Next Steps in Ecuador

Right, after two whole days of not doing ANYTHING in Puerto Lopez, save reading, I finally got my act together today and visited PN Machalilla and the Playa Los Frailes. Evidence of which shows up on my skin as reddish discoloration.

It's about time to move on, although the PN itself would probably be worth hanging around in for another day or two. However, in my infinite wisdom *cough*, I have decided that Riobamba should be my next destination. From there, I plan on going to the Devil's nose and do a few day hikes, either close by around Volcan Chimborazo (¡el volcán más alto de Ecuador, si señor!) or Cotopaxi. Baños is also on my list, to relax in hot water while taking in the mountain view.

Then roundabout the 14th of July, our little 3-day trek should get underway, so I believe a few of us will meet up a few days earlier in Cuenca to sort everything out.

Right, so tomorrow - maybe as early as 7 a.m. - I'm off to Guayaquil (4-5 hours) and from there to Riobamba (another 5-6 hours, probably).

Now I'm off to have Ceviche de Pescado and maybe a la Plancha tambien, since I'm a slob and the main courses are 3-4 USD a pop.

Bye for now.

(oh and I did go swimming in the Pacific today, btw ;-) Small waves, warm water, sun and the beach to dry my clothes - what more could you want?)

(oh, and the cocktails are 1-2 dollars! Yeah!)

¡Algo asi!

Quiero hacer algo asi:


Timelapse: Nightscapes from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.


A ver si me dejen descansar en un lugar para bastante horas durante los treks :-)

Guess what I did on Friday?

Yep, whale watching... well, actually it was a little more akin to whale hunting, the way the skipper drove his tiny little boat in their direction, shutting off the engine way too late for them not to have been disturbed by us. Next time, I think I´ll just go for a more expensive, but professional tour!





But for 2 hours at 15 USD per Person, you probably can't expect a whole lot more...

Photos 2.2: Quito, el teleferiQo

When you go to Quito, big mountains are all around you. So much so, that I tend to lose sight of how big they really are. A cable car called teleferiQo goes to the Cruz Loma, on a hill beside the flank of Volcan Pichincha.

I went up with mixed expectations, after the previous day's views, but this place absolutely blew my mind.




What starts off as a great view over the city...




... the valleys adjoining it...




... and highlights the contrast between the mountains at different altitudes as well as the city...




... quickly becomes something much more physical...




... as we climbed on past the 4100m high lift terminal toward the clouds.




The weather was great once at the top of the lift - well when I say great, I mean it made for some great pictures, because of the interplay of light and shadows.




Every so often, a new valley would open up below us for a plunging view over Quito.




Past this point, the warning sign on the barbed-wire fence stated, the operators declined all responsibility for the safety of visitors, and people have been known to be robbed, kidnapped for short periods etc. But apparently most people come far enough to throw rubbish down the side




Just past the fence, horses awaited for a potential horseback ride up the mountain; well not all the way up, since the top of the mountain is a 3-hour hike from the cable car station.




At this point the weather became more interesting and the cops who kept a bit of an eye out beyond the fence decided they'd had enough and went down to the cable car station...




... though that didn´t deter us...




... from going a bit farther, until the last people above us (that we could see) were other tourists on horseback...




...and their five dogs (of which this is a representative sample :-) ).




That seemed as good a time as any to head back down...




...because some of us were dressed a little too lightly for 4300m AND clouds.




All in all, very worth it, though I doubt very much that I did the atmosphere justice with my pics.

Yo te daré, te daré LIGA hermosa...

So I'm not sure if anyone not affiliated with South American football (soccer, for the rest) heard that Wednesday night was the finals of the club championship Copa Libertadores; we couldn't have missed it if we'd wanted to, since Quito was playing brasilian club Fluminense in an away game.

We'd gotten a late start, and - I'm ashamed to admit - missed the first 20 minutes of the game, but caught the rest in the main plaza Foch in the Mariscal. Since Quito had won its home game 4:2, they could afford to lose by as much as 2 goals and still go into overtime and penalties, which is exactly what happened. the air was thick with muttered prayers as each successive wave of mostly brasilian attacks kept failing.

... and then they went into penalties, and we found ourselves standing right in the middle of the crowds on Foch, watching the thing go down on a big screen. Beer and other drinks went flying all over the place, as the Quito goalkeeper held not one, not two, but three out of four Brasilian shots!

