In the Mountains

Antisana

These past five weeks I have been somewhat selfish with our time.  Amber does like the outdoors and likes to go hiking, but she knows from past experiences that she doesn't have much fun mountain climbing.  Thankfully, she's been very supportive and understands that I probably won't have an opportunity like this again, and so she has encouraged me to go on these climbs.

Illiniza Sur on the left and Norte on the right

Starting back on November 18th, I went to the Illinizas.  There two mountains here, Norte and Sur. I went to Norte.  People here give them a reputation for being dangerous, but I think it is mostly the difficulty of Sur overshadowing Norte.  Illiniza Sur requires ice climbing equipment and a lot of previous experience  but Norte in good weather, is only as complicated as hiking uphill.  The day started off completely clear, which is uncommon in this part of the Andes.  It didn't last however.  This was a really long day.  We started hiking at 7:00 a.m. and ended at 6:00 p.m.  We also changed 10,600 ft of elevation, start to finish.  The beginning of the hike was through a pretty forest along a river, then when we actually got to the mountain, it was a grueling hike up a wall of sand.  Sand is really frustrating to walk in, because every step slides back down a little.  The weather was nice though, and there was only a little snow at the top.  This was my first time being 5,000 meters above sea level.  

The next weekend wasn't really an organized climb.  Our new neighbors from Australia have been wanting to go up Rucu Pichincha, the mountain accessible from Quito, for a while and I said I'd go up with them.  I think this was my 5th time going up there.  We had good weather and good views.  Eugene made it to the top, but his girlfriend Nina's fear of heights kept her about 20 minutes below.

The following Sunday was a preparation weekend for the next two major climbs, Cotopaxi and Antisana.  This Sunday was a glacier class where they took us out to the base of Antisana's glacier and taught us how to walk on ice with crampons and use an ice ax and other important information.  Seeing how I had never even touched a glacier before this class, it seemed like it was pretty obligatory for me to attend if I wanted to go climbing the next two weekends.  This day was the clearest I have seen since we've been here.  I could see some mountains that were about 100 miles away.  Our group leader said it only gets that clear once or twice a year.  We broke off into 5 groups, each with a guide, and played around in the ice.  One of the people in my group was a 34 year-old girl named Anne from Germany who had been in Ecuador for 4 months.  She had previous experience in the Alps and seemed pretty confidant on the glacier.  She had also climbed several mountains in Ecuador and still had some more on her list.  Her intention was to go to Cotopaxi and Antisana with us, but sadly she did not make it.  The Friday before we went to Cotopaxi, she decided to climb Rumiñahui, a mountain near Cotopaxi, by herself and she slipped somewhere on the south peak and fell 120 meters.  The didn't find her body until Wednesday. Mom and Dad, I promise I will not go rock climbing alone.

Anne, in front, wouldn't make it to Cotopaxi

Finally the big weekend of Cotopaxi came.  Cotopaxi is the second highest mountain in Ecuador and the third highest active volcano in the world.  A typical climb up Cotopaxi starts in the climber's refuge at 4,800 meters.  The refuge has about 50 beds and it was filled up with around 80 people.  Me and my climbing partner Lionel got to the refuge first, so we had our choice of where to sleep.  We arrived there Saturday at 1:00 pm and intended to start hiking at midnight.  Climbs up the glaciated mountains in Ecuador all have to begin at or around midnight because the snow and ice warms up during the day and makes walking much harder and wetter.  Another group in the refuge with us was the Soldier to Summits organization.  The are a group of wounded veterans who go on yearly excursions to the mountains.  They were fun and enthusiastic, and it was good to hear some American accents again.  With them was a few very famous and respected mountaineers.  Several of their guides had been up Everest multiple times and one, Erik Weihenmayer, is the first and only blind person to climb Everest and the 7 summits.  I had seen his documentary Blindsight about a year ago, so it was like meeting a celebrity.

