To Otavalo and Beyond …

 

                  This blog is for Susan, Amber and Jeff and their respective families

Having left Quito around mid-afternoon, we arrived in Otavalo just on dark and then there was the fun of trying to find our Hostal. Generally, Ecuadorians seem to rely on intuition and asking other people, rather than using a map. The ability to read or use a map here is by no means as common as in Aus.

After driving around a bit, we parked in a side street near the Otavalo market which is located at La Plaza de Los Ponchos (very appropriate, although they don’t just sell ponchos). While our driver and her companion went walkabout to ask people how to find our Hostal, we were fascinated to watch the packing up from the market. The market is held every day and is packed up each day! Groan! (Ecuadorians generally may not be able to read a map, but they sure do work hard!) It’s mainly a fabric/textiles-based market – blanket, scarves, shawls, ponchos, jumpers (sweaters – we are getting used to having to translate our English from Aus into U.S/Canadian, but then, they are also learning our Aussie words, too!), fabric bags, rugs, etc, plus assorted handicrafts. It’s enough to make one drool in anticipation!!

We were watching one particular man who seemed to be the go-to guy if you wanted your market stock carried and stored overnight. He would hoist a large full rectangular sack (nearly as long as he was tall) of market goods onto his back, with a strap onto his forehead to help carry the weight, and stagger with it to a nearby building, where he set it down inside and came back for another one. This went on for a while, and we just sat marvelling at the stamina of the local people.

After a bit, Daisy and Paulette came back, and it turned out that our Hostal was literally just around the corner (50 metres) from where we’d been waiting in the van, so that was pretty handy.

TRAIN AND SALINAS

The next day, we had a train to catch. We drove about half an hour out of Otavalo to a place called Ibarra. There are a few restored railways in Ecuador, and this was one of them. Somehow I expected some sort of steam train, but this was more like a bus (only one carriage) that ran on railway tracks.

The train

We left the town of Ibarra, first passing lush areas where all sorts of vegies grew and continued downhill all the way to a place called Salinas, about an hour and a half away by not-very-fast train (not to be confused with the town of Salinas on the coast) but a whole lot quicker by road. As we went down, it got warmer and drier until we got to Salinas itself.

The outskirts of Ibarra                                             They used to grow cotton here

Between Ibarra and Salinas, from the train

A couple of the tunnels cut into the hillside to let the train through

 

As part of the train experience, there was a dance given by locals when we arrived at the station.

Train station at Salinas

 

Salinas

Salinas is a bit unique in that it is populated by Afro-Ecuadorians, the descendants of slaves. Apparently the name Salinas comes from the fact that in the past they used to extract salt from the soil by a pretty laborious process. They have a tiny museum there which explained how they did it. That and a gift shop near the station seemed to be the only points of interest. Salinas is not a very big place, and not very inspiring. It was dry and rather desert-like. We couldn’t work out what would happen there or why anyone would live there other than the little bit of tourism that comes from the train going there daily.

 

OTAVALO MARKET

The Saturday market at Otavalo is even bigger than during the week, as they close off the side streets surrounding the Plaza and it is all taken up with stalls with goods for sale. On Friday night, the manager of our Hostal had advised Daisy to park the van a couple of blocks away, as by morning the street our Hostal was in would be transformed from a road to a market place and it would be too late to get the van out.

We were out and about early (maybe 8.30/9am) on Saturday while some stalls were still setting up. It was a good time to go, as although the market is open all day, it gets busier later. And you are more likely to get a good price early in the day, as apparently there is a superstition/tradition that a sale early in the day will set you up for a good day’s trade.

We had planned to get something to use for curtains, as most houses/apartments for rent here including ours, don’t come with curtains. (If your house/apartment has curtain rods, you’ve done well.) Some of our friends here found that rather than buying curtain material or ready-made curtains, you could buy brightly printed and patterned pieces of fabric, (often used as table-cloths) and use those instead. So, with that possibility in mind, we had measured our windows and brought a tape measure with us. I’m not sure what the little indigenous women thought when I got them to hold one end of the tape measure and one corner of whatever fabric/rugs, etc they had, while I measured up to the other end. Most things fell short by about 10 cm, and the ladies were very helpful and eager to rummage through their stock to find something bigger. It makes it hard to say no when someone has tried so hard to help you.

