Cloud Forests to Volcanoes to Coast

Ecuadorian puppy love

Also known as the Galapagos Hangover.... how could we leave the sea lions and tortoises behind? Onwards we go, much lay ahead of us in Ecuador!

After landing back in Quito we stuck around a few nights and toodled around the old city before we made our way north-east (past the equator again!) to the sleepy cloud-forest village of Mindo. We've decided that these mountain towns are our favourite places to be- cozy, quiet, with beautiful nature all around. We stayed at the first (and cheapest) hostel we found, Hostel Henry's, which was all around pretty rough with a bad sleep, rain pounding the tin roof all night and a dodgy kitchen, but we did fall in love with their ginger cat Philippe, who snuggled us all night. 

Mindo town

Moving for our next night we found a much more agreeable place to stay with a cool roof-top hangout space overlooking part of the village. In between little cafe stops, a VW vegetarian food van, and walks around town we found time to head into the canopy for a zip-lining adventure afternoon at Mindo Canopy. We sailed across 10 different lines with a couple of nutty guides who had us going across tandem, upside-down, or superman. It was a blast! The rains came soon after we finished, and we walked our way further down the road to a wooden cable car that was powered by a diesel engine to shoot us across the valley to some hiking paths that took us down to five different waterfalls. It was a little chilly for swimming, but we had a great hike nonetheless.

             

Weeeeeeee! 

Our Hobbit Home

The view from inside

Way back in Jardin, Colombia we had met a Kiwi couple who recommended a nice little getaway place south of Quito called the Secret Garden Cotopaxi. Somehow this stuck in Brian's memory as a place to see- so we reserved our very own Hobbit Hole in the hillside on this beautiful Eco-retreat out in the country, surrounded on all sides by volcanic peaks. It was simply stunning!! It's run by an Ecuadorian-Australian couple, and they've made all different kinds of lodging on this little farm, from cabins, dorms, a playhouse (about the size of a kid's treehouse), and of course the wicked hobbit holes. 

Hiking up to Pasachoa

Did we mention they also have 5 dogs and llamas? This felt like a bit of an extravagant expense, but it was a special couple of nights to have such a lovely tranquil place to stay. All meals were included, and we were treated to some delicious veggie meals, with banana cake, and coffee and teas all day long. We relaxed in the giant hammock out front with Cotopaxi volcano before us, and enjoyed chatting with some lovely folks from Nebraska, northern California, Holland, and Colombia. There was a little jacuzzi tub there too, and although it was usually scalding hot we did get to enjoy that one of the nights. The day we left we went on a group hike up to Pasachoa Volcano, at 4199m. We had a group of 18, along with 3 of the 5 hostel dogs- Mash the weenie dog, Yoda the sweet mutt, and Milo the old dalmatian. It was such a terrific place to be and would love to come back again someday. 

Snuggles with Mash

 

                              

                                 Hammock time, snow-capped Cotopaxi behind

The road to Cotopaxi

With Cotopaxi volcano so close, looming ahead at 5800m, we had to do some hiking. It's possible to summit this volcano, but you need a guide and proper gear (crampons and the lot!), starting at midnight to summit by sunrise. We opted for the teaser hike, a 2 hour climb from the trail-head and up to the base of the glacier. It wasn't long, or particularly far, but being 5000m high sure kicks your arse. Our guide Francisco was nice to take us along the scenic path, and we were lucky to reach the end of our trail by 11am, just before the clouds started rolling in and the peak disappeared. We were driven partway down the road again, until he let us off with mountain bikes to ride the next 20km to his hostel/restaurant at the road. The good news was that this road was almost all downhill, although extremely bumpy. Brian flew down like a champ, and I coasted down at a nice easy pace with my hands safely pumping the brakes. We stopped at the visitor's centre and got our souvenir patches, and came back outside to rain. Not big deal at first, until the thunder boomed overhead (closer than we've ever heard it in our lives) and the skies opened up with... hail. Although we were cruising on pavement at this point, it only made the ride more painful as we were pelted with ice pellets while flying down the road at a much faster speed. We waited out the worst of it, and within another few kms we were below the cloud and back to clear skies.