Me and Erik Weihenmayer

On top of Cotopaxi

At 5:00 pm we ate dinner and learned who our guides were.  Every two people gets one guide.  Jaime, the group leader, told me and Lionel that our guide was Francisco.  I turned and saw a squatty, overweight man who looked to be in his 50s.  My first reaction was, "great, can this guy even make it up the stairs?"  I then noticed that his face looked pretty weathered and leathery  so maybe he was more capable than I thought.  I couldn't have been any more wrong about him.  Apparently he has climbed Cotopaxi around 1,000 times and thinks it's a climb for kids.  At about 6:00 pm Saturday night, we all went to bed to get as much sleep as possible before having to wake up at 10:30 pm.  I slept maybe 15 minutes.  At that altitude, my heart races, so it's like trying to fall asleep immediately after sprinting 50 yards, minus being out of breath.  The strong wind blowing on the refuge didn't help either.  At 10:30, everyone got up, got all their gear on, and went down to eat breakfast.  We were supposed to leave around 11:30 pm, but many of the guides wanted to wait and see if the wind would die down.  At midnight all of us, about 50 people, headed out to see how bad the weather really was.  Our group of 3 left second to last, but because Francisco was unfazed by the wind or uphill climb, we eventually passed everyone and got in front.  The wind was incredibly strong and sometimes made standing or walking impossible.  Our group kept moving up the glacier and finally reached the top about 5 hours after starting.  We were all covered in a thick layer of ice, but we made it.  It wasn't until we started back down that we realized we were going to be the only people to get to the top that day.  Everyone else turned around because of the wind and ice.  We didn't get much of a view, partly from the clouds and partly because my eye was wind burnt, but I was happy we were lucky enough to make it up and back, because I don't know if I'll ever have another chance.        

Me and Francisco

Francisco jumping over a crevasse

After a week of recuperation it was time to go to Antisana.  Antisana is the fourth tallest mountain in Ecuador and is still an active volcano, but the last eruption was in 1802.  Antisana is located at the eastern edge of the Andes, where the land starts to descend into the Amazon rain forest.  Not many people climb it because it's not that easily accessible, and it is more difficult than Cotopaxi.  There is no climber's refuge on Antisana.  Everything must be hiked in about 3 hours up to the sandy, rocky moraine area at the base of the glacier.   With a 50 pound pack, this was very tiring.  We got to camp at 5:00 pm, set up our tents, ate rice, beans and hot dogs, and then tried to get some sleep.  I slept a little better here, but still only got about 30 minutes of sleep before it was time to hike up.  Our group of 3 was Francisco the guide, me and a Bolivian named Carlos.  Carlos was very enthusiastic and full of energy.  The weather was on our side this time.  The night was perfectly clear, and we could see all 25 miles of Quito.  Even in perfect weather, this climb was much more physically demanding than Cotopaxi.  It was steeper and there were only a few times when it leveled out.  On top of that because the glacier is moving constantly, finding the route to the top is always changing.  We had to make a few wasted trips up and around some crevasses only to learn they didn't go any farther.  We started at midnight and finally found our way up at 6:40.  Walking in the glacier felt otherworldly with all of the giant crevasses and ice formations.  One other bonus was just as the sun was coming out, we saw and heard the active volcano Tungurahua blow a large ash column about 50 miles away.  After spending 20 minutes at the wide summit, we made our way down.  It was a long day but very fun.  Carlos has invited me to go with him and Francisco to Chimborazo, the tallest in Ecuador, in January.  Hopefully we have good weather and and just as much fun there.      
   
                        

The lower peak of Antisana and Tungurahua blowing up

On Antisana with Cotopaxi in the background

First Year Anniversary

The way up.  We went to the far right peak. 

First, a quick mountain update.  On October 21, I went with the     climbing group to a mountain named Rumiñahui.  It's located inside of  Cotopaxi National Park about an hour and a half south of Quito.  The day started off really clear and we had good views of glacier capped Cotopaxi volcano.  Rumiñahui is an extinct volcano that has three summits.  We went to the highest.  It was a really nice day.  We heard thunder off in the distance, but it didn't rain on us.  This was a really cool mountain with great views and it wasn't too difficult.  On the way down, I met one of the people in the group who was a local mountain guide, and we ran down the whole way to the bus.

October 26 marked our first year anniversary   To celebrate, we decided to make a shrimp, onion, and tomato pizza with white sauce.  For dessert, S'mores.  We made the dough and sauce from scratch, and the pizza turned out pretty good.  We had to improvise a bit with the s'mores.  Graham crackers don't exist in Ecuador so we bought vanilla flavored crackers instead.  Hershy's chocolate is avalible, but since it's imported, a pack of 10 that's normally 99 cents in the states is like $3.50 here.  We used some local chocolate that most people here use for melting in milk and making hot chocolate.  Finally, the marshmallows are kind of different.  They look the same, but they get really runny when they melt and they have a weird citrus flavor to them.  The s'mores still turned out pretty good and were a nice reminder of being back home.

