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Published: April 12th 2008
New Cathedral of Cuenca
Its blue and white domes have become a symbol for the cityWe officially nominate Ecuador as the most underrated country in South America. We are actually doing it a huge unjustice by only writing one blog for the entire time we spent there, but we are now finally caught up (so you are reading this in real time). You have to know we really liked it, because despite an armed robbery, a brush with tetanus and some of the worst altitude-enduced hangovers imaginable (we spent the better part of our 3 weeks here in the highlands, at an elevation of 9000 ft.), it still managed to be one of our favorite countries. Usually John and I alternate writing each blog entry, but this week we're sharing. Just so you know.
We crossed into Ecuador at the Rio Verde border, allegedly the "sketchiest border crossing in South America," where taxi drivers and border officials try to rip off clueless gringos for big bucks. There are tons of guys offering to change your Peruvian soles for (most likely counterfeit) Ecuadorian dollars. Interestingly Ecuador is on the U.S. dollar, which was strange at first because we hadn't seen them for so long (there's new five dollar bills! What else have we missed?!) but nice
Alberto Pulla, master of the Panama hat
He is the sweetest man, we couldn´t resist buying a hat from him. for us because for once we didn't have to do any complicated math conversions, (though after talking with some people, we discovered that Ecuadorians aren't too happy about the dollarization, it makes the prices a lot more inflated, but it still seemed cheap to us). Anyway, we took an international bus that brought us straight across the border, so we had no troubles with the crossing.
Our first destination was the beautiful colonial city of
Cuenca, nestled in the sierra of the Andes. We were so impressed by this city that we decided to extend our stay from a couple nights to nearly a week. A geographically gorgeous location with perfectly preserved colonial architecture, we decided that this was by far the most beautiful city we had seen in South America. And unlike Cuzco, where the the town is falling apart outside the area where the tourists stay, all of Cuenca is picture-perfect and it doesn't feel set up for tourists (because it's not), it feels like a real city where people (ranging from fashionably dressed people of European-descent to Indigenous people in traditional clothing) work and live and aren't always trying to sell you a bunch of crap.
We actually decided that if we could do this trip over again, we would maybe choose to live in Cuenca over Buenos Aires for a couple of months (or maybe spend some extended time in both). With a population of 400,000 (versus BsAs' 12 mil) it is a better-sized city for us, and its beautiful, unbelievably affordable, there's lots of good food (though our favorite restaurants were Colombian food and NY Pizza by the slice, way better pizza than we ever had in "Italian influenced" BsAs btw), young people (there are eight universities), there are always things going on (they have a calender of free "cultural events" i.e. art shows and live music every day and night) and its surrounded by greenery with a gorgeous National Park right outside if you feel the need to get out of the city and go hiking or do outdoorsy stuff. It would be a great place to live and study Spanish.
We happened to be in Cuenca during Semana Santa, the holy week of Easter celebrated in Spain and its former colonies. Each night there was a different event, like sacred music in old cathedral (we went with our buddy Fernando
What says easter more?
Frosting in an ice cream cone - it was everywhere. I guess Easter Eggs and giant bunnies don´t make a lot of sense either. who ran our hostel Todos Santos to watch the orchestra and choir do Vivaldi, we are so culturally sophisticated), a religious procession, and a night where you are supposed to visit seven different churches (fairly easy because Cuenca has approximately 40 million) and eat a bunch of frosting and other sugary products. But at 8200 ft above sea level the sugar and (imported Chilean boxed) wine didn't mix and Easter Sunday was spent laying in bed with a throbbing headache.
After the holiday, we headed to
Baños, a little town situated in a valley of waterfalls and hotsprings at the base of the very active Tungurahua Volcano. Though the town itself isn't much to look at, the surrounding area is beautiful. We spent one day hiking in the hills overlooking the city and another on mountain bikes, which was awesome. Mostly downhill biking, so not too difficult, and we spent the day riding through the valley past waterfall after waterfall. At one point, there is a cable car that you can take across the river and over one of the falls to the other side, its how locals who live on the other side transport stuff, and we decided
to take a ride...it went so fast that it was pretty terrifying, especially for someone with a fear of heights, but it was quite the adrenaline rush. Pretty cool. And at the end of the day, we got to relax our muscles in the outdoor hot springs at the base of a waterfall, definitely the most scenic hot springs we have been to.
