Well, obviously blogging has not been our priority. So in an effort to at least start blogging
about Ecuador before we leave Peru, I (Anna) am finally going to contribute. If you all can´t
tell by writing style, this blog has actually been Val´s so far because I am too preocupied with
posting pictures on facebook to help him out. But now the beginning of Ecuador will be from
my point of view! Here it goes.
Quito
We started out our second country in its capital. Logical, right? This was actually only because we were forced to fly into Ecuador instead of enter by bus as we´d originally planned. It was a big annoying thing that started when we tried to fly into Columbia without having any proof that we were leaving. But it got sorted out, and we made it into Ecuador on a fancy brand new Avianca plane. (We got a meal, and our flight was only an hour and a half long!) We found Quito to be big, dangerous, and intimidating. But because we had a lot of errands to run and catching up to do, we ended up spending 5 nights there. And it wasn´t so intimidating after a while, but it was still big, and definitely the most dangerous place we´d been so far. Lots of petty crime and neighborhoods that were no-go zones. But most of our time in Quito was spent at the Mercado central (where we became regulars at a little old lady´s vegetable stand) buying tons and tons of cheap vegetables, and in our beautiful, empty hostel kitchen cooking elaborate meals. We ate every night on our hostel’s rooftop terrace with a view of the lights of Quito on the hills surrounding us. It was very beautiful. It was a good chance to rest for a few days and catch up on life with the free hostel internet. We did manage to explore the old town, which was very beautiful as colonial old districts go. Lots of tiny cobblestone streets and elaborate churches. And we got our first introduction to Ecuadorian food, which is cheap as anything, but mostly fried. In Quito you can find set lunch menus with two courses and a drink for $1.50. Amazingly cheap. But it would always consist of rice, potatoes, and some sort of fried meat. The novelty wore off after about two of them, and we went back to cooking our own lunches, which were full of veggies from our favorite market ladies.
The Quilatoa Loop
To sum up this trek with the words: stunning or beautiful would be limmiting yourself to its true inspiring nature. Not knowing what we wanted out of Ecuador, Lonely Planet suggested looking into something that looked rather complicated with all the bus travel and accomodation arrangements. The major complications were that there were no guided treks from town to town. One had to rely on a verbal map, "Take a left at the 2 big rocks". However, the Quilatoa Loop proved to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. It was also one of the first true treks that we've done on our trip, pretty much organized by us.
The loop traditionally starts from the base point, a small town called Latacunga. The locals have been dealing with tourists for a while and will not shy away from ripping you off; two tomatoes for a $1 anyone? From there the actual hiking begins from the Quilatoa Lake, with a 14hr hike to the next town of Chugchilian. From there its another 14km to Isilivin and another 10km to Sigchos. Yup, thats a solid 3 days of hiking and some of the best views in South America.
Latacunga
There isnt much to say about this town, its small, colonial and has 2 main hostels to choose from. We stayed in Hostel Tiana simply because we wanted to get as much information from them as we could about the loop.
We arrived on a Sunday, to the very last day of the very famous festival, La Mama Negra. We didnt realise that this was the festival so we were very confused to find the main square outside the church packed with people. From bands to children dressed as soldiers on horseback, it was a spectacular sight. We were baffled by the giant pig statues located all around the church. The pigs were sprawled out over a cross with chicken and guinepigs spiked next to them. Some of the statues had cigaretts, chocolates, alcohol or fruit taped to them. It was really confusing because it appeared that each of the major families in the town had there own statue. We later found out that these statues had to be walked around town from the church to the main plaza, 30 mintues away, up a hill. These statues weighted in excess of 20kg and had to be carried on the back of the unlucky member of the family; turns were taken.
We stayed and watched the procession. From start to finish, there were allot of bands, all dressed up and playing the same music. There were adults and kids dressed in creepy costumes running around blessing people by spraying lemon flavoured water all over them. There were also other guys in costumes running around, professing rhymes onto different people after which forcing them to drink whisky out of a bottle. The one remarkable thing is that everyone in the parade was either drinking on drunk. As refreshers, the band players would chug down on beer and continue there steady pace to the main plaza overlooked by the child saint Mercedes.
