Baños: aventura, descanso, y diversión

sign seen when entering town - how great are the 70's-style shadow dancers!?

We have spent 6 days in Baños, “la estrella de Ecuador” where we enjoyed the beautiful views and comfortable temperaturas of this mountain valley set beneath Volcán Tungurahua. At about 1800 m above sea level, it’s the lowest we’ve been in the past month and it’s been nice not to feel winded when we climb the stairs to our room!

view from our room; and the mountain on which we walked Sunday, the 27th

There is a lot to do in the area, as the tagline says, and we balanced our time well between the adventure, the resting, and the fun. After spending 17 days moving at a pretty rapid pace around Andean Peru, we opted for a slower pace and more relaxed visit in Ecuador, which is how we found ourselves in the mountains. Our time here has been devoted to trekking, visiting animal refuge sites, and simply exploring the quaint town trying delicious meals and feeling dazzled by the mountain views.

EcoZoologico San Martín

We took a 45-minute walk to the outskirts of town to visit this park and observe the many animals living in the mountainside refuge. We saw many birds, monkeys, ROUS’s (we’re serious, these are the biggest rodents in the world, evidently, and we think they are the ROUS’s! – for those who don’t know what that means, you must immediately watch The Princess Bride!), and even Galápagos Turtles (which was a pleasant surprise since we cannot afford to actually visit the Galápagos!). We spent a couple hours there, then walked further on to find the sendero to a cascada that seems to have been closed. We spent the rest of the day back in town.

animals and views from the refuge; the sign on bottom right refers to a Condor

Trekking the mountain south of Baños

On Thursday, we set out early and walked up the mountain that curves around the south of Baños and once high enough, provides views of the top of Volcán Tungurahua. We anticipated the 5-6 hour trek and were eager to accomplish the climb. We walked up to the statue of the Virgin via 700 stairs on a steep mountain slope (1.3km) then walked across the mountain face for another 1.5 km to a resort called Luna Runtún where we turned to head further upward into the town of Runtún and onward to a Mirador del Volcán. The signs for the mirador were extremely inaccurate since they would show a set number of meters and then after 30 minutes of walking would increase or decrease by varying amounts. So, we estimate by the time it took that we walked upward another 1.5 km at least. This climb brought us through farmland (lots of tomatoes and cows) as well as through some jungle where the mosquitoes were hungry and bit us up! Eventually, despite the sudden discontinuation of signs (do you see a theme with these treks?) we came to a wide open area atop the mountain that opened up to the view of Tungurahua. In much need of a rest after 3.5 hours of walking, we had some snacks and water and watched the clouds drift to give a little clearer view, but never enough to see the smoke that continually blows out the top of this active volcano. Our return trip added another 2km (depending on estimates) as we continued further along the mountainside to the town of Runtún and then down a paved, winding road to the Mirador La Cruz Bellavista (which is a large cross on the opposite end of the mountain from the Virgin Statue). From there, we completed the trek by descending through a gravelly and dry-sand steep slope for another 1.2 km. That was the most challenging part of the entire day since we had very little friction between our shoes and the gravel and had to sidestep and try to balance without sliding down. Several locals passed us and we learned their method is to simply run, but that could turn into disaster quickly, so we kept at our slow pace! We had great weather for our 7-hour walk up and down the mountain and rewarded ourselves with the best meal we have had on the entire trip at a small little place called El Paisano where the cook makes the best pizza and vegetarian dishes – huge plates for low prices and all healthy and delicious. We’ll probably return before leaving town!

