We have been looking up to the Statue of the Virgin ever since we arrived the other day. We thought that we would hike up there today. When we got up the the clouds were covering the viewpoint. Doesn’t seem worth it if we can see anything from up there. I guess that’s out for today.

We go down for for breakfast and meet Greg and Leslie to find another plan for they day. We are almost finished breakfast when the sun begins to shine. As we leave breakfast we can see the top. We have no excuse now, I guess the hike is back on! 😉

We make our way into town where the starting point is and begin the climb.

We are still at 1800 meters, so still a substantial elevation. It isn’t long before Greg and Stu disappear from Leslie and my view. We have no illusions of keeping up with Greg’s long strides. That is now Stu’s problem. 🙂 Leslie and keep a steady pace, setting small goals for ourselves, like 2 sections of railing, or to the next landing.

A couple younger Ecuadorian men catch up to us. The younger one is struggling with the hike. The older one has very good English and tells us that his friend is not happy with him for bringing him here. We can certainly see that in his body language. Hahaha. As we are resting the older guy hops up on top of the railing and walks up for a while that way. Another time he just starts running up the steps 2 at a time. His friend just gave up and it wasn’t long until Leslie and I left him behind us. We meet his friend who is now on his way back down. We ask if he saw 2 gringos up there. He says he didn’t, but they might be in the bar. Really there is a little bar at the top, If all of these steps wasn’t enough you could climb another 50 meters almost straight up a dirt path to the bar.

We make it!!! It took us an hour, but we made it!!

There is an election in Ecuador this month. After we arrive at the Virgin we see a work crew who is painting and clearing brush, getting the site cleaned up for Holy Week which is coming soon. The workers are all supporters of one of the political candidates running for office here in Banos.

We decide the guys have already gone down the alternate path. We had made plans to meet Stu and Greg at noon in the main square.
It is raining quite a bit now, so we also head down the other path.

We see this beauty on the side of the trail.

This is a dirt path for a while but then changes to a wider road with loose gravel. It is quite slippery and we need to watch our steps carefully as it is quite steep in parts. I did slip on some loose stones and end up on my butt. Not harm, got up, Leslie helped me brush off the mud and we were on our way again.

Now back at the road where we started the day, we make our way to the square to find Stu and Greg in a little coffee shop called Honey’s. Time for a treat 🙂 The phrase on the wall says “Life begins with coffee” Look closely at the little beans. Clever.

Wandering about we decide to find the little cafe that a Danish woman owns. She approached us in the street yesterday telling us how great her food was, how great her chai was. So we opt for her place for lunch.

BiIG MISTAKE! When we arrived there were a couple young men in the cafe. It looked like the left without ordering. The woman brings us menus while telling us how great everything is, how busy they were last weekend. She convinced us that we should try her homemade Danish bread for our sandwiches ($1 more), convinced us that we should have the ham and cheese sandwich ($1 more). We were fortunate to share the sandwiches, which turned out to be 2 large buns with our selected fillings.

Before she started working on our order she yakked and yakked about how great Scandinavia was, how busy and tired they were for Carnival weekend, how her daughter is struggling in school and might go back to Denmark to school, how her son is too bright for school in Ecuador and is basically bored. All while inserting “you know what I’m saying” every 3 or 4 words. Stu just started looking at the photos on his camera, the rest of us didn’t want to make eye contact in case she started talking again. Food was just OK, but really overpriced. We paid more for lunch than some of our diners that included wine.

Banos is very busy today. One of the churches has multiple celebrations happening. At least one wedding and lots of people in fancy dress. Notice the KFC sign. They are very popular here in Ecuador.

We have seen cuy or guinea pigs being served in Peru and here in Ecuador. We have talked about maybe trying it. That is until we pass this stall here. There is a stick of sorts at the back of this barbecue that has 3 prongs. Each prong has a Cuy and are turned manually by ladies in the shop until they are done and then put at the front of the grill. Can’t do it!!

