. By the time we got close to the top we were in the clouds and it was approx. 4 degrees and snowing!!. Great experience.
Anyway I think thats enough from me. Check out the photos and il be checking back in after the amazon which we
are of to in a week!!!
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cathy mclaughlin
non-member comment
great reading
Hi Mel, really enjoying reading all about your travels, feel we are there with you. Lots of love, Angus, Anne, Lily and Cathy