Travelling around Ecuador Part 1

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I started this blog entry over a month ago now with ambitious plans to cover all of my travels around Ecuador in one post. Now I realise that I need to break it down into smaller chunks or I may never publish again. Hopefully I can gradually catch up over the next few days, weeks, months, years...

Day 80 - Saturday 19th November - Cotopaxi

Another early start - this time to walk up a volcano. (Well actually we were driven most of the way up and only had to walk the last little bit, which was just as well at an altitude of 4500m+) This was a trip organised by the school. Fortunately it was getting back in good time for me to head on to the hotel to catch up with Matthew who arrived in the afternoon. We met at the school at 7am and headed out along the avenue of Volcanoes. I got to know this route well during my time in Ecuador but I never got tired of it. When we first saw the volcano there was smoke coming out of the top of it, but we headed on anyway. We had a brief stop at the entrance to the park to pick up a guide. At the entrance to the park there are lots of pine trees, which are not native to the area. However as you start to climb the trees die out and the landscape gets increasingly barren. We saw wild horses and old lava streams on the way up. There was also great red rock.

Finally we stopped in a car park and completed the last bit of the climb on foot. It was quite an easy walk but the altitude made it slow. At the top was the welcome sight of a refuge with hot chocolate. It turned out you could also get a stamp in your passport but unfortunately I hadn't brought mine with me. Once we had recovered, we headed out again and were very fortunate to get some great views of the top of the volcano. There were lots of clouds scurrying across but every now and again they cleared. We weren't able to go right up to the glacier because of the volcanic activity! Most of us took the more direct route down the mountainside back to the bus which was more or less straight down (and some people were inexplicably walking up! - one in bare feet!)

On the way out of the park we stopped at a lake which was overlooked by a second volcano. It was also a good spot to get better photos of the wild horses. On the way back to the city, we stopped off for a late lunch in a mountainside village not far from the one I would chose to live in. There were two llamas on site too who we befriended after we had eaten. One final stop was made on the way back to try some of the best ice cream in Ecuador (according to our host from the school).

We were back in Quito in good time and I arrived at my new accommodation shortly after Matthew had got there so that all worked out well. The hotel we stayed in was near the Old Town which I was looking forward to as I didn't really spend that much time in that part of the city while I was studying. In the evening we had a short walk around the Old Town (which turned out to be just as well), I ate and then we decided on an early night to recover from my early start and Matthew's long flight.

Day 81 - Sunday 20th November - The Basillica and Mitad del Mundo (again!)

The plan for Sunday morning was to get up and go to church. We started well and were out of the hotel early enough that we were only going to be slightly late for the 8:30 service, but things went wrong when it came to getting on the tram. It was busy and, while I (after years of training on the Underground in London) managed to elbow my way on, Matthew did not and was left stranded at the stop. I decided to get off at the next stop in the hope that he would get on the tram behind and catch me up. I waited for several trams to go by but there was no sign of Matthew; so in the end I thought he must have waited at the first stop so I walked back. Still no sign of Matthew. I was rapidly running out of options, especially as I didn't have my phone with me for fear that it may get stolen. I sat down near the first stop to contemplate my next step as the realisation that I had lost Matthew, who spoke limited Spanish and did not know the city, only a few hours into his visit.

Eventually (having walked back and forth between tram stops one more time) I decided to go back to the hotel and try to call him. This is what I did but again it was a fruitless exercise. (I discovered later that Matthew had also left his phone at the hotel as a precaution.) The hotelier had been a little surprised to see me back so soon after having left in the morning, and without my friend. I explained to him what had happened. He was dry sympathetic and said the same thing had happened to him and his wife when they had first moved into the historic centre from the south. He very kindly offered to come out with me and look for Matthew while his wife stayed at the hotel and promised to phone if he turned up there. The guy from the hotel and myself headed back out into the streets of Quito and ended up taking the tram all the way to the final stop, one on each side looking out at the street to see if we could spot him. It was as we were contemplating our next move that we received a phone call from the lady at the hotel to say that Matthew had turned up safe and sound there. It turned out that he had assumed I would carry on to church and he had used his memory of the route we had taken the previous evening to do some solo exploring.