 

This was a nice way to celebrate, but we could do better.  The real one year celebration took place on the beach.  For the first time we've been together, we took a normal vacation.  We took off Monday and Tuesday from work to go to the Royal Decameron all-inclusive resort in Punta Centinela, Santa Elena.  The journey started with a fight to Guayaquil early Sunday morning.  We had some time it kill, so we decided to check out Guayaquil before we headed to the resort.  Despite a bad reputation among travelers, Amber and I both liked the city a lot.  It felt bigger and more advanced than Quito, and the river walk is really pleasant.  In the three hours we spent here, we knocked off the normal to-dos.  We went to the Melecón 2000 (river walk), saw the park that has iguanas roaming around, and ate an encebollado (fish stew).  There's more to do in Guayaquil, but we had to make it to the 3:00 check-in time.  We caught a bus in the Guayaquil main terminal and for $3.50 each, we were on our way to Santa Elena.  2 hours later in Santa Elena, we caught another bus on the side of the road that headed up the coast.  Fortunately, I memorized some landmarks from Google maps so I knew when to get off the bus.  We walked up the long driveway of the resort and got our room.   What's this? Some snacks in the lobby and a bar?  We didn't even make it to the room before we started eating and drinking.

  Our room was gorgeous and a welcome change of pace from the usual cramped, smelly places we have been staying.  After exploring the room, we made it down to the snack bar and then the beach.  All-you-can-eat feels like a challenge for me, so I tried everything they had to offer.  Later in the evening was the buffet dinner.  We both ate to the the point of being uncomfortable.  This was the first time in a while we could do that.  Monday morning after breakfast buffet, we took advantage of the sea kayaks.  Amber and I went out for about an hour, but the wind, and cloudy day made it fairly cold.  We also got to go sailing on the catamaran guided by one of the employees.  Amber was really happy about getting back on a sail boat.  The rest of the day consisted of relaxing by the beach until dinner.  Instead of the buffet for dinner, we made reservations at the restaurant   The food here was prepared to order and much higher quality
.  Amber ordered a seafood risotto, and I got a steak with blue cheese sauce.  Both were amazing.  We then caught the nightly entertainment.  This night was a show full of international dancing.  The dancers showed off costumes and dances from mostly other Latin American countries and some from Europe.  The following day, we relaxed on the beach until is was time to go, and then we made our return journey   Our flight left from Guayaquil at 3:15, but we didn't want to leave until the mandatory 12:00 checkout time.  We knew we'd be cutting it close.  Too close actually.  We made a mad run from the Guayaquil bus station to the airport, only to find out they close check-in 40 min before departure.  We got there 10 minutes too late.  Apparently, Amber is an expert with missing flights and was not worried at all.  The airline worked some things out and got us on a flight leaving a hour later.  Taking the bus home from the airport in rainy, cold Quito helped us really appreciate our time at the beach.  

Interesting Fact:  Since it's election day in the U.S.A. we'll talk a little about Ecuador's elections.  Like the States, the president can have a maximum of two terms, each term lasting four years.  Currently, the president Raphael Correa is in his first term, and the next election is this February.  Voting in Ecuador is not just a privilege,  it's mandatory.  For anyone between the ages of 18 and 65, they must vote or pay a fine of around $40.  For people over 65, voting is optional.  Also, people can vote as early as age 16 in Ecuador.  16 and 17 year-olds can vote, but it's optional for them too.  I would like to assume there are some exceptions for physical and mentally incapable people, but this is all I know about the system here.          

Tulcan and the Topiary garden

The electric shower...

The whole room... notice the toilet seat

This past weekend we had a 3-day weekend and decided to travel to Tulcán, Ecuador for two days and John could have a climbing day on Sunday. Tulcán is right on the Colombian border in the north of Ecuador. After a few failed bus attempts we finally landed some seats on the Express Transportation bus to Tulcán. A not so express 5 hours later we arrived at our destination. The first thing we did was wander around town looking for a place to spend the night. We learned from past experiences that I (Amber) needed a room in the hotel without windows (surprisingly they do exist here). We checked out no less than half a dozen places before settling on the Plaza Hotel on Bolivar Ave. The room had no windows (except for a small window to the stairwell in the bathroom) and cost $6 per person. Some interesting things to note about the bathroom in the bedroom were: 1. no toilet seat 2. electric shower (that does not warm up) and 3. awful smell when the window is closed. Obviously this was a very classy place.

After dropping our stuff at the hotel we went looking for food. The place that was described in the tour book that sounded interesting no longer existed (SURPRISE!... how many times has that happened now?) Since we had not really eaten since breakfast we just went to the closest place that we could see. We got meriendas (or the local set dinner). It was pretty good. Some kind of soup, chicken (which I gave to John), rice and a beet/potato salad. They happened to have some amazing mayonnaise too... homemade I think. For dessert we sampled the sweet empanadas and morocho (hot sweet drink of milk and corn) that the lady was making in the door. I wish I could say that we went out and did amazing fun things afterward but in reality we went back to the hotel because it was rainy and cold and I was tired.