Banos from the Mirador Cruz Bellavista; we ended up walking up and along both the mountain on the left and the right during our stay

La Ruta de Cascadas

Along the route between Baños and Puyo are several large waterfalls that many of the numerous tour agencies take Chivas to view. A Chiva is an open air vehicle that has rows of seats basically at the back of a truck. Ours was extremely rickety, we heard the wood and bolts move every time we hit a bump or rounded a curve (which was frequent). We stopped at some of the falls along the road to Puyo, but definitely would have preferred to stop more often since there are so many waterfalls on this road…this is why we both hate taking tours, but sometimes you just get trapped. We did get some time at two of the falls, one of which involved a small trek via a bit of a steep and rocky slope (a pretty tough climb for many people, we were worried about some of the struggling folks being able to get back up).

The falls we visited were nice, but we expected to spend more time at El Pailón del Diablo (Ecuador’s biggest and most impressive falls due to the whirlpool they generate when they hit the river below) and El Manto de la Novia, another famous fall. Either way, we at least took advantage of the gorgeous day on Saturday by spending it outdoors. It just would have been more enjoyable had we not spent so much time waiting for people to do this lame bridge fall (they call it a jump, but we watched – it’s a fall) or for them to return from crossing the river in a Tarabita (which is a suspended steel cage rigged to a line operated by a man in a little booth – looked a bit unstable!). (FYI: We bought our $5 trip through Casahurco, but it was run by Transinfinitours – so we suggest avoiding both).

Sendero Sauces

After two days during which most of our time was spent in motorized transport, we were feeling the need for some physical activity, so we planned a trek for today. During breakfast, we looked at our Baños map and chose the 4.0 km walk between Baños, Sauces, Illuchi and back to Baños. The fitness level was rated as a 1 – meaning anyone with “normal fitness” can make the trek. Being lower than the ratings of our previous trek, it seemed like the perfect final day in Baños and gave us the opportunity to walk along the mountain on the north side of town (with this walk, we’ve walked a loop around the mountains of Baños!).

ginnie's pointing to the mountain we walked along on Thursday and the volcano behind it

We walked to the end of the town and found the Puente Sauces by asking locals along the way which direction to follow. It was down a hillside and brought us close to the Río Pastaza where we passed along the swing bridge to the northern mountain. Our “easy” trek turned out to be pretty steep and rocky and took nearly 4 hours, but it was a good journey as it led to a magnificent view of Volcán Tungurahua. At one of the highest points, we stopped to rest and stayed for nearly 45 minutes to watch as the clouds lifted and passed by the top of the volcano providing remarkable views. Sometimes, we we’re suddenly struck by how incredible it is to get to have this experience and see such beauty in nature and throughout the world.

The walk continued along the mountainside and to the town of Illuchi where we crossed a stream to a paved road along which we followed the mountain back toward Baños where we crossed the large Puente San Francisco to return to town where we picked up another amazing eggplant pizza from our favorite place, El Paisano before relaxing for the evening.

Baños Town

One thing the town is famous for is its plethora of hot springs. We checked out the one said to the be the best, but decided not to go in since we were spoiled by the really fancy set up of those by Volcán Arenal in Costa Rica. Had we been more sore after the mountain trek, we may have gone in. Many people come for the baths, especially on the weekends. We also just enjoyed relaxing with the incredible mountain view just out our window and taking time to practice our Spanish.

Another specialty of the area is toffee; neither of us likes toffee, but it was interesting to see it being made (reminded ginnie of seeing people make taffy on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD). There is also a LOT of sugar cane around here and all sorts of sugar cane products. All sold at little stands that are identical and set up side-by-side. Neither of us has quite figured out how vendors in Latin America do it since everywhere we've been from Belize on south is similar in that the same items are sold right next door to one another. We passed through a town called Salcedo on our way here and every shop was a heladeria; sometimes there were 3 in a row and 3 across the street! How do people decide where to buy? Fascinating phenomena for sure.

From here we return to Quito for our remaining time in Ecuador and, sadly, the culmination of the Latin America portion of our world tour. We love Latin America and feel so at home here that we are reluctant to say farewell, but we know we will return. Besides, we are excited for the new adventures that await as we explore new continents, new countries, and completely new cultures – this will be the first time we travel to a place where we have no knowledge of the local language, so it’s a bit intimidating, but exciting nonetheless! Due to the exorbitant cost of flights in and out of South America to anywhere other than the US, we had to book our ticket as a return to Boston. We decided to take advantage of that return and rather then head right out, will take a two-week break to restock, repack, and get our plans set for our first few locations. We’ll keep you posted!