That night, after our nightly ritual of watching a free movie at Good Cafe, I (Sarah) stepped on a nail and it went through my sandal. Did I get a tetanus shot before coming here? I'm pretty sure I did, but at the time I wasn't 100% sure (maybe it was a TB shot? No, I'm pretty sure I got one, but we wanted to be on the safe side) so we walked to the town hospital, open 24 hours, and the Doctor paused his videotape of "Epic Movie II" to clean out my wound and give me a prescription for some antibiotics (in case of infection) and a tetanus shot. Cost of the emergency room visit? $0 dollars. Then to the pharmacy where I got my medicine...including a syringe wrapped in a plastic. Was I
Spa day in Banos
Steam baths, then freezing cold water, then steam again. Great for the skin supposed to administer this shot to myself? You know John wasn't about to do it. I asked the pharmacist if she could do it for me and stuck out my arm. She smiled and politely told me, "No...not there." So I went behind the counter and pulled down my pants so she could inject my tush with a tetanus shot. Interesting experience. Unfortunately this whole experience meant that I couldn't return to the hot springs the following day, for fear of infection, but we still got to have a little spa day at our hostel, Hostal Chimenea. We each got inside of a big wooden box, everything covered except for our heads, and chatted with friendly owner Carlos, while hot steam cleansed our bodies. Every 10 minutes or so, we would get out and Carlos would spray us with freezing cold water, and then we would return to the hot steam. So relaxing.
John's turn: Newly exfoliated and detoxified, we headed north from Baños to celebrate Sarah's birthday in the town of
Latacunga (about two hours south of the capital city Quito). It wasn't the best birthday she has ever had. Latacunga is the kind of town that few
Finally, a bus with chickens on top!
That doesn´t look too comfortable. Zumbahua Westerners would ever want to stay at. There is nothing particularly wrong with Latacunga, there just isn't a whole lot right about it either. An equivalent trip would be coming from Europe and making a visit to Stockton, CA. Why? I'll tell you why. Latacunga is the jumping of point for a trip to the emerald green crater lake called Laguna Quilatoa. Laguna Quilatoa is considered one of the most beautiful sights in all of Ecuador, but few people ever get to see it because it is somewhat difficult to get to.
The bus ride from Latacunga to Laguna Quilatoa illustrates an interesting societal difference between countries like Ecuador and the United States. Promptness, what's that? Sticking to a schedule, HA! We had to wake up pretty early to catch an 8 AM bus, and when we arrived at the bus station, we where told the bus is now leaving at 9am. Fantastic! So many things to do in Latacunga for an hour at 8 AM. Anyway, we arrived back at our bus around 8:50. The bus did not leave the terminal until about 10 AM. You know why? Because the bus driver didn't think there were enough people
on the bus yet. Usually we go with the flow, but we where annoyed because we knew we had an uncomfortable 3.5 hour bus ride ahead of us as well as the return trip (not many places to stay in the indigenous village of Quilatoa) and a two hour bus ride from Latacunga to Quito once we returned. Two hours later than when we were supposed to leave, we left the terminal, yes! No. About 300 meters (we're on the metric system now, it really does make more sense) from the terminal, we stopped again. Apparently the bus driver still didn't think we had enough people, so we waited at a busy intersection for another 45 minutes, I hope nobody had a job interview or an important date. Finally we left Latacunga, but 20 minutes into the 3.5 hour bus ride, the bus decided to stop for 20 minute lunch break (its now 11:30, the hour we were supposed to arrive at Laguna Quilatoa). After that it was pretty much smooth sailing, except the fact that we almost died about 10 times.
Unlike the state-of-the-art buses of Argentina and Chile, who rarely drive faster than 50 mph on straight
freeways, the ramshackle buses of Ecuador drive about 65mph on one lane roads with no shoulder, just a cliff with a 2000 ft drop (oops, I mean 650 meters) to keep you safe. This is the one thing that really bugs me about Ecuadorian bus drivers, they completely ignore the departure hour and waste hours trying to get people on the buses, no hurry. Once they depart, however, the drive like mad-men to make up for lost time. These bus rides are no joke, you could die at anytime, and the drivers seem to want to drive the fastest when there is only about a foot separating the bus from the afforementioned cliff, go figure. Wow, this is quite a detailed account, sorry about that. Long story short, we got to Laguna Quilatoa around 2:30, 3 hours later than planned. We were told if we took the 8am bus to Quilatoa, we could take the 2pm bus back to Latacunga, except our bus was the 2pm return bus, how does that work? Without going into too much detail, the return trip was equally long and equally terrifying.