In the end, we decided to get some alpaca/synthetic blankets to use for curtains. They are lovely and soft and come in the most beautiful colours, and when we get cold in winter, we can just jump up on a chair, get them down off the window and wrap up in them!

At the Otavalo market the advantage is definitely with the buyer, as so many of the stalls have the same stock, and if someone won’t give it to you for the price you want, someone else probably will. Having said that, there seems to be quite a bit of co-operation and community spirit among the stall-holders. At one stall, we were trying to get 2 blankets with the same colours for a large window (the window that was 10cm too big), and after the stall holder and wife (in indigenous clothing complete with baby on her back – very cute!) had looked through all their stock, he said “un momento” and took off, presumably to a friend at another stall, and came back with two matching blankets. The stall-holders are very willing to accommodate and be helpful, which is nice. And, of course, it helps with sales.

 

Otavalo market

 

Before we left for the market, Paulette had taught us some useful words in Quichuan (the indigenous language) (such as, “alli punlla” good morning, “mashna vale” how much is the cost, and “kaya kama”, goodbye – these words are pronounced as you would say them in Spanish) as she said it would make the stall-holders happy and also get us better prices. (The indigenous people and language are somewhat looked down upon by many of the non-indigenous Ecuadorians.) I used a couple of Quichuan words with one old lady from whom we bought something, and she seemed pleased and friendly and rattled on in Spanish (or was it Quichua?), so I felt the need to tell her we only had “un poco” (a little) Quichua, “un poco” Spanish but “mucho” English. She didn’t seem put out, but continued to try to interest us in other goods she had for sale.

I took some photos of the market (which of course doesn’t do it justice), and of a couple of women at their stalls, wearing local dress (I bought a lovely wool/cotton shawl from one of them for $9). I asked them first, and they were happy to have their photos taken. Later, I saw a lady at her stall hand-embroidering a blouse that the indigenous women wear in the Otavalo area, and I asked if I could take her photo, but she declined. That was disappointing but understandable, after all, who wants to be a living tourist attraction?

The lady I bought a shawl from, with her baby

 

Our friends had discovered the part of the market where you could buy articles of indigenous clothing, eg, the woven, patterned ribbon with which the women bind their hair, and woven waistbands, and more. While they were looking at the embroidered blouses, the woman at the stall indicated that the blouses would not be be big enough, as they aren’t made to fit giant people! I guess most of us westerners are quite a big larger overall than the indigenous peoples. Some of them would be less than 5 foot tall. Or short.

in the centre of the picture at the front of a stall are two or three stacks of alpaca/synthetic blankets in a rainbow of colours – how to choose?

Some of the stalls at Otavalo market

So, the conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is if you have sufficient cash and lots of friends to buy for, you’d have no trouble doing it at the Otavalo market.

PARQUE DE CONDOR

We left the market about mid-morning and went to the Parque de Condor (Condor Park), 5 kms out of Otavalo. It’s a refuge for rehabilitated and rescued native birds including condors, eagles, owls, etc. It’s up on a hill with a really great view over Otavalo (see below).

 

There were all sorts of birds in enclosures, but the best part was the display that happens twice daily. (see above)

Condors

 

This funny ball of fluff is actually an owl!!

This bird was really inquisitive – when people came to take its picture, it lost no time in hopping right up to the front of the cage to see what they were up to, as the photo shows

 

bald eagle

A few of the birds that were trained got to show off their stuff while the trainer explained how many eggs they laid and how long they were incubated for etc. (At least, that’s what we figured he was getting at – for some reason, it was all in Spanish! Can’t figure out why they keep doing that!)

It was pretty amazing as some of the birds were really big and they would fly over your head before coming to land on the trainer’s hand (some of them would have been quite heavy, too). When he showed off one of the smaller birds, the audience had the opportunity to come and have it perch on their hand. It’s not too often you get to do that!