Paz y Amor!

"I think I've had enough monkey business for today!"

Today, we traveled to the city of Puyo in the Oriente section of the country, where the primary rainforest begins and eventually extends to a number of the tributaries of the Amazon. The purpose of our trip was to visit a monkey refuge and rehabilitation center called Paseo Ecologico Los Monos where we interacted with many of the local resident monos.

The 1.5 hour bus ride traversed the mountains through several tunnels (we forgot to keep count, it was around 4 or 5) and twisted and turned along the cliff’s edge past several waterfalls (which we will visit tomorrow). Upon arrival to the Terminal Terrestre, we quickly found a taxi and made our way to see the monkeys.

We enjoyed our visit and definitely feel for the monkeys and the people working so hard to help them. We were greeted by a staff member who shared that the monkeys are rescued from people who kept them as pets, or who had been orphaned or injured and brought to the center.

During our visit, we had monkeys climb on us, swing by us and sneak attack, and just hang around checking us out as much as we observed them.

The Paseo is right in jungle territory, so we felt the familiar heat and heard the buzzing bugs reminiscent of home in Belize. A few hours of jungle time was definitely sufficient for this trip!

One of our first encounters occurred as we waited for our tickets when something startled a small monkey on the ground near Anthony – it promptly leaped onto his leg to hold on! Later, as we walked through the trails, we observed the monkeys as they swung from tree to tree.

We came upon a cage of monkeys and learned those housed there are not yet ready to be released into the open. We spent a good amount of time watching a really crafty guy who was on a mission to unlock the door. First, he just went straight for grabbing and pulling the lock, and then he banged and pulled on the top of the door. Later, he returned with a rock he’d found somewhere and tried to knock off the lock, then worked diligently at banging the door (check out the video below!). He is one smart fellow – and Anthony was his accomplice whenever he dropped the rock.

Later, when we decided to sit and rest, some monkeys came over to join us; one even kept grabbing on and holding Anthony’s hand. Moments later, when sitting on a nearby bench, one curious guy came right over to curl up in ginnie’s lap. For whatever reason, a really wiley guy decided he wanted to start a fight with ginnie’s companion and they used her as a post! They would wrap their arms and tail around her neck and arms to get better aim at their target until finally jumping around and pulling and trying to swing from ginnie’s ponytail (while also slamming into other visitors nearby as they swung on branches!). It was actually pretty funny and no one was harmed.

There are also several dogs residing at the site that often tend to the monkeys needs, some in a surrogate mother role. It was well worth the bus trip to spend time with the monkeys and support the hard work of dedicated volunteers who wish to help them return to the jungle.

a butterfly who hung around while we waited for a taxi to return to the bus terminal

Paz y Amor!

Lost in a Maze of Textiles

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador 12 hours after planned due to our Cuzco to Lima flight being delayed long enough to miss the morning flight to Quito. Unfortunately, TACA Peru only flies two times a day to Quito, so we spent our entire day hanging out in the Lima airport…

Our first day in Ecuador was devoted to locating the grocery store and relaxing in the amazing suite we found in an Italian’s ex-pat’s home that we love and will return to on the final days in Ecuador. We haven’t yet explored Quito because on Friday we headed to the northern town of Otavalo, an important South American center of ethno-tourism that hosts an enormous Saturday market said to be the best in South America. In fact, we’d heard we could find any textile from anywhere in Latin America at this market, which hasn’t been far from the truth. In an interesting side note, when we walked through the Feria de Los Flores y del Café in Boquete, Panama, we saw large shipping boxes all labeled as having come from Otavalo for the vendor stalls.