Hanging out with the giant heads

Making friends with the bushes

We woke up bright and early (much thanks to our neighbors and the church bell). Seems like we are always up early on vacations... oh well, it doesn't bother us much. It was a brisk morning out and I regretted leaving my hat in the hotel room. We were up so early that the places we wanted to go (like breakfast) were not even functioning yet. We decided to walk part of the way to Columbia (6km away). I would say that we walked for about an hour in total and didn't even make it half of the way. Fortunately by the time we got back in to town the cemetery had opened. A cemetery you say? Oh, but not just any cemetery... this one has amazing topiary gardens in it. The bush sculptures ranged in size and shape from large chickens and armadillos to huge Andean faces and people. The place was much bigger than I thought it would be and very impressive. My favorite sculptures were of the Andean faces and the detailed archways. We wandered around here for almost 2 hours but could have easily gone at a slower pace and spent longer. There were multiple places where you could climb a set of stairs and see out over the whole cemetery. For some time we were lucky enough to see the Chiles Volcano in the background. This volcano sits right on the border of Columbia and Ecuador.

A small garden at the entrance

By this time we were getting a little hungry and decided to check out the market to see what was cooking.  We didn't have much of a variety still (seems like people in Tulcán like to sleep in). We went to what looked like a popular place with the locals. It is said that usually good food is found where all the people are hanging out. This reasoning didn't fail us. For $1 a plate we got about 3 cups of rice, noodles in some kind of sauce, possibly goat meat (again John got mine), two potatoes and a cup of coffee. Can't.Beat.That. I was stuffed afterward and I assumed John was feeling the same until we passed a bread shop and he mentioned that the bread on the bottom looked good. We ended up buying 5 rolls for 50 cents. The "bread" turned out to be a banana crumb cake swirled with regular bread and icing on top. They were crumbly and really good. While walking and eating we decided it was a good time to start heading back to Quito since it would likely be a 6 hour trip. Thanks for the topiaries Tulcán : )  [More pictures on Facebook]

Looking down the valley

I (Johnny) left the apartment at around 4:10 a.m. to meet up with my climbing group to go climb Imbabura.  It is one of the many extinct volcanoes in the region, and it overlooks the famous Andean trading village Otavalo.  This mountain was probably one of the easier ones I have gone up so far.  The hardest part was the 3-4 hour bus ride to get there and back.  This mountain is notorious for being rainy and cloudy and today was no exception. It was cloudy all day and rained and snowed off and on. Most of the day we could only see as far as the next valley over or sometimes only 100 ft, but for a brief 5 minutes at the top, it cleared out and we could see all of Otavalo and the neighboring Lake San Pablo.  Not an incredibly eventful day, but I guess that's a good thing sometimes in the mountains.

Interesting fact:  John and I cannot receive packages that weigh more than 4 kg (or about 8.8lbs). My mom recently put together an amazing care package and shipped it down here for $70. The package weighed 12 lbs. John and I were so excited to get it. Little did any of us know that Ecuador has mail restrictions.  It is called the 4X4 rule. Nothing over 4 kg and nothing costing more than $400. Still unaware of the rules we tracked the package through the states and finally in to Ecuador. The package never showed up at the address that it was intended for... so we kept waiting. I checked the mail tracking website daily and no changes. Finally, we went to the post office to see what the problem was and discovered that I would be forced to send the "overweight" package back to the states (paying for shipping yet again). Ugh! How frustrating. Lesson learned: If you are going to send something... send it light or send it with someone. Thanks for trying mom : )

New news: Moving, Festivals and Active Volcanoes

Over the past few weeks we have stayed in Quito but that doesn't mean that we didn't do anything. We decided that our current two bedroom apartment was just too big for us. John noticed that another smaller (1 bedroom) in our complex was currently free, and we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. We moved a whole 37 steps up and slightly over to the right (or left, depending on which way you want to look at it). Our new place features a nice, large, and easily accessible porch, a fire place, and vaulted ceilings. I would say that we are finally settled into the new place and like it very much. It is a bit smaller than we have been used to, but we think this is a good thing because it means that we won't be disappointed or cramped feeling if we have to live in a small place back in the states. Here are some pictures of the new place:

Dining Room/Living Rom

Kitchen

Bedroom

        A couple of weekends ago, the section of Quito we live in had its annual festival.  Know as Fiesta de Guápulo, the event lasts from Friday evening until Monday evening with few breaks in between.  The festival consists of live music, indigenous and Latin American dancing, daily parades, a down hill wooden cart derby,  street food, and large fireworks structures.  Friday night started with a very good professional Salsa band.  It was a welcome change to hear good musicians.   The local bands have not discovered the concept of playing in tune.  On Saturday morning, we woke up to loud bottle rockets starting at 5:30 and then a paraded down to the church.  The exploding rockets continued intermittently outside our window throughout the weekend.  That afternoon, we watched the cart derby.  Only about 15 people had carts, but it was still entertaining.  Later that evening, a parade with people dressed up as clowns, cowboys, and gorillas descended down the streets to the church.  Nobody told the cars coming up the hill that there was a parade coming down, so the participants just had to weave through the stopped, frustrated traffic.  