In the end, our hostel wasnt very helpful. We caught the bus to Quilato in the morning and were on our way!
Quilatoa Lake
The Quilatoa Lake is actually a lake contained within a crater. Getting there in the morning and getting out of the bus, we were welcomed by a desolate looking place. The main street was linined with hostels all offering rooms for $10 a night. However our destination was a place recommended by Lonely Planet called Cabans Quilatoa. From the outside it looked like an abandoned buidling, grey and really weathered. The otherside was a bit newer and beyoned that, the building was practically brand new. Our host, a really nice Ecuadorian showed us a very nice looking room with a massive and cosy looking bed. The offer of $25pp was far to high and with Anna's haggling skills we were soon settling into a nice room with a double bed, a private bathroom, a fireplace with dinner and breaky included all for $10pp!
While we generally enjoy cooking for ourself because its heathier and cheaper, the hostels on the loop did not offer any kitchens. Instead it was easy to find a hostel for $10pp with dinner and breaky included in all the places that we were at.
The lake itself was beautiful. While it was an overcast day, the few rays of sunlight would reveal the emerald color of the lake. We decided that taking a kayak trip was the best way to really experience it. A minute after launching out my side started to leak. I stood in the kayak and called out the fact that it was leaking only to be replaye with "Its ok, it wont sink". So with saturated jeans and a cold butt we paddled the lake.
Chugchilian
The next day we got up early, had a hearty breakfast of eggs, jam, bread, oats and fruit and were on our way. While not having intructions on how to get to Chugchilian we knew that we had to go to the 2nd sandy patch that you could see from the restaurant overlooking the crater. That was our first marker. Luckily, just before setting out we ran into some people that we met at the hostel, we took pictures of there written instructions and the map.
We started off our hike by turning too early, the sandy patch that we came across wasnt the 2nd patch bu more like the 1 and a half patch. It wasnt sandy enough and because of that our directions from then on were pointless. However the best thing about this hike is that we started off high on the mountain so we could see our next target in the distance. Guyama is a little town, a half way marker to which we made our own way and were greated nicely by the farmers living around there always asking us where we were going. The journey consisted of walking down one mountain, to the lowest point and then hiking back up another mountain. The entire time we could see or atleast knew where our final destination was.We made it to Chugchilian in the estimated time of four and a half hours.
We stayed at a place called Hostel Cloud Forest, a really nice hostel where we also had to haggle the price of our room. There rooms were really comfortable and the hostel had written directions of how to get to the next place, Isilivin.
Isinlivi
The hike to Isinlivi was probably the most beautiful hiking I have ever done. We crossed deep ravines, mountains and a deep flowing river. Our directions proved easier to follow this time around but it still took us the estimated time to get to our destination. Our initial plan was to stay at Hostel Llululama, at $18 a night it wasnt our first choice but we were made to believe that there was nothing else. Arriving in Isilivin, we realised that across the street was another hostel, for $10 we recieved a cosy room with all the food and got to support a local family. That night we had dinner in there house, got to know a bit more about the area and generally felt better about hanging out with a local family.
The town had an amazing look out and generally looked like it was prospering.
Sigchos
The hike to Sigchos was supposed to take only 3 hours. Our directions and the map to follow those direction did not match all that well. We ended up taking the wrong turn and had to walk through farms, side of deep valleys, crawl under barb wire to finally make it to our end point, four and a half hours later. The hike was amazing but the town itself was not all that picturesque.
The highlight of the whole thing was really the hiking, so beyond saying that it was amazing, its kind of hard to describe that all we did was walk allot. We recommend that everyone should do this hike as the people that we met and the views that we enjoyed were completely worth it.
