Advertisement
Published: November 22nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Just 20 minutes after leaving Quito and still within its suburbs, Frieda, our big yellow truck needed to have its brakes replaced. Great start to a 8000km truck trip!
Successfully repaired quite quickly we were soon in Otavalo, a famous market town in Ecuador. A 6am start the next day meant we were at the animal market surrounded by mooing cows, squealing pigs, chickens held upside down and noisy locals bartering. Stalls selling hot coffee and freshly fried empanadas provided the perfect cheap breakfast whilst we watched which bits of an animal you should check before you buy it. Next it was onto the market itself. Hundreds of stalls jammed packed with brightly coloured goods to tempt you - bags, hats, paintings, beads, woven wall hangings, alpaca jumpers, alpaca socks, alpaca slippers etc. It is very easy to end up covered head to toe in a multi coloured outfit made of alpaca wool with llama designs all over it. I was thankfully very restrained and ended up with slippers and a bag. Shopping is of course very tiring so we treated ourselves to a plate of fried fish with rice, banana and salad from a local stall. Delicious and cheap
at 1 pound! In the afternoon I bought a slice of pineapple from a street vendor on a push bike. An American chap stopped me and said I shouldn´t eat anything from street vendors. I said as it was peeled that it would be fine. He asked if I had read his book about Ecuador. I hadn´t. He´d been travelling regularly to Ecuador for the last 27 years. How can you write about a country if you never sample the local food?
After the colour and buzz of the market we were off to the greenery and tranquility of the jungle. Our lodge was the perfect retreat. It could only be reached by motorised canoe along the Napo river. It had hammocks dotted everywhere and a wonderful veranda overlooking the river where we ate the most exquisite meals from local products. An American guy, Tom, had invested his life savings, plus some of his parents, into protecting his own bit of rainforest and was attempting to teach local tribes (in a non-patronising manner) about sustainable resources. One day we went to Amazoonica, a small zoo for exotic animals rescued from the black market. We saw all sorts of monkeys
including the world´s smallest plus jaguarundi, ocelots and capybaras (like big rats weighing up to 65kg). The next day we went for a hike up and down through secondary and primary forest with Tom as our guide which was amazing if somewhat humid and hard work in the stylish green wellies provided. We sucked on the juice of a coco bean and split open a leaf so we could put our tongue inside and taste the lemon ants that lived inside. I also met my first and hopefully last tarantula. Most of the group stayed in the lodges with en suite facilities whilst I opted for a tent. I had read that Ecuador has 80% of the world´s birdlife. I felt as if it was all in just that part of the jungle, such was the racket the wildlife made. At one with nature indeed.
A short stay in Tena meant we could celebrate Nathan´s (guy on the truck) birthday in style. I tasted my first cerviche, raw fish marinated in lime and chilli. Delicious. A bar with fantastic Caprinias and great salsa music was a great place to get some dancing lessons off the locals.
Next stop
was Rio Verde, a small village outside of Banos which was still on orange alert after its volcano erupted not that many months ago. We walked to a, thankfully, very impressive waterfall which involved crossing a ridiculously old and wobbly bridge with a sign stating only 5 people to cross at one time. This was something the Ecuadorians liked to ignore. As if that wasn´t frightening enough the next day we crossed a huge gorge in what can only be described as a big basket on a wire which was run on what appeared to be a car engine. Who needs to be in a nicely enclosed gondola? Me from now on. The worst bit was when it stopped in the middle for the second motor to kick in. An hours walk along the other side meant we had enough time to pluck up enough courage to get back across again.
Next stop Peru...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 15; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0622s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Becky
non-member comment
Health and Safety!
Yay! you found the ridiculously fun and frightening basket over sheer drop! Sounds like you are having fun and bet you are glad to be missing the rain, wind and cold here. Missing you lots. Take care of yourself. Lots of Love Bxxxxx