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Published: August 24th 2006
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Thungurahua
at the time we visited this monster, it was "tranquillo", but a couple of days later it raised some villages from the map... 1. Two nights in Baños
Baños is the touristic attraction of Ecuador, where you can spend a lot of time and money and have a lot of fun. Our budget didn't allow us to go for rafting so we jumped that morning on mountain bikes to explore the beautiful surroundings of Baños which is dominated by the active Tungurahua vulcano. We arrived in the best weatherconditions and had the oportunity to admire the Tungurahuas beauty. A couple of weeks ago, this nature monster was the main item in many newsflashes all around the world, but now it is more relaxed again and the danger of evacuation or intoxication has been gone.
The morning of the mountainbiketrip started in rain and clouds, but we are diehards and dressed in short and a raincoat, we faced a trip of 20 kilometers through the valleys and with the waterfalls of Pailon del Diablo as final destination. The trip was amazingly beautiful, with lots of smaller waterfalls, tunnels, a couple of local communities and a few touristic atractions. Nothing spectacular happened, but we both enjoyed the environment a lot. The end of the trip was a walk to the Pailon del diablo, a spectacular
you can´t life without ....
Colas ( spanish for soft drinks)and Cerveza ( jip, a good pint of beer) waterfall, which is privat propertie of an Ecuadorian family. From the hanging bridge there is a great view. After some time of enjoying, we climbed up to jump into a truck that was waiting for mountainbiketourists. Inside the truck were already a couple of people and not much space left for us, so we accepted the challenge of sitting in the back of the open truck. It had stopped raining, but it was freezing cold. It was a nice experience, but I was happy to reached our next stop: a beauty and relaxation treatment. For only 5 dollar, we enjoyed a individual steambath, a healthy and cleaning mudface and a piece of fresh fruit in El Refugio. Where is the time that I spent a couple of hours in the sauna in Belgium to get rid of all the stress and to detox my body... This was so great! We spend more than 2 hours in this small and friendly centre where the guest was definetely treated as king and queen. We ended this day with a nice meal in a Restaurant Casa Hood, a place where vegetarians have more choice than meatlovers... And then, finally we found the way
to dreamland... after a long day full of satisfaction...
2. Quilotoa loop with start in Isinlivi
by marco After Baños we decided to go to Isinlivi. Isinlivi is a very small village in the highlands, almost in the middle of nowhere, with a few local houses and only one small shop that is also the bar of the village. As soon as we arrived we booked a room in the Llulu Llama Hostal, the only hostal and restaurant that you can find in this place. This hostal is managed by a very friendly girl from the Netherlands who made for us the best vegetarian food that we have tryed so far in this trip. And the breakfast was delecious too, even with homemade muesle and jam. It is a very cosy place with a "Chimenea" (chimney)in the living room and even with a wonderfull view of the Isinlivi landscape from the ecological toilet. What a pleasure !!!(to spend some time on the toilet)
But we didn't come to this place just for relaxation, so next day after our delicious breakfast we took our bagpacks and started a 5 hours trekking ( 7 hours including stops) to another
village called Chugchilan. The weather was perfect so we could enjoy during all our trekking the breathtaking landscape of the ecuadorian highlands. But we made a terrible mistake: we left the village with no food, no chocolates and just half liter of water !!!! for both of us !!! (we ate the chocolates during the night 😊). After 5 hours we didn't have more energy at all, our sugar level was too low and no more water left, even worst !! there were no shops at all in all the way and to reach the next village we had to climb up 600 meters. I headed to a local house looking for some biscuits for An but I was attacked by two dogs !!! Those bastards !! But with a stone in my hand I was able to escape from those beasts. Luckily we met another couple of tourist who shared with us one packed of chocolate biscuits and one loly pop, just enough to reach chugchilan after two hours.
Next day at 11am we took a bus from Chugchilan to the Quilotoa Lake, but we decided to add to this bus trip a bit of exitement, so
we choose to ride on the ruff of the bus !!! What a cool experience !!! We were able to enjoy the beautiful landscape with all its mountains and valleys without windows and with no much dust as inside the bus. But it was not that easy to ride on the ruff of the bus... we had to avoid lots of tree branches, electricity lines, water tubes, resist the almost freezing wind, specially when we were close to the lagoon, and even worst we were sitting on some metal bars that were almost raping us during the whole ride. But fortunately we survived to share this experience with all of you.
Oh yeah, and the Quilotoa Lake... Well... is nos just a lake, it is "The Lake", inside the crater of a huge nonactive volcano. And from this spot we could even see the peaks of the Illinizas and the Cotopaxi in the horizon. What an impresive view.
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RAFA
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I miss U my friend!
So... Greats moments together in Portugal... I can see that u r doing an excellent work with the third world people! Congratulations! I hoppe meet u one more time! If I will go to Europe again... we could... If U`d like come visit me in Amazonia! Be free! A big enbrance: RAFA from Brasil pradojus@hotmail.com Add me please...