From our hike to great heights we could see what we think is court for a similar game that we saw in Quito in the park. It is on our way back to our hostel so we stop in for a peak. They welcome us and we sit in their viewing stands and watch the boys play for a while. It is a little different than the version in Quito.

Last night we ate at a great little place called Casa Hood. Tonight we are dining in Cafe Hood. Great atmosphere, great food. Cheaper than lunch!! 🙂

After our breakfast we were about to walk into town to grab one of the tours of the waterfalls. They cost $5. per person and the cost of any of the activities we might want to do at the stops we will visit. The tour goes to the “Cascadas” or waterfalls of which there are many in the area surrounding Banos. Our host sees us in the courtyard and approaches us and asks what our plans are for the day. We tell him and he advises us that they have a tour right from here. The bus can pick us up here at 10:30. OK, sounds good.

We have an hour so we decide to walk up the street (big hill) to the hot springs that are above us. The pools vary in colour and temperature. The ones with the yellower water are hotter and have more mineral content than the greener cooler pools. People even go for dips in the flowing river. They have a bar that they hold onto as they make their way into the river.

As we are making our way back at 10:15 our host is driving up the hill to try to find us. The “Chiva” or bus had arrived early so he came looking for us. It had carried on picking up other passengers as we were not there, but did make it back to pick us up.

There is agriculture all around us, even though we are surrounded by tall volcanoes. These industrious people manage to cultivate and grow crops on these very steep hills.

We stop to see a waterfall. This stop has a bucket that will take you across the rivers gorge and back again. It stops in the middle on the return so that you can take photos. This costs us $2 per person.

Our next stop is at a candy factory of sorts. They are making guava leather. They boil the fruit until they have a thick red liquid. This boils more until it is done. Not sure how long it all takes, but they pour the resulting paste into trays that then get cut into rectangles or put into wooden boxes which they sell.

We also stop at a zip lining place. Not sure if this is $2 per person or not. None of us were interested 🙂 They also have this ball swing that spins around as it swings out over the gorge.

The next stop is another waterfall. This one is called the Devil’s Cauldron. We arrive at a busy parking lot. It is full of Chivas.

Here we pay another $2 per person and enter the park where we understand that there is about a 15-20 minute walk. There are lots and lots of signs here warning to stay on the path, don’t damage the vegetation and that we must be sober to enter the park. 😉

We are seeing many plants that have other plants living on them. Here is an example of a tree with these succulents growing along the branches.

We soon discover that there is an amazing waterfall here. So stunning.

This was the finale. Just spectacular. We didn’t have time to go all the way down to the bottom as the Chiva needed to keep it’s schedule. This trek would have taken a while, especially getting back to the top.

As we leave we have a close call with a car on a narrow roadway out of the waterfall area. Tight squeeze.

We headed back into Banos to finish this tour. Well worth the price of admission. 😉

Later we enjoyed a great dinner in town at a place called “Casa Hood”. Food was good. Street entertainers would pop by, some not so good.

Another great day!!

We head to the bus depot after our breakfast at our hotel. It is a few blocks and we are all loaded with our bags. We are aiming for the 9am bus to Banos. Just as we arrive there is a bus leaving in 3 minutes. Bonus. We are off at 8:30 for a 3 hour ride. This bus like the bus we road into Tena in has a loud cheesy movie, I think it is Jack and the Bean Stock. 🙂

We arrive but are not quite sure where our accommodation is. Greg flags down a cab. It is $2 to take us there. Excellent.

Not long after we arrive at Monte Carmelo our home for the next 3 nights. Greg booked this place and we knew 1 room had a balcony and would cost more. We would be happy with either. Our hostess did the checkin procedure, we paid, (both the same amount), she shows Greg and Leslie to a ground floor room and us up some stairs to the room with the balcony. This room is huge!!! Greg and Leslie have “a room”, we have the penthouse!

As Monte Carmela is just a but out of the town center, we wander into town to see what’s what and to have some lunch. There is a cafe named “Blah Blah Cafe” that has been recommended, or we just liked the name. We find it but……… it is obviously not open for lunch today.

