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HOME » Travel Journals » Ecuador-2008
Ecuador-2008
By : brad ebert
Trip Begins October 10, 2008
Trip Ends October 20, 2008
Ecuador Adventure 2008
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October 10, 2008
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Chapter 1-Getting to Quito and living at 9000 feet
Quito, Ecuador
in some cases this is just a note to myself, thought it might be interesting to track my first solo trip (ie not related to work travel). so i arrived in quito yesterday through panama (panama looked really interesting from the air, might have to visit there also), about 8 hours of flying to get to the equator, overall slept most of the way, not a bad flight on something called copa airlines (no i did not see any lamas or other farm animals on this flight but i expected it). Getting to the hotel was uneventful and the place is a quite nice boutique hotel, especially in comparison to the marriot just down the street, but i find the cab drivers all know how to find the marriot. anyway, i got here a couple of days early to help get used to the altitude (9000 ft) (btw this keyboard sucks, it is a spanish keyboard, but set to english so all the keys are wrong, at least special characters). so once i dropped off my stuff i went for a walk to the old town, basically the originally part of the town that has buildings that must be 200 to 300 years old, very beautiful and the walk didnt kill me. i also got to see a local parade which mostly consisted local people in their local dress, that was quite fascinating and throwing out food to the people that were watching. after the long walk, i had a very uninteresting dinner, hopefully tonight will be better, i have been given the address of a good ecuadorian restaurant, so I am in hunt of pork sandwiches, with marinated onions, um.
so day two, today i went on a tramway that took me high above the city to one of the volcanos that rim quito (i think there are 7, the highest at 19000 ft or so), this is were i met my first group of people, on the tram ride up. at first i thought they were from england and they were but they currently live in quito and Robert (husband and dad) works for a conservation group that has sites all over latin america. They also had a friend with them who is visiting from tazmania. anyway after, the tramride, i started hiking and i ended up hiking with the group. Robert, pipper (mom), billy (12 year old), sasha (8 year old) and grahm. from the top of the tramway at 12500 feet they were going to hike to the top of the volcano at near 16000 ft, i walked with them for 2 hours and decided that 14000 ft was high enough, good thing to, at the bottom storm clouds moved in and i could here thunder all around and i was on a ridge line. i find this town very interesting in the people that it draws, i talked to people today from new zealand, holland, florida, maine, Australia, and many other languages heard that say that people travel here from all over the world. anyway, so after 3 hours of hiking up, i joined my new friends for lunch and they continued to the top of the mountain, the kids were amazing, i was complaining more. so i then went back down the hill were at 12000 ft, i had one of my highest lunches of empanadas and soup and tried to put back in liquids that i did not have enough for such a long hike. planning who needs it, another amazing thing at 14000 ft overlooking quito far below, I could get cell service, go figure. now it is late afternoon and i think per local culture a nap is in order.
October 11, 2008
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Chapter 2-Hummingbirds, Hummingbirds, Hummingbirds
Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve, Ecuador
day one-bike ride on the slopes of Pichincha Volcano, from quito we first met the rest of the group which included a group of five (Sara, Kelly, Christie, Tobin and Rob, all from the east coast except for Christie), Sarah and Josh. Josh was only spending three days with us and then he was off to explore the rest of ecuador including two volcano summits at over 20 thousand feet. So, it turns out I was in the dumpy hotel and the others were in this 100 or so year old colonial house, it was very cool and seem to have much better food. So, we all piled into the bus and headed up the mountain to the start of the bike ride down the volcano. We left the city and road up the mountain passing mostly small farms until we arrived at an elevation of nearly 11000 ft, give or take (quito is a 9000 already). There we unloaded the bikes and took lots of pictures of a very large pig eating grass by the side of the parking lot (yum pork). The bikes were okay, at least they had a front suspension and some had disc brakes (mine had regular brakes, so i chose not to use them much). For the next two hours or so, we basically coasted down the mountain through incredible dense rain/cloud type of forest on a fairly untraveled dirt road. The first stop was at a town called Nono, a very small town consisting of a school a few houses a couple of places to eat and a market. After this town, we hit the