We spent a few days in Quito after our Galapagos trip catching up on our blog, photos and emails and also seeing a few of the sights around Quito. The city is set in a valley between some very large mountains and it sprawls out across quite an area, being Ecuador’s 2nd largest city. We climbed up the very precarious ladders and stairs in the cathedral one clear afternoon to reach the top of the bell tower and the views were lovely. Good job I’m ok with heights though as health and safety is not great in Ecuador! As a reward we treated ourselves to an alcoholic coffee and hot chocolate in the cafe in the tower – I can highly recommend the addition of amaretto to your hot chocolate!
We’d read and been told about a hike up the Pinchincha volcano and thought we’d attempt that now that we’d acclimatised to the altitude – Quito stands at 2850m. The TeleferiQo (cable car) takes you up to 4100m and then you hike the rest up to 4680m. I hadn’t appreciated how much the altitude would affect my ability to hike and I had to keep stopping to get my breath back – I sounded like an 80 year old asthmatic! The terrain was pretty tricky in places and I did resort to hands and feet, scrambling across rocks and climbing up loose sandy soil. The effort was worth it though as we were treated to some amazing views over Quito – it even stayed clear for us, which was very lucky as the top is often shrouded in cloud. We didn’t stay long at the summit though as it was very windy and cold – there were even little patches of snow on the ground still.Unfortunately Le Roux came down with man flu the next day so I headed off to the Mitad del Mundo (the equator) with four other girls from the youth hostel. We had great fun negotiating the public buses, and we even collected another girl on route – an American who was heading the same way as us. We visited both sites – the original site founded in 1736 which is not actually on the equator, and the new site located using GPS technology. At the new site they have various little experiments such as watching water flow down a plughole different ways either side of the line, and balancing eggs on top of nails which is supposedly easier at the equator due to lower gravitational forces, all quite entertaining.
So after a few nights in Quito we met up with our new group to start our 2 month Tucan tour through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, the top of Argentina and down to Santiago in Chile. There are currently 10 of us on the trip, plus Miguel our American Tour Leader, Scoota our Aussie driver and Trevor the big yellow truck. There was supposed to be 11 of us, but 1 person never turned up and the mystery as to what happened to him has not yet been solved! The 10 is comprised of: Adrian & Sally – an Aussie couple who are on their way back to Australia having worked in Switzerland 3 years; Paul and Vanessa – another 2 young Aussies who are both travelling on their own; Claire & Lindsay – 2 English friends who’ve just finished studying music at university; and Hannah and Matt – an English couple who’ve also just finished university. Le Roux and I are the oldest by nearly 5 years but luckily we’re young at heart!
We left Quito early in the morning headed for Otavalo, in the Northern Highlands of Ecuador. We were supposed to stop at the equator (a different point to where I had already visited) on the way but Scoota somehow missed the turning! So we carried on and visited it on our way back from Otavalo the next day instead.
For lunch that day, we headed up to Lagunas de Mojanda, some beautiful lakes in amongst volcanoes. On the way up the steep mountain road Trevor had an issue with a melted injector pipe in the engine so we had to stop for 45 mins while Scoota fixed it. It seems Le Roux and I are plagued with engine troubles given the boat issues in the Galapagos! Having made it up to the lakes, our local guide said there were fish in the lake at which Le Roux quickly grabbed one of his 3 fishing rods and tried his luck at catching some trout. Unfortunately the fish weren’t biting and it was a good job that Miguel had a back up option for lunch!
Otavalo is a small town which is famous for its craft market, which is supposedly the largest in South America. We whiled away the afternoon wandering around the market taking photos of the very colourful wares, such as alpaca blankets and jumpers, paintings, jewellery and many other things. Le Roux decided that he needed yet another bag to store the overflow of stuff he seems to have accumulated, so he purchased a very brightly coloured “man bag”! In our very poor Spanish we managed to barter the price down from $15 to $11 - when Le Roux initially suggested “cinco” the guy put his hands on his heart and made a face to say that you’re killing me with that low price! I purchased a huge soft alpaca blanket to keep us warm in our tent on cold nights and for me to curl up in on the long bus journeys. We also tried to stock on snacks and drinks for our 3 days in the jungle, but unfortunately we fell foul of the no alcohol on Sunday rule as the supermarket wouldn’t sell me cartons of vino tinto, disappointingly!
Next stop after Otavalo was Misahualli, in the jungle on the Napo tributary of the Amazon - Napo is one of the 100 or so major tributaries of the Amazon river. We stayed in this lovely lodge in the jungle which was about 20 mins canoe ride down river from the nearest road. The first thing we noticed was how noisy the jungle was with various critters making all sorts of weird sounds. One of the animals is a bit like a guinea pig but with a tail and they gnaw bamboo plants and make a very odd loud call which I can’t articulate in words! The other most noticeable animal, despite its minute size, was the sand flies which ate us all alive - very annoying and despite using bucket loads of insect repellent, the wretched things would find that 1cm of skin that you missed everytime!