Just around the corner we find this little Mexican restaurant. They only have a few tables, but the menu looks appetizing and as we walk in a woman sitting at another table tells us that it takes a while for the food, but it is really good. It turns out she is originally from Utah and has been living in Ecuador for a few years now. Last year she built a home here. She feels her Spanish skills were much improved during that experience.

We have a great lunch.

• 

Wandering about town Stu takes a few more photos.

I spent the morning catching up on the blog while Stu, Greg and Leslie went for a walk about. The temperatures here are very warm and the humidity is very high. While I was sitting in a very comfortable outdoor lounge the others were walking in the town checking locations for lunch in the humidity. They were all warm and moist when they returned. Tena is the location on our itinerary where mosquitoes could be carrying Yellow Fever. Greg and Leslie have had the vaccine, Stu and I looked at the risk of the vaccine and the risk of contracting Yellow Fever and decided not to get it at this time. We do have shirts that contain bug repellent and our repellent wipes. So we don the shirts. wipe the wipes and head of into the jungle walk that is just across the Rio Tena via the pedestrian bridge close to where we are staying.

The jungle walk has seen better days. We start on a boardwalk path the soon looses its boards so that it just raised concrete bases that you had to walk like a wide tight rope. The railings were mostly rotted out as well. We left the boardwalk to take a down to earth path that led us to the river.

We are seeing some amazing tropical plants. They are like the ones we find in plant stores at home only super sized.

We come across this amazing tree that I dubbed the Tree of Life as soon as I saw it. It is called a Cieba Tree. The branches start about 30 feet off the ground. There is an information board for this tree that is very difficult to read. We can make out that this is a male tree so it does not create seeds. It does have flowers that are pollinated at night be bats. Very interesting.

Here are a few other photos of Tena. It is trying to be a tourist destination and have done some pretty good work towards that end.

Stu and Greg go out for a walk about to scout dinner locations and pick up beer and snacks for happy hour. They return with cold beer which we enjoy while playing our second game of Hearts of this trip.

After the game we head out for dinner. We bring our rain jackets as we are hearing thunder out there. We make it to the restaurant before the skies open up.

We order our meals. The grill is right behind our table and we see A LOT OF CHICKEN on it. We say, that can’t all be for us! Wrong, it is all for us. Way way too much food. We do our best but vow to share from now on. The photo on the right is my chicken dinner. Must be 6 pieces of chicken, sliced tomatoes, avocado and 8 pieces of fried plantain. The other is Stu’s fish. He had more of a manageable portion. He gobbled up the fish that was up until 20 minutes ago swimming around in a tank in the restaurant.

By the time we were ready to roll ourselves home the rain had thankfully stopped.

My phone updated it’s system today and I found this new feature. 😉

Check out time at Hosteria Pampallacta is 1pm, so we have time to enjoy a soak in the thermals before our breakfast, a little hike up the hill behind us and down to the public thermal pools at the end of the road.

There are only 127 Geocaches in all of Ecuador. On our walk Leslie and I found the second one of this trip.

It was a 3 hour bus ride over very bumpy roads. We did have the walk I mentioned above. I didn’t check my fitbit before we got on the bus, but I would estimate that it had about 4,000 steps. After about an hour and half my wrist began vibrating as the fitbit went into it’s 10,000 step celebration. Woo hoo. I finished the day with 18,136 steps and 168 of active minutes !!! Quite a feat for being on a 3 hour bus ride.

Stu didn’t take out his camera at all on this ride, so i tried my best to get some images of the surroundings. Not award winning images but they might give you an idea of the terrain along our way.

The bus stops at different points and allows vendors on board so that the passengers can purchase refreshments. Here are a couple young men selling something. They speak a million miles a minute, so I have no idea what it might be. They had baskets covered in packing tape, some fabric I believe is to keep something hot and what looks like hot sauce as a condiment.

