Ecuador - the coast and back up north

We felt a bit deflated I think, post the Galapagos trip. I suppose that's not surprising after spending ten days in one of the most amazing places on earth! The drizzly weather in Quito was not helping, so we hopped on (an 11 hour overnight) bus to Puerto Lopez, on the south coast of Ecuador. It's a quaint fishing village, which borders a national park including an island called Isla de Plata, known as the poor man's Galapagos (actually one of a few called such) for its population of blue footed boobies. We only stayed there one day and night therefore we didn't get over to the island. Had it been whale watching season we'd have made the effort, unfortunately however it was not. We did see some incredible fish in the mornings when we wandered down among the incoming fishing boats. The sand turned red with blood and the catch was impressive. Other highlights included finding a pleasant Russian restaurant where we sampled seafood stuffed pancakes!

The following day we moved on once again, this time just a couple of hours south to surfers' paradise Montañita. The small town is heaving with dreadlocks, surf boards and cocktail bars. We stayed in a bamboo shack, on the open sided roof room which contained mattresses on the floor covered with a mosquito net. We became well acquainted with the room mouse and cat, which appeared to live in perfect harmony with one and other. We soaked up some much needed sun on the beach and Tanya managed to fit in a couple of surfs as well. We had a fun evening sampling tasty cocktails from an alley lined with cocktail making carts and bumbed into two of our fellow Galapagos trip travellers. It was quite hard to tear ourselves away from the place - however touristy and quite frankly naff it is, it offered a well needed couple of days to let go and relax! However, we were keen to head back north once more, to the market town of Otavalo just north of Quito.

The reason for our sudden rush to return to northern Ecuador was that each Saturday in Otavalo, the daily artisanal market spreads out from the central square to adjacent streets. It's really quite impressive and we carefully picked out a few souvenirs which would not take up too much room in our luggage for the following months! The locals still dress in traditional dress - the women sporting long black skirts, pretty white embroidered blouses tucked in with intricate textile belts. Both men and women have beautiful long black hair generally worn in a single, low plait. In addition to the artisanal market, Saturday mornings also host the weekly animal market where locals buy and sell everything from pigs, cows and horses; chickens and chicks; puppies and kittens; and, of course, guinea pig, the South American delicacy. It was a little heart breaking seeing the treatment of some of the animals, and wondering what happened to the surplus of puppies present at the market, however I was able to marvel at the simplicity of the lives of the local people who buy and sell there. The covered food market in the town also deserves a mention for it sells an incredible array of fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese as well as selling delicious almuerzos (set lunches) and hog roasts served on a bed of corn. On Sunday, we hiked over to a beautiful lake, la Laguna de San Pedro, about 4km from the town before once again hitting the road, this time heading to the central highlands and the thermal town of Baños from where I write this post.

Baños is situated in the shadow of a currently active volcano. In fact the very night we arrived, our new room mates excitedly reported that they had just seen lava escaping from the crater on a night time trip up near the edge of the volcano! Besides the thrill of being so close to such potential danger (fear not it is constant monitored for increased activity and planned evacuation routes are in place!), Baños offers thermal pools and naturally fizzy water. The local thermal pools contain three pools of different temperatures from about 18 degrees to 45 degrees! A local chap explained that you should four minutes in the (painful) hot water before dipping into the cold pool and repeating this cycle four times. The result was strange tingling on the skin, light headedness and a somewhat tight feeling in the chest, as well and a bone chilling cold at the end of the last cold dip. However, our skin now feels soft and rejuvenated! The town is also a popular adrenaline junkie stronghold, with countless agents offering activities such as water sports, bridge jumping, zip wires, bike and horse riding to name a few. The non-existent safety records aligned with the bridge jumping put me off somewhat, however we squeezed in white water rafting in a spectacular green jungle-esque river valley and a four hour horse ride in the shadow of the volcano where we heard its rumblings and gurglings sounding ominously like thunder. We attempted the same late night trip as our dorm mates to see the volcano eruptions, however luck was not on our side and the cloud cover was too low to even see the top of the volcano. Additionally, one night we treated ourselves to a meal out at the local Swiss fondue joint, which was surprisingly good and made me very happy to get some nice cheese!

Tomorrow we are planning a bike trip, weather dependant, to the incredible waterfalls we drove past once to get to the river for the rafting but unfortunate did not have our cameras with us. Then, out plan is to move onto the city of Cuenca on our continued way south. We hope to reach Peru by the end of the week, which we are very excited about!

So there you have it, I hope this post hasn't been too long and you haven't given up on it by this point! Expect the next update to include what we learned from our first border crossing and news from the next country on our list.

Lots of love,
Emma