And now that song keeps going round and round in my head:

Yo te daré, te daré LIGA hermosa, te daré una cosa, una cosa que empieza con L, con I, con G, con A... LIGA campeon! (see & listen here)

Aaanyway, in December, every continent will send their club championship winner to Japan for the Club World Cup, and I know whom I'll be rooting for!

Right, in other news, I've just arrived in sweltering Puerto Lopez, where the mozzies are already having a go at me.

To summarise:

Good idea - buying a 12 USD ejecutivo ticket and staying on the airconditioned bus for 12 hours fom start to finish rather than changing buses in-between and saving... all of 4 USD!

Bad idea - watching the mine rollercoaster scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, while the bus rolls from side to side and hits potholes and narrowly avoids collisions; I felt as though I was in the movie!

Worst idea - importing MP3-capable mobile phones with loudspeakers into South America.


Internet here is not very fast, so you can take a few days' holiday from complimenting me about my photos ;-)))

Photos 2.1: Quito - swearing in whom now?

After coming back from our little excursion up the Cima de la Libertad (perched right on the flanks of the Volcano Pichinchila), we headed into the Old Town to have a coffee and take in the sights.

We were just in time to see someone - we believe it was the president - being sworn in and the Plaza Grande full of honorary guards.

Here is a selection of pics:

Photos 2.0: Quito & options for Ecuador

Yep, I've started settling in to the hostal and Quito in general. It has a much more relaxed atmosphere than BA and so I'm definitely staying until at least Thursday to get to know it a bit better.

Things are a lot cheaper here, and I'm living quite well on about 20-25 USD (which is the national currency here after dollarisation in 2000) a day, including accomodation and a few beers. Okay, so the budget will have to increase as soon as I start including transport and things like guides for treks and hiring equipment, but I think I've done a decent job of predicting that (fingers crossed).

A lot of new people showed up at the hostal - there was a french connection there for a while, but fortunately only the nice bloke in my room stayed on from that lot :-) . There's a more communicative vibe about the place now and the kitchen is really being put to good use!

I've also found a partner in crime for visiting some of the places in Quito I wouldn't want to walk about alone in with my camera out. Raz is from ... Victoria, British Columbia (of all places) and has some time on his hands, so we decided on an early start on Monday.

Cima de la Libertad.

Right at the top of av Libertadores, directly overlooking the old town (the Virgen de Quito stands on the green hill behind the gun's barrel) and with the rest of the town spread out before us! The second taxi driver finally knew where it was and it took us 30 minutes to meander up the shack-lined street to the top.

It wasn't an unsafe neighbourhood; we ended up catching a bus back down and walking for a km through a neighbourhood market where not a single other tourist was to be seen. However it was nice to know there was someone there watching your back!

The early morning view was breathtaking. Since Quito is mostly about 5 miles wide and 15miles in length, the city was basically laid out like a carpet before us, with the mountain range constraining it on the other side clearly visible.

The clouds were menacing but far away.

So we found a pasture a little higher up from the monument and just enjoyed the sun for a while, while our heartbeats slowed from the 400m we had walked and our lungs started feeling normal again.

Maybe it was the thinner air or the sun (I admit I've the beginnings of a sunburn), but we started tossing about places to visit in Ecuador and even drawing up a rough budget for the Galapagos Islands, which I had planned on giving a miss, due to tours being prohibitively expensive. Budget 1000 to 2000 USD for a week there - flights included - with a definite tendency toward the upper end, because a very good guide who knows their stuff and a decent boat just makes the whole experience much more worthwhile.

Our rock-bottom, no-frills indivudual travel budget would stretch to 5 days and come to about 600USD, including flights (about half the cost) and one or two days of guided wildlife tours. So now some re-calculation is in order, because everyone has been saying how great the place is... I'll let you know how things turn out. Oh and if you're reading this and have a boat that you could place at our disposal for the 1000km trip out from the mainland, let me know!

So much for Option a) - What to do post-Quito?

Option b) would be to head out to the coast by bus and spend a few days in Puerto Lopez (see here), just hanging out and daytripping into the National Park.

Option c) is to go for a trek straightaway: either the Inca Road to Ingapirca or going around Cotopaxi.

I'm torn (no, please don't start singing, Marie!)