Otavalo
Anna again. Val wanted to do the Quilotoa loop because he loved it so much. (Not that I didn’t
– but he was adamant.) But now I get to do Otavalo, which I loved! After the Quilotoa loop,
we spent a night back in Quito, and then headed north to Otavalo. Otavalo is famous for its indigenous market, which attracts visitors from all over South America, as well as tons of gringo tourists. We decided to camp while we were there (thinking frugally, as always), and Lonely Planet mentioned a nice place slightly out of town. Slightly out of town ended up being 4 km up a big hill, but we took a taxi and managed to get there without too much effort. The place was beautiful – it had a view of two huge volcanos, and all of Otavalo. We camped on a grassy hill overlooking the valley, and had the dorm kitchen all to ourselves because no one else was staying in the dorms.
On Saturday, we headed downhill on foot for the market. We had been mentally preparing for this market for a while, and had researched (by talking to Ecuadorians) how much each item should cost. The whole bargaining culture was new to us, and we were determined not to get ripped off. So we came into the market on a mission, and knew exactly what we wanted to buy. Our preparation ended up being very successful. We first wandered the market, checking out the possibilities. The place was enormous – pretty much the entire town was full of booths. They sold everything from clothes to electronics to live animals. Since we weren’t interested in buying a cow or a cuy (guinea pig – a local delicacy) we mostly hung around the crafty area. Finally, after watching for a while, we made our first bargaining attempts. Our first purchase was an alpaca sweater for me, which we managed to get for $15, down from the original $30 asking price. Success! We continued on, and ended up with bags full of alpaca socks, hats, jumpers, and scarves.
A good day. Finally, after we’d gone on our shopping spree, we ran into our friend Carla, who we had done the Quilotoa loop with. We convinced her to stay a night in Otavalo with us (she was planning on going back to Quito) at our cozy hostel. Then the three of us headed to the food part of the market, and filled up even more bags with veggies, meat, and quinoa to cook for dinner. This time we hitched a ride up the hill in the back of a truck, and spent the evening cooking ourselves a massive dinner. Carla shared her cooking knowledge with us (she was from Hong Kong, and had a very different style of cooking to us) and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together.
We stayed two more days in Otavalo because it was so peaceful and relaxing. We spent these days hiking around the hostel and reading books. We finally left four days later, bundled up in cozy alpaca clothing and thoroughly relaxed.
Cotopaxi
After Otavalo, we returned to Quito to the hostel that had been our base in Ecuador. When we went to Quilotoa and Otavalo, we left half of our stuff at this hostel, which made traveling so much more comfortable. Even after sending a 5kg package home our first day in Quito, we still had WAY too much stuff in our backpacks. We have yet to see anyone with bags bigger than ours, and traveling is such a pain with such huge backpacks. It is mostly caused by our camping gear, which saves us enough money to be worth the hassle. But even though we know this, it doesn’t stop us from complaining about our big bags. Anyways, after Otavalo we decided that we wanted to see Cotopaxi, which is the huge volcano next to Quito. It is a perfectly shaped volcano, and looks oh-so-inviting from Quito. We were trying to decide between visiting it on a day trip from Quito, or staying at a hostel that we had heard about from a girl in Otavalo which is right outside of Cotopaxi national park. In the end, we decided to splurge and go to the hostel because we could camp there. Camping was $20 a day, including 3 meals. This may not seem expensive, but considering we usually pay $4 a day to camp, and can feed ourselves for about $4 a day, this was a bit steep. But sometimes splurges are necessary, and this one was definitely worth it.
To get to the hostel, we had to get special transportation from their sister hostel in Quito, because the place was so remote that you couldn’t get there on public transportation. It took us about 2 ½ hours on little dirt roads before we pulled up to the hostel, which was surrounded by farm land and mountains. We immediately loved the place – it had a cozy public area with a fireplace, couches, unlimited free tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and three cuddly dogs. We set up our tent outside, and as soon as it was up, it started pouring. We
couldn’t see the mountain because of the clouds, so the hostel looked like it was surrounded by green meadows leading into the mist. Our first day was just spent chatting with the other guests, drinking lots of tea, and reading our books. For dinner, we all sat at a big long table together. It felt so luxurious to have a dinner prepared for us, and it even came with dessert!