Oops, Sorry cars, but there's a parade.

The night ended with more loud music and large bamboo towers with fireworks strapped to them.  There is no regard for safety and the people watching get covered in showers of sparks.  We could watch this from the comfort of our living room thankfully.  Here's a YouTube video that shows the craziness.  We didn't take the video, but it give you an idea of what happens.  Turn your volume down first.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1m16Q4usw   During the day Sunday, there was more dancing and music.  The big event Sunday was the parade of oranges.  In addition to the usual clowns, cowboys, and gorillas, there were many pickup trucks throwing oranges to the spectators.  Johnny was really looking forward to catching some oranges, but we sadly got the start time wrong.  We saw people catching oranges from our window and realized it was too late for us.  The random bottle rockets and music continued until about 8:30, and then it was more or less over.  From what our neighbors told us, it was the most calm Fiesta de Guápulo ever.  

This past Sunday John and I (and 64 others) went with the climbing group Zona Verde to climb down into the crater of the active volcano Guagua Pichincha (pronounced Waa-waa). It means baby in the native language here. The day started with a 6 am bus ride to the road leading to the refuge. I thought that we were going to get to drive all the way up, but I was sadly mistaken. The buses dropped us off next to some cows on the side of a dirt road. We climbed under a barbed wire fence (how most of my hikes start here) and proceeded to climb straight up for the next two hours. After a small break we continued for about another 45 minutes and finally found ourselves at the refuge. It would have been much easier to drive there. 

Refuge for Guagua Pichincha.

The steep hike down

Climbing down rocks

All too soon we were being shuffled along the uphill path to the ridge that either led to the crater or to the summit. (You can kind of see the trail in the picture: lighter brown and heading away from the top of the building to the left.) Then began the hike down to the crater. There was a sort of path that we followed for some of the time, but really it was just finding your own way and making sure that the rock that you stepped on was sturdy. There were more than a few people that got scared and moved super slowly. I felt bad for John because I am pretty sure that he could have just run down the whole thing and left everyone else in the dust. He was patient and stayed with me and my short legs though. 

Smoke coming out of a vent in the volcano

Unfortunately, even after all of our efforts, neither one of made it all the way to the crater. I turned around about half way though. I had been coping with an intestinal parasite for about a week and the medication I was on made me feel like I was going to puke every other second. Added to the fact that I had not eaten a real meal since Friday afternoon, so I was feeling weak. I knew I had had enough and decided to go back with two others and a guide. John, even though he tried, did not make it all the way. He was forced to turn around with his group. We did get good views of the smoke coming out of the hole and of evidence of eruptions in the past. Some good news is that John was able to pass every other person in the group on the uphill climb and as a result he had enough time to make it to the summit. 

Photo op at the ridge

We then had to walk back down to the buses.  We decided to follow the road this time instead of taking the cow paths that we originally took up. The buses arrived in Quito around 8pm and we were safely home by 8:20. John is already planning his return trip to the crater...

Interesting fact: In America we have the "Happy Birthday" song. Everyone knows it, and everyone sings it the EXACT same way each time. Granted, sometimes a few words are interjected, but the main body of the song remains the same. Not true here in Ecuador. Seems like the song changes, not only words, but tunes and timing too, every single time we sing it. Even the locals comment on how the song is not consistent. As a result we end up singing whichever version the loudest singer of the group decides on for the day and usually the first verse is a jumbled mess. 

Suá and One Year Engagement

This past Saturday, September 1st, marked one year since getting engaged, so we decided to celebrate by going to the beach.  It's the first time we've been to the ocean since arriving in Ecuador.  The closest beach from Quito is to the north about 5 hours away.  Specifically we chose Suá, because the description sounded calmer and like less of a party beach than nearby Atacames.  To maximize our time there, we took an overnight bus Friday night.  When we bought our bus tickets, we were suprised to hear they were twice as much as we expected to pay.  Normally, the fare is about 1 dollar per hour of driving.  We were not thrilled with paying 10 dollars each for a 5 hour bus ride, but I'm sure it is more expensive because there is a higher demand to go to the beach.  Ecuador's prices reflect the best or worst of capitalism.  Very few prices are fixed, and if there is the slight hint of a demand the prices will rise.  Another example, any store near an expensive hotel will charge more for the exact same things offered elsewhere, just because they know the people staying at the hotel will pay for it.  Anyway, we arrived in Atacames about a hour before daylight, and waited in the station until it got brighter to find the local bus to Suá.  After being dropped off in Suá, we proceeded to wander to the beach.  Once it got a bit later in the morning, we chose to get breakfast at restaurant which was really just some tables and a covering.  They served us fried fish, rice, coffee, and a bolón with cheese.  It was good, but when we asked how much we owed after we ate, she said 7 dollars.  We broke a cardinal rule.  Always ask the price before buying.  This type of breakfast is normally about $1.50 to $2.50, but $3.50 is unheard of.  I regret not arguing with her, because I´m certain we only paid that much because she thought she could get away with it.  It's fairly common, especially for touristy looking people (white people) for vendors to say a higher price, knowing that you either don't know the real price, or you won't argue with them about out.  I generally reject over priced things here, even by as little as 5 cents, on principle.  It happens less in areas that don't see many tourists.

