Our Last Days in Ecuador - and Earthquakes in Peru

Just in case you hear anything about it in the news there were a couple earthquakes in Peru this morning, which we felt in Lima, but everything is OK and still running normally - we don´t have much more detail than that. There was one small one while we were in bed and another larger one (felt about the same as the Gisborne one before Christmas) while we were waiting for our flight at the airport - more on that later.

Wednesday - Cotopaxi Volcano









On Wednesday and Thursday we went on two tours with a company called Gullivers - service was great - highly recommended.

After an early pick-up in Quito (0700) we headed off South of Quito on the Pan America highway to a small town called Machachi where we visited the market and the guide bought food for lunch etc. Then we continued to Gulliver´s hostel - Papagayo (where we stayed on Wednesday night) to pick up more tourists and a trailer load of mountain bikes. We then headed to Cotopaxi National Park.

The scenery is suprisingly similar to NZ (they even have Toi Toi flax etc), and large pine plantations, so it looked a lot like the Taupo/Rotorua/Ruapehu area. We travelled over a very bumpy dirt road for about 40 mins to 3,800m to the base of the volcano where we got out to stretch our legs and see how we handled the altitude. Then travelled up to the Refugio (Hut) carpark at 4,500m. From there we had to walk up to the Refugio at 4,800m - boy that was hard work at that altitude - and the track was on loose scree slopes as well, so it was a case of one step forward, slide 1/2 step back, take 40 steps and stop for a rest - it took 40mins to walk a distance we estimated would have taken 20mins if we had been at sea level.

Once we got to the Refugio we had a short rest and then continued on to a glacier at 5,000m, then back to the Refugio for a fantastic lunch! After lunch we walked back to the 4WD and jumped on mountain bikes for a skid down the road to the bottom of the volcano. Unfortunately I took a bit of a tumble, and the brake was a bit of a stretch for my hand, and the combination of cramp and a very rutted road meant I ended up with a scraped knee, so not much damage really. Then it was on to look at a pretty lake, then back to Papagayo for hot choc and chocolate cake, and an early night as we were both knackered after all that excercise at altitude.

Thursday - Laguna Quilotoa





We were picked up at 0830 from Papagayo and again headed south to a town called Latacunga, where we turned off the Pan America and headed west. We stopped in a small town called Saquisili and visited the markets - animal, craft and food and household objects/farm implements. It was really interesting getting a glimpse of how rural Ecuador works - but, boy, would the animal rights activists would have a field day here!

Then we travelled through a few small rural towns and then stopped in the middle of nowhere to visit an indigenous indian farming family - this group of people really live a 3rd world existence. They were quite a weathly family by rural standards (because of the income from visiting tourists), but they lived in a very small grass thatched hut, which was shared with all the small aminals they use for food - chickens, ducks, guinea pigs (very popular food over here) etc, with raw meat just hanging up in the hut, and no electricity or other modern convieniences.

We then continued towards Laguna (Lake) Quilotoa, in a small village just before Quilotoa itself there were some lambs grazing on the side of the road and one ran out in front of our mini-bus and it got hit and died - blimey that caused some commotion! The woman who was looking after them starts yelling and soon half the village have turned up and are threatening to beat up our driver and guide unless they hand over $70 for the sheep (which is expensive as the going rate is about $40-50), so after some tense negotiations, the $70 is handed over and the dead lamb is loaded into the back of our bus, and we were on our way - yes, we shared the bus with a dead sheep!

Once we got to Quilotoa, we walked down to the edge of the lake. It was pretty cloudy when we got there (very common), but it cleared enough for us to get a few photos on the way down, then completely closed in when we got to the bottom (cloud at water level). Laguna Quilotoa is a lake at the bottom of a deep, extinct volcano crater (3,800m at the top 3,000m at the bottom). Some of the group decided to ride donkeys back to the top ($5), but we walked as we thought it would be good training for the Inca Trail. It took us 50mins to walk up the track which had taken us 20mins to walk down and it was VERY steep in places. We then had lunch at one of the hostels (Andrew had Llama, which tastes like mutton, but is quite chewy). Then it was time to take the long trip back to Quito.

It took about 4 hrs to get back, so it was about 2030 by the time we got back to the hostel, Amazon Inn (same one as before), and when we arrrived we found we had been given a free room upgrade for our last night - score!