By about 4:30 we pull into the central bus station of Tena. A pickup cab is there. I show him the name of where we would like to go and ask how much. He says something very quickly and I call Greg over to help. Turns out the fare is $1.25 to our hostal. OK we can manage that.

Carnival is in full swing here in Tena as well. Large groups of teens are having a great time down by the Malecon (river walk) and the river.

We have pizza for dinner again. It is a very popular choice in Ecuador. The temperatures here are so much warmer than Papallacta. It is also very very humid. That’s what you get as we are next to the jungle.

La Rosario was a very nice little Hostal. It was squeaky clean. As in a lot of tropical countries ceramic tile is a common building material. Sound just echos through the hallways. It is also a bit quirky in design. In our room we had a high that opened onto the hallway and a window in our shower that opened onto what I thought was an atrium. We would close both of these windows at night to cut down on any echos.

One evening returned back from dinner and I decided to close the window in the shower. I was standing (fully clothed) in the shower ready to reach up and close the window, when I heard a woman speaking and they I saw her bend down to our open window and say to someone “Is that our bathroom?” She was a north american based on her English. I reply “No” and she says “Oh, I’m sorry” as I am closing the window.

I discovered that even when closed I could open it from the stairway. I wasn’t tall enough to latch it. LOL

We pack up our belongings and take a cab from La Rosario to the bus depot at the south end of the city. We are going to a very small town called Papallacta (pronounced Papayacta). There are hot springs here and we have accommodation booked that have their own hot pools. The rooms even their own fireplaces. The altitude here is 3,300m, it is the mountains and is quite a bit cooler than Quito.

We board our bus about 1 minute before it departs. It is about 2.5 hours before we reach Papallacta. We disembark the bus and collect our big bags from the luggage compartment. We are still 2km from the Hosteria Pampallacta so we take a cab for $3.00. The cab is a Mazda crew cab pickup truck. We load the big bags in the back and we are off. Very glad we hired the cab. The ride feels much more than 2km and it is mostly uphill!!

We reach our place, collect our bags and I notice that my camera bag is not there!!!! I have left it on the bus. CRAP!!! My wallet is in my camera bag. CRAP!!! We enter the lobby and are met by Pablo. Pablo has spent many years studying in the US and has impeccable English. Thank God. We explain what has happened, he says he can call the bus company but doesn’t hold out much hope. Greg suggests that we grab a cab and try to catch the bus. Pablo calls back the cabbie who just dropped us off and in minutes he is back. His English is minimal, but Pablo explains the situation and then we are off to find the Banos Express Bus #17.

Our cabbie, (I will refer to him as Mario) who I do not know his name even now is AMAZING. He has only been told that the bag contains 2 cameras, but he senses the urgency.

Mike and Nicole, please show this to Alex and Adam. They will understand if anyone does. 🙂

We are in the Andes Mountains the road is not straight or flat. This road is like a Mario Cart race course. It is like Adam picked the hardest map he could find to race Opa (Stu). At times there are 3 vehicles spread across the road with a double solid line. Mario his constantly trying to win this race. We know he is faster than the bus, but they have a big head start. The road is full of pot holes and we need to avoid them like the bananas and bombs that get tossed onto the race course in Mario Cart.

I am in the back seat and hanging onto the handle above my door as we careen along the course. No bus in sight 🙁

We reach a Police checkpoint. The normally just wave buses and cabs through, but today Mario pulls over and chats to one of the police men. Another one comes over and makes a phone call. We have no idea what is being discussed. Next thing we know we leave the checkpoint and carry on in our search.

Not long after the checkpoint there is a fork in the road. The bus we are looking for would take the right fork, apparently the fork less travelled. That is good news. Less traffic to pass, fewer possible busses. A while later Mario sees a bus coming towards us, it is the same company as the bus we are chasing. He waves it down and asks the driver how far ahead the Banos Express bus is. He indicates that he passed it a while ago. Good news. We’re off again. Mario doing his thing. He knows every bump in this road. At times he slows and I wonder why, then a bump.