Place we ate breakfast

                                 
After breakfast, we just bummed around town and then went back to the beach.  The tide was going out, which gave us a chance to walk along the rocky coast line on the north and south of the main beach area.  This part of the beach was really pretty and the rocks were fun to climb on.  It also wasn't as full of trash and broken glass like the sandy, popular section.  There was a beautiful rock island off in the distance, so we walked along the other end of the beach to get a better view.  We clambered on the rocks as far as we were comfortable, but we knew if we went too far and the tide came back in, we would have been really screwed.      

One goal of mine while at the beach was to eat a coconut.  I've been waiting until we go to the beach to get one, because in Quito, they are usually about a dollar each.  I had this fantasy that they would be dirt cheap closer to where they grow.   Nope.  The first guy I asked wanted 2 dollars for one.  Same with everyone else.  I finally found a guy that would give me one for a dollar, only to find it wasn't ripe.  So all I got was the coconut water but no meat inside.  We finally just bought a large glass of coconut juice made by blending coconut with its milk and adding sugar. It was amazing.

Coconut with no meat

That's better

  The rest of the day was spent sitting on the beach just watching the waves and drinking a bottle of wine I got for a birthday present.  Originally, we planned on spending the night, but since things were becoming a lot more expensive than planned, we decided just to take another overnight bus back to Quito.  We didn't even want to find out how much rooms were a night.   Before heading back, I had to try a local dish called an encocado.  It's like a stew with curry and coconut and whichever type of seafood you want.  We went to an empty restaurant and I ordered the encocado for $5, and Amber asked how much an almuerzo (fixed lunch) was.  The lady said 3 dollars.  Oddly, on the menu it said the price was for an almuerzo was only $2.50.   Yet one more example of someone trying to get away with asking for more because they can.  We finished our meals (the encocado was delicious) and when a different person came to take our plates, we gave her exactly $7.50 and left quickly.  Back in Atacames, we bought our tickets back to Quito, and then spent a little bit of time wandering around near the station.  There was a bridge that kids were fishing off of, so I bought a Coke (for its normal price) and Amber and I sat and watched them fish.  For only having a line, hook, and sinker, they caught quite a few.  We arrived in Quito around 4:30 in the morning, slept in the bus station for a couple of hours until it got light out, and then walked home.

  
Interesting Simpsons Fact:  After work everyday, we watch Los Simpsons from 6 - 7.   Fortunately, they rerun the episodes from the first 9 seasons, so I basically have them all memorized, which then helps me with my Spanish.  Most of the characters have kept their orginal names but some have been changed to be easier for a Spanish speaking audience.  Homer is Homero.  Barney Gumble is changed to Barney Gomez.  Kearney, the bald one of the bullies, is now Enrique, and Itchy and Scratchy are Tomy and Daly for some reason.  The strangest difference of all however is they dub over the Bumble Bee guy's voice.  He only speaks Spanish in the English version. Why do they need to change his voice? Sometimes they even change what he says from one Spanish phrase to another.  It's already in Spanish!! There's no point in changing it.  

The Big Bad Chugchucara

This past Saturday Johnny and I took a 1.5 hour bus ride ($1.50) from Quito to a town in the south called Latacunga. Normally we just pass though this town on the Panamerican Highway on our way to different places even farther south. I will give you one guess as to why we ventured to this small town along the highway. Yup, you probably guessed it... there was an interesting food dish there that we decided we HAD to try. The dish is called Chugchucara (pronounced Choo-Choo-Car-Ah). There were many places in town that offered this and we eventually settled on a nice small place called Chugchucara Emanuel a bit south of the downtown. The dish isn't exactly made up of food you can only get in Latacunga, but Latacunga is the only place that you can get all of it together at the same time.  The dish cost $6 and included: mote with chincharron (hominony with fried pork bits), tostadas (fried corn kernals), papas (potatoes), empenadas (sweet ones with cheese), popcorn, fritada (fried pork chunks), cuero (fried pork skin) and maduras (ripe, fried plantains).