Friday - Hanging out in Quito
We flew to Lima late on Friday night, so we just spent the day hanging out in Quito, visited some malls in New Town (same a everywhere) and went to a cool archaeology museum, with lots of Pre-Incan and Incan pottery and gold and silver artefacts. Then headed back to the hostel to pack up our stuff and head to the airport. Flew out of Quito at 2050, and landed in Lima at 2245 - Lima airport is pretty chaotic! Eventually managed to find our driver to take us to our hostel for a few hours sleep.

Around Quito

Otavalo

On Tuesday morning we decided to brave the public transport system. This involved going to the rather dodgy bus interchange. It didn't take too long to buy tickets once we actually found the right ticket office (among dozens available). It was nice and cheap, only $2 each for a trip that was supposed to take a couple of hours, and we were soon to find out why...

The bus was actually pretty flash and we were the only two on it to start with, which we found a little amusing. The bus left a little early then drove around the outside of the terminal, and then around town a bit to pick up extra passengers, so the bus was about half full by the time we finally got underway. Three hours later we finally arrived in Otavalo.

The main attraction for this rather out of the way town is it's Indian Market. First up we visited the food market, which was interesting, but didn't offer much that we wanted to buy. We had a quick look round and took a few photos. We then went to the craft market which was pretty quiet and very colourful. We had a quick look around and bought a few souvenirs. We'd decided not to take the guide book with us because all we wanted was the map, and it's pretty big. Michelle got a little stressed cos she wasn't confident she knew exactly where she was all the time. Fortunately we found a map on a wall and after taking a photo of it we then had a portable map. Drama over!

After getting back to Quito later than we'd originally hoped (though it only took two and a half hours to get back) we had a great Mexican meal for less than $20.

Ecuador - Where Do I Start......

Hola Everyone,

Well it has been a few days since we have updated you all, so there is LOTS to catch up on - but Ill try and keep it short.

So, on Saturday we flew from Santiago to Quito - all was good. We are staying at the flashest hostel I have ever seen, run by a lovely family. The dude who picked us up at the airport at 2100 even stopped on the way to the hostel to get us dinner!

Sunday


On Sunday we went for a wander around the city. First we caught a taxi up to the Teleferico (gondola) which goes up a really high hill at the edge of the city - with the obligatory fab views from the top. As it was a public holiday the queue was HUGE so we paid $7 (instead of $4) for an express ticket so were at the top within 15 mins (instead of 2 hours). Once at the top we walked up a track to the viewing platform and I was beginning to wonder why I was getting out of breath pretty quick - then we saw a sign that said "Altitude = 4,100m" (Quito city itself is at 2,850m) - no wonder I was struggling!

After that we caught a collectivo (minibus) back down to Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Area. Had a quick look around there and saw a church called La Basilica, and then it started to pour with rain! (and I mean big thunderstorm) - consequently we got soaking wet (even though we had our jackets). So, after we had found some lunch we hot-footed it back to the hostel in a taxi.




Monday








Today we went and visited a tour agency to sort out some tours for the rest of the week, so on Wednesday we are going mountainin biking down Cotopaxi volcano and on Thursday we are going to Laguna (Lake) Quilotoa. Tomorrow we will be braving the local busses to go to the famous markets at Otavalo (1.5hrs north of Quito).

After that we spent more time in the Old Town, wandering seeing lots of beautiful buildings and churches (LOTS of churches). Many of the old colonial buildings had been "restored", and looked beautiful from a distance, but close up you could see all the imperfections - broken panes of glass, broken stonework etc - but still it was absolutely gorgeous. we both loved Old Town, the atmosphere was really relaxed and the sights and people were interesting. The best churches we saw were The Cathedral and La Merced, there was also the Monastery of San Francisco which would have been absolutely stunning in its day, but its beautiful altar was destroyed by an earthquake and restoration is on-going.

Also managed to order some great food today (we struggled a bit to order lunch, but in the end it was very nice) - we even had VEGES - twice!

I think tomorrow will throw some interesting challenges at us - trying to negotiate public transport and all.




PS - for all you non-computer geeks out there, when you leave us a comment and you are not a member of blogspot - write your name in the message - so we know who we are talking to!