The first thing we did on arriving in the hot sticky jungle was take a swim in the river, but as the current is so strong, we were taken across to a gravel bank on the other side, where we got in and floated down river a bit before walking back along the shore and doing it again. Standing up and getting out was really quite tricky and it would have been all too easy to float somewhat further down river than you had intended! Sally got a fright in the shower after as there was a scorpion in there with her which she had to get Adrian to despatch with his flip flop!
Over the next couple of days we went on jungle walks with our local guide Fausto, who taught us about the plants and animals and how the local people use them. To get to the first walk we cruised up the river in our long narrow boat but as the water level was pretty low, we had to get out and push a couple of times. Luckily we didn’t get stuck on a rock this time, like we had in the Galapagos! At the 2nd shallow bit all the girls got out and were told to walk along the shore and the boys were asked to push the boat. However, no sooner had we set off walking, the boys all hopped back in and rode down the river in the lighter boat – us girls had been duped!
On the walk we saw all sorts of interesting things: a frog whose poison could kill a human within half an hour; we licked some lemon flavoured ants that live inside the branch of a certain tree – they tasted a bit like sherbet lemon; we chewed a cinnamon leaf and sniffed a garlic leaf; found a tiny tree frog in a paradise flower; learnt how to make a house out of palm leaves; and how to make anaesthetic juice from bark for blow darts.
There was a strangle vine swing which some people had a swing on – I have to admit to chickening out as I’ve got weedy arms and there was no soft landing, you had to land back where you started on your feet. Unfortunately Paul didn’t lift his feet up enough and he fell from the vine, but remarkably he managed to land between 2 pointy tree stumps and came out with only a few grazes, thank goodness. Having got all hot and sticky hiking through the jungle, we then stripped down to our swimmers and wellie boots (such a good look, not!) to walk for 45 mins along a river. In some places the river was quite high and it went over the top of the willies so we had to keep emptying out the water and stones. It was great fun though splashing along and messing about. When we made it back to the main Napo river we played around in the water jumping and diving in from the side. Fausto decided to take it one step further and climbed a tree about 6m above the river from which he dived in – he was a bit of a dare devil! We stupidly forgot about the sandflies at this point and having swum we all stood around eating lunch while the sandflies had a lunch of us – we learnt an itchy lesson re covering up and putting on repellent the minute you leave the water! Next stop was a museum further along the river and the best part about it was the aerial slide over the river. Nearly all of us had a go, me included, although I somehow managed to get myself wrapped up in the tow rope. I realised I had to get unravelled before I could let go and fall into the river and the group were all worried on the bank and were yelling at me not to let go. Luckily I managed to unwind myself quite easily and I dropped into the river with a girlie scream! Fausto had to go one better though and he hooked his knees over the bar and almost managed a back flip off it into the river.
Our 2nd jungle walk involved visiting some of the local’s houses, including Fausto’s parents. We dug up some yuccas which we had for dinner that night; we learnt how to make hats and umbrellas from this one palm like plant; we sucked fresh cocoa beans – the white flesh around them is juicy and sweet; and Fausto got one over on us by claiming a particular plant helped ease muscle aches and hit us with it on the backs of our hands - it turned out to be just like a strong stinging nettle and so we were all left rubbing our sore hands! We tried blowing darts into a wooden monkey target but both Le Roux and I failed that jungle test. A lady showed us how the local yucca chicha is made - a fermented white drink which actually tasted ok. Fausto managed to persuade Le Roux that he had a cure for his man flu – neat fresh ginger juice poured up your nose – boy did it burn and make his eyes water but he was very brave. He even went back for more the next morning! We visited a local shamen who showed us his ritual by “cleansing” Sally, who was subjected to lots of leaf shaking, chanting and moonshine spitting. We tried the moonshine or “fire water” as it is known and it really does burn in your belly! We also saw a lady making clay pots and a guy carving balsa wood animals – we bought Trevor the Truck a colourful tucan as his mascot which Scoota has installed on the dashboard.
However, the best bit of the day was building a balsa wood raft (we have to admit that Fausto did most of the work and it probably would have fallen apart without his help!) which all 13 of us then sailed down river on for nearly 2 hours. We enjoyed the sunshine, jumping in wearing lifevests as nappies and floating down the river, and we even had cold beers to drink – pretty idyllic really.
We also visited an animal sanctuary which housed various animals including monkeys, parrots, toucans, macaws, tortoises and kaymans as well as some weird animals such as brazileros; cabybaras; pekari pigs; agoutis; kinkajous; jaguarondis; ocelots and our favourite – the grey winger trumpeter. This bird puffs itself up and then makes a noise like a beat boxer – very funny to listen to. The monkeys were hilarious leaping around with erect penises and the parrots were enjoying talking with us and making us laugh.