Our second day we woke up at 6am to see the views. (It tended to be cloudy during the day, so to see the hostel’s amazing views, you had to be up at sunrise)The view really was as incredible as they claimed. Cotopaxi was huge and right in front of us, a perfect snow capped cone. That day we decided to go to Cotopaxi. We couldn’t afford to actually summit the mountain, so we decided on a trip to the climbers lodge (elevation 4800m) and then mountain biking down. The trip didn’t actually involve much hiking (just about 400m from the parking lot to the climbers lodge) but because of the elevation, it felt like a real work out. At the lodge, we played in the snow (Val made his trademark snow kangaroo) and had some hot chocolate and banana cake. Then we headed back down to the parking lot and got on the bikes. Biking down the mountain was so much fun for about the first 45minutes, but then it started pouring rain. By the time we arrived at the park entrance, we were soaking wet and covered in mud. But after a hot shower, dry clothes, and a hot lunch at the hostel, we were as good as new.
The rest of our time in Cotopaxi was very relaxed. (If you can’t tell, we had a pretty relaxing time in Ecuador in general). We ate the delicious food, read two books each, chatted with the other guests, and made use of the hostel’s jaccuzi. And enjoyed the views – our last two days were sunny and beautiful, so we got to see the full view that the hostel had to offer. (From the front porch you can see NINE volcanos.) We made some friends at Cotopaxi who we ended up traveling with for another week or so, but that will be described in the next section on Banos!
about Ecuador before we leave Peru, I (Anna) am finally going to contribute. If you all can´t
tell by writing style, this blog has actually been Val´s so far because I am too preocupied with
posting pictures on facebook to help him out. But now the beginning of Ecuador will be from
my point of view! Here it goes.
Quito
The Quilatoa Loop
To sum up this trek with the words: stunning or beautiful would be limmiting yourself to its true inspiring nature. Not knowing what we wanted out of Ecuador, Lonely Planet suggested looking into something that looked rather complicated with all the bus travel and accomodation arrangements. The major complications were that there were no guided treks from town to town. One had to rely on a verbal map, "Take a left at the 2 big rocks". However, the Quilatoa Loop proved to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. It was also one of the first true treks that we've done on our trip, pretty much organized by us.
The loop traditionally starts from the base point, a small town called Latacunga. The locals have been dealing with tourists for a while and will not shy away from ripping you off; two tomatoes for a $1 anyone? From there the actual hiking begins from the Quilatoa Lake, with a 14hr hike to the next town of Chugchilian. From there its another 14km to Isilivin and another 10km to Sigchos. Yup, thats a solid 3 days of hiking and some of the best views in South America.
Latacunga
We arrived on a Sunday, to the very last day of the very famous festival, La Mama Negra. We didnt realise that this was the festival so we were very confused to find the main square outside the church packed with people. From bands to children dressed as soldiers on horseback, it was a spectacular sight. We were baffled by the giant pig statues located all around the church. The pigs were sprawled out over a cross with chicken and guinepigs spiked next to them. Some of the statues had cigaretts, chocolates, alcohol or fruit taped to them. It was really confusing because it appeared that each of the major families in the town had there own statue. We later found out that these statues had to be walked around town from the church to the main plaza, 30 mintues away, up a hill. These statues weighted in excess of 20kg and had to be carried on the back of the unlucky member of the family; turns were taken.
We stayed and watched the procession. From start to finish, there were allot of bands, all dressed up and playing the same music. There were adults and kids dressed in creepy costumes running around blessing people by spraying lemon flavoured water all over them. There were also other guys in costumes running around, professing rhymes onto different people after which forcing them to drink whisky out of a bottle. The one remarkable thing is that everyone in the parade was either drinking on drunk. As refreshers, the band players would chug down on beer and continue there steady pace to the main plaza overlooked by the child saint Mercedes. In the end, our hostel wasnt very helpful. We caught the bus to Quilato in the morning and were on our way!
Quilatoa Lake
While we generally enjoy cooking for ourself because its heathier and cheaper, the hostels on the loop did not offer any kitchens. Instead it was easy to find a hostel for $10pp with dinner and breaky included in all the places that we were at.
