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 …