Laguna Quilatoa was incredible, one of the most beautiful things we have
yet seen. A gigantic crater surrounded by a lush and jagged outer rim. On the bus, we had decided that this trip would not be worth it, no matter how beautiful the lake may be. Once we had a chance to look around a bit, we quickly changed our minds. The crater is really deep, the cliffs really steep and the water was an amazing shade of green. Locals told us it was that color because of the rain...how come we don't have green rain?
That night we arrived in
Quito, perhaps the best preserved colonial city in South America. It also has one of the worst repuations for crime in South America. You try to make every place you go special, after all, you're on a once-in-a-lifetime trip and you know pretty soon you will be back home working again. That said, we didn't love Quito. The city does have some nice colonial architechture, but it doesn't compare with Cuenca or Cuzco. I would say that Quito's reputation as a colonial gem is a bit misleading. It has more quantity than quality, no too much to inspire awe. One expection would be the gothic Basillica de Quito. This
Plaza Grande
Old town Quito was our favorite building in Quito. For $2, you can climb to the top of it. Its pretty scary, lots of narrow, straight up ladders hundreds of feet about the city streets. The views at the top are spectacular, you can see the colonial Old Town and the cosmopolitan New Town.
New Town Quito is an interesting place, a stark contrast to the cobblestone streets of colonial Quito. This area, known as GringoLandia, is where most of (you guessed it) the gringo stay. It is very trendy with bars and restaurants everywhere. Coincidentally, this is one of the most dangerous areas of the city. We found this out first hand as we were mugged in broad daylight after being in the New Town for about 45 minutes. Welcome to Quito John and Sarah! Three men and a 2 year old girl (no joke) held us up with a metal shank, we only gave them $2 (I had hidden pockets sewn into my pants for Brazil, never carry a wallet) but the experience was kind of traumatic. For that reason we were a little paranoid when we went out and maybe did not give Quito a fair chance, as that
experience kind of cast a shadow over the city. Speaking of shadows over the city, it rained without fail everyday in Quito, everyday in Ecuador for that matter. Come to think of it, it rained nearly everyday in Brazil and Peru as well, not much you can do (fortunately, the rain has an excellent sense of timing, usually only in the afternoon and evenings).
Our best day in Quito was spent at the Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. We had a blast hopping back and forth across the equator and taking goofy photos. The Inti Nan Solar Museum next door (supposedly the
real sight of the equator, determined with GPS technology) was really cool, with interactive demonstrations, like balancing eggs on nails over the equator and showing how water flows different directions down a drain on either side of the equatorial line. Scientists say this stuff is fake, but I don't know how they could fake it. We were impressed. And at long last, it was time to move on.
We stayed too long in Quito for one reason. We had to plan our travels around the Saturday Market in
Otavalo, a small, indigenous town
More pigs
Otavalo animal market that has the most famous market in South America.
After another three hour drive of terror (a highlight being the time our bus passed 4 semi trucks on a blind, uphill turn, also with a 1000 meter cliff on the right), we arrived in Otavalo. For some reason or another, the indigenous people of Otavalo have been very successful commercially while maintaining some key aspects of the their culture. They are the most economically successful indigenous group in South America Otavalenos have a very unique way of dressing. The women wear long skirts and beautiful white blouses with gold colored beaded necklaces. The men all have braided pony tails, wear black vests and short white pants with sandals. Not much to say about the market itself, except that it is HUGE, and you can get some great deals on anything under the sun. Otavalo also has an animal market early Saturday morning. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 6am to go check it out. Thousands of people were there trading and selling livestock. It was mostly pigs and sheep. Some of the pigs were the size of bears and really aggressive. We learned the reason behind the expression
"squealing like a pig." Sarah almost got mauled by an angry male which make an even scarier sound. It was a mine field of animal shit--sandals were a bad decision.
On final highlight of Ecuador was our climb up the 4,280 meters (13000 ft.) Fuya Fuya mountain. Fuya Fuya means clouds in Quichua because the mountain is usually blanketed with them. We lucked out and had a very clear day. On the 3 hour ascent we made friends with our young guide and got to practice a lot of spanish. We learned words like summit, slippery, and various phrases for falling down a 13000 ft mountain. The climb up was difficult but nothing too technical and the views were some of the best we have seen. The final march towards the summit was kind of sketchy (Sarah kept us going when I wanted to stop), but we made it up with only a few scratches.
From Otavalo we take a series of buses to the Colombian border. Colombia, our final country in South America, was a place we never thought we would step foot in. Too dangerous, right? However, we met so many travelers who hailed it as
their favority country, that we had to give it a look. We were hesitant to tell our family that we were going to Colombia, but decided that they should know where we are in case we get kidnapped by FARC guerillas. Wish us luck.
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