We arrived in Otavalo on Friday afternoon and after determining the place we had reserved was not going to work for us, we found a lovely place to stay right outside the main square, Plaza de Ponchos, where there are merchants selling textiles daily. We explored the town for the afternoon and planned out our tour of the different market sections for Saturday.

Early Saturday morning we visited the animal market where such things as cuy (guinea pig), ducks, chickens, sheep, cows, pigs, goats, rabbits, and even puppies and kittens were for sale. We found ourselves among the crowds of Ecuadorians purchasing the various animals for food or other purposes. I believe we mentioned this when in Belize, but we have learned that pigs have the most heart-wrenching scream when they feel distressed, and we witnessed how extremely stubborn they are as a woman dragged her screaming pig on its butt across the field as it planted its back legs.

From the animal market we returned through the city streets which had become filled with tables and tents for 100s of merchants to sell their wares. On our way out to the animal market only a few had set up, after an hour, the streets were busy with sales and colorful textiles. We spent the day browsing through the stalls and talking with vendors who were eager to negotiate. We found a style of painting we liked, but the price was not right (however, we did get the same picture from the same woman for the price we wanted two days later – we had read Saturdays were more expensive). It was a fun day enjoying the market and it is definitely the largest market we have visited in all of our time exploring Latin America.

On Sunday, we took a walk to the Cascada de Peguche, which is outside of town and near the artisan village of Peguche. We acquired a map from the tourism office on Friday and another from our hotel owner, who also provided snippets of directions that were quite vague and included the statement the “lago is lejitos” and gestured to show us it is over and on the other side of a hill/mountain. Armed with our limited maps and the bits of directions, we made our way – you’d think we would have learned from previous such journeys. We were well on our way following the train tracks, but wondered if we’d missed a right turn, since by our map we seemed to have gone too far; a friendly couple on the road assured us to “sigue derecha derecha derecha.” We did and after nearly an hour we reached the sign pointing to Peguche on the left and the Cascada on the right. A brief walk further led to the entrance of the Cascada where we found café’s, shops, and artisan stalls. We joined the Sunday crowd to the Cascada and sidestepped the numerous people splashing one another with the water in the little canal along the route.

Our plan was to continue on to Parque Condor and the Lago San Pablo, which appeared to be fairly close from the Cascada. We followed the sign outside the cascada entrance and headed uphill along a cobblestone street in the direction of the lago. We seemed to locate our street on the map and eventually came to another sign encouraging us to continue onward. It wasn’t until we reached an intersection with no signage that we had to predict the correct route. Logic told us to follow the cobblestone road since the dirt road led into farmland. After passing through a quiet and seemingly deserted village, we came to a sign that pointed us to a town on the other side of the lake than we’d planned to visit and no information about Parque Condor. An inquisitive girl informed us that we had to return from where we came to reach the Parque. We did so and asked again along the way and were told it was over the bridge at that intersection and then up, up, up the hill at the top. At the bridge we asked a young girl doing wash in the river and she pointed us up a path we certainly would not have chosen on our own – behind a water plant and into farmland. Once there, we found another campesino who told us to walk straight up the farmland via a narrow, muddy trek and we would find Parque Condor at the top! This was certainly a nonconventional path, but it was filled with beautiful vistas of the surrounding mountains, farms, and volcano.

We reached Parque Condor after 1.5 hour of trekking beyond the cascada and spent a couple hours there observing the rescued birds in rehabilitation (When possible, birds are returned to the wild after their stay at Parque Condor). We were also fortunate enough to witness an unscheduled free flight demonstration during which the bald eagle, Gringo (witty, aren’t they?), got to soar over the valley for about 20 minutes while we learned about some of the birds. It’s impressive the birds return, but they are clearly smart enough to know where they are getting consistent food! We saw many cool owls we’d never seen before and were closer to such large birds than ever before. Like the Belize Zoo, there are not miles of barriers between the animals and the people so we could get up close for photos and viewing, still at a safe distance.

