ECUADOR

Tuesday 21st. Arrival in Quito at the Hotel Fuente de Piedra (2800m)

Wednesday 22nd We start our visit with the famous ecuador-memorial "Mitad del Mundo" just North of Quito. In the historical centre we begin the town visit with a climb of the towers of "Basilica del Voto Nacional", over wobbly ladders and steep stairs. The view is spectacular but the skies are covered, no sign of any volcano at the grey horizon...the plaza Grande with the cathedral, where a fresque shows a special version of the last supper: instead of bread they have "cuy asado", grilled guinea pig, the national dish!

Next church is the impressive Compañia de Jesus, built by the Jesuits with incredible amounts of gold layers, barroque and Arabic style both used. After that plaza St Francisco and its church. driving up the "panecillo" (small loaf) we end up at the foot of a giant virgin statue "La Virgen". (42m high) . In the evening we leave the guide and continue our stroll through the town on our own. We dine in a nice patio at the Café del Fraile and head back to the hotel.

Thursday 23rd

Rent a car at Avis and start our adventure to find our own way out of Quito, not an easy task!! Driving into the national park of Antisana we wonder where we are going to end up: the path is rough and wild and not a single soul in sight. On the way we see our first Ecuadorian Condor sailing above our heads. Hostería Guaytara seems to be in the middle of nowhere. At only the 3rd day we are at 3500 m and it is strenous!! Slowly we start a walk in the wild and see our first wild lamas and alpacs. 

A ranchero guy , like a cowboy, shows us the wild benados ( look like a crossing between deer and goat...) , we cross the pastures and climb on until we are in the páramo landscape (highland grass). Up on the plateau we get a wonderful reward for our efforts: we see Antisana volcano in all its splendour, blue skies at the background!! We are above 4000m and our bodies suffer. At our return and on the way the ranchero guy lets me ride his horse: what a difference to our spoilt European horses, these animals are acrobats in that hilly landscape!! Great dinner at the hacienda and a long sleep.

Friday 24th

Start early with a guy from the hacienda to Laguna Mica. We find the laguna in an ecological reserve, we are all alone. On the way there we spot Cotopaxi volcano ( second highest volcano in Ecuador) at the horizon, with a white snowy top and a blue sky at the background. We take the Mica trail at the laguna and start a long strenous walk. We are already higher than 4200 m and breathing is quite hard. We see many Caracara birds, black and white breasted birds with a red peak, and are told that wild wolves live in the reserve. The walk is quite tiring and we rest at the our return. We see our first giant kolibri, giant indeed!!At these heights they slow down their heartbeat during the night to save their energy and get busy at sunrise again. In the corral we see the lamas and the alpak staring at us with bright blue eyes, weird!!

Saturday 25th

Heading towards Otavalo, a mountain village with a famous market (famous for handicraft things...) . On the panamericana we just get a glimpse  by chance of the sign "Casa de hacienda" , our hotel.

We start our town visit at the plaza de ponchos where we see the first market stalls. We stroll around for hours, have food in town and come back to the hotel. The room is quite chilly so we lit a fire in the chimney and get a bit warmer.

Sunday 26th

 My digestion gives me a hard and crampy night so in the morning I feel rather poorly and I don't feel up to our planned excursion. All the same we ride towards Cotocachi village, the leather town where I buy new gym shoes since a dog had eaten my walking boots left outside... I add a lovely leather bag! We drive on to Cuicocha Laguna, where 2 little islands are in the centre of the Laguna and give it its name (Laguna of the guinea pig) We start a little walk that rises up to 3500m and that makes me feel so bad that we return to Otavalo, rest and try to recover by a lovely fire.

Monday 27th

Driving towards Mindo gives us a hard time finding our way around Quito but at the end we arrive at the backpacker village. The "Biohostal" looks rather shabby from the outside and we feel frustrated and tired after the long drive.We take a long walk towards an old and abandoned leisure resort with a little lake. It feels good after many hours in the car to move a bit around. Nice dinner in the Dragonfly Inn.

