The Most Beautiful Place in the World?

We´ve spent the past few days ( Fri June 20 to Tues. June 24) hiking in the Andean highlands, as well as experiencing some indigenous celebrations. From guinea pigs to carefully stepping across sketchy bridges to watching grazing sheep to a fire place in our room to warm hospitality - we experienced many great things.

The Quilota loop has 13 traditional indigenous villages with populations of 1500 to 12 000 people, ranging from 2800m to 3854m in elevation. The scenery was outstanding, made up mostly of a patchwork of fields and forests. Breath taking! Negotiating transportation can be tricky and expensive but we got the perfect idea through a conversation at our hostal.

Isinlivi
We set out by bus along a bumpy dirt road to the town of Isinlivi, where we partyed. The locals were celebrating The Day of the Sun or Saint John´s day. Indigenous people´s beliefs are very much tied to the sun and the moon, along with the changing of seasons. The summer solstice(June 21st) gave them a good reason to party. Some of the festivities we got to see were: the kids raced to the top of a high pole for goodies - even if that meant clambering over top of each other; there was a parade with horses and dead chickens carried on a long wooden pole; the band played and people danced on long into the night; and of course it wouldn´t be complete without a large amount of the local brew. We saw a lot but I can´t say I understand any better what´s behind most of the rituals.

While we were there Jay took part in an ancient indigenous cleansing ceremony. Without going into too many gruesome details, here's more-or-less what happens. The shaman takes a live guinea pig from a burlap sack and spits a crazy alcholol / herbal concoction over it 3 times, then blows smoke over it 3 times. Then, he vigorously rubs the ceremony subject all over with this very same, unfortunate, guinea pig for for between 10 and 25 minutes until it dies. The longer it survives, the longer your life span is believed to be. During the shaking and rubbing, the guinea pig absorbs copies of the person's infermities. Once the guinea pig has expired, the shaman then actually peels it out of its´skin so that he can make a detailed internal examination. Using the guinea pig´s insides the shaman tells you what bodily ailments are present. Jay was thrilled when the shaman told him that he tires easily when he walks, figuring that excuse would come in handy for when he didn't feel like going somewhere! We discovered an interesting catch at the end of the ceremony... our diagnosis ceremony cost $10 (plug $5.25 for the guinea pig) - but the healing ceremony to cure you of the problems diagonsed via the guinea pig cost an exta $15 to be healed... none of the 6 subjects went for the healing.

Highland Hiking: (Isinlivi --> Chugchilan --> Quilotota)
We spent the next two days hiking from one village to another and then up to a volcanic/crater lake. On Monday we went from Isinlivi to Chugchilan, which took us about 5 fantastic hours through some beautiful, remote parts of the country side.

We went without a guide, but a Swiss couplefrom our hostal had hired Jose (a super nice, professional guide and boyfriend of the hostal owner, Kati) to take them on the same hike on the same day. When Jose heard we were going the same way, he said he´d help us so we wouldn't lose our way as we followed behind. The way was fairly clear, but they did call us back from making a couple wrong turns. The most difficult part of the hike was near the end, a 400 or 500m change in elevation completed by a series of switchbacks at about 60 degrees up . We were pretty exhausted after that, but thankfully we didn't have too much farther to go either.

We arrived in early afternoon to Chugchilan, a tiny, middle-of-nowhere town. It boasts a few fantastic hostals. We stayed at the highly recommended ¨Mama Hilda's¨ and were not dissapointed, enjoying one of our favourite rooms of our entire trip. Private bathroom, amazingly hot shower, super cozy double bed, loft, hammock and our favourite part: our own wood stove (even though we're close to the equator, at 3200m above sea level it gets cold)!! We considered just hanging out there for several days, but at supper time a great opportunity presented itself to us for the next day.....

The Swiss couple and Jose were hiking another leg of the trails from Chugchilan to Quilotoa. From there a car would drive back to . They happily invited us to join them. All of our other options involved hiring trucks, staying in Quilotoa ( which we´d been warned had freezing cold accomodations) or catching a 3:00am bus back. None of which sounded appealing! We jump at the opportunity.

So Tuesday morning we left with my pack feeling heavy carrying clothes for both of us. We´d brought along extra things because we weren´t planning on doing that much town to town hiking ( books and stuff.) The previous nights sleep hadn´t been quite enough .

This hike took a bit longer than the previuos day and was alot harder. The scenery was incredible. Though it meant crossing a sketchy bridge and winding our way along a narrow, steep switchback trail up the side of a canyon that had been badly affected by errosion. The sheer, several hundred meter drop on one side and the canyon wall on the other made me glad my mom couldn´t see us then!

