Ecuador! Life at The Center of The World!

---

So, after spending 2 uneventful nights in Lima and a night in the hectic desert town of Piura we arrived tired and hungry in the tiny, rural town of Villcabamba (Ecuador) in search of a longed for bed at Hostal Rendezvous which promised home made bread, fresh coffee and a flower filled garden full of hammocks, but we were sent reluctantly on our way by the friendly proprieter. We were sent away with shuffling feet and hunched shoulders from 2 other warm and inviting, but full hostels. In the end, we paid a premium for a mediocre room in a grand looking hotel with a swimming pool that we were far too tired to swim in! We rose the next morning to discover that despite having to take out a small bank loan to pay the bill, the breakfast provided by the extortionately overpriced hotel was suitable only for a small rodent! We swiftly checked out and took a taxi to Cabanas Rio Yambala which are an hours walk from town. The taxi dropped us by an old wooden sign pointing to the cabins, we crossed a small river then took a series of winding, overgrown paths until we found a middle aged hillbilly dozing in his hammock, he seemed startled that we actually wanted to stay in his cabins! He rolled out of his hammock, fag in mouth and in a broad southern US accent showed us to a small wooden cabin on stilts, set among lush trees just above the river. When we asked our friend Charlie the hillbilly how much the accomodation was per night he seemed entirely flumoxed, gazing off into the middle distance for some time repeatedly exclaiming 'oh boy!' until he finally settled on a reasonable figure that we readily agreed to. The cabin was a little disused but had little wooden doors that opened right out into the trees where huge colourful butterflies and tiny humming birds darted about busily, it was the perfect place to sit in a hammock for an entire 2 days and read and this is exactly what we did!

After 2 days of relaxing we hopped on a bus to Cuenca. We were about an hour into this 4hour journey when we were stopped by a landslide ahead. The mudslide had torn through a rural school, taking chairs, tables, books and other debris with it, which were strewn accross the road in a flow of muddy water and rocks. None of the pupils seemed hurt, just covered head to toe in sticky, brown mud! The bus was forced to stop and wait for the road to be cleared, whilst we were waiting, news came in that several other big mud slides had happened behind us. We were trapped for 6 hours until the road ahead was cleared. Several local families resourcefully capitalised on the disaster by selling hot meals to stranded travellers. One small, grubby and grinning little girl of about 7years old was doing a roaring trade with a tin bucket full of fried goods! We eventually got moving (an exciting moment) and arrived in the beautiful city of Cuenca.

We spent 2 days in the meditaranian feeling city of Cuenca with it's terrocotta rooves and majestic domed churches. We then made our way to Latacunga, stopping for a night in the tiny village of Gaumote on the way. We spent a couple of hours in Latacunga's sprawling outside market, a hive of activity, sensations and colour featuring several characterful individuals who could pass for a variety of dried fruit! That afternoon, we boarded a local bus that bumped and jiggled us along dusty mountain switchbacks to the tiny, remote farming community of Insinlivi where we spent the night. We rose early and were provided with a banquet of a breakfast before saying farewell to our friendly host. We spent 5hours hiking through lush hills, around beautiful farmland, over gurgling rivers and up and down deep canons before arriving in the marginally larger village of Chugchillan. Unforntunately I was quite unwell during the night and didn't feel I could manage the 8hour hike so after being given a 'special' drink by the large, jolly lady in the kitchen we hitched a precarious ride on the top of a truck. The truck careered through beautiful forested countryside and around hairpin bends causing us to duck frequently to prevent ourselves from being hit in the head by passing trees. Sometime after we arrived in the freezing, dusty village of Quilotoa feeling like our insides had been severely re-arranged! We hiked down to the breathtaking Lago Quilotoa; a huge, turquoise lake set at the bottom of an impressive volcanic crater.

After spending one more night in Latacunga we travelled an hour up the road to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi. Unimpressed by the enormous amount of money we would have had to part with for a tour around the national park we decided to make our own way there. So...after half an hour of fruitless waving at cars and buses on the busy Panamerica we were finally picked up by a dentist who had a suit of armour and several swords in the back of his car (!). The kind (eccentric) dentist dropped us part of the way, we then walked a little before catching a taxi to the entrance of the park. Finding that it was miles from the entrance to anything of interest we hitched with a friendly group of Ecuadorians to the park's center piece, the huge, glacier encrusted Volcan Cotopaxi. We climbed up to the refuge, but not content with this we decided to climb up a sheer wall of scree to the snow line, an exhausting endeavour that left half the mountain in our shoes! We then slid/fell back down the volcano and into the car with our new Ecuadorian friends who gave us a lift back. We spent the evening soaking in the hostel hot tub and feeling a certain smugness that we had spent 5dollars seeing the national park rather than the proposed 70!

We have just spent 2 days in the drippy, cloud forest region of Mindo. We got up at 6am to go walking in the cloud forest (apparently early morning is the best time for wild life) and we weren't disappointed, we counted over 20 different species of bird, including 2 types of toucan! (Yes, we were excited by the birds, we will try hard not to don the beige waistcoat and hat that bird watchers seem favour!). On the way back we stopped at a butterfly research center where sugar water is left out for the humming birds; there were hundreds of these amazing creatures (some as little as 2cm long), moving through the air like insects, their tiny wings beating so fast you can hardly see them but just feel the displaced air. We also had the bizarre experience of having a bird sized butterfly taking a stroll on our faces!

We are now in Quito for a fleeting visit before we fly to Colombia tomorrow.

See you all in 3 weeks time!

---