Tuesday 28th

We drive with the car to the "Tarabita" , a little cable cabin that takes one in a pretty wild ride over the valley into the jungle. Here we start walking towards the "Cascada de la reina" and feel good to have made the right choice: the other tourists had left into the opposed direction so we are all alone in the jungle and enjoy the trail: moisty and muddy, hundred of plants like giant fern, elephant ears, banana trees, you name it... After arriving at the beautiful cascade we backtrack to the cable cabin and continue on the trail of the 5 cascades. Up and down, over hanging bridges we find the cascades one after the other. Gaston gets into the river to take some pictures and slips unfortunately on some wet rocks and falls into the river. Poor camera. We decide to walk back instead of taking the cabin. The trail seems to be an old one, not much in use anymore. After a long and tiring walk we arrive at the car and return to Mindo. Dinner and rest.

Wednesday 29th

In the night heavy rain starts and gets worse by the hour. In the morning the village is cut off from water and electricity. We leave Mindo a bit worried that there might be some earth slips blocking the roads. And indeed, a lot of earth and many rocks came down the slopes, we have to drive carefully but we can continue the journey. In Lasso we check in at "Cuello de luna" a very isolated hostel, but packed with guests. We drive immediately into the Cotopaxi park, hoping to get another glimpse of the volcano. All the way up to the refugio José Rivas at 4500 m and plan to walk up to 4700m . But our bodies are revolting: the climb is too hard, it is terribly cold, all misty and actually nothing to see. We descent down towards Laguna Limpiopongo, walk a bit and leave the park. At the hotel Gaston lits a fire, it is very cold but we get a lovely dinner which keeps our spirits up.

Thursday30th

Off to Saquisili Thursday market! Very authentic! The town holds several market centres with all kind of goods: food, vegetables, fruit, clothes, handicraft and living animals. 

After that we continue to Pujili and get on the "Quilotoa-Loop" with the towns Tigua and Zambahua. The landscape is breathtaking, it reminds us very often of the pictures from Machu Picchu: Terraces, Sierra with various patches of different colours, green and black fields (from the lava) and mountains all around. Unfortunately the sky covers up and we get lost in the thick mist. We miss the right turn and make a long unnecessary detour until we reach Quilotoa Laguna. We cannot even see the Laguna with the fog and the drizzling rain, but the atmosphere is very special. We enjoy it for a while and then drive towards Latacunga.

Latacunga rush hour combined with all kinds of One Way streets is a challenge for every driver! At the end we get rewarded and check in at "Villa de Latacunga", which has a beautiful Patio and is built in the old colonial style. Dinner and tasty Irish Coffee!!

Friday 31st

Ride on from Latacunga to Baños. We find Isla de Baños easy enough and get a very nice room. We pack our bathing things and head off towards the different spas. We walk through the town, get a bit lost and don't find the Spa...So instead of wellness and spa we ascent towards the "Virgen" statue that towers above the town and seems to be a kind of pilgrimage place (protection from the volcano..) The climb is quite hard and long but the view at the top is rewarding. We are lucky and see Volcano Tungurahua in all its splendour before the sky covers up again. Dinner at Casa Hood (lonely planet backpacker place...) and pack our things for Tena and the kayak trip.

Baños

Saturday 1st

Get off at Baños at 6:00 o'clock to reach Tena in time. It is raining quite heavily and we wonder about the day...In Tena we check quickly in at Hotel Lorens and walk off to find the kayak company (Gary's tours). The office Rios Ecuador is very close to the hotel, we meet there an hour later to start the excursion. Sit-on-tops and class 2 , but our guide Gary is pleasant and provides a lovely day. Nice river, lunch on the riverbank and a little jungle exploration make it into a happy day. Back in Tena dinner at Café Tortuga and rest. 

Sunday 2nd

After a horrible night in the Lorens place we flee from the hotel and treat ourselves to a nice breakfast in Café Tortuga.