So fortunately it all ended well and we were back on the tourist trail. First we walked to the Basillica and I climbed those steep steps again for another stunning view over the city. Then we hopped on the bus and made our way North to the Equator. Our visit was very similar to the one that I had done a few weeks earlier. However when we arrived at the second museum, the museum were just starting a mannequin challenge. We got to be part of the action and can be seen in the video that they posted on their Facebook page. The tour at the second museum was also a bit different this time. We were given a lot more information about how some of the local tribes used to live and our guide was more honest about some of the tricks that were performed as part of the tour. I learnt two important things on this day. Firstly, the location of the equator shifts over an area of about 5km, so both sites that I have been to can legitimately claim to be the location of the equator. Secondly, the water spiralling down the drain in different directions on different sides of the equator is a myth. This is a source of great disappointment to me; although it is a good model of how wind swirls in different directions either side of the equator.

In the evening we went down to the area in the south of the historical centre famed for its nightlife. It turns out that the centre of Quito is pretty much dead on a Sunday night, although it was pretty. We did manage to find one bar open where we picked up a drink and a bit of food to keep us going until the next day.

Day 82 - Monday 21st November - Quito Historic Old Town / On to Banos

On Monday we did a very thorough tour of the historic old town in Quito. We were very lucky with the weather as we had a beautiful clear and sunny day. This meant that when we climbed things we got excellent views of the snow capped volcanoes around the city. Monday was also a good day to explore as this is the day that they change their guards at the house where the President lives. We got to see both the President and the Vice President on the balcony of the building, along with many other dignitaries. It was nice to see the politicians get positive reaction from the crowd. The Vice President seemed particularly popular. Apparently he's running for President in the elections later this year. (Campaigning had just begun in the country at this time and another friend of mine had come across a lively and colourful demonstration in favour of another candidate a few days earlier.) I saw a changing of the guard in Lima a few years earlier and was expecting something similarly low key. However it was a far grander affair and proof that you can have plenty of pomp and circumstance even if you don't have a monarchy. There was a band, marching and soldiers on horses. They even sang the National anthem and presented the various dignitaries who were on the balcony to the crowd, explaining who they were. I couldn't understand all of it but I know that one of the women was there because it was domestic violence awareness month and she worked for an organisation that supported victims of d.v. There was also a group of school children who had been invited to be present and had seats with the best views. However they had had to sit in the hot sunshine in full uniform. Fortunately one sensible teacher did say they could take off their blazers in the end.

Before the changing of the guard we explored the free exhibition space nearby and discovered that it had good views of the city too. This was our first sighting of the volcanoes for the day. After the guards we went to look at the church which I will always call the gold church, although it does have a proper name. (I can't remember the real name at the moment - this is the problem with being almost two months behind on my blog!) Unfortunately you couldn't take photos inside the church but I can assure you that it was very ornate and very golden. From here we got in a taxi and went up to the Panicillio. This is the statue of the virgin that sits on top of the hill and looks out over the histortical old town. I had wanted to go at sunset one time but the opportunity never presented itself in the end. It turned out to be a perfect day to go as it was so clear. After taking the required photos, we hopped on to a bus back down the hill. This was a cheaper option, but at the bottom it started to turn away from the direction we wanted to go in, so we had to hop off again quickly. This landed as in a slightly less safe part of the city slightly outside of the tourist area. However, with the help of one of the locals, we found our way back without incident.

Our final stop for the day was the monastery which has a small art gallery. It had some very pretty courtyards with exotic birds in it. We picked up a bit of food in the main square, collected our suitcases and then jumped in a taxi to the bus station. Here we managed to negotiate the purchase of tickets to Banos successfully and were heading south by about 3:30. The journey to Banos takes about three and a half hours. A large section of it I had already done quite a few times and I was quite sad to think that it was the last time I would be down that way. Towards the end of the journey we passed another great-looking volcano. (By this I mean it was the proper volcano shape - like ones that you draw as a kid when you draw volcanoes!) We turned away from this and there was then quite a long drive through the valley in the dark.

When we arrived in Banos I discovered that one of my wheels had fallen off my suitcase. This made the journey to the hostel quite awkward but fortunately we didn't have to walk too far. Banos is not a large place. Our hostel was nice. There were lots of signs up to remind us that they were not a party hostel. Matthew said he read one that asked you to bear this in mind if you were thinking of watching a video and suggested that you might start your viewing at 3pm to ensure that you had finished by the curfew at 11pm! We found a nice Irish bar in town for supper.

Day 83 - Tuesday 22nd November - Swinging and hiking

Today we went to one of the places on my bucket list - the swing at the edge of the world. To get there we caught a local bus up the mountain. At the top is a small park with several swings, a tree house and some mini zip lines. It's a slightly surreal feeling to swing out over the abyss, but after the initial swing forward there's nothing to it. You don't swing very high and it can be difficult to sustain the movement because the launch platform gets in the way. Unfortunately the volcano was neither erupting not visible - I think you have to be lucky to see either. They did have some amazing photos from a few years ago. Despite the lack of volcanic background to our photos, it was a beautiful place to swing and very peaceful. We spent an enjoyable hour there.