There were lots of lovely butterflies in the jungle but they proved to be very difficult to photograph as they did not stay still for a moment – unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a picture of the beautiful big blue ones we saw.
Next stop after the jungle was Banos, the adventure sports capital of Ecuador. We camped 17km outside of Banos, near one of the biggest waterfalls in the area which was thunderous. We had hoped to escape the sandflies on leaving the jungle, but that wasn’t to be and the insect repellent remained close at hand! I also had a spider issue in the shower at the campsite – I’d got in and was busy shampooing my hair when I noticed an enormous spider in the shower tray with me. He was not managing to escape and I had nothing to flick him out with, so I had to carry on showering as fast as possible while keeping a very close eye on where he was, before hopping out as quickly as I could! I’m guessing that my friend Michelle would have run naked out of the shower screaming, such is her phobia of spiders! This was my first experience of sleeping in our new tent and using my fancy camping mat and it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected - my mat was reasonably comfortable (although nothing like my gorgeous soft mattress back home!) and the tent was pretty spacious so we managed to fit us and all our bags in, which was good as it rained each afternoon/evening. While some of the group went off white water rafting and canyoning, Le Roux and I had a lazy day. We headed into town on the public bus through a lot of rough tunnels carved through the rock. Before these were created, the drive to Banos from the campsite would have taken 4 hours winding up and down through the mountains, but now it only takes 30 mins on the bus. The buses are like fancy coaches with reclining seats, TVs and music and they just stop randomly for people waiting at the roadside. At the bus stations, lots of people come onto the bus selling snacks, drinks and magazines - one guy was selling hot kebabs and by the time he’d sold them the bus was already headed out of town so he had to leap off the bus and walk all the way back! We had hoped to use the internet while in town but there was a power cut across the whole of Ecuador so we were out of luck. We therefore focussed our efforts on buying the ingredients for dinner as we’d agreed to help cook a roast dinner and dessert for our group and another much smaller Tucan group.
We had great fun trying to find the necessary ingredients in the supermarket – they don’t have custard here – they don’t know what they’re missing! In the fruit and veg market liaising with the market stall ladies over what we needed was interesting – I have got to work on my Spanish as “No entiendo” (I don’t understand) was not getting me very far as they kept saying the same thing to me which I still didn’t get. Eventually we got there through sign language and random words from my phrase book. Getting the eggs back on the bus was interesting though as they sell them in plastic bags – totally ridiculous and I’m amazed we didn’t have a big bag of broken eggs by the time we got back. Mine and Le Roux’s dinner plans were somewhat hijacked by the other group’s tour leader (who is even more of a control freak than me!) - she stormed in late with the meat and totally took over even though everything was under control. My crumble changed flavour and I’d apparently not used the right type of sugar for the topping?! We weren’t allowed roast potatoes and had to have mash instead and instead of roast lamb she’d got sausages, steak and some frozen chickens! As it turned out, my crumble was delicious and went down a storm and she didn’t manage to get the chickens cooked so we ate everything else without them and Le Roux had to finish them on the BBQ instead. Our group were very loyal and sided with us and we’re looking forward to cooking on our own in future!
Food:
In Otavalo a lady was grating this funny white/green fruit and we had no idea what it was, but decided to try it anyway. You had 2 options – either sweet or salty - we opted for the sweet with cinnamon, sugar and hundreds and thousands. It turned out to be green mango which is a bit like a granny smith apple – pretty zingy and tart, but refreshing.
I have a rule about not eating in restaurants with pictures on the menu. Le Roux and I broke this rule in Dubrovnik last September and had one of the worst meals we’ve ever eaten. Therefore, the rule is a good one and we vowed to stick to it going forward. However, in Ecuador so many of the restaurants and cafes have pictures that we have struggled to not break our rule. To be fair the food has been fine and we’ve not had any particularly bad meals. Plantain still rules and we’ve continued to have it in many guises. We did have a nice piece of local trout with a weird green sauce that was supposedly basil and seeds, but we couldn’t quite identify the ingredients!
Babacca is a lovely local fruit. It’s green in colour and has a star shaped profile, and tastes a bit like stewed apple. It is delicious served cold with cinnamon or in a custard pie.
Observations:
Ecuador seems to have many shops that sell TVs, Fridges and Motorbikes! Not quite sure how a motorbike fits with household goods!
Ecuador has surprised me with the sheer size and number of mountains and volcanoes, which create some amazing scenery. However, my favourite bit of the trip so far has been the foray into the jungle, despite the irritating sandflies! As we head over the border, I’m looking forward to finding out what Peru has in store.
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