 

birds’ eggs – hummingbird egg (Colibri) is the tiny white one in the middle

me and some really large bird (Condor)          

CASCADE

Then we went to Cascada (cascade/waterfall) de Peguche not far from Otavalo and had a wander around there. It was really rather nice. And rather wet if you got too close to the waterfall.

on a bridge across the river

 

on the rock is a young Otavalan women wearing local dress – she got rather wet!

 

Just before you get into the reserve which leads to the waterfall and river, there is part of a stone arch and a wall, and a sign which indicates that it was built by forced labour of around 100 indigenous people (in the 1600’s, if we remember correctly). Initially we just thought it was a wall with an arch, but by the time we came back from the waterfall and seeing the way the river had been channelled etc, we started to wonder whether the arch and wall might not be the remains of an aqueduct; after all, it is downhill from the waterfall. So I climbed up the bank and took a photo of the top of the arch and wall and it seems a definite possibility, but we don’t know for sure.

part of the channelling of the river – this part has been concreted but it gives an idea of the possibilities for aqueducts, etc

view of the arch and wall from above – maybe an old aqueduct?

 

TO MINDO

The next day (Sunday) we headed off to Mindo, a 2 or 3 hour drive north-east of Otavalo and at a lower altitude (part of the Cloud Forest, which is tropical or sub-tropical evergreen moist forest characterised by frequent low-level cloud cover – yes, that does sound like I just looked up what it means), in search of hummingbirds and to mellow out for a day or two.

part of the main street of Mindo

Mindo

Once we started losing altitude, the scenery and trees etc changed. There was a distinctly tropical feel (no more gum trees), and it got warmer.

Mindo is a tiny little town next to a river, with a big tourist trade at the right time of year, and many people from Quito come for weekends and holidays. But it has a very relaxed, in-the-middle-of-nowhere feel, which is rather nice.

the Hostal where we stayed – hummingbirds in back garden

part of the garden at the Hostal -  bird feeder in tree

 

relaxing, Mindo style

The Hostal we stayed at caters to hummingbirds as well as people. The owner has three bird feeders on the go at once which hold a water/sugar solution that hummingbirds love, and has planted the garden to attract wildlife, which it certainly did.

 

 

 

While we were there we saw heaps of hummingbirds (and, yes, they do hum – rather like a bumblebee or big fly), other small birds, a squirrel dashing about with all sorts of important things to do, and up in a tall dead tree, a vulture of some sort. Apparently vultures are common to the area and are not a big deal; but the South American wildlife was definitely a novelty for us Aussies and we sat and watched it all for ages.

the vulture

Mindo is rather different from other towns in Ecuador as most of the houses are made of wood rather than concrete, blocks or brick, and some even have thatched roofs.

Brendan outside a restaurant in Mindo – check out the thatched roof

The houses also have a more open-air feel (verandas, and some houses have openings for windows but no glass) than at the higher altitudes where it is cooler. Also the abundance of tropical trees and bushes, palm trees and banana trees made it somewhat obvious we were in a distinctly different part of Ecuador. Also the giant snails!!

some of the countryside around Mindo

We were walking back to the Hostal on our last evening, when we saw a giant snail crossing the road (Mindo is the sort of quiet little town where both people and snails can wander along the road without fear of getting run over by passing traffic), and of course our friends’ older daughter just had to pick it up and take it back to the Hostal, while the rest of us were being grossed-out about it all – after all, if a normal-sized snail is gross and slimy, how much more so is a giant snail! But kids will be kids!

snail fest!

We noticed that people in Mindo greet you with “hola” (hello) rather than the more formal Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, that they do in Cuenca. Brendan and I liked just being able to say Hola, as half the time in Cuenca we are caught on the hop and don’t know if we are on morning or afternoon and we invariably say the wrong one. Although by night time we have generally worked out that Good evening would be the correct greeting.

well, that’s one way to chill out!

