Aymi’s Adventures

View of Quito 

I have fallen in love with another country – Ecuador is amazing and I have not even seen half of it.  There is so much to do here, from Volcanoes to canyons, bridge jumping to white water rafting, bike riding, horse riding, quad bike riding and even weird religious festivals that look like the purple klu klux clan!!!

I flew from Lima to Quito with Kate – a much less uneventfull flight than the last!  Then 3 nights in Quito with Kate, which quickly changed to 5 nights and I still hadnt had time to do everything I wanted to.

Climbed Guagua Pinchincha Volcano, the nearest one to Quito, just 9k’s away, and when I say climbed I mean climbed – it reminded me a bit of when someone talked me into climbing Snowdon – the hard route – Crib Goch, but with added snow & altitude and even more difficult. It is 4800mtrs high but we started at 4200mtrs, well the first bit is just boring!!! The last 200mtrs were the hardest climbing in the snow, but it was worth it (even though we couldn’t see the crater for all the mist) when we were sat at the top drinking mugs of soup and dipping bread, looking back at where we had just come from.

        

Went to Otavalo Market for the day, which is a really cool little town with a huge market. Mainly the same stuff you get in every market in South America with the exception of roasted pigs heads – yes really! I couldnt resist this beautiful handpainted picture although I am regretting it now as I have to carry it round everywhere carefully without messing it up – quite difficult when travelling! I’m actually suprised I havent left it anywhere yet.

Otavala Square, Market, and Pigs Head – a local delicacy obviously judging from the number of these available here!!

  

Watched the Good Friday procession – part of Santa Semana, very bizarre, lots of people dressed like the purple Klu Klux Clan carrying huge wooden crosses and wipping each other with chains!

  

Next was Latacunga with Jorge and two lovely tour guides.  Was a very bizarre day, from the guides to the comida tipica (local food) of choclos – looks like corn on the cob but tastes like chalk, some weird giant beans, cheese from god knows what animal and nectar of peach juice – yummy scrummy!!!  To the mule ride back up from the crater lake cos I was too lazy to walk!! Lago Quilitoa was amazing, the water was such a gorgeous colour, it was like staring at a real life postcard.

   

Stopped at a local bar on the way back – very local & also very cool!!

Then off to Banos for some white water rafting, bike riding, thermal spa baths and a bit more walking.  It was amazing here even though it was really touristy, I could quite happily come back and work here for a while, well I could if I could improve my spanish anyway!!!  The best hostel yet, definately recommended to anyone thinking of coming to Ecuador – Plantas y blanca, fantastic! There is also a spa room on the top floor, it is a very weird experience as you can see from the photos, i’m not sure if it was torture or pleasure, but I did go back three times!!  Went on a night tour up to the active Volcan Tungurahua in the attempt to watch some of the erruptions, when we got to the bellavista (viewpoint) it was so misty we could’t even see the Volcano, let alone it’s erruptions!!  I did however take a picture of the smouldering coals in the campfire we had and from then on, in my mind, that was Tungurahua’s lava!

    

   – Campfire (AKA Lava)

Down to Riobamba for the Devils Nose train ride through the mountains which actually wasn’t running all the way, so we ended up stopping before the best bit – the mountains & the Devil’s Nose! 

Further south again to Guyaquill and to prepare for my Galapagos trip which I am really looking forward to. Thank god it was only one night in Guyaquill though. Not somewhere I will be coming back to in a hurry! Not a good place for single white women with blonde hair!!! There is absolulely nothing to do here, avoid it like the plague if you can! Bring on Galapagos.

 The Inca Trail & Machu Picchu

 

First stop on the Inca Trail adventure was Saqsaywuaman, a bit dissapointing but good views over Cusco. Then we stopped at a Llama farm which was actually really interesting. I didnt know that LLamas and Alpacas are from the same family as camels. As well as feeding the Llamas we also got to see the process they use to dye the wool and how they weave it etc to make all the products from it.

    

Next stop was just a good viewpoint to get photos of the Sacred valley although I found the young girl with a pet dog to be a much better photo!!!

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