We arrived late into Quito, Ecuador's capital after spending the day visiting the amazing gold museum in Bogota before our flight out. We spent our first full day in the city exploring the old town. We climbed to the top of the incredible basilica, which looks like it has been dropped in South America from an English cathedral city, to take in the views. Quito is flanked by high green volcanoes which have a sprawl of little buildings stretching as far as they plausibly can up them. It is not unattractive though with The Virgin of Quito statue on one hill, terracotta roofs, steep cobbled streets and several little church spires across the panorama. We found the central plaza with the Presidential Palace which was being visited by Quito's champion football team on the day we were there, so there were many riot police and excited crowds. I popped into several of the strikingly embellished churches, covered in gold leaf inside and we kicked back with some nachos and guacamole a lovely first day.
The next day we took a trip out to the thermal hot springs of Papallacta. It is meant to be a 2 hour bus trip from Quito but I have pretty much learned to add an hour to any estimated journey time in South America. The driver had warned us about locals grabbing bags on the bus so I placed ours at my feet where I thought it was safer. At one stop an older, innocent looking gentleman got on and sat behind us. About half an hour after he boarded I looked down at my feet and saw a hand stretching under the seat from behind and inside a pocket on our bag. I shouted and he sprang up from his laying down position and tried to say he had dropped his watch and was looking for it.....in our bag!! Jonny had some strong words and he rushed off the bus rather too rapidly for an innocent man. Anyway, we finally arrived at the hot springs and chilled out in the natural, incredibly hot pools. As usual Yon struck up conversation with some Americans in one pool and before we knew it we were both at the mercy of a full on attempt to convert us to Jehovah Witness! Turns out there has been an annual conference of tens of thousands of JWs in Quito recently. We made our excuses and moved to another pool where I banned Yon from sparking up conversation with anyone else! A massive storm hit while we were sat in the next pool and it was amazing to lie in hot water with huge rain drops falling around us with the view of lush green mountains around us.
We moved to another lush, green, cloud forest town of Mindo just West of Quito. Our hostel was a lovely wooden cabin on stilts with windows at eye level with the tops of the trees and all the birds living in them. There was a plethora of beautiful hummingbirds being attracted to water dispensers near the hostel so we watched the amazing little birds for ages. Right next to our hostel was a restaurant that fronted a chocolate producing company. We joined a tour of the chocolate making process and tested the cocoa seeds, cocoa nibs after drying and then eventually the raw chocolate without added sugar and with lots of different flavours- I very much enjoyed it! :-) That night we went to the 'frog concert' where we walked around a eco reserve to listen to and spot the rainforest frogs. We saw some very colourful critters and some big spiders. In the morning we headed straight for the butterfly farm where they explained the entire process of caterpillar- chrysalis- butterfly. We entered the netted area which was absolutely full with the most beautifully coloured butterflies. The best bit for me was the chrysali hung out ready to hatch that day; I sat for hours watching butterflies emerge from the strange little packages and stretch their shrivelled wings out before taking their first flight.
We had to travel back to Quito to catch a bus out to Otavalo which hosts one of the biggest markets in South America. The nearby indigenous people come to the market to sell their wares. The ladies are beautiful all wearing traditional dress and felt hats and the men have long black hair plaited usually all the way down to their bums with feathers attached to the bottom. We meandered around the massive market and bought a few things.
The next day we had to travel back to Quito to catch a night bus to start our trip into the Amazon jungle. It took around 7 hours of windy, bumpy, sleepless roads to reach the town of Lago Agria where another bus picked us up for another 3 hour drive into the opening of the jungle. Once we arrived our group climbed into a canoe to start our real trip on the Amazon river and into the territory of the Sinoa tribe in the jungle. No boat trip in the jungle is uneventful and on our 2.5 hour ride to our lodge we saw a bright orange snake, amazing birds, camouflage bats, huge spider webs and a sleeping anaconda that was as thick as a rugby players thigh at least! Pretty exhausted by this point, we arrived in our jungle lodge which was quite basic but just as much as we needed. After a rest we went back out on the boat and spotted more birds and spider monkeys in the trees. At night we fell asleep to the crazy sounds of the birds, insects, frogs and monkeys of the jungle around us- there is even one bird that makes the sound of a really loud drop of water.
The next day we set out to visit the Sinoa people and learn how to make bread from Yuca. The local indigenous lady peeled and grated the root and strung out the liquid which ended up as a flour-like substance. She put the flour on a flat plate on the fire and it toasted into a bread- it was very tasty. Next up we met a shaman who told us about the process he had to go through to become a shaman- essentially at the age of 12 he had to start drinking ayahuasca, an incredibly potent hallucinogenic tea made from the vines of the jungle. The people believe that the spirit is joined by the spirit of the jungle which guides the shaman and teaches them which plants to use in the jungle to heal which illness. It was fascinating to listen to him and he performed a mock ritual on me too. We had a German guy in the group who had been feeling unwell for quite a while and so the shaman brought some stinging nettle plants and flagged his back with them. He skin was red and blotchy for hours and sadly he felt no better but it was interesting to watch.
The next morning we went on a jungle hike and saw lots of very weird insects and spiders. It absolutely poured it down during the walk, which happened a lot in the rainforest unsurprisingly, so it meant that we couldn't see as many animals. However, back in the boat we paddled out to the lake where people swam and we saw a pod of four Amazon pink dolphins. They were incredible to watch as they played and breached the surface. That night we went out on the boat and saw a Caiman and a small boa in the flooded trees. On other trips out we also saw macaws flying, stinky turkey birds, bright green parrots, the smallest monkey in the world and white faced tamarinds. One of the best sights we saw was when we were traveling back up the river at the end of our stay and saw a hawk attacking the hanging nests of the flycatcher birds and stealing a baby chick- a sad but incredible thing to witness. All in all we had an unforgettable time in the jungle with some nice fellow travelers.
Back in Quito Yon decided he wanted to climb the nearby volcano. Whilst he did that I had a pedicure and a chill day! The next day we headed out to the sister hostel of the one in Quito, in the Cotopaxi national park. Cotopaxi is, I think, the highest live volcano in the world and was meant to be visible from our hostel- sadly we had rain and clouds the whole time we were there. But the place was really nice with a jacuzzi and big cozy communal area where everyone ate together. Yon went on another hike up a volcano and instead I opted for horse riding. The first two hours of riding was great but the rain absolutely poured for the last two hours and my horse pretty much gave up! Whilst the weather was nice the scenery was beautiful with grass plains and lots of horses running and playing in fields as we passed. We met some really nice people at this hostel too and had some good chats over dinner.
We have one final night in Quito before we catch a flight to Rio, Brazil via Bogota. Bring on the Carnival!!