John with the whole dish and some Ají

Everything was super good and we finished it in about 10 minutes. (Note: this plate can be shared but I am sure that John could have eaten two on his own... which is why I love him). I know that my favorite part was the empenadas. We ended up ordering 5 more at the end of the meal for $1. Yum. We ate them while we walked around enjoying the city. After a few moments John spotted the highest point in the city and asked if we could walk up to it. After all, it would not be a trip with John without having to climb something. When we got to the mirador (lookout) we discovered that we could not climb up it. Darn. We did get a really good view of the city from where we were at though.

                 

Before catching the bus back to Quito we went on the hunt for some ice cream. We wanted to get the ice cream of a town near by called Salcedo but we couldn't find any. We settled on a new type of Topsy ice cream. John got coconut and I got chocolate. He liked the chocolate better so we ended up switching halfway through. The bus ride back was uneventful and we were back home before dark.

Interesting fact: Quito has always had a speed limit but it has never been enforced. Everyone just sped and drove wherever they wanted. It was kind of scary at times to be on the road... especially in a bus when the driver took turns at close to 90 MPH. Now the cops are doing something about the limit and they are serious about it. The limits are: 50km Urban and 90km Highway. If you violate this you get fined. A minor violation is: $87.63 fine and 6 points on your license. A major fine (which I believe is only going 10 km over) is 3 DAYS IN JAIL, $292 in fines (equal to one month pay of a minimum wage worker) and 10 points on your license. Can you imagine if they put people in jail for three days if they sped in the states... Ha.

Volcanoes and Chocolate

Two weekends ago we were on the trolley headed to the food market, and our co-worker Esteban calls and asks if we want to go with him and his wife to the refuge on Cotopaxi volcano.  We've been wanting to go there, so we say yes and try to get our shopping done as quickly as possible.  We meet up and start toward the mountains.  We take the more scenic route, which also means the road is really rough.  We passed by two other extinct volcanoes Sincholagua and Rumiñahui and then arrive to Cotopaxi National Park.  Amber and I get ready to pay the $10 entrance fee and Esteban comes back and tells us that the president of Ecuador has removed national park fees in the country except for Galapagos.  A pleasant surprise.  We then start the drive up the mountain.  The parking lot to the refuge in about 15,088 feet above sea level.  From there, it's another 656 feet up a sandy slope to the refuge.  The refuge is where people wanting to climb to the summit stay, and it also has food for day tourists too.  While we were there, we had good views of the nearby glaciers and we also saw a fox/wolf type animal that was hanging around trying to get scraps from the refuge.  On our way down, we saw several people with large backpacks heading up to the refuge to attempt a climb to the top the next day.  Some day I hope to be one of them.  Famished, we returned to Quito and stopped at a Hornado restaurant.  Hornado is a popular dish which is meat from a whole roasted pig, some of the skin fried like a pork rind, rice and an avocado.  Amber got mote (hominy) con chicharron (pork scraps).  I ate the chicharron.

Chimborazo from the ride

This past weekend was a three-day weekend because of an Independence Day holiday on Friday.  Amber and I have a goal of trying to do something in all 24 provinces of Ecuador.  Some provinces have very little to offer tourist wise, so we might just go to the largest city and eat lunch there.  Anyway, we originally wanted to go to the beach in Esmeraldas province, but our co-worker told us that's where everybody from Quito goes during vacations and so we may have a hard time getting a place to stay and finding a place to stand on the beach.  Not sounding like something we'd like, we changed our plans to trying to visit two different new provinces.  We decided on Los Rios province and Bolivar.  Los Rios has little to offer, but we decided to stay in Babahoyo for a night and then go to Bolivar and stay in Salinas de Guaranda.  All of the descriptions of Babahoyo sound like it's a nothing city other than being hot and dangerous.  When we got to the bus station in Quito, the line to the beach was at least 200 ft long.  Dodged that bullet.  We try to get tickets to Babahoyo only to find that the bus has switched its routes to go only to the beach to accommodate for the number of people wanting to go there.  We had to change our plans at the station.  We decided to just stay in Guaranda, the city near Salinas.  The drive to Guaranda was about 4 1/2 hours and the last hour or so was really pretty.  It goes through Chimborazo National Park and passes within 5 km of Chimborazo volcano.  The city of Guaranda is fairly boring.  We got a hostel room in Guaranda and had a terrible night's sleep because of bright lights and loud people.