first 1 km hillclimb, not very long but at 9000 feet it was good enough to hurt most of the riders except for Sara who is just a freakazod (she ran a marathon yesterday, so this was her cool down)(also, this is why the group of five were in ecuador, sara is attempting to run a marathon on each continent and this is her 6th, so she gave her group a choice of locations and this is the reason for being in ecuador). Sara also has the award for crashing on the bike ride and the first to draw blood and paint her skin nice tones of black and blue (she got up and then finished the ride without further event...a trooper). So down we kept going till lunch which was in the bottom of beautiful canyon on the edge of stream with captured fish ponds which we were treated to fresh caught fish for lunch. (trout is a big thing here, even though it was only introduced in the 1950's, trout was not welcomed on our dining tables by the end of the trip). Then after lunch and more downhill we reached the climb to the hotel Bellavista, a 6km (3.6 mile) uphill all the way. Well we started out and by kilo 1, two of the riders decided hiking was better and they let the van (always following behind) carry the bikes up the hill but kept on walking. The next victims to hiking were Sarah and myself at about 3 km (not the runner sara, she was probably already at the top drinking mai tais, and yes i am out of shape but give me a break it was at 8000 feet or so). anyway it was a great hike lots of flowers to shoot pictures of (there are lots of pictures of flowers and birds on this trip), almost at the top I was saved by a blackberry bush with ripe blackberries that gave the sugar boost to get to the top and then after what seemed like hours and many more than 6 km, we arrived at bellavista. (a swiss family robinson type of place in the cloud forest). So this is were we spend the next two nights, it is mostly a place to watch hummingbirds, hundreds of hummingbirds, i have pics with 8 birds in the pic at one time. also it was a great place to hike with my new found buddy phil who was taking a break between high school (in cleveland) and college in humbolt, this guy knew everything about birds, it was scary. he was the one of the guides and he led me on a day hike and a stunning night hike plus a hike when we just sat and watched hummingbirds for two hours (it was raining really hard). my portion of the hotel was quite interesting, it was five floors in the shape of a hexagon, the two bottom floors being the dining areas, then the third floor guest rooms, really small but useful and then up a vertical shaft to the top two floors for communal type of living, very neat. Things of note, on the morning of departure, the Pichincha Volcano made itself visible and on sunday night it became snow capped, very pretty from the jungle and very unexpected, the snow level was near my stopping point on the hike the day before in quito.
October 12, 2008
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Chapter 3-Water and El Diablo
Quito, Ecuador
Back in the van for a three hour drive to the tachi river, this was quite a drive starting at 8000 feet and ending at 1000 feet what a change in temperature and vegetation. We started out at 60 degrees and ended up at 85 degrees. Anyway, we found our starting point on the tachi river (mostly a class 3 with two or three rapids rated at class 4), the guides unloaded the equipment, inflated the rafts and got the chase kayak ready to go (a fun little playboat by dagger, the first guy to use the kayak was gregory, we was quite impressive to watch, it looked so easy, but then again last year he went to the world kayak championships in korea last year). So after a few pointers and some in water exercises, we were off to go downstream. shortly thereafter, we hit a big rapid and we lost two of the girls, one hung on and the other went swimming for awhile. but all was recovered and we continued on downstream without further incident including getting through the class 4 rapids which were quite fun. Then we had an amazing lunch riverside of very fresh burritos and then after lunch we continued on down to the merge of the tachi and the rio blanco, the river became much bigger but not really any harder and shortly there after we had completely 3 hours or so on the river and we never saw another soul. maybe my next trip here will be a kayak immersion week, sounds like there are lots of great places to go in this near vicinity. anyway it was now 6 pm and we had a 3 hour or so drive back to quito, this portion was labeled the diablo trip, due to the driver being a maniac and almost killing us all many times over (people in ecuador drive very insane, kind of like controlled chaos, but i never saw an accident, but many crosses and hearts painted on the road to indicate death). anyway it became very foggy, rainy, dark and this guy would pass just about anything that got in his way, whether it was legal or safe to do so. any he would get to within inches of the person in front of him just to get them out of the way. even still, the drive took over four hours, but we were all very glad to make it to quito alive.