We asked for clearer directions to the lago with a young woman at the park and were guided to an intersection. We followed the road and at the intersection we saw there were 4.5km to return to Otavalo and an unknown destination around the lake. Not knowing if we could definitely catch a bus from wherever we would be at the lake, we decided it was best to walk toward Otavalo. Since we had seen the bus route as described by our friend at the hotel, we were certain we would not pass one on this walk and as is just our luck, the dark clouds that dropped a quick shower when we reached the Parque Condor opened up for a torrential downpour as we walked in open farmland with nowhere to seek shelter! We were drenched in minutes and simply carried on carefully watching our footing on the slippery cobblestones. The rain stopped about midway into the walk and after about an hour we were overlooking the roofs of the town and followed the twisting downward mountain road back to familiar streets. All in all we walked for about 6 hours and definitely felt it in our calves and heels.

Rather than spend the next day on a bus, we opted for one more day in Otavalo to take it easy and rest our weary feet and make a final visit to the artisan market where ginnie finally found earrings she liked and Anthony successfully negotiated for the painting he’d admired since Friday evening. Otavalo has a lot to offer visitors with beautiful lagoons in the mountains and volcanoes to explore along with the vibrant, colorful market. We really enjoyed our stay.

Next Stop? Our journey continues with a visit to an aptly named town south of Quito where we will enjoy slightly warmer weather in the sub-tropical climate and will be at the lowest altitude in 3.5 weeks (at 1800m). The area is known for several hikes, thermal volcanic pools, and some extreme sports. We'll keep you posted!

Paz y Amor!

Cuzco, La Ciudad Imperial

The World Heritage City of Cuzco, Peru served as our home base for our adventures in the country. All together we spent 7 full days and a couple additional evenings in between our visits to other places.

Cuzco has a rich history as the center of the Inca Empire and currently as a destination for those traveling through the Sacred Valley and onto Machu Picchu. We enjoyed our days in the city and always found interesting sites to see and steep cobblestone streets to explore.

The Plaza de Armas is a beautiful central point for the city and is surrounded by two large churches (which sit atop former Inca sites) and has several restaurants and cafes and a lovely park in which to relax, people watch, and practice Spanish. We spent a lot of time walking through the Plaza de Armas on our way to other streets and for browsing artisan markets and café menus.

During our time in Cusco, we visited the museums on the Boleto Turistico General (which we mentioned earlier) and also toured the streets admiring the remaining Inca stonework on the buildings and the various markets and ships throughout. We even enjoyed an evening show of local and Andean dances and music.

just one of the many interesting pieces of art we saw on this trip

We also were pretty pleased to find two completely vegetarian restaurants and several other places with great vegetarian options, as well as some new favorite treats (among them are the small chocolate truffles at Chocolate and Inca Corn - addictive gigantic pieces of maize, we like the picante flavor, of course! - and Camote [sweet potato] chips and a brilliant ice cream bar that is half ice cream sandwich/half chocolate-covered ice cream bar). This has been the first place to provide a wealth of dishes for we vegetarians and to have affordable options. We were able to try a veganized version of a Peruvian dish – Lomo Saltado, which is made with sautéed meat and vegetables served over french fries with a side of rice. Ours was made with a really great soy meat. ginnie is eager to learn how to recreate these soy meats we have tried and add more new dishes to our recipe book.