TO CUENCA

The next day we were up and about for the long trip south to Cuenca – it took just under 12 hours. The trip could be done in less time, but Daisy is a cautious driver (which we appreciated when there were blind corners and no overtaking lanes) and as we were driving through fog towards the end, that slowed us down, too.

We got back around 8 or 9pm and were more than happy to finally get out of the van and to fall into bed. Daisy and Paulette slept at our place as it’s another 3 ½ hours or so further to Guayaquil where they live, and in the morning we fed them scrambled eggs (typical Ecuadorian breakfast) and coffee and saw them on their way, with many hugs and fond wishes.

We go travelling

 

So far, we haven’t really gone too far from Cuenca, other than a couple of trips to Guayaquil and a trip to the Inca ruins.

But over the last 3 or 4 weeks, we had friends over from Western Australia staying with us and they wanted to see some of Ecuador (as did we) so we figured we’d do a trip together and see volcanoes and hummingbirds and whatever else took our fancy.

Another family in the congregation had done something similar with their relatives who had also just visited, so we picked their brains as to what was worth seeing, and how to do it.

We organised with an Ecuadorian sister who lives in Guayaquil and who has a little van/bus to take us away for 8 days to explore some of Ecuador.

Our driver, Deici (Daisy) took the photo (kids inside van)

(Not all photos are in chronological order – some are there to illustrate the captions)

(Click on photos to enlarge)

The sister (Deici) only has a little bit of English, but she brought with her as navigator and company another sister (Paulette) who has a little bit more English, as well as a well-worn Spanish/English dictionary! So between them and their dictionary, and the six of us with our not much Spanish as well as Google Translate and lots of charades and finger pointing etc, we got along like a house on fire. It’s amazing how much you can communicate by being creative (and desperate to communicate) and using any means at your disposal. We learnt some extra Spanish words on our trip due to what we saw – eg cow, volcano (on the way there), fog (on the way home). And how to sing “chocolate heart” in Spanish – that will undoubtedly prove to be very useful!

We filled up with petrol just out of Cuenca – it’s not often you see armed guards at a service station

Random bits of scenery

On the first day of our trip, we left Cuenca about 9 or 10 am and headed for Baños (not the Baños just out of Cuenca – but the little town about 300 or 400 kms north and slightly east of here). Most places on our trip took a while to get to, as Ecuador is very mountainy and the roads go up and down and round and round. And overtaking lanes don’t exist, so if you get stuck behind a slow-moving truck, for instance, you have to wait until it’s safe to overtake. The roads were all in pretty good condition, but in places there were the remains of recent rock-falls or land slips – somewhat to be expected when you cut great chunks out of mountains or hills in order to put a road through.

Examples of the roads through the mountains

One thing that we noticed on our trip was how diverse Ecuador is – and we only saw some of it. Some areas were green and lush and hilly, just like parts of Tasmania and mainland Australia, while other parts are very dry and tree-less. There are so many eucalypt trees in Ecuador it’s hard to believe that they are not native but rather, were introduced in the late 1800’s (Cane toads must have been their revenge on us). And like many introduced species, tend to take over from the native plants. I think the only areas we saw on our trip where there weren’t eucalypts was close to the northern border of Ecuador where it gets more tropical and other areas where lots of deforestation has occurred in the past.

More scenery

Once we got out into the country on the way to Baños, we were interested to see donkeys (burros) at work here and there in the fields – we had earlier seen some very steep hillsides under cultivation and had wondered how they could possibly get a tractor up there (we were still thinking Australian farming methods, not Ecuadorian) then we worked out that that would be where the burros come in (we did see cows used to plough some fields), or even people power. We did actually see a tractor or two, but there were more donkeys and cows.

A little house with someone working in the field

Cultivating the hillside with people power

Cultivating the hills

This photo gives evidence of the extent to which people cultivate the hillsides

We tried to take photos from the van as we were going along of people walking along the road with a cow or two on a rope, or carrying large bundles of grasses etc, or just doing what they do from day to day, but unfortunately when you are moving, and they are moving and the camera is trying to focus, it doesn’t always work out.