October 13, 2008
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Chapter 4-The hike to hell and back
Cayambe-Coca Trek Day 2: Parcacocha, Ecuador
so getting back to the hotel very late on Wednesday evening, starved i broke down and went to the burger king next to the hotel, I am sorry but i was hungry it was raining, it was close (bad thing I would visit there two more times before the end of the trip, what can i say, weakness for burgers and fries american style, ie no corn anywhere to be seen or trout), so thursday morning started off wrong (ecuadorian communication is not all that great), no one knew what time we were getting started so we guessed at 9am, we were wrong, it was 8am. So here i am in the shower and the phone rings three times, so i get out and they say the guide is here, oh damn, dry off, throw shit together and out the door, hate being late. so sarah and i are down stairs and the guides load up the gear and off we go to pick up the others at nice colonial hotel. this group is not even close to being ready, so we hang around for about an hour (yeah till about 9), i chat alot with javier, the guide for the next four days or so, he is a young guy but very knowledgeable of the local area and all around cool guy. so finally, the bus is loaded (thank god, not el diablo from the night before, i think tobin would have revolted or just outright killed someone) and it is off to the north of quito and east into the highlands called the Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserve. The ride up into the mountains was very slow (no diablo today, as a matter of fact a few times we had to get out and walk so the van could make it up the hill, yeah no kidding), but after a few bathroom breaks and a few hours we finally reached the top of the mountains at nearly 12000 feet. the terrain up there is very sparse, mostly consisting of natural panama grass fields (grass that grows in clumps and very spiky, think don king hair style) and marsh like areas with little plants and flowers and mosses that we would spend the next three days learning to hate. The locals were mostly small farms up here growing their own vegetables' (mostly corn, onions, leeks, cabbage, basic food stuff), maybe a cow or two, some sheep, chickens and a pig or two. Basically everything you needed to live on up here and most live in adobe based thatched roofs homes (huts). so, our first hike in the Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserve was just a test to see how we did at high elevation and determine if we wanted to do the easy hike the next two days or the hard hike, we opted for the hard hike. The first hike was an introduction to the swamp/meadows that we would be hiking in quite frequently. We got our rubber boots with tread but no support that were nearly knee high to keep the mud out. The only real issue here, was tobin is size 13 shoe and they only had size 12 boots, dude was very unhappy and in lots of pain the next three days. So we started the hike with javier pointing out all the unusal plants at the place, all on a very small scale, most things were only inches above the ground, with the tallest plants maybe 10 feet or so but no trees at this altitude. (or very few). so for the next three hours we walked and strolled, took lots of pictures and finally dropped down from the meadow into shangria-la, a beautiful green valley surrounded buy high peaks and home to about 200 native indians (or dwellers). The town is called Oyacachi, and this town is very remote and well off the tourist beat. There are maybe 80 or so dwellings here, some old thatched roof style, but most are either wood or cinder block construction. There is a market or two and a couple of artisan shops (but none were ever open, just looked inside, very basic, bowls, spoons, carvings, that seemed about it) and a broken down resort. and the resort is were we are camping this night. a few years back, someone tried to put in a resort that was centered around a natural hot spring, so they built pools, tubs, showers all out of stone, put in a bunch of nice buildings, a gym (yeah go figure) and it was just in a nice setting overlooking the town across the river. well after a few years, the resort was turned over to the community to manage and they didnt, so most of the infrastructure is being ignored and only the pools and the showers are kept up. it is quite possible this is the only source of hot water in the valley, so it is very popular in the early morning and afternoon. so camp was set up and the rain came in. it rained most of the night, so dinner was spent under the community dining tent. Meals were very interesting and very local, the funniest thing that happened was during the frist lunch we had sandwiches, but Christie asked about cheese and if there was any and patricio (our cook said there was so we waited for chees), well it turns out there was no cheese and one of the locals went and got really fresh cheese, a white local cow cheese that was just amazing and every meal for the next two days included this cheese and there ws never any left. then an early to bed were it was warm and dry. along with the rain it was also about 45 degrees or so, very chilly but nothing like the next night at near 13000 feet and camping on an exposed ridge high up in the mountains.
so the next morning arrived, the day was gloomy but dry and we started with a traditional breakfast in the mountains (eggs, potatos, corn, cheese (of course), fruit, coffee (and finally good coffee, not instant). so after breakfast the local porters broke down camp. this is very odd, never being camping with porters so, after breakfast we just waited for them to pack up so we could leave and we loaded up the vehicles to proceed to the start of the trail. This is when i realized there were more porters than hikers or maybe the same number, but they were to carry all the kitchen stuff, food, tents, sleeping bags, pads, tables, chairs, everything but our personnel gear which meant that each person carried about a 12 pound pack or less (not sure what the porters were carrying, maybe 35 to 40 lbs.) so we drove for a couple of hours, getting higher and higher and at times getting out of the van so the van could make it up some steep hill, but finally we made it to a large resevoir, where we would leave the world behind for two days. so it was cold here, maybe 45 degrees, so clothes were piled on, it was lightly raining so rain gear was also put on and off seven hikers and many porters went. most of this day was spent going up in altitude, there really wasn't a trail, we just bushwacked for about 5 hours, sometimes on solid ground but mostly on soft squishy stuff we referred to as pillows (kind of like walking on sand, step sink, step sink). Views were limited today based on low clouds and rain, so we just sort of trudged along, one hill climb lasted for about 2 or 3 hours and at 13000 feet that was slow and painful, but we all endured. We passed large open valleys, some with small lakes or lagoons, many with rivers, but a very consistent terrain and we just push through thigh high grasses and made are own trail. this was very slow hiking, maybe 8 kilometers in 5 hours, but finally the guide said we had enough and the porters started looking for a good campsite. There were none to be found anywhere within miles, but they found a flat grassy area and with machettes in hand made a decent camp site by cutting down the panama grass and filling in the holes. By the end of the camp set up, the heavy rains had begun so we all hid in the dining tent and tried to stay warm, temp near freezing at this point and no heat just a large enclosed tent, eight bodies and three candles. Dinner followed a few hours later of trout, corn, cheese, fruit and tea, dinners were becoming very familar since the porters had to carry it all, variety was not an option. then after dinner, dive into bed and try to stay warm when the night time temperatures dipped below freezing (and they call this the tropics, yeah right)
October 14, 2008
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Chapter 5-The road to luxury
Papallacta Hot Springs, Ecuador
so where, were we, oh yes, sitting high on top of a mountain, cold raining, sore, headache, but food on the way.....