I think it was the toughest day of hiking I´ve everd one. We climbed over 1000m, reaching a height of almost 4000m at the edge of the Quilotoa crater. The extra weight of my pack made it extremely tiring, espcecially on the long ascending sections. The thinning air added another dimension. Thankfully our bodies have been well acclimatized. Slow and steady. I made it despite it being exhausting. The view at the end made it all worth while.

The lake of the ( active) Quilotoa crater is absolutely gorgeous. The lake is surrounded by steep 400m rock walls before it plateaus, with the area surronding it rising to rocky out crops and hills or sand plains dipping lower. The cloud pattern at the this of year means that you hike through thick fog to get to the crater edge but the clouds stop exactly at its´crest . It seeems like you´ve hit a wall! Even though we could hardly see 50 m back down our trail, our view out over the lake was totally unimpeded from clouds.

The car that was suppsoed to bring us back had broken down. We ended up on a thin wooden bench in the back of a pick up truck. We were really happy that for the entire 2 hour ride the road was nicely paved. Ange was feeling pretty car sick and I was freezing cold, chilled to the bone and really sore, that just made the hot showers and yummy food at Hostal Tiana even more amazing!

Even though the hiking was not what we had originally intended we were thankful for the great advice, good company and the opportunities. God blessed us with safety, amazing views of one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were reminded that hiking is an intimate way to walk up canyon switch backs, through the network of paths made by indigenous farmers, crossing rivers over sketchy logs and toiling up to the edge of an ancient, active salt water filled volcano crater at 4000m above sea level! WOW!!

Quilotoa - Ecuadoran Highlands

Camp, Mitad Del Mundo and a Crazy Soccer

On June 12 we went to Ecuador´s claim to fame, Mitad del Mundo or the middle of the world. A great tourist creation where you can supposedly have both feet on different hemispheres. The joke is that it´s actually 240m off the real equator. The identification of this spot at the time (1736) was impressive and spurned some great discoveries about the equator. We took the pictures and moved on to a solar museum. It was an interesting multi media presentation that provided explanations for indigenous people creating the real middle of the world monument 1000 years ago. It offered some thought provoking insights into religion, culture, history and science.

From June 13 to 17th we were at the beach on the coast being the nurse and life guard for about 40 high school aged kids. Camp was awesome. We were able to get so involved. I was a bit stressed the first two days until I figured out my routine. One of the kids reminded me a little of my brother Andrew. The worst thing that happened was someone fractured two toes by kicking someone else´s heel. She got a cast. That sucked for her but she was tough and very good natured. The funniest thing was a guy who got hot pepper juice on his fingers and wiped his eyes and mouth. They puffed up nicely. There was the usual cramps and blisters. The speakers son just wasn´t himself so I helped them out as best I could.

Wed June 18th we hooked up with our friends from camp, and some more people they knew and headed to a soccer game... 4 1/2 hours early!! The tickets are sold primarily in large blocks of general admission, so you've got to get there SUPER early to get seats. The way the stadium is laid out there aren't any awful seats, and ours were really quite good. It was nice and sunny for the first while of the wait... but then it started to rain... then rain harder... then hail... then rain.... so we spent most of the rest of the wait, and the game soaking wet and cold. But, still, the game was awesome and the players fantastic. Sadly it was a 0-0 tie, but Ecuador had WAY more chances, they just couldn't finish.

Camp, Mitad Del Mundo and a Crazy Soccer Game

Travelling is For The Birds

Mindo is a small community of about 2000 people. It is a world renowned bird watching area in the cloudforests. We spent 3 early mornings catch glimpses of some pretty amazing birds. We also visited an orchid and butterfly farm. Have a peak.

Mindo

These are photos that our guide took. We stayed the hostel that his family owned. We were really grateful for the early morning breakfasts that they served. They had several young kids, including Rubby, a special needs kiddo who the hostal was named after. These are for the hard core animal and bird lovers out there.

Birds of Mindo - by Marcelos Arias

Volcano Adventure Take Two - Biking Down Cotopaxi

On June 7 we took part in a mountain bike tour on Cotopaxi Volcano which is the highest active volcano in the world at 5897m. Last time it erupted it destroyed Latacunga, a town 40 km way with the ensuing mudslides. Right now it is pretty dormant and not dangerous. We arr ranged the tour at the travel agency called The Happy Gringo, the trip was run by the Biking Dutchman and we met at the Magic Bean Resturant.... neat names eh?