We see another Banos Express bus coming and Mario again flags him down. He says the bus is only a few minutes ahead. We cheer!!!

Then ahead of us on a curvy mountain road we see a flash of a yellow bus. That is it (we hope)!!!. More cheers. Mario continues his stellar driving. Using his horn in a beep beep way almost as much as his brakes. The rain is now pouring down. We come around a curve and we can now see that the yellow bus is indeed #17. Yahoo!!!

Another couple of curves and the bus is making a stop to let someone off. Mario beep beeps and pulls in front of the bus as I jump out. I have a phrase ready on Google translate on my phone. The driver and attendant are confused. Something is lost in the translation. They want a ticket. I run back to the cab and get Stu as he has the ticket. He brings it and as the destination was waaaaay back they are still confused. Finally they understand and let me on the bus. There is only one person left on board as I make my way to seats 29 & 30. I might not remember the number except for the fact that Stu commented that I was sitting in my birthday seat.

I get there and look down at the floor. The bag is there!!!! I pick it up. It is heavy. Unbelievable!!! The driver and the attendant are grinning as I give them thumbs up. The rain is still pouring down and fortunately there is a covered bus stop with a bench which I collapse on. Unzipping the bag I see my 2 cameras and more importantly my little travel wallet, which was really more important than the cameras.

Mario is out of his truck, under the covered bus stop and makes the hand gesture of a beating heart. We understand. We all take a moment for the adrenaline to abate before Mario gets behind the wheel for a calmer drive back to Papallacta.

I sent Leslie a text as I know they are waiting at the hosteria wondering what has happened.

When we arrive back we give Mario a mucho grande tip. Greg and Leslie have beer waiting for us in the restaurant.

Phew!!!

SUPER MARIO!!

Our last full day in Quito. After our last breakfast at La Rosario we head out to walk to the Mariscal Sucre area of Quito. We have heard that this is an area that many tourist are and has lots of restaurant choices. There is also a street, Amazonas that is closed to traffic on Sunday, so as this is Sunday, that sounds very pleasant. On our way we pass through a park. It has a market of sorts. Lots or artists with their work on display. Also musicians playing for the Sunday crowd. We all loved the simplicity of the paintings in the first photo, but cannot imagine packing them around for the next 4 weeks. 🙁

Through the center of the market we see the typical goods. Scarves, silver jewlery, hats and leather goods.

We also come across some men playing a game. We aren’t sure what is it. They have a square court carved into the dirt, inside that a circle carved. Around all of the trees there is also a trench. These trenches catch slow moving balls. Inside the circle they start with 5 small ivory coloured balls. The game begins way outside the court area (first photo below). It continues once they are inside the square court. It seems similar to bocce or boules, but we are not sure what it is called. I googled “Ecuardorian game similar to bocce” but did not find anything. Interesting Sunday activity for the players and spectators.

We see this father teaching his daughter how much fun Carnival is 🙂 Not sure if she gets it yet. Hahaha.

On our travels we see this interesting building. It is called “Dualidad” It is by a Spanish artist named Zësar Bahamonte. This was his last wall of his southamerican tour. 

Here are a couple other interesting places we came across.

We have been watching the mountains for a break in the clouds around the Teleferico. It is a gondola that reaches the top of Cruz Loma, adjacent to the Pichincha volcano. The clouds clear and we decide to grab a cab up there. I am again not wearing long pants so we decide to head back to La Rosario so that I can change. The temperatures up there are bound to be much cooler than here. As we walk the clouds cover the mountain again. In the distance we see lightning and rain clouds. There is another hill, called “Bread Hill” that has a 40 m tall statue of the Virgin Mary. This hill also has stunning view of Quito. So we hail a cab, he tells us $3.00 and starts the windy route to the top of the hill. We ask him to wait 20 minutes and he agrees. The rain has now reached us and the Virgin Mary who was gleaming in the sunlight when we started is now a dull gray. The statue is unique in that she is a Winged Virgin Mary.