Standing in the salt mine with Salinas in the background

Chocolate making room

 Saturday morning, we headed out to the town of Salinas de Guaranda in a pick-up truck/taxi.  The town of Salinas was once very poor, but about 40 years ago a local priest turned the town around by organizing a cheese making co-op.  This became prosperous, so many other co-ops were created, such as chocolate making, soccer balls, dried mushrooms, textiles, salami, oils, and more.  We got there pretty early and nothing was open, so we wandered down the the salt mines which consisted of open pools of salty water on the side of the hill.  After that, we went back to the town and saw the chocolate making building and then the cheese building.  Outside of the cheese co-op, an old man in a wheel chair asked if I could push him down to the bread store about 200 feet away.  I said yes.  The whole time we were there, I kept looking at these towering cliffs that stood above the town.  Amber wasn't feeling that great at the time but she said I could go up without her to look at them.  I ran up the trail and found that the cliffs were the sides of a beautiful valley.  I ran down the valley a bit and found a cave in the side of the cliff.  I ran back to Amber to tell her that it was worth the walk up, so she came back with me and we hiked a bit in the valley and cave.  We climbed up to a cross that overlooked the town and then hiked back down.

Valley near Salinas

 Having accomplished everything we could in Salinas, we headed back to Guaranda and then Quito.  The trip back to Guaranda was in the back of a covered pick-up truck with a dog tied to the bed and we picked up people up along the way.  

Interesting fact:  The road between Ambato and Guaranda is the highest paved road in Ecuador.  It reaches more than 4000 meters or 13,125 feet.  The area here is treeless and looks like a grassy desert.  There is life here though, including vicuñas (small llama-like animals) and even people living in small grass huts.

Amazon Adventure: Tena

Last weekend John, some of the participants that were still i Quito, and I went to the "doorway of the Amazon forest" aka Tena. We hopped on a 5 hour bus ride from the South terminal in Quito to Tena. The ride was really pretty with huge, high waterfalls and views down into the valleys. I thought the driver was driving a little out of control down the curvy mountain roads... but we made it there safely so I guess he knew what he was doing. In Tena we searched for the perfect hostel. We eventually settled on one with the very cliche name "A welcomed break" (and yes it was in English). It was neat though and had hammocks and bunk beds. Plus it was only $7/person a night.

After securing the hostel room we went looking for lunch. We wanted to go to a vegetarian place that was mentioned in the tour book but it was closed. The boys of the group ended up at a pizza place where they each got a medium pizza. John and I went to a traditional almuerzo place and had a pretty decent lunch. After we were full we decided to make our way to the Amazonia park that was on a little island in the middle of two rivers. Again according to the trusty guide book there was supposed to be a bridge to the island. After searching for a few minutes we determined that the bridge had been demolished and we had to take a canoe across. Fun. The park turned out to be pretty neat. We saw a few different animals (all in cages) that ranged from snakes to porcupines and turtles to (my favorite) the capybara. ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size)! We also saw small monkeys that were not in cages. We tossed them oranges and they caught them. Also, we learned that the monkeys have really bad tempers. When we took away the oranges they would hop up and down in the tree and shake the leaves violently.

Then we climbed a super shaky lookout tower and eventually ended up down by the river. John was brave and got in the river but I just walked along the shore. To get back across to the main land we took a taribita (wire basket that is person propelled by a rope and two pulleys). Poor John got massive blisters from hauling my butt across the river. When it got dark we wandered in to town where a dance competition was going on. It was actually quite disturbing because young girls were provocatively dancing on the stage while grown men watched. We had a beer at a restaurant that faced the back of the stage... so we didnt really see anything, we just heard the men cheering. Gross. We wanted to find a quieter place to hang out so we went down by the river. Around 10 everyone wanted to head back to the hotel...
   John was up bright and early the next day. We waited around in the hammocks until the rest of the group woke up. We had breakfast at the Tortuga cafe. They had traditional breakfasts and pancakes and things like that too. We didn't really know what to do after that so we headed down to the beach again. This time we found sand at the river (not rocks). The boys went swimming and had turns throwing small rocks at a large rock on the opposite side of the river (fun!). We tried to take the 1pm bus home but it was full and we got stuck on the 1:50 bus. On the ride home I had just fallen asleep when the bus stopped. I heard some Spanish being spoken at the front but I ignored it until John told me that it was a police and we had to get off of the bus. I guess that they chose our bus to randomly search for drugs and stuff like that. I am just glad that I decided to bring a copy of my passport... usually I dont (bad habit... I already know). The check took about 30 minutes and then we were off again.

We arrived back in Quito just around when it was starting to get dark. John walked the participants home and I walked home by myself.
   All in all, Tena is a really neat spot to visit and I would actually consider going back there with John one day. More pictures on my facebook page : )


Interesting fact: Tena is the kayaking capital of Ecuador (and possibly of South America). People from all over the world come to take on the challenge of the whitewater rivers here. From Tena you can access 7 different rivers  and 12 other river sections. You can have a relaxed journey on a Class II section or an expert adventure on a class V sectiion. We did not get the opportunity this time to try any of our mad skills (and by skills...  I mean lack there of)