We underestimated just how cold it can be at 11,500 feet and have added some nice alpaca socks, gloves, leg warmers, and a sweater to ginnie’s wardrobe in our time here as well. Anthony keeps passing up the hats, but often wishes he had one when the cold really hits. This has been one place where the temperature change from minute to minute can be drastic! When the sun is shining, we are comfortable in light clothes and t-shirts, but as soon as it is covered, we need to layer up again; don’t even get us started on the rain! We have been lucky with the weather overall, but when it does rain, it can be pretty chilly J

Our photos provide a glimpse into the city and the architecture. We visited an important Inca site –Qoricancha – which is now a Dominican Friar’s residence and school. It’s disappointing and aggravating to see how much the Spanish Conquistadors destroyed and how they took over to impart their religion on the people. The Qoricancha site is a mix of both Inca stonework and Spanish and Catholic stonework and art. The contrast is obvious since the Inca work was done with such precision. Throughout the city you can see the combined remains of Inca buildings with current structures.

As our time in Peru comes to a close, we leave you with some views of Cuzco and a few hints as to the next country on our South America tour:

~we’ll be spending more time in the Andes and enjoying restful days by the mountains, lakes, and beautiful countryside

~our first stops include the capital city and a visit to the town where the Saturday market is said to be the biggest and best in South America

Paz y Amor!

Festivals, Markets, and Pre-Colombian Tombs

During our time in the southern city of Puno, Peru we had the opportunity to take in many of the surrounding sites. On one particular day we walked around the city and visited the local markets, observing some of the celebrations that were taking place in honor of the Feria de la Virgin de la Candelaria, an annual festival that lasts for eighteen days and for which people travel from all over the country to participate in parades, processions, and religious services in honor of the Virgin Mary. We were fortunate to observe a few of these and were struck by both the beauty and complexity of many of the costumes, as well as the strangeness and odd representations of what we’re not quite sure, e.g. children wearing Native American outfits and holding guns and a young participant wearing a gorilla costume. Either way, we really enjoyed the festive atmosphere and traditional music played throughout.

On a walk to the shore of Lake Titicaca we found ourselves in the middle of Puno’s weekly market – a hub of activity! The items for sale ranged from kitchenware to toiletries to clothes to heaps of candy to fresh produce. There were potatoes of all varieties, and many dried peppers, spices, grains and meats. One in particular was a dried and skinned type of fowl that we did not get a picture of, but have had the image imprinted since. It was fun to walk through the market, if a bit overwhelming; we thought if we lived in Puno we would have no idea how to select where to buy what we needed for the week! We’re sharing a few of our favorite shots from the market.

oveja - sheep

The afternoon before we left for Cusco, we ventured out to the famous Sillustani ruins just outside of Puno. The ruins are very different from those that we have previously visited. At the site are the Chullpas (pre-Columbian funeral towers) of Sillustani, beautifully set on a peninsula in Lake Umayo.The Chullpas were built by three different pre-Colombian cultures, the Pukara, the Aymara-speaking Collas - a tribe that dominated the Titicaca region before the Incas after the Pukara was split by differing allegiances in Bolivia and Peru. At the site are three different style Chullpas: the rougher appearance of the natural unsmoothed stone of the Pukara, the curved, but smoothed edge stone of the Colla, and the smoothed and neat edged stone of the Inka. Each tower contained the remains of each culture’s nobility accompanied by their riches and even their servants in some instances. It’s kind of a downer to learn that grave robbers have since removed their contents, but fortunately many of the towers are well preserved and were definitely worth the visit. We had a great tour guide who ran the whole three hours in Spanish, thank goodness we’d been prepped with six weeks of intensive language practice. A point to note regarding these ruins is that much of the engineering involved in their construction is more complex than anything the Incas built. “Ancestor worship and kinship were integral parts of Aymara culture, and the chullpas were built to emphasize the connection between life and death.[2] The insides of the tombs were shaped like a woman's uterus, and corpses were mummified in a fetal position to recreate their birth. Some of the tombs also have lizards carved into the stone. Because they could regrow their tails, lizards were considered a symbol of life. The only openings to the buildings face east, where it was believed the Sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day.” (www.aboutperu.com)

The site was really amazing and definitely held some mystery. The lagoon surrounding the site, as well as the island in the center provide mystical stories for locals and give the site it’s magical beliefs.

Paz y Amor!