This past weekend Johnny and I had four days off of work. We decided to do a few different trips instead of one long adventure.
To start the weekend off on Saturday we traveled by bus to the center of the world (aka El Mitad del Mundo). The bus took us about 14km outside of Quito to a place that literally marks Latitude 0'0'0. We walked into the park and were immediately greeted by two llamas just wandering around and eating what they liked. I love the llamas. After taking pictures of the llamas we wandered up to the large monument that marked the Equator line. A ton of people were taking stupid pictures on the line... I still don't understand why laying down on the equator is seen as "the thing to do". I prefer to stand, thank you. Instead of waiting in line for people to lay down and get back up, John and I walked around the back to the EXACT same line and took our pictures in peace. We had the whole equator to ourselves... : ) There is a little "city" at the monument. It is mostly filled with people selling overpriced Andean things (ponchos, hammocks, bags, etc...) and with restaurants that charge $22 for a cuy (guinea pig). We did stop at a museum with some neat aerial shots of different cities and we also stopped at the insectario which housed some gigantic bugs and pretty butterflies. After the equator we hopped back on a bus to Quito. We got off at a huge outdoor market that we had never been to before. I think that there were about 500 or so different vendors (maybe more) selling anything and everything. We stocked up on fruit, beans,cheese and yuca. We also had lunch in the market. We stopped at a lady who was serving soup (John's soup had a chicken head/neck AND foot in it...which he ate both), fried fish, rice, salad, beans and a drink... all for $1.50. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was unique. Then came the trek home. Two buses and a walk. It is really nice being able to get around without a car.
(JOHN TALKS ABOUT MOUNTAIN)
Sunday, I went with a group up Pasochoa, mountain just to the south of Quito. http://www.summitpost.org/pasochoa/151508 It's not a very high mountain compared to others nearby (13,779 ft), but it is very beautiful. The mountain is an extinct volcano with a giant crater that is now filled with a protected forest. We were there to practice some easy rock climbing and rappelling. We did a steep scramble up to the lower peak and then hiked/scrambled up the higher peak. From there, we rappelled down a short wall and climbed with ropes around the other side. The best part of the day was when I was halfway up the rock wall and the neighboring volcano Cotopaxi completely emerged from the clouds briefly. This was the first time I had seen all of Cotopaxi, and it was from a great location. On our hike down, we got rained and hailed on, but the lighting stayed away. We also saw male and female eagles flying together.
For Monday and Tuesday we decided to check out a local hot spring source called Papallacta. Papallacta is located about 2.5 hours outside of Quito by bus. We woke on Monday, took a bus to Cumbaya (a rich town outside of Quito) and then hopped a bus in the general direction of Papallacta. We arrived around noon and set off to find a place to spend the night. After checking out a few hotels and hostals we decided on a place called Pampallacta Thermals. The room was super cute and included a fireplace and our own hot spring pool in the bathroom. There were also 3 other hot spring pools that we could use outside of our room. Before testing out the pools we walked down the hill to Don Wilson's to get some trucha (trout). The food was really good and exactly what we needed after our trip. After lunch we tested out the pools. Holy cow! They were so hot. We estimated the temperature around 110 degrees F. My first reaction was that the water was literally burning me... however, after a minute or so we got used to it. It was nice to just relax in the hot water and not have to do anything else. We also spent some time in a pool that had a slide : ) In both pools we pretty much had the water to ourselves. When it got dark we ventured out for dinner only to find that everything was already closed. We ended up eating salchipapas (french fries with a fried hot dog) and hot chocolate. By this time the weather had cooled off considerably and being at 3,300 meters it was down right cold. We had the fire lit in the room and filled our private pool with hot spring water. That did the trick to warm me up...also the 4 blankets on the bed helped. In the morning we ate a HUGE breakfast and went exploring around the area. John made friends with a horse and I got attacked by a rooster. Poor John wanted to climb every single mountain that was surrounding the hotel. We didn't end up climbing any hills or mountains but we did take a nice hike though the Coco-Cayambe National Park. We saw more Llamas and some cows too. The walk was along a river and it had some beautiful waterfalls. After the walk it was time to head back to Quito. The trip home took about four hours this time because we were dropped off at the opposite end of the city. At home we made a delicious vegetarian chili with all the produce from the market and we talked about where we wanted to go next... : )
(Just a reminder that pictures that go along with this blog and our other adventures can be found on my (Amber's) Facebook)
Interesting fact: Even though Ecuador is only about the size of Oregon, it is home to about 16 percent of all the world's bird species. That's about 1600 different types of birds. Just in the Papallacta area, there were around 200 different species. Perhaps the most interesting we've seen so far are the many different types of humming birds.
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