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Published: September 10th 2010
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Ecuador itself is a rather small country compared to others in South America, and contrary to what i thought it would look like (hot, barren) it is very lush and green, with lots of mountains and volcanos and some truly gorgeous scenery. Its also very highly populated, most areas in south america you drive for hours before seeing any signs of civilisation, but Ecuador had signs of population everywhere.
So from Mancora we caught a bus across the Ecuador border and over into Guayaquil which is a big city, very westernised but very ugly looking. Best known as the jumping point to the Galapagos islands. Which unfortunately we could not afford to do (a few thousand just for an 8 day trip). We decided to go straight to the coast to a town called Montanita which we had been recommended by every traveller we had come across. Usually a good surf town, and supposed to have excellent night life. Unfortunately in the wrong season its quiet, but still pricey, verrrry touristy, and the few days we were there it rained pretty much non stop.
We did run into another kiwi couple though, that we had met on the Isla
del Sol in Copacabana - Sophie and Simon. So it was nice to have another couple to hang with, drink with, etc. We forked out more money to have a private room in a hotel so we managed to catchup on sleep, that was so easily deprived from Mancora.
After a couple of days though, with no sign of the weather clearing up along the coast at all, and not very good surf we decided we wouldnt continue up along the coast like originally planned, and instead bussed it to Banos. We had heard that Banos might still be evacuated from the active volcano erupting ash everywhere a couple of days previous - this of course only made us more eager to go there and get into the action.
Typically when we got to Banos, the town was back to normal, but you could still hear the volcano rumbling as frequent as once every hour. The rumblings were like mini earthquakes, shaking and growling for about 10 seconds each time. I timed one that went for 73 seconds in the middle of the night, it went for so long i started thinking maybe it was about to erupt!
haha.
Unfortunately we couldnt see the volcano At All. Even though Banos is set right at the base of the volcano, the cloud cover was so low and thick that you couldnt see anything past a certain height. It was funny though to see evacuation plan diagrams on big signs on every street corner, and posted in almost every shop.
The main attraction in Banos is that it is a good base to do a few adventure-sport activities, and obviously, there are the hot springs/baths. Unfortunately for us it rained the entire three days we were here, but we did hire a dirt bike for the day and ride around everywhere, checking out all the local attractions. Very beautiful country-side with lots of mountains, jungles, little waterfalls everywhere. It was a cute little town. And Hayden was in his element with the dirt bike, although I did hear a few moans and whinges about him missing his new Yami from home 😊
We ran into Sophie and Simon again on the side of the road - they were getting their exercise on with the mountain bikes (what fools, haha), and we were hooning past on the motorbike.
But, again, it was great to have company. We visited the best hot springs in town, which had the hottest pool I have ever been in. It was so hot i couldnt stay in it for more then 3 minutes, else i felt like passing out. It was also the first time in almost two months that we had stayed anywhere with a guest kitchen, and a decent supermarket with which to cook food. And cook we did. YAY.
After 3 days and mucho disappointment at not being able to physically see the volcano, we left Banos and went to Otavalo. Otavalo is another cute small town, but it is host to the biggest markets in the southern hemisphere every saturday.
We arrived on Friday evening, just in time for the markets. The next day was like shopping pahlooza for me. Hayden however took one look at the endless market stalls and ducked straight into the first place with a big screen tv showing the world cup. hahaha. I did manage to pick up a nice big canvas painting and a handbag, the rest was all touristy crafts. I would have loved to buy a couple of things,
but didnt fancy carrying them around for another 3 months backpacking. And a lot of the wood carvings hadnt been treated, so probably wouldnt have made it past postal customs. Doh.
We left Otavalo that afternoon after shopping and caught the bus to Quito. The bus drivers in Ecuador drive as if they are in the grand prix, and their buses are the latest ferrari models. Very scary indeed. Luckily there are not very big distances between each place in Ecuador.
We arrived in Quito in one piece, and found a decent hostel to crash in. We spent all of the next day sightseeing the town and checking out the equator line. The 'official' line recognised by the french some years ago, where the monument exists in Mitad Del Mundo is actually incorrect. Its quite funny to see this big monument and museums and displays for the incorrect equator line. But if you walk outside that complex to this quirky outdoor museum next door you find the actual equator line.
Boy did we have fun there. They have all sorts of little tests you can do to show you the effects that occur on the actual equator
line. Things like balancing an egg on a nail. And testing your strength and resistance north or south of the line, but directly on the line you have none. We also did test out that whole 'water drains in opposite directions' thing. And its so true. On either side of the equator line the water drains in opposite directions; but directly on the equator line the water just drops straight through without swirling in a vortex. Pretty cool stuff.
But aside from that great museum at the Equator line, Quito itself we found to be a rather ugly, not very interesting city. Its also supposed to be pretty dangerous with a high crime rate, although we made sure to stay in the safe areas.
Having seen everything we wanted to see in Ecuador, we left Quito after a couple of days and hopped on a bus to Colombia. More on that in the next blog.
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