From here off we are towards Ahuano trying desperately to find Puerto Barandilla where we are supposed to leave the car while we enjoy our stay in the jungle. After some searching and detours we find the puerto and get a canoe ride to Liana Lodge. The lodge doesn't have rooms but little cabins with no electricity but water. We decide to walk to the "Amazoonico". an animal rescue centre and "zoo". Heavy rain starts to fall and we understand why these areas are called "rainforest". Luckily the lodge provides Wellington boots, so our feet stay dry... Back at the cabin we try to dry our things and enjoy (since we are the cabin which is right at the end of the lodge area) the company of a whole bunch of little squirrel monkeys, jumping around in the trees and on the cabin's roof... A few days later I shall discover that they were eating little holes into my rain poncho, grrr.

Monday 3rd

Plan long jungle walk to río Rodrigues with a guide. See a LOT of green and the typical jungle vegetation, no rain but all in Wellington boots since the paths are still very muddy. Bathing in the river, continue on single trails, see hundreds of blue morphos and taste our first fresh leave of cinnamon! Back at the hotel we enjoy a beer and watch a fantastic spectacle that different kinds of monkeys give high up in the trees: squirrel monkeys and brown howler monkeys stay around for a long time and show off their acrobatics. Dinner and very pleasant talk with our table neighbours (cyclists from Switzerland that came all the way down from Bogota).

Tuesday 4th

We leave Liana Lodge a day earlier than planned and drive back towards Baños . In Baños we are again at the same hotel (Isla de Baños) . THIS time we really want to visit a spa. So we head off into the direction of "Salado" bath. On the way there we hear some rumbling and think that there will be a thunderstorm. But NO thunderstorm , it is volcano Tungurahua that got active over the last days and continuously spits ashes, we see the big "mushrooms"  (hongos) shooting out from the top and we are absolutely flabbergasted. At the spa they tell us that the spa is not open to the public being  too close to the volcano to be secure...we wander a bit in town trying to get more information about the volcano. Dinner and driving uphill to have a closer look at the volcano and the lava. All is grey and covered up, all is deserted as well, ashes fall like heavy snow, we feel rather weird and decide to turn back. In the hotel we hear some heavy explosions during the night ( the window panels tingling in their frames...) and hope that we get evacuated early enough in case of a total eruption of that rumbling mountain.... By now we have discovered that this volcano activity is at the news of the world and we are rather impressed...

Wednesday 5th

In the morning we find our car covered with a layer of grey ashes...We drive into the direction of Riobamba and stay at the Mansion Santa Isabelle, a very nice hotel built in the old colonial style. We stroll through the town when heavy rain starts pouring down. We dry up and continue our walk a couple of hours later. The sky is clear by now and climbing a small hill at the outskirts of town gives us a spectacular view on Tungurahua, still spitting its ashes  with the late afternoon sun on it. But we discover more on the horizon: when the clouds are lifting we see Chimborazo Volcano , all white and snowy! We decide to start early the next day and visit the national park.

Thursday 6th

Breakfast at 6:30 and out of Riobamba as soon as we can. On the way to Chimborazo National Park we are so lucky to see the whole of Chimborazo, with blue skies at the background. We take plenty of pictures because one can see that the mist starts crawling up the hill already. In the park we see wild Vicuňas, (camel family) and the road continues to wind up the hill. We plan to drive up towards Refugio Carrel, leave the car there and continue the ascent on foot all the way as far as we can (refugioWhymper). We start on the trail and find a good but slow rhythm. Dizzy, heart beating and short breathed we slowly work our way up. At the refugio the GPS indicates 5038 m altitude and we stop here. We were lucky to start early since by now the sky is all covered and the view reduced to a few meters. Walking downhill is very easy and we are happy that we made it. Back at the parking we see many tourists arriving, heading for the trail. These people are not so lucky, they won't see anything of the volcano....

Back at the hotel we have a rest and enjoy Riobamba for the rest of the day....

