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Published: November 19th 2009
Photo 1
Zip Lining in BañosHola again Amigos and Amigas,
Arriving back to Guayaquil from the Galapagos Islands went off without a hitch. We retraced our steps of 12 days ago to the main bus terminal and found ourselves a few hours later on a 7 hour bus trip to Baños. We managed to slip in our first McDonalds meal at the bus terminal prior to our departure. We just had to. It had been nearly 3 months. It was time.
Baños, translated in English, means bathroom. The small mountain town is famous for its natural, therapeutic hot baths. So yeah I suppose that’s where the name is derived. We ended up not partaking in the hot baths though as they looked seriously UNhealthy! The water was a kind of caramel colour and it had many guilty looking niños (children) frolicking about wearing everything but swimming attire. I reckon that you might catch something bad quicker than you could catch a Sydney bus if you just jumped on in.
The town is certainly better than its name might suggest though. Baños is considered one of the adventure capitals of Ecuador. On offer to daredevils is abseiling, repelling, canyoning, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, bridge
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A view of the "bathroom" - Baños swinging, buggy driving, zip lining and white water rafting. We took up the offer of a day in the white water for the costly sum of $60.00. Cheap hey! We rafted with 14 other travellers taking on frequent grade 3, 4 and 5 rapids. Our raft flipped on one occasion which left everyone a little breathless and shaken up but in the end it was a fabulous day. We jumped off rocks into the river from 7 or so metres too which was fun, if not a little heart starting. It was easily the best rafting trip I have ever done.
We also did a 300m zip line. I was hoping it would be faster but the initial adrenalin rush was well worth the $6.00. The line travels over a river and basically goes from one cliff to another. The usual (to South America) untrustworthy looking equipment also helped raise the heart beats. The operator of the cable basket which took us across to the starting point actually sits in a converted truck cabin, complete with gear stick, clutch and diesel engine and “drives” the basket across. It is a bizarre set up, one that I am sure my
Photo 3
All suited up and ready for white water rafting in Baños travel insurer would not want to know about.
Our next stop was a small town called Latacunga. Most travellers would only stop here as it is a gateway to Volcan Cotopaxi, Ecuador’s second highest peak and highest volcano at 5,897m. The volcano has an almost symmetrical cone - if you asked a child to draw a mountain with a snow cap, he/she would unknowingly draw Cotopaxi. It is just as you imagine the perfect mountain to look. We arranged a day-long tour which took us by 4WD to about 4,600m (Cheating? Probably. Feeling guilty? Definitely not!) and then walked a further 250m in altitude (1 hour straight up basically) to reach a place they call the “refugee hut”. The hut serves as lodgings for the crazy souls that decide to actually summit the volcano. For us though it was a resting place for lunch before heading back down. The volcano has a glacier which starts at 5,000m but impending bad weather made our decision to return all the more easier. The weather changes with the blink of an eye at altitude and light snow was already falling when we started our descent. The thought of getting caught in snow
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Cotopaxi - looking just how a kid would draw a mountain! and rain (again) was unattractive. Another 150m to climb at altitude was also a sorry thought. Down we went.
Cotopaxi is stunning beyond belief. We were fortunate to arrive at the national park on a crystal clear morning with unobstructed views of the volcano. They say that pictures tell a thousand words so best for you to check out the photos below. Trust me though...the scenery was absolutely mind blowing!
Our couple of days in Latacunga were done. We enjoyed the place. The markets were a buzz and the volleyball games, smack bang in the middle of the asphalt laid markets, were entertaining on many fronts. All competitors were 50 something men mostly wearing non-sports apparel, they were 100% committed and even argued line calls. All spectators were also men who didn’t really show much emotion but the thing I liked the most was that they played with a size 5 soccer ball! So serious was the competition that they didn’t seem to care that they weren’t even using an actual volleyball. They just wanted to play.
We also managed to get some running repairs done on our back-packs in Latacunga. $8.00 was money well spent as
Photo 5
Cotopaxi in the background we had buckles and a few rips and tears fixed up.
From Latacunga we continued our journey north some 50km to the country’s capital, Quito and the original final destination of our tour. Our new final destination after extending our trip by 2 months would be somewhere in Central America. We now looked so much more forward to Quito.