Assorted people in assorted places

We saw our first volcano, Chimborazo (still considered active) near a town called Riobamba. “Chimborazo is 6,268 metres (20,564 ft), and is the highest mountain in Ecuador. It is the highest peak in close proximity to the equator. While Chimborazo is not the highest mountain by elevation above sea level, its location along the equatorial bulge makes its summit the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's centre.“

South-eastern side of Chimborazo (top is in cloud)

Looking from the north-east – cloud has cleared

Riobamba has an English-speaking group or congregation. Closer to Baños we saw another volcano called Tungurahua (it’s a Cechuan name, and I found it very hard to remember how to pronounce it, but I think I’ve got it now after asking a dozen times and eventually writing it down phonetically), meaning “Throat of fire”. Apparently, on mainland Ecuador, there are 30 volcanoes – some are active, some are extinct, plus others on the Galapagos Islands.

Tungurahua

The countryside once we got past Chimborazo and leading to Baños became very lush and green and hilly. We saw fruit trees in blossom (I had wondered where fruit was grown in Ecuador) and many hillsides under cultivation; including lots of greenhouses built up the slopes of the hills/mountains. Many of the greenhouses contain tree tomatoes (quite different from our bush tomatoes in Aus.) – a fruit often used in hot sauce and in juices – they are big on fresh fruit juices here. It was strange to see greenhouses marching up the sides of the hills, but in this part of Ecuador, flat areas are at a premium.

Baños

Views of Baños

Baños is a little town set in a valley between mountains and volcanoes where lots of tourists come. It has 5 sets of thermal pools, heated to varying temperatures by volcano (that’s where the name “Baños” (baths) comes in). There are all sorts of activities for the adrenalin-junkies, such as zip-lining, rock-climbing, buggy-driving (pronounced “boogie” in Spanish), biking, horse-riding, white-water rafting etc, as well as posh resorts where you can have hot rock massages and be covered in mud. We saw more westerners here than anywhere else on our trip. It’s a really nice little spot. There are two Ecuadorian congregations here.

Our friends go zip-lining

The zip-line in the right-hand picture is 1 km long.

Going buggying through town

We got to Baños just on dark and stayed 2 nights in a Hostal (Hostel) there - $7 per person per night – that was the cheapest accommodation we managed on our trip. (We are getting used to the fact that accommodations in Ecuador are somewhat basic in some respects compared to what you might expect in Australia – for instance, you don’t get tea/coffee/kettle or a fridge, although if you went somewhere pricey, you might. The two times we stayed at hotels in Guayaquil there was also no tea/coffee facilities, although one had a small fridge.)

The Hostal we stayed at – our room was up in the roof, facing the street

The Hostal manager showed us our room and apologised for the volcano ash on the windows. There are not too many places you can stay where you get fresh volcano ash as a bonus!!

The following is a quote from information I looked up about Tungurahua (I was curious to know if the volcano ash was recent, or if they just didn’t wash the windows):

“In 1999, after a long period of quiescence, the volcano entered an eruptive phase that continues to this day (as of August 2012). The renewed activity in October 1999 produced major ashfall and led to the temporary evacuation of more than 25,000 inhabitants from Baños and the surrounding area^. Activity continued at a medium level until May 2006, when activity increased dramatically, culminating in violent eruptions on 14 July 2006 and 16 August 2006. The 16 August 2006 eruption has been the most violent since activity commenced in 1999. This eruption was accompanied by a 10 km high ash plume which spread over an area of 740 by 180 km, depositing ash and tephra to the southwest of the volcano. Several pyroclastic flows were generated that killed at least five people, and destroyed a number of hamlets and roads on the eastern and north-western slopes of the volcano.

A further eruption and evacuation occurred on 4 December 2010. Ecuador's National Agency of Risk Control issued a "red alert", later downgraded to orange. The Ecuadorean Institute for Geophysics reported a rapid increase in seismic activity, a number of explosions and an ash cloud reaching 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in height.^“

Having read the above, I now realise why they have the following helpful suggestion painted on the road:

In English, it probably equates to “scream and run” (see below), although I don’t know how helpful either suggestion would be if it came to it.

