Chilled in Cuenca

After our train ride we arrived in Cuenca on a bus full of tourists and in order to avoid ending up in the same hostel as all of them we ignored the touts at the station and used a recommendation from the guide book...which turned out not to be so great... so we followed a French couple to a nearby hotel with a charming guy on the front desk - not so charming rooms (what would you expect in Hotel Siberia?) but we decided to stay there for the night anyway and look elsewhere in the daylight.

Not such a great idea when the bar opposite started up with a live band at midnight and roadworks commenced at about 7am! Still the guy on the front desk was so friendly and helpful I (Lesley) couldn´t quite tell him that we were moving to a nicer hostel on check out and told him we were leaving the city!

We’d arrived on the last night of the Corpus Cristi festivities, which involved lots of stalls selling sweets and a lot of fireworks, some of them a little too close for comfort when misfiring into the crowd, but a great atmosphere.

The hostel we moved to was quite charming – a lovely tranquil place with garden and hammocks to escape from the city. Cuenca is very different to the other cities we´d experienced in Ecuador. Very beautiful colonial buildings and a laid back feel. We were there for the weekend so museums and tour agencies were largely closed, so we wandered along the river and followed our noses to explore the city. We did decide to hide ourselves away and watch the England Ecuador match in the hostel kitchen, but that was partly through lack of places to watch it in public (though the tv in the local funeral parlour was attracting quite a crowd). Everywhere else there had been numerous cafes and bars showing football at all times (this is a country obsessed!) but on a Sunday morning in a small town, the options were limited.

They were gracious in defeat though, and the tv and radio stations were all broadcasting their thanks to the national team for doing so well, and being among the 16 best teams in the world for some time afterwards!

After a couple of days of relative inactivity we headed out to the Parque Nacional Cajas and a 4 hour walk at the highest altitude we´d encountered yet. It was quite beautiful and very remote - we didn´t see a soul for the duration of the walk, unless you count the llamas, and ate a picnic lunch at 12000 feet by the side of one of the many lakes which supply drinking water to Cuenca.

The Devil´s Nose

On leaving the Quilotoa circuit and moving on to Riobamba we joined the well-trodden path of travellers heading south through Ecuador to Peru (the Gringo trail). We bumped into a couple of our fellow passengers from our Galapagos experience in Riobamba, but didn´t quite realise the extent to which we would be surrounded by fellow tourists until we climbed on top of a train to the Devil´s Nose at 6am one morning. There was even a group of Dutch tourists who had got there early and lined up their cushions on the best side of the train (the right side has the best views if you ever decide to enter into this craziness!). They were the same Dutch tourists who had woken us up at 1am coming in from a night on the town in Riobamba. Rick had been laid low by the inevitable the night before so I felt very resentful. Even more so when a Herr Flick look-alike left a wet, muddy footprint on my own cushion. Being surrounded by fellow gringos obviously made me very intolerant, most of the time I´ve been very chilled - honest!

The train ride was bizarre - 7 hours sitting on top of a train is not something you would consider in normal circumstances - especially given that we had a false start and had to wait for a new engine and the train came, literally, off the rails in the middle of nowhere. By unscrewing part of the engine and manoevering a few rocks they got us back on our way...in another part of the world we´d have waited for heavy machinery to lift the train back on, but I´ve a feeling that that wouldn´t have been an option. For the entire 7 hours there were several guys walking up and down the top of the train selling drinks, sweets, biscuits, even cold beers and those same Dutch tourists buying and throwing the sweets to the children waving at us along the way.... as someone who had to have 5 fillings before setting off on this adventure I refrained from doing the same!

The scenery was amazing, as Rick´s pictures should show, and while it was a totally touristy experience, it was worth doing.

Cotopaxi and Quilotoa

(Photo: Mama Hilda´s Hostal)

After our leisurely, tropical time in the Galapagos and a day in football crazy Quito we thought we´d head out into the Andes for a a change of scenery and more active days.

On Saturday we rode on mountain bikes down the side of Cotopaxi volcano. Some of it was challenging given the wind, sleet and 4,800 m of altitude, but it was quite beautiful. I (Lesley) only managed to fall off the bike once (quite an achievement I thought!).