The basic idea is that we would drive up to a height of 4600m (we couldn´t bike down from the snow capped peak)which is the last parking lot. Then we´d hop on mountain bikes and make our way down to the entrance of the national park. We would descend about 1600m and travel around 35 km.

As we got close to the mountain we were worried we had gotten an unlucky day - overcast and raining. But our guide and owner of the company assured is the weather would improve as we drove above the clouds! Right he was! The weather was fantastic, just a bit of rain as we biked the last kms before the entrance.

Up at 4600m we were well above the tree line, there was nothing but dirt and some snow. It was as cold as any winter day back in Canada. We were happy we had worn long underwear! The weather changes so quickly. The edge of the glacier was about 200 vertical meters away. But we went down instead - fast! We never had to pedal, just keep from flying off the road, stopping regularly to take pictures and enjoy the view ( which we did alot of.)

At our first break we were at a large rocky plain (that had llamas) at around 3800m. A few more kms and we had lunch beside the lake. The lake used to be huge and cover the plains in every direction. However it was emptied by the last Cotopaxi eruption in the late 1800s which sent raging rivers of mud 40 to 100m deep flying down off the hills. That´s how a town 35km away can get wiped out. That kind of raw power is beyond my comprehension.

Lunch was incredible! we started with homemade quiche in phyllo pastry. The main course was tuna pasta salad with fresh amazing bread and ginger tea.There were lots of seconds. It was topped off by the best brownies we´ve ever had! Apparently Ecuador exports its´cocoa to the most prestigious chocolate manufacturers in Europe. Somehow Jan gets his hands on a supply of it. His wife then makes it into dessert for the trip.

After lunch it was a 20-25km section of flats, gentle down hills and two up hills which really emphasized how there´s less air up at 3600m than the sea level we´re mostly used to! (and it really showed how much a difference a few days of acclimatization makes)

We both agreed that this was one ( or the) most fun and awesome thins we´ve done on our whole trip!!!

Mountain Biking Cotopaxi

The Birthday That Didn´t End

Jay turned 25 on May 31. Since we don´t tend to plan ahead and prefer last minute decisions surprising him was a real challenge. I´m out of practice and just not very subtle! Ask Jay he´ll tell you about the sort of obvious things that I did.

My original idea of taking him to a soccer game has become so complicated. The national and league teams here are busy and very popular. Finding tickets is liking panning for gold when you are incompetent in the language and don´t know the system ( you have to wait in lines, there is no such thing as ticket master here.)

We did go white water rafting on the Toachi river (class III, IV for you white water junkies) which is in a cloud forest. It rained most of the day and as it turned out our section of the raft had a pretty major leak in it. It was funny and the waves were super great. It was fun to be on the water.

We rented a very luxurious hotel room a few days later ( after we failed to find the bus station that had relocated 5 months ago but no one changed the local maps.) The suite with a table and the jacuzzi tub were a real step up on the usual accommodations.

The last group of photos that are included are not related at all to Jay´s birthday. Quito is surrounded by mountains and hills. On the west side of town is a volcano, though it is not safe to walk all the way there we did do some hiking after taking the TelefereQo ( cable cars) up to the top. The views were stellar. Hiking at 4100m takes a little practice anyways. Also a few of the photos reflect the delight we had when we got taken to dinner by strangers. The resturant had an excellent view of the city.

Great days around Quito

Otavalo - To Market, To Market, To Market, We Will Go

We had to make a quick decision. After the nerve wracking discovery that my pants had been cut into to get money out, we had to choose to board a bus to go to the markets or stay put in Quito. We jumped on the bus for a small town that is famous for the handicrafts sold in stalls on the streets. There is 10 square blocks of fruit and veggies, clothes, art, jewellery, food, tapestries, bags, hammocks, wood and leather work and souvenirs. On the outskirts of town you could find yourself face to face with lamas ( they cost $150 with out bargaining), hearing squealing piggies as they get pulled along by a ropes to their new homes, watch a cow being milked just to see if it´s as good as the vendor brags and see scrawny horses nibbling grass indifferent to all the commotion.

Before arriving we´d decided what we wanted to get. We´d budgeted $40. We took our time chatting with people and they were so friendly. Everybody enjoyed the good bargaining. Jay got a wool hat for $8 and we´d seen them for $33 in a store in Quito. I got a alpaca scarf for $5. Jay´s very proud because he helped me pick it out! It´s really warm for the cool Quito nights and now I have a great outfit for going out.

We bought the occasional thing we didn´t necessarily need but also decided we´d rather have. We couldn´t pass up on these textured paintings made out of corn products. We didn´t even blow the budget!

Otavalo - Market Town