So our high hopes for Ecuador were diminished when we arrived in Quito. The bus station was on one side of the city so to reach our hostal we took a taxi; our first female driver did not take things slowly, as she accelerated through the streets, we hung on for our lives and observed another huge, smoggy city. Tired and hungry we arrived at our hostel, dumped our bags and went in search of the large supermarket nearby. Mike had looked at the map beforehand and understood the turns we had to make as being only the big roads, turned out they were the little ones so we got a little lost. Being a Sunday, when we eventually reached the supermarket it was shut. We debated going to another supermarket that we knew would be open or eating out, as I was craving cooking we made our way to the other supermarket 30min before it closed. With the plan of chicken and pasta with a creamy wine sauce we gathered up our ingredients only to find that being a Sunday no alcohol could be bought. Coming from a non religious society and background we keep forgetting quite how much religion can influence day to day life and have been caught out a few times. Our dinner ended up being scrummy and lasted three nights thanks to the inclusion of some cask wine our hostel sold to us.
The effects of being together 24/7 began to show the next day as I was really feeling the need for some personal space and other people to talk and be with. This put a bit of a downer on our day and combined with leaving the cameras memory card in the laptop we decided to leave exploring the old town for the following day and head back to our hostel for some down time. Myself and Mike have since talked things through and come up with some ideas to give each other some space, which seems to be working. Unfortunately when we got back to the hostel we read the news of the Christchurch earthquake, we've both also been suffering with coming to terms with it, it's strange how something that doesn't effect you directly can impact you so much. It's hard being away from home and seeing and reading about the destruction and lives lost and feeling completely unable to help, I can't imagine what it must be like for those directly impacted. My only high of the day was having my first real coffee since leaving New Zealand, the milk did have too much air in it but for once what I was drinking actually resembled coffee!
When we did finally explore the old town we found that apart from seeing about five churches, one that was entirely gold inside, there wasn't much to do. We did however have "fun" - more terror on my behalf - climbing a couple of church towers, my fear of feights held me back some what, Mike however got right to the top, some 75m up stairs and ladders! Getting a good view over the city.
The next day we decided to leave Quito and head down Ecuador to the town of Latacunga. Although there isn't much to see here it is the starting point for a lot of walks including climbing the Cotopaxi Volcano and doing the Quilotoa loop. As a result of not enjoying the big cities we decided to take a few days out and do the Quiatoa loop where you can bus and walk between small Andean villages. We started off visiting the Saquisili Market which runs every Thursday and unlike the Otavalo Market, where most of the stalls are aimed at tourists, the market here is where the locals come to buy everything and anything from live Cuy (Guinea Pigs), to sacks of potatoes and doors! At 11am we boarded our bus heading to the small village of Insilivi. Along with us came a llama which rode on the roof and under the bus were two pigs, a lamb and a calf, pretty exciting! The hostel in Insilivi was by far our favorite, a really homely place that reminded me of a New Zealand bach up in the mountains in the Coromandel. Set overlooking the valley with a wood burning stove, hammocks, amazing dinners, breakfasts and friendly people, we felt relaxed and happy. So much so we decided to have a "rest" day here and just chill out and read for a day before carrying on. Our "easy" day wasn't quite as easy as planned. I was keen to have a walk so we climbed a hill near to the village. Being 3000m above sea level and not acclimatised, means that any small climb makes you feel like you are about to die but it makes the view all that more rewarding. The rest of the day we read, listening to the local school children practising their drumming and playing for Ecuadors flag day which was the following Monday and played with the cooks children, who nicknamed Mike "Gigante" as the average Ecuadorian is 5'6"!
The next day we started off on our walk to to the town of Chugchilan. Mike struggled along with stomach cramps and a tight chest, and we both felt the effects of the altitude making the 6 hour walk seem a lot longer. At one point we had to climb out of the canyon, which took about 45min. Toward the end of this climb I was struggling so much that the shade 1m away felt too far to reach to rest. However we made it to the top to some spectacular views and met a local carpenter who showed us around his workshop. We ended up buying one of his carvings as they were so well crafted and it is a memento to remember the walk by. The last part of the walk was up the road to Chugchilan and our hostel. I'd say that this felt like the longest part of the walk as the blisters were really rubbing and and we knew we were so close. We made it however and as sore as we were, it felt so good to finally be there! The rest of the afternoon was spent helping out 5 girls from the local university with their English proficiency test. This consisted of the girls recording themselves asking us questions and us replying. The funniest was when Mike got asked if he was married and when he replied no they asked why!!!
The next day we got on a bus to the Quilotoa crater lake, where we meet a fellow kiwi. Bus trips here are nothing boring as there is always amazing scenery to look at and pop music blasting. What I love about travelling through South America that this blog and the photos cannot describe is the sounds and smells we encounter. From the truck delivering gas bottles that woke us up every morning in Otavalo blasting Andean flute music from the speakers attached to its roof, to the honking of the buses horn as it goes through every village, the men screaming out town names at the bus stations and the sizzling of intestines being cooked on coal BBQs at the markets. Then there are the smells of empanadas coming from the person behind you on the bus that makes you want one so bad! Every town smells slightly different but there are the same reoccuring smells of fires, urine, and food cooking, I just love it! The bus trip to the Quilotoa crater lake also had added excitement as some local children threw water at the bus as it passed and it managed to come straight through my open window soaking me! Great fun.
We were pretty blown away when we reached the Quilotoa crater lake. The way in which the clouds darkened patches of the water, and the sheerness of the sides of the crater was pretty amazing and breathtaking. There is a walk around the crater that takes most of the day and another one down to the lake itself. We were tempted to walk down to the lake but due to our tiredness from the day before and the lack of time we had before our bus we decided to give it a miss and definitely put it on our next time list.
From the crater lake we continued back to Latacunga where we had started out from, picked up our packs and jumped on another bus, this time heading for Banos (also the word for toilet in Spanish!). Banos is a small touristy town at the bottom of an active volcano, unfortunately it was raining and there was very low cloud cover so we didn't get a good sight of it, but throughout the town there are a lot of volcano evaculation points. We had originally come to Banos with the plan to do a 70km (or until you get tired and get the bus back) mostly downhill bike ride. This morning however we woke up to a wetish day and decided to give it a miss and continue on through Ecuador. Unfortunately because we have loved Ecuador so much and have been going slowly we have realised that we have very little time to get across to Cuzco, where we have to be by Friday the 11th and it's on the other side of Peru! This is because we have signed up to volunteer there for two weeks before doing our Machu Picchu trek. our original plan was to volunteer in Pisco but they already have too many people helping out so we're now helping out in an after school center in Cusco which should be good fun.
So from Banos we bused to Riobamba where we are currently. We had hoped to get a train from here to Sibambe. Part of the trip has world famous switchbacks and is known as the Nariz del Diablo (Devil's nose), however the line is closed from Riobamba to Alausi so we will bus to Alausi first thing tomorrow morning and get on the train there, before continuing down to Cuenca for the night.
Yet another lovely blog! Thanks Ilona xxx
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