The lightning is flashing all around us so we decide to head back to our cab and get closer to La Rosario. By the time we are down the rain is pour and as we exit the cab a flash of lightning and immediate clap of thunder. Woooo. That is close. We make our way back for bit of R&R and happy hour. Greg and Stu found a new little restaurant on their beer/wine/snack run. We make our way there in the pouring rain and have a fabulous light dinner. Some great homemade soup, yummy appy and Greg and Leslie share a tasty chicken avocado sandwich.

Interesting last day in Quito!!

After we lost a day of our Quito schedule we re-evaluated and decided to stay another 2 nights in Quito and take the bus to Otavalo to see the market on Saturday. We enquired with our host regarding the bus and he suggest the we hire a driver who would take us to a few other locations on the way to Otavalo. This would cost $100 for the four of us. Sounds good, we booked it. These are the places we will visit today.

Paul our driver arrives at 8am to pick us up and we are off. Our first stop is “Mitad del Mundo de Cayambe” which translates to “Half the World of Cayambe”. There are many attractions along the equator for people to see the angle of the sun at different times of day and of different seasons. This one, the Quitsato Solar Clock is a cultural-tourist site located in the Middle of the World, near Cayambe City. It is run by a non profit society that is trying to change how we look at the earth. They want to change from a north/south orientation to and east west orientation. They sell inflatable globes with this new way of looking at our earth. It was here that I found my first Ecuardorian Geocache.

Our next stop was at Laguna San Pablo. This is a beautiful lake with views of the the Imbabura volcano across the lake and is only 5 minutes from Otavalo. The day is a bit cloudy so the volcano is not as imposing as it can be on a sunny day.

From here we head to Cascadas de Peguche. This is a national park with a waterfall and rushing river. As we arrive and leave the parking lot we are swarmed by small brownish flies. I am the only one not wearing long pants and my insect repellent is still in the cab. I beckon to Paul to come back so that I can get my pack out of the the trunk. I managed to apply the repellent, but not before these little flies feasted on my legs. Multiple bites. Itchy bites. Leading up to the park is a street with food and craft vendors. The butcher in the first photo is taking the skin from this pig in long strips. They are selling pig skin ceveche on the street. Not appealing in the least.

Stop #4 is Laguna de Cuicocha. This is known as Kuykucha, “lake of guinea pigs” or Kuychikucha, “rainbow lake”. It is a 3km caldera or crater lake at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano. There are people lined up for boat rides around 2 islands in the lake. Also there is a trail that circles the lake. This takes 4-6 hours to complete. It starts and ends at 3,120 m (10,184 ft) and reaches the highest elevation at 3,500m (11,483 ft) for an elevation gain of 400 m.

From here we head back to Otavalo to see the famous market there. We were originally intending to stay in this town for 2 nights. Paul finds a primo parking spot and we head out to explore the market. Very shortly after that we find a hat vendor. On our walking tour of Quito we were told the story of the Panama Hat. Apparently when Teddy Roosevelt was in Panama while the canal was being built he was presented with a hat. He thanked the people for this “Panama Hat” when the hat was actually presented by the people of Ecuador. We see the hats and the lady was very persuasive and they haggled her down from $23 each to $21. 🙂 This is a very very busy place and I think we all agree that we are relieved that we are not spending 2 nights here.

We have discovered that this week (or maybe two) is Carnival in Ecuador. What this means is that young people and sometimes older people throw eggs, flour and anything in the fridge according to Lucas our walking tour guilde, at each other. They also use water guns and balloons, and what to us looks like powdered paint. Most often they have cans of spray foam. These cans range from your regular shaving cream size to ones that are four times that size. We see young people everywhere we have been covered in all of the above. We have even been sprayed with the foam and sometimes water, but just a little bit so far. 🙂 We try to stay clear.

Very busy days recently. We have very poor wifi here so will try to update the blog tomorrow if we have better service. There will be stories 🙂