Quito is the second highest capital city in the world (after La Paz in Bolivia) sitting at 2,800m above sea level. Unlike many of our other adventures at altitude, it wasn’t too cold but I was still fed up with being so damned high. Give me a beach any day I say! Quito is clearly divided into the “New Town” and you guessed it...the “Old Town”. The New Town didn’t do a lot for us really. As its name suggests it hosts new high rises buildings, the business sector of Quito with flash hotels etc. We did have a great night out there though as it is party central for young Ecuadorians and back-packers alike. Quito has some seriously funky restaurants and nite spots. We had bumped into some travellers we met a few weeks back in Mancora, Peru.
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We made it to the refuge - unfortunately bad weather prevented us getting to the glacier Ahhh the gringo trail strikes again! The New Town is also apparently home to 100’s of military police, fully equipped with machine guns and helmets etc. We still decided to get cabs to and from our hostel though.
The Old Town is a totally different kettle of fish. It is the original centre of the capital with beautifully restored colonial buildings lining cobble stoned narrow streets and alleys. There is a church, cathedral or basilica on almost every corner and most are seriously ornate. La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús is said to have had 7 tons (count them - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and yep 7!) of gold leaf plastered to it and from our inspections it’s probably a true fact. We spent 2 hours in the church due to a sudden a lengthy down pour of rain. It was a visit all too long for this non-believer! We really enjoyed the old town. We were there on a sunny Sunday when many streets were closed and every family from Quito was there... there was a great atmosphere and the town certainly impressed us. You can just wander for hours upon hours.
Like so
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Quito - view of the "Old Town" many other South American towns and cities, Quito is surrounded by mountains and from the centre looking out buildings seems to rise endlessly. We took ourselves to many vantage points across the city for some great aerial views. You can see Quito from all sides from hills and mountains. It’s quite amazing really.
One of the great attractions of visiting Quito is that it is near the equator. We took a cab to “el mitad del mundo” or middle of the world in English. We went to two museums. The first is located at the original equator line (as measured by the French with rulers and string many moons ago) and the second located exactly on the actual equator as measured with GPS technology. Whilst the first was fun because it had a big monument and a big orange line going through north and south, we preferred the newer museum. They showed us experiments like how water turns in different directions when going down a plug hole depending on which hemisphere you are in, how you can balance a raw egg on the head of a nail if you are exactly located on the equator line, plus others. It
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View of Quito from Itchimbía Park with the Basilica del Voto Nacional in the centre was fun and great value...only $4 for 2 hours of fun and mystery.
We also attempted to visit a small town which is located in the crater of a presumably extinct volcano. After getting the run about due to yet more poor South American signage, we found it only to find it completed covered by fog and mist. Typical. We couldn’t see a thing. Our return bus trip revealed that we had again been ripped off - our first trip was twice as dear! There is just an endless, endless, endless supply of locals trying to rip off Gringos everywhere in South America. It becomes tiresome trying to thwart their missions.
Our Quito visit brought our Ecuador travels to an end. We decided to get moving again and head to Colombia. Another long bus ride would do the trick so off to the border we trotted. 6 hours later we would find ourselves walking across the border and in to Colombia.
Before I go, I had better ask more questions of Ecuador. “Ecuador is a great place but why....”
• are ALL bus drivers lunatics?
• do taxi drivers constantly have their hand on their
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Amazing stained glass window in the Basilica del Voto Nacional horn? (so to speak..)
• do women (of ALL sizes) wear clothing sooo tight that their breathing must be surely be impaired?
• do ALL men have slicked back gelled hair at ALL hours of the day?
• do women get seriously dressed up (make up and all) just to go to the super market?
• do taxis always disobey red lights?
Adios
Ryan
P.S. Here’s some vital ongoing travel statistics to enlighten you further:
• No. of countries visited since leaving Aus: 9
• Cheapest beer to date (calculated on 100mL conversion): $0.80
• No. of hours spent on public transport (inc. taxis) in SA: 92
• Cheapest room (double room shared bathroom, breakfast included): $8.33 each per night
• Highest altitude reached: 5,000m - and the winner...can’t be beaten now!
• Distance travelled in SA: 8,170kms
• No. modes on transport used: 23 (foot, jet plane, bicycle, boat, motorcycle taxi, taxi, taxi-bus, coach, ute back, car, 4wd, mini-bus, crawling, ferry, truck, motorised rickshaw, dune buggy, sand board, propeller plane, speed boat, swimming, raft, zip line)
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dani
non-member comment
missed your calling
Ryan, You should have been a journalist..not too late. I love your stories. Stay safe xx