The lake itself was beautiful. While it was an overcast day, the few rays of sunlight would reveal the emerald color of the lake. We decided that taking a kayak trip was the best way to really experience it. A minute after launching out my side started to leak. I stood in the kayak and called out the fact that it was leaking only to be replaye with "Its ok, it wont sink". So with saturated jeans and a cold butt we paddled the lake.
Chugchilian
The next day we got up early, had a hearty breakfast of eggs, jam, bread, oats and fruit and were on our way. While not having intructions on how to get to Chugchilian we knew that we had to go to the 2nd sandy patch that you could see from the restaurant overlooking the crater. That was our first marker. Luckily, just before setting out we ran into some people that we met at the hostel, we took pictures of there written instructions and the map.We started off our hike by turning too early, the sandy patch that we came across wasnt the 2nd patch bu more like the 1 and a half patch. It wasnt sandy enough and because of that our directions from then on were pointless. However the best thing about this hike is that we started off high on the mountain so we could see our next target in the distance. Guyama is a little town, a half way marker to which we made our own way and were greated nicely by the farmers living around there always asking us where we were going. The journey consisted of walking down one mountain, to the lowest point and then hiking back up another mountain. The entire time we could see or atleast knew where our final destination was.We made it to Chugchilian in the estimated time of four and a half hours.
We stayed at a place called Hostel Cloud Forest, a really nice hostel where we also had to haggle the price of our room. There rooms were really comfortable and the hostel had written directions of how to get to the next place, Isilivin.
Isinlivi
The hike to Isinlivi was probably the most beautiful hiking I have ever done. We crossed deep ravines, mountains and a deep flowing river. Our directions proved easier to follow this time around but it still took us the estimated time to get to our destination. Our initial plan was to stay at Hostel Llululama, at $18 a night it wasnt our first choice but we were made to believe that there was nothing else. Arriving in Isilivin, we realised that across the street was another hostel, for $10 we recieved a cosy room with all the food and got to support a local family. That night we had dinner in there house, got to know a bit more about the area and generally felt better about hanging out with a local family.The town had an amazing look out and generally looked like it was prospering.
Sigchos
The hike to Sigchos was supposed to take only 3 hours. Our directions and the map to follow those direction did not match all that well. We ended up taking the wrong turn and had to walk through farms, side of deep valleys, crawl under barb wire to finally make it to our end point, four and a half hours later. The hike was amazing but the town itself was not all that picturesque.The highlight of the whole thing was really the hiking, so beyond saying that it was amazing, its kind of hard to describe that all we did was walk allot. We recommend that everyone should do this hike as the people that we met and the views that we enjoyed were completely worth it.
Otavalo
Anna again. Val wanted to do the Quilotoa loop because he loved it so much. (Not that I didn’t– but he was adamant.) But now I get to do Otavalo, which I loved! After the Quilotoa loop,
we spent a night back in Quito, and then headed north to Otavalo. Otavalo is famous for its indigenous market, which attracts visitors from all over South America, as well as tons of gringo tourists. We decided to camp while we were there (thinking frugally, as always), and Lonely Planet mentioned a nice place slightly out of town. Slightly out of town ended up being 4 km up a big hill, but we took a taxi and managed to get there without too much effort. The place was beautiful – it had a view of two huge volcanos, and all of Otavalo. We camped on a grassy hill overlooking the valley, and had the dorm kitchen all to ourselves because no one else was staying in the dorms.
On Saturday, we headed downhill on foot for the market. We had been mentally preparing for this market for a while, and had researched (by talking to Ecuadorians) how much each item should cost. The whole bargaining culture was new to us, and we were determined not to get ripped off. So we came into the market on a mission, and knew exactly what we wanted to buy. Our preparation ended up being very successful. We first wandered the market, checking out the possibilities. The place was enormous – pretty much the entire town was full of booths. They sold everything from clothes to electronics to live animals. Since we weren’t interested in buying a cow or a cuy (guinea pig – a local delicacy) we mostly hung around the crafty area. Finally, after watching for a while, we made our first bargaining attempts. Our first purchase was an alpaca sweater for me, which we managed to get for $15, down from the original $30 asking price. Success! We continued on, and ended up with bags full of alpaca socks, hats, jumpers, and scarves.A good day. Finally, after we’d gone on our shopping spree, we ran into our friend Carla, who we had done the Quilotoa loop with. We convinced her to stay a night in Otavalo with us (she was planning on going back to Quito) at our cozy hostel. Then the three of us headed to the food part of the market, and filled up even more bags with veggies, meat, and quinoa to cook for dinner. This time we hitched a ride up the hill in the back of a truck, and spent the evening cooking ourselves a massive dinner. Carla shared her cooking knowledge with us (she was from Hong Kong, and had a very different style of cooking to us) and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together.