The next day, we went to the local zoo. The animals were all native to Ecuador and South America and the zoo was set on the side of hill (again, not too many flat areas to be had – the town itself takes up most of the flat land), so quite a natural setting. Along one of the paths there was actually lava flow from a previous eruption.

Surfing the lava flow

A monkey escapee – trying to break his friends out

The only toucan we ever saw (left) and a view from the zoo (right)

The zoo was in a very natural setting – some of the cages/exhibits above

Zoo views

Car tunnel just out of Baños near the 1 km zip-line

Baños has two parks in the centre of town – we’ve noticed that just about every town in Ecuador has a park or two near the centre; they are quite formal and symmetrical in design and are very well-used. People walk through them, or sit in them. We’ve done our share of sitting in parks – they are very good for mellowing out, and for eating ice-cream at. They are also very good places for informal witnessing.

We were amused to see cat on the menu at the Samurai Sushi restaurant (below):

 

On the road again (below)

We went through a town called San Miguel de Salcedo which is famous for its ice cream. Just about every little shop had these ice creams for sale and a few of them even had a person out the front of the shop to beckon in people passing by..  The ice-creams were quite nice – they were all the same and were milk on top, then mora (a berry rather like a blackberry or raspberry) then another fruit I can’t remember, then an orange-coloured fruit called taxo. 

The next day we got an early start and headed for Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, a few hours north-west of Baños . The population of Quito is around 2 million, and it is also adjacent to an active volcano, Pichincha. (Part of the area we travelled on our trip is called “Volcano alley” as there are so many volcanoes on either side of you.)

Quito

We planned to go on the Teleferico, a gondola-lift which goes up the side of one of the mountains and from the top of which you can see all over Quito. Quito is also a city in a valley between a bunch of mountains – bit of a recurring theme emerging here.

 

We were fortunate with the time of day we got up there (around midday), as after we had got to the top where you get off the gondola and where there is a café or two and had walked a bit further along and decided to go back down again, the clouds started to move in and it started to rain and hail and you could no longer see all over Quito and all around. So we made it just in time. It was quite windy up there, but an excellent view of Quito. Once you get off the gondola you could go along indefinitely if you were keen enough – most of us weren’t – we figured we were higher than we’d ever been before and that would do us – we got to 4,050 metres above sea level, and it was uphill which combined with the lack of oxygen made it extremely puff-making.

The view from 4050 metres up

We were interested to see what Quito was like, as so far we hadn’t heard too many positive things about it. Haven’t actually spoken to anyone who lives there about what they think of the place, but only to people who have visited there or decided not to live there. Quito is a very spread out city – it’s like a long rectangle, and has lots of apartments and multi-level buildings and it gives the impression overall of being somewhat grey. The buildings are mainly of concrete blocks and often only the fronts of the buildings are painted – so that isn’t too pretty. Also when we were there it was fairly cloudy which probably added to the overall greyness. And the surrounding area is very dry – not lush and green like some of the country areas nearby. Apparently the old city is pretty nice – we didn’t see that bit, but the rest left us unimpressed.

We have a Special Assembly Day in Quito in a month or so, so we will probably see a bit more of the place then, and see if our opinion changes at all.

After the Teleferico, we went to the official equator monument La Mitad del Mundo (half the world) just out of Quito – we found out later that its position as an equator marker is inaccurate and that the monument should actually be about 240 metres north of where it is. Ah well, those were the days before GPS etc.

Brendan and I viewing things from different hemispheres

The silly things you do at the Equator!!

At La Mitad del Mundo, they have various small museums and exhibits etc, and although we didn’t have much time, we had a quick look at the little insect museum. There were exhibits of all sorts of butterflies and bugs pinned up for display, and also some live ones. You could have your photo taken while holding large hairy and scary creatures – such as tarantulas and rhinoceros beetles. Personally, I couldn’t see the appeal of that, but our friends’ two girls were up for it.

Yuck!!

After that, we hopped back in our little van and left Quito with little regret and headed for the lush green that is Otavalo.

But more on that next time …