We were then dropped by the side of the road with our backpacks in order to try and hail a bus to the next destination, Latacunga. Latacunga is the gateway into the Quilotoa circuit, a spectacular Andean region with small indigenous villages and a stunning lake in the middle of the Quilotoa crater (photos below). From Latacunga we took a very bumpy and dusty bus ride to the village of Chugchilán and Casa Mama Hilda. Rick was about ready to leave South America for good after 4 or 5 hours in the dust, heat and market crowds on the bus, but Mama Hilda´s hostal was a real haven of relaxation with beautiful views and a relaxing and homely environment. After a cup of coffee and a rest in the hammocks we were back to enjoying our adventure again!

From Chugchilán we walked 5 1/2 hours to Quilotoa (slightly off the usual track but we got there in the end) which at 3100 to 3850m above sea level was a struggle for both of us at times, despite all that extra time we´d put in in the gym before leaving. The bus back left early and left us stranded... but rather than stay the night in one of the basic and cold hostels we negotiated a ride back to our cosy hostel and Mama Hilda´s cooking! The wood-burning stove in our room was very welcome that evening. The following day we watched Ecuador being beaten by Germany and then set off on a ´short´walk to the Cloud Forest above Chugchilán. 4 hours later we had missed the England match and several of the short cuts back... but were greeted with corn fresh from the garden and a village cheese to help ease our weary feet. More relaxing in the hammocks followed.

In order to avoid a 4am departure on the bus back, Mama Hilda negotiated for us to get a ride at a far more civilised time, but what we hadn´t quite realised was that this would be even more dusty than the bus and that we would be driven by an unlicensed 14 year old! We got there anyway, and made our way back to Latacunga in the back of a pick up and then on to Riobamba by a much less dusty bus.

Cotopaxi and Quilotoa (Photos)

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1. Cotopaxi (one of highest active volcanos in the world)


2. Resting after mountain-biking down Cotopaxi


3. Panorama near Quilatoa


4. The view from our hostel in Chugchillan


5. Quilotoa volcano (and it´s crater lake)


6. Rick looking over the Quilotoa

Galapagos Photos

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1. Giant Tortoise


2. Lesley snapping an Albatross


3. Albatrosses


4. View of Espanola Island


5. Sea-lions sleeping with Marine Iguanas


6. The tail of an Orca (Killer Whale)


7. Marine Iguana


8. View over Santa Fe


9. Friendly sea-lion


10. Our 2nd boat (Floreana)


11. Eagle Ray


12. Lots of blue-footed boobies


13. A land iguana


14. Pelican building a nest


15. View over Bartolome


16. Sleepy sea-lion

Galapagos

We've just finished our fantastic trip to the Galapagos islands. We were on 2 different boats (including the picture above) for a total of 8 days. The scenery was amazing, the animals unbelievable! We've done lots of hiking (encountering iguanas, sea-lions, tortoises and many exotic birds), snorkeling (swimming with sea-lions, turtles and small sharks), eating and
sleeping.

Highlights included seeing killer whales swimming around our boat and a school of dolphins following into harbour. Swimming with penguins was Lesley´s personal highlight, but not sure that they were terribly impressed.

We were living in close quarters with passengers and crew but were lucky to have a good experience with both, although the guide on the first boat was a bit of a character (especially when parading along the beaches in his blue speedos).

Birds, animals and fish on the Galapagos are completely non-plussed about humans and just get along with their lives without bothering to hide or fly away. We should have some amazing photos of baby boobies (birds!), and albatross mating dance, giant land tortoises, land iguanas, marine iguanas and thousands of sea lions. Sea lions were everywhere and very playful. Unfortuately I was laughing too hard to get a shot of a baby sea lion trying to play with an iguana tail....it would have been a good one.

Quito, part 1

We finally arrived in Quito today (6th June), after an interesting plane diversion to Guayaquil. We started travelling at about 7am in Boston, then spent about 19 hours travelling on cars, boats and planes to get to Quito (via a few hours stopover in Miami), only to find that there was too much fog to land, when we arrived over Quito airport.

The pilot then had to divert us to the next nearest big airport (another 45 mins away). We landed and got through immigration at about 1am, then had to wrestle with the inefficiencies of South American airline staff (no communication, a free-for-all to get on minibuses to take us to some unknown hotel). We eventually got to bed at about 2:30am, then had to get up at 7am in order to get the same plane back to Quito the next morning!

Despite all this hassle and ultra-tirednesss, with our new found relaxed attitude to travelling and life (which we acquired the day after we quit our jobs in June!), we just went with the flow and are now having a lovely afternoon in the capital city of Ecuador, sampling the local cusine, experiencing mild altitude sickness, and preparing for our imminent trip to the Galapagos islands.