after dinner, it was raining most of the night, it was dark, it was cold, it was wet, just everything you expect in the tropics of Ecuador, so the only thing to do, I was make my way back to the tent, crawl into a sleeping bag and hope for the warmth and a dry night (and really hope that I do not have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom). So, the night passed without incident and I woke to a glorious blue sky without a cloud in the sky and a snow capped volcano to fill the view, it was amazing, but all so cold. Boots were frozen, ice on tents and everything looked frosty, but other than that, everything you expect from the tropics. So, after a bunch of pictures of this beautiful location, breakfast was made, mostly corn if I remember right and coffee, again the coffee was quite needed especially since the body was having issues adjusting to near freezing temperatures. After breakfast it was time to pack up our portion of the camp and start the downhill trek to the Papallacta Hot Springs (with a few uphill portions just to keep us in shape), so from 13000 feet (thereabout), it was time to descend to about 9000 feet, with the tease of hot springs and a full day spa.
So, we head away from our camp down the side of a mountain, slipping and sliding and trying to keep the feet on the ground, for the next two or so hours we made our way through the bogs, the panama grass, sinking and sinking there until finally, after a final climb, we made it to an ATV track. Yes, a real road and this ended what I thought would be the most painful part of the hike. But after 4 miles or so of steep down hill on hard surfaces, very rocky, blisters and rashes caused me to slip way to the back of the pack and highly consider just sitting down and waiting for modern transportation. But none came and so the miles slipped away and we finally made it to Papallacta Hot springs and the hotel there. Like everything else in this area, little else was found here, a few buildings, another small hotel or two, but this was the reason people come to this location, maybe 90 minutes from Quito. The hotel was wonderful, a mix of cabanas and nice cabins (homes) with multiple pools all fed by natural hot springs about 102 degrees, a good restaurant (we refused a trout lasagna) and a day spa with excellent masseuses (and a 40 bucks a session, not a bad deal). Anyway, checking into the hotel brought the biggest downer of the trip, I was given a message by the hotel that my friend Karl called and informed me that my house had been broken into, but on a positive note, the last hotel was going to return my money that was stolen at their hotel. Of course, they had internet access so I also found out the stock market dropped 2000 points while we were away and we should have just stayed away. By after a spa treatment, soaking, good food, beer, wine and all, life is good and some things are just out of your control.
So, after a few more soaks and a few more beers, it was time to load up the van and head back to Quito. It was a stunning, vertical view heading back to quito and we were giving a tour of more of Quito than I had seen previously. Quito, has it all, nice residential, nice business, typical kind of middle class, all in all a very nice looking city. Very few scary looking areas. The big news dropping into Quito today was the Futbol game being played in Quito between Chile and Ecuador, I do believe that an entire town came to a stand still. It would have been fun to attend, but I am sure it was sold out. During the game, any place that had a tV was slammed, not just from the inside but any window was completely filled with people. Ecuador won, I was not out at this time, but I am sure it was insane.
October 15, 2008
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Chapter 6-The last day in Quito
Quito, Ecuador
The last morning in Quito was spent walking around the financial district, which was like any in the US, including finding the IBM building which I tried to take a picture of, but they told me to go away. This walk lead me to an interesting group of motorcyclist that were on a 20 week journey from mexico city to the tip of south america and then back up the eastern coast to mexico. They were on their way down, still in good spirits and I wish them luck in their adventure. The highlight of the morning was spent in the Quito Botanical Gardens, which the guard let me before the opened to see the local fauna. The best sections were the two enclosed gardens, on highlighting the cloud forest and the other the lowland jungles of ecuador. The best in these sections were the orchids, maybe a hundred or so of every size, shape and color. I took lots of pictures.
The morning ended with a discussion with the hotel management concerning the stolen money. It turns out they believed me, but said they have never had any complaint, but never less they returned half my money and fired the maid that cleaned my room on saturday. Since I couldn't prove that, I felt bad for the maid, if it was true that this is the first complaint (I doubt it was though). Anyway, as I checked out and headed to the airport, the hotel gave me an envelope saying they sorry and returned half of what I reported. Since I was on the way to the airport, I really didn't have time to argue, so I left somewhat happy and somewhat not.
And now, it is off to Copa Airlines and up to Panama City and back to home without incident, looking forward to a slightly empty house, but glad to be home never less, but already planning a return trip to a country that I found fascinating from the places I saw to the people I met and to places and people I look forward to seeing in the future.
The End
My Photo Album: Ecuador-2008
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