We decided to hike back down to the town, although the locals thought we were mad to walk in the midday sun when there was a perfectly good bus to take us. Unfortunately we missed the footpath and ended up walking a long way by road. In fact the whole journey took us significantly longer than we had anticipated. We were not the only crazy foreigners who wanted to walk and we were joined by a girl whose name now escapes me. I think she was from Holland. Anyway we all got lost together - as much as you could get lost because basically we just needed to go down. The map the hostel had supplied was totally inadequate. We did eventually manage to find one of the crosses overlooking the town and from there got back to Banos. Once we were on the footpath it was a much prettier walk.

Back in town we found a bar showing Champions League football so we stopped in there for a drink. Then we headed back to our hostel to collect our stuff for a dip in the hot springs. That was the plan at any rate, but when we got there we were put off by the number of people in there; so we decided to do the very thing we had vowed not to do - get up at the crack of dawn (literally) and come at what we had been told is the best time - 6am - when the baths are clean and less crowded. Instead we found some food and then headed back to our party-free hostel.

Day 84 - Wednesday 23rd November - Springs, bikes and waterfalls

We did indeed make it out of bed early the next morning. We were rewarded with much quieter hot springs and clean water, although unfortunately we did not get to see the sunrise because it was cloudy. The baths are fed by the waterfall that runs next to the spring. This is the water for the cold showers. There were three pools. There was one that was a lovely warm temperature and this was the one we spent most of our time in. The hot one was too hot. I couldn't go in. It felt like being a lobster. Matthew made it in but not for long. The cold one was extremely cold but I had more success getting in to that one. I made it in twice and even did some swimming. There was actually another pool that we missed near the entrance but we felt we got our money's worth.

We returned to the hostel to chill for a bit and then went and found a late breakfast in a nice cafe run by a Dutch woman. The service was a big slow but we had Connect Four to keep us entertained. I had a great smoothie here. Energy levels renewed, we set off to hire bikes for a cycle ride past a series of waterfalls. The bikes proved to be quite uncomfortable and my seat seemed to get increasIngly lower as the day went on - not ideal for a 25km ride. Fortunately there wasn't too much up and lots of down. The waterfall I was most keen to see is called The Devil's Cauldron and is the second to last one. We had agreed to get there and see how we felt about going on further, especially as we had been told that we had to cycle back to the Cauldron to pick up the buses that take you and your bike back to Banos, but we managed to miss it and ended up doing the whole route and several hikes along the way.

At the second waterfall, Matthew bravely decided that he would have a go on one of the zip lines. He was pointed headfirst over the cliff and sent flying across the river. He looked very happy about it and lived to tell the tale. A Swedish lady stopped to watch the feat too. We ended up crossing paths several time and finally had dinner together back in Banos which was very pleasant. At the next waterfall you could get a cable car across to the other side of the river. The group that were on before us just went most of the way across and then came straight back, so we assumed we would do the same. However when it came to our turn, the car went all the way across and we were expected to get off the other side. We then got rather stuck there was a group of Canadian school children there waiting to get back. We went for a wander and were able to see the river closer too. We got some drinks and chilled out by the water. Eventually we went back to join to queue to get back to the other side and our bikes.

There were several more falls to see before we missed the big one and found ourselves at Machay. This waterfall had been recommended by our companion from the hike the day before who said that it was better than the Devil's Cauldron (she was wrong) , so we paid the small entrance fee and started the long descent to the view of the falls. They were impressive when we finally got there and it would have been nice to go all the way down and swim at the bottom if we had had time. The climb back up to the road was hard work though, so by the time we finally made it to the main event, Matthew decided he couldn't face another hike up and down so he waited for me at the top. It was a shame because the Devil's Cauldron waterfall is impressive. There are many different view points from which you can admire them (including from the top as we found our from the Swiss lady later on that day). There was also a walk way that took you behind the falls. This involved walking crunched over for quite a way though, and I found it impossible with my rucksack on. I was also aware that Matthew was waiting at the top so I satisfied myself with more comfortable viewpoints.

Fortunately there is a lovely bus service laid on back to Banos for the many cyclists. This goes from the top of the waterfall and took us safely back to town.

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Photos

Church in Quito
Where I lost Matthew