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.