Good Friday in Santiago & We´re Off to Ecuador

Buenas Manaña,

We are just hanging out at the hostel this morning waiting for a taxi to come and pick us up, to take us to the airport for our flight to Ecuador.

Yesterday was a public holiday here in SA (just like at home), so we thought we would get out and explore the city. Well, compared to the pulsating mass of humanity we encountered on Thursday afternoon, today was like the centre of Hastings on a Sunday afternoon - almost completely deserted! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and because it is a religious holiday the museums we wanted to see were closed as well (bugger!).

We went back to Cerro Santa Lucia, and had more of a look around, then wandered around for a bit and finally managed to find the Plaza de Armas. It was only one of two places we went to that were actually full of people. Saw a beautiful cathedral there - the South Americans sure don´t do things by halves, especially when it comes to celebrating religion. We then managed to order some lunch (in Spanish - and we actually got what we wanted :-) ).

We continued our walking tour of the city by heading towards the river (which is actually just a fast running grubby stream), and walked through the green belt that runs alongside the river, then crossed the river into the supposedly "wealthy" suburb of Bellavista. There were a couple of nice apartment blocks, but other than that the buildings were just as rundown as any other areas we have seen. There are some beautiful buildings (museums/cathedrals etc), but most of the place is pretty rundown really.

On the other side of Bellavista was the Metropolitan Park of Santiago, which is a huge park on a huge hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top - this was the only other place that was full of people. It has a cable car (funincular) and a gondola going up to the top, and it houses the national zoo amongst other things. Today there was also market set up at the bottom - nothing very exciting - but we bought yummy icecream - coconut flavour. We walked to the top to see the statue (it was very hot and there was not a lot of shade on the trail), took a few photos at the top, and got some great views of the city - basically sprawling city in every direction as far as the eye could see (well as far as the smog would let you see!). There is a bit of a market at the top also, with food stalls etc, and they were selling a popular drink containing barley kernels, peaches and cold tea! As it was so hot we decided to take the cable car back down (only 800 pesos each which is about $2.50). The queue for the cable car at the bottom was HUGE, but hardly anyone waiting at the top, so we figured that it must be popular to get the cable car up then walk back down.

We then walked back to the hostel via the nicest suburb we have seen so far - Lastarria. By that time it was 1830, so we had been out walking around for 6.5 hours, and walked around 20km, so we were a bit foot sore!

We have discovered a new food which is quite yummy! They are called pepinos and they are tear drop shaped with cream and purple striped skin. When peeled the flesh is pale yellow, and tastes like rockmelon.

Impressions of Santiago - the pollution has not been anywhere near as bad as I thought, you don´t really notice it until you go up high and see the smog. The people are quite nice and quite "European" in their dress and outlook. We haven´t really had any culture shock as such here, as everything looks kinda familiar - just in Spanish!

It is going to be interesting to see how different it is when we get to Ecuador.

We Made It!

Well, we are at the end of our first day in South America, so just thought we would post a quick note to let everyone know that we arrived without any problems.

The flight was pretty good (as good as long flights can be), I managd to sleep for about 6 hours, Andrew on ly managed about 3 hrs. Once we arrived at the hostel and got sorted, we went for a wee walk to the super market and got some food for lunch. We then had a "little" (2 hr) catnap.

Once we awaoke from our slumber, we headed downtown to Cerro Santa Lucia (a hill/park) and went for a wander - little did we know that it appears to be the meeting place for young couples! Hung out there for a bit, then as we were about to leave we went around a corner and saw a beautiful statue/fountain bathed in teh golden evening light. So we quickly took a few photos there, and then came back to the hostel as it was starting to get dark. Then went out to a cheap and unspectacular pizzeria for dinner (where everyone was fascinated by the little white eggplant plant that the owner had been given - people on the street kept stopping to have a look at it, as they are not common over here).

Tomorrow is a national holiday here, so we will explore more of the central city, and do the usual touristy stuff. It is pretty hot here too, it is 2230, and I´m still in t-shirt and shorts.

Mountain bike ride up Takapari Rd

This is just a little test run for our blog. We went for a
mountain bike ride up Takapari Road. The first kilometre
was yuck because they've decided to resurface it with nasty
loose gravel. But it was cool from then on. And really
hot!
:-)