Catching the bus back to Latacunga

 Extremely grateful to warm up by the fire back at Francisco's place, we enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate while we dried off our socks and readied ourselves to head back to Latacunga town. This is the regional capital of the Cotopaxi region, but mostly people just come here to see the volcanoes all around the area. Bri was keen to head into a sports pub to watch the Superbowl here, but go figure Ecuador was having a referendum voting on 7 new amendments to their constitution, soooo this meant all the bars were closed that Sunday. Nuts! Thank goodness for online streaming- go Philadelphia go. ;) 

Tarzan kitty at Transilvania hostel in Banos

Banos town brought some more adventure fun for us. This was another mountain town, but much livlier than Mindo. It's a bit of a touristy mecca here, with almost any tour to quench your adventure-seeking thirst.  We went up to the mountain-top our first day to see the tree house, a swing that almost sends you flying over the edge of the peak of the mountain, and was all the more mystical in the afternoon cloud. Bri just loooved it ;) ! 

Day two brought a terribly awesome time down the Rio Pataza for some white water rafting! We did this on our honeymoon in Quebec, and were really looking forward to giving it another go. While the Rouge River near Hawkesbury was beautiful, the scenery in Ecuador really kicked the experience up a notch. The river was mostly class 4 rapids, with some 3s, and most excitingly a class 5! Other boats opted to walk around this rapid, but we went for it and even avoided flipping. We had a blast on this trip and would do it over again in a heartbeat, despite getting some nasty bruises on our butts when we went over a rock out of the boat. 

Surf's up! 

Almost ready to leave Ecuador, we had to at least stop off at the coast before we crossed the border. We spent Carnaval (Mardi Gras) in Montanita, a party beach town that was busy as can be on this 5 day long weekend. It rained our first few days, but we managed to still have some fun on the beach, and Bri tried his hand at surfing again. When you ask for an English-speaking guide and they say, yes we have that, don't assume that means for the entire tour... he was given 10 minutes of instruction on the beach and then sent out with a different guide who spoke little English, combined with his poco espanol, and well, it wasn't easy. I took pictures from the beach and he rocked it when he did get up on the board! Hopefully we can both give this a whirl in Peru. The cloud cover on the whole wasn't such a bad thing with this crazy ecuatorial sun, and I managed to burn in places even with multiple sunscreen applications... oi. We had our fair share of veggie empenadas and crepes here, and found a fabulous falafel joint too. The Carnaval party was in full swing come nighttime, and mostly was a sloppy mess in the streets with plenty of spray foam combined with rain. 

Cuenca town

Carajas Hike

Second-last stop in Ecuador was Cuenca, a beautiful colonial city in the south of the country. Carnaval of course meant that almost the entire town was closed for business the days we were there, but we managed to find a tasty Indian restaurant open the evening we got there. Our day in town was quiet, and we enjoyed some down time at Mallki hostel and at a cafe near the church square. The next day was fabulous as we went out to Carajas National Park, and had a splendid Valentine's hike through the grassy hills where the llamas roamed free. We spent our evening out at a tasty dessert place where we shared fancy brownie and oreo cakes with ice cream. Ahh love.

Ohhhh dear.....

Southbound from there to Loja, a night in Villacabamba, and then our final bus ride through the town of Zumba, and onwards to the Peruvian border. This was an exciting afternoon, complete with clay roads that turned slick as ice in the rain, and completely unsuitable for coach buses. We were looking forward to a border crossing that wouldn't take 9 hours, however choosing the road less-traveled sometimes means other kinds of delays come up! It was a scary moment as we slid sideways into the ditch, but were all thankful everyone on board was completely fine. 

We made great friends with Tess from Britain/Vancouver on this journey, and all sympathized with our poor driver as he stood chain-smoking on the road with no idea how this bus was ever going to get unstuck. As for the rest of us, another passenger called a pickup truck cab that took us the hour and a half to the fronterra at La Balsa. It was easy as pie as we were stamped out, walked over the bridge, and waited for the 3 people ahead of us on their way out. We cracked jokes with the border agent, and hopped a cab to the next town.

Bienvenidos a Peru amigos!