Friday 7th

Today we plan to get to Alausi and have a ride on a special train that rides through the "Nariz del Diabolo" (devil's nose) . In Alausi we park the car at the railway station, get the tickets and wait for that little wooden train that takes the tourists into the mountains. The train is famous for its special zigzag technics to cross the steep valley. We take a lot of pictures on the ride and stop at Sibambe, where we visit a little train museum and see some folkdances.

Back in Alausi we continue by car towards Ingapirca, Ecuador's best preserved Inca site. The sun is fading away, heavy fog makes it rather hard to drive up the winding road. We arrive in Tambo at 3650m and drive on towards Ingapirca. The ruins are really very modest (nothing compared to what we've seen in Mexico...), so we stroll through the town rather than chasing a few stones....Pasada Ingapirca is very old and built in quite an original style. We have dinner and back in the room we realize that we spend the night at 4000m , in a room with nothing but a shabby chimney. Freezing and moisty!!

Saturday 8th

Today's drive brings us to Cuenca, Ecuador's cultural city. Hotel Victoria is situated right at the river bank (barranco) with some balconies "hanging " over the river. The town with its many old and restored colonial houses is a jewel. We walk for hours and enjoy the paseo along the river. 

Sunday 9th

We plan to visit some famous little villages around Cuenca. We start at Gualaceo, where the book says we should find some ceramic handicrafts. Finding nothing of that , we take the local bus to get to the main market. After that we continue towards Chordeleg, the jewellers' town. Gaston then discovers he has been robbed: the wallet is gone but luckily he still has his passport. We still visit the town, our spirits a bit down. Last village is Sigsig, where we should find some panama hats....Again total flop, no hat but a rather shabby and dirty town. Remember, Panama hats are made in Ecuador , of Paja Toquilla, a special kind of straw...

Back in Cuenca we enjoy a nice Indian dinner.

Monday 10th

We stroll towards Parque Paraíso, a very pleasant leisure park all along the riverside and quite in the centre of Cuenca. The weather is nice and we enjoy the warmth of the sun. Back in Cuenca we search for the "artesanía market" and buy some lovely souvenirs (and get a very cool hat for Gaston). Late afternoon we meet Nati, Sam's girlfriend and we enjoy a beer and a little chat with her. 

Tuesday 11th

Get up at 6:oo and wait for our guide that will take us to "Cajas". This National park is very special: the soil and plants are taking the part of a "Water reservoir", the ground is soft and spongy when we step on it. We are back at an altitude over 4200m and the guide is complementing us on our fitness. The walk is long and hard but the landscape is so fascinating that we don't suffer at all. We see some rare plants and special woods (polylepis trees), feeling like being in a fairytale landscape, very enchanting!  Lamas, Alpacs and Wolves live here and we see the only flower that survives at this altitude....

Back to the car after a few hours and off to Guayakil.

Driving downhill for hours we watch the changing landscape: plains with ricefields instead of mountains , elephant ears, banana plants and cacao, egrets and herons....

Driving through Guayakil is a nightmare, we are relieved to find Hotel Macaw. At the beginning we think it is a horrible place: everything is locked and secure, like a fortress. We have to return the car the other day to the airport and we worry a bit to get through the traffic. Dinner Mall del Sol. By now we feel much happier in the hotel.

Wednesday 12th

We get up very early to be on the road before rush hour starts. The hotel owner has indicated to us where we find Avis and after some searching we find it. Happy to be rid of the car we take a taxi back to the hotel and enjoy a nice breakfast of "patacones de queso" (plantaines and cheese) . A guide picks us up and takes us on a Guayaquil tour: avenida de 9 octubre, catedral, Parque Bolívar, where big Iguanas run free in the park, Malecón and all the stairs up to "Las Peñas" and the Faro (Lighthouse) with a nice view over the city. We leave the guide and continue on our own, suffering a bit from the heat, but enjoying it all the same. We take a local bus back to the hotel and enjoy the ride.

Nice chat with the hotel owner, dinner Mall del Sol.

Thursday 13th

Start our long journey back home.....