We stayed two more days in Otavalo because it was so peaceful and relaxing. We spent these days hiking around the hostel and reading books. We finally left four days later, bundled up in cozy alpaca clothing and thoroughly relaxed.
Cotopaxi
After Otavalo, we returned to Quito to the hostel that had been our base in Ecuador. When we went to Quilotoa and Otavalo, we left half of our stuff at this hostel, which made traveling so much more comfortable. Even after sending a 5kg package home our first day in Quito, we still had WAY too much stuff in our backpacks. We have yet to see anyone with bags bigger than ours, and traveling is such a pain with such huge backpacks. It is mostly caused by our camping gear, which saves us enough money to be worth the hassle. But even though we know this, it doesn’t stop us from complaining about our big bags. Anyways, after Otavalo we decided that we wanted to see Cotopaxi, which is the huge volcano next to Quito. It is a perfectly shaped volcano, and looks oh-so-inviting from Quito. We were trying to decide between visiting it on a day trip from Quito, or staying at a hostel that we had heard about from a girl in Otavalo which is right outside of Cotopaxi national park. In the end, we decided to splurge and go to the hostel because we could camp there. Camping was $20 a day, including 3 meals. This may not seem expensive, but considering we usually pay $4 a day to camp, and can feed ourselves for about $4 a day, this was a bit steep. But sometimes splurges are necessary, and this one was definitely worth it.
To get to the hostel, we had to get special transportation from their sister hostel in Quito, because the place was so remote that you couldn’t get there on public transportation. It took us about 2 ½ hours on little dirt roads before we pulled up to the hostel, which was surrounded by farm land and mountains. We immediately loved the place – it had a cozy public area with a fireplace, couches, unlimited free tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and three cuddly dogs. We set up our tent outside, and as soon as it was up, it started pouring. Wecouldn’t see the mountain because of the clouds, so the hostel looked like it was surrounded by green meadows leading into the mist. Our first day was just spent chatting with the other guests, drinking lots of tea, and reading our books. For dinner, we all sat at a big long table together. It felt so luxurious to have a dinner prepared for us, and it even came with dessert!
Our second day we woke up at 6am to see the views. (It tended to be cloudy during the day, so to see the hostel’s amazing views, you had to be up at sunrise)The view really was as incredible as they claimed. Cotopaxi was huge and right in front of us, a perfect snow capped cone. That day we decided to go to Cotopaxi. We couldn’t afford to actually summit the mountain, so we decided on a trip to the climbers lodge (elevation 4800m) and then mountain biking down. The trip didn’t actually involve much hiking (just about 400m from the parking lot to the climbers lodge) but because of the elevation, it felt like a real work out. At the lodge, we played in the snow (Val made his trademark snow kangaroo) and had some hot chocolate and banana cake. Then we headed back down to the parking lot and got on the bikes. Biking down the mountain was so much fun for about the first 45minutes, but then it started pouring rain. By the time we arrived at the park entrance, we were soaking wet and covered in mud. But after a hot shower, dry clothes, and a hot lunch at the hostel, we were as good as new.The rest of our time in Cotopaxi was very relaxed. (If you can’t tell, we had a pretty relaxing time in Ecuador in general). We ate the delicious food, read two books each, chatted with the other guests, and made use of the hostel’s jaccuzi. And enjoyed the views – our last two days were sunny and beautiful, so we got to see the full view that the hostel had to offer. (From the front porch you can see NINE volcanos.) We made some friends at Cotopaxi who we ended up traveling with for another week or so, but that will be described in the next section on Banos!
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