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Published: October 31st 2006
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Stayed with Jill for a week in Marcelo's house in QUITO.. amazing views of the whole city, and Pichincha volcano rising above it (and the fact that we're on an "active" piece of land proved itself one morning when we had an earthquake.. very short, but the whole house shook for a few seconds!). Felt like I was back in civilisation after a month on the coast.. non flickering electricity, hot showers (needed at 2900m altitude.. hace frio) without wires hanging out threatening to electrocute you, fast internet access, shops (even visited Mango.. very exciting!) and I was finally able to put toilet paper down the toilet.. very sad the things you get excited about when you're living out of a rucksack!
.. and apart from being out of puff when walking up any kind of incline, I wasn't affected by the altitude (unlike in Cuenca all those weeks ago, when I really struggled to catch my breath for the first day or two)
The elections took place on 15th October, which meant another few "dry" days (as we'd experienced in Mexico a few months ago) so people don't turn up drunk at the polling station!.. though there's another
round of (obligatory) voting at the end of November which will decide between the two front runners: Correa (left wing Bush hater, who was popular in Puerto Lopez) and Noboa (the richest man in Ecuador?).. so another month of campaigning.
Drove to MINDO with Jill and Klever.. through a valley and into the cloud forest, where everything suddenly turned green and lush.. like a tropical jungle (very different to the drier land surrounding Quito). Had lunch surrounded by hundreds of tiny humming birds, visited an orchid garden and a butterly farm, learnt how coffee is grown, and swung across a valley in a "cable car" which was powered by the oldest, dodgiest machine I´ve ever seen.. it looked like some locals just hooked up a wire from one side of the valley to another, and hooked on a cage for people to sit in! Also visited PULULAGUA crater where we looked down into the crater of this still active volcano (PICHINCHA).. which is now a village and farm land, as it hasn´t erupted for years.. has just "grumbled".
MITAD DEL MUNDO (the ecuator).. There's a huge monument and museum at the ecuator, but the French got it wrong
apparently, and the "real" ecuator is about 200m away from the ecuator monument (they discovered this using GPS after the first museum had been built!). The little museum at the real ecuator was really interesting.. did lots of experiments to test the effect of the ecuator, including watching water going down a plug hole different ways, balancing an egg on the head of a nail (apparently this is only possible when exactly on the ecuator due to the gravitational forces elsewhere) and testing our strenth.. apparently you are less strong (and weigh less) on the ecuator!
Spent a few days in the Northern Sierra.. Amazing travelling through such "active" land and huge landscapes.. mountains, gorges, valleys, volcanos.. and the landscape changes very quickly depending on altitude and aspect.....
We were advised to take the "scenic" route up North via the village of San Jose de Minas.. we tried, but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on a terrifying, narrow, gravel path running through a valley and past quarries.. long steep drops down and no civilisation for ages.. we were so happy when after an hour of driving at 15km per hour we saw a cow, electricity
lines and met a paved road!
Stayed with Ceci and her 4 year old son Keiru in Iluman for 2 nights, where she´s just bought a little house in the shadow of two volcanos.. Cotacachi and Imbabura.. It´s beautiful, but freezing at night, and there was no electricity for one day, so no hot water. I slept up in the roof overlooking all of the other bedrooms, and we were on a 4 year old timetable for a few days.. bed by 9pm (I wasn´t complaining, as it meant I could climb under my 5 blankets) and up at 6am!
Ceci's neighbour is a shaman (a "witch doctor" who can diagnise and cure illness by communicating with and controling the spirits), and is highly respected in the area as shamanism is still used in the mountains in place of western medicine.. he´d just got back from Quito that day as had been called there to help with a difficult birth. Him and his wife came over one evening to give Jill and I a reading (for $2).. a really interesting experience.. I had to hold a candle and run it all over my body, he then lit the
candle and talked to the spirits through it (in Quichua, the language of the Andes, and in Spanish). He told me that I had a nervous heart, and that he could "clean" my heart using eggs (and $5 for another session). He also told me that I have to drink alcohol to cure this (I´m not making this up.. really!)
.. constant contrasts of the traditional and the modern.. The shaman´s wife (as with lots of the mountain people) wore traditional clothes with plaited hair and gold beads, and lived in a little traditional house, but had a mobile phone.. Though she didn´t know how to use it, so every time she wants to make a call she has to bring the phone to Ceci´s house so Ceci can dial for her!
Visited a few of the little highland towns.. which all have their own speciality.. Bought a wool poncho in the Plaza de Ponchos in OTAVALO, wandered around wood carving stores in SAN ANTONIO DE IBARRA, ate icecream and bought arope de mora in IBARRA, bought queso de hoja and bizcocho in CAYAMBE.. all pretty little places in the clean mountain air.
The highlight of this
area for me was VOLCAN CAYAMBE with it's snow capped peak overlooking everything.. in Cayambe town, I wanted to take a picture of the church with the volcano behind, but there were too many buildings in the way, so we asked in a supermarket if we could go and stand on their roof terrace, in order to take a picture.. they let us and the view was worth it!
Took a boat ride on LAGUNA CUICOCHO, a lake in a volcano´s crater. Apparently it's 200 m deep and people dive there.. but you can´t dive more than 30m deep as the suction would pull you into the crater.. scary stuff! I was happy (if a bit chillly.. a recurrent theme!) sitting in a boat watching the sulpher bubbles through the clear water.
And back to Quito...
Explored the CENTRO HISTORICO (QUITO), one evening with Veronica, Marcos, Haretz and Jill.. Haretz was a mine of information on the buildings and history.. and we drunk Canelazo (hot cinnamon drink with the local strong sugar cane alcohol) listening to live pan pipe music, for that truly Ecuadorian experience!
Took a trip out to Pappallacta hot springs with Dona Fanny
and her family (including her husband, 92 year old mum, 3 kids, and grandkid) .. I spent about 2 hours sitting in the HOT water, and about two seconds testing out the freezing river.. at 4000m altitude the air was rather chilly, but nothing compared the the freezing water coming out of the mountains! .. and it's the first bath i've had for months, so I felt really clean!
Went up the Teleferico (cable car) for great views of Quito and the three snow capped volcanoes overlooking the city.. the cable car takes you from the city at 2900m altitude up to 4100m altitude, and we were really lucky with clear weather so the views were fantastic..
And before I got too accustomed to the luxury of living in a real house, I moved into Central Del Mundo hostal in "Barrio Gringo" so I could meet some travellers (for those essential conversations about where people have been to or are going to!) and study some more Spanish (did another week of lessons for $6 an hour, to try and sort out my past tenses.. easier said than done, but I'm getting there!).. a really friendly (and cheap.. $7
a night for my own room) party hostal, with free buckets of rum and coke on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.. very dangerous, but meant a few funny nights as there was a great crowd there to hang out with.. and I got to practice my Spanish and French lots.
.. and after a fantastic 2 months in Ecuador, next stop Peru............ tomorrow I fly to Cuzco..
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Jill Sare
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gonna miss you chica!
What fun travelling with you, and then reading about it in your blog! FOR SURE I´ll see you again soon, somewhere in Latin America or elsewhere in the world. Un abrazo fuerte....Jill