Ecuador - the coast, the mountains and the jungle again

We have long left Ecuador for the tropical climes of Colombia's carribean coast, but I wanted to share the highlights of our last week's crisscrossing Ecuador before new adventures awaits. A slight warning, while Wayne has been proof reading my previous two post, this one is my own responsibility. The old man needed some sleep before a five day hike we will embark on tomorrow morning. Expect spelling errors and poor grammar, I can always use the excuse that this is not my first language.

Fresh out of the jungle we spent a couple of days in Baños, a small town famed for thermal baths, sweet chewy taffy and a collection of waterfalls in the surrounding mountains. We took a dip in the thermal pools, bought some taffy to keep us going on the long bus rides and while the rest of the world watched the world cup final, we spent a lovely afternoon riding mountain bikes past glorious mountain scenery and waterfalls. At the end of the mainly downhill ride, we flagged down the local bus, who happily picked us up and ferried us and the bikes back up to town. All that just in time for the final extra time of the world cup. By the time Germany scored, we were back at the hostel with beer in hand.

On the bikes near Baños.

Checking the world cup score along the way.

Galapagos is a big highlight on most people's Ecuador itinerary, but unfortunately also a very expensive highlight, so we decided fairly early on in our planning that it simply was too big a burden on our meager budget. Instead we read that the island, Isla de la Plata, just off the coast of Ecuador, is called the poor man's Galapagos. Most guidebooks and internet sites do however make a big point of highlighting that it really doesn't stand up to any comparison with the real thing at all. However at this time of the year the area has a big draw card, in that humpback whales make the trip from Antarctica to mate in the waters just off the coast. This means almost guaranteed sightings just a short boatride from the small town of Puerto Lopez, so we decided to head for the coast.
After night spent onboard a southbound bus, and a pit stop in Ecuador's biggest city Guayaguil, we headed four hours up the coast and based ourselves in small hostel near the pier in Puerto Lopez. The next day we joined a tour that took us by small boat to Isla de la Plata. On the island the highlight, for Wayne especially, was the boobies - the blue footed birds that is. Just before getting to the landing on the island we had half a dozen sea turtles swimming around the boat. They were after the fish scraps the local fishermen threw overboard. The island is a protected area for the turtles, and when they they lay their eggs on the beach, the island is off limits for visitors.


On our way back from the island, we went in search of the humpbacks and after a few distant sightings we got up close and very intimate with these giants. For a good forty minutes we had three whales around the boat, throwing themselves out of the water in gravity defying leaps. We got treated to back flips, tail wagging and a lot of flute splashing. Several times they were so close to the boat they could have toppled us, however the guides assured us that that had never happened. Again it can´t be underestimated how special it is to see wild animals in their natural environment, and had we been allowed, I would happily have jumped in the water there and then.
High on whale jumps and in absolute awe of these gentle giants, we finished the day off with a superb Italian meal and chilled white wine. We may be poor, but we are certainly not complaining.

 

Twenty plus nearly identical beach bar shacks and overcast weather, didn´t leave us hanging around town for long. The following day we were up early and spent the day heading back the Andes, to appease the inner train nerd in me. We headed for the small village of Alausí, which is home to the train that takes you down the engineering materpiece that is El Nariz del Diablo - The Devil´s Nose. However before getting that far, we were treated to an absolutely spectular bus trip through the mountains. The bus climbed up through the clouds, leaving us with less than 30 meters visibility and a busload of school kids. Soon after the school kids were dropped off, we turned a corner and suddenly the clouds cleared and revealed the most amazing view you can expect on a $4 bus trip . For the next two hours, we moved from the left to the right side of the bus to make the most of the view and definetely landed in Alausí on a high.

 

The trainline we came to see, was built in the late eighteen hundred, connecting landlocked Quito with Guayaguil on the coast. The trickiest part was getting past a steep  nose-shaped mountain named The Devil´s Nose, rising fra 1800m to 2600m over a very short distance. The engineers overcame this obstacle by carving a series of tight zig-zags into the side of the mountain, allowing the train to climb by going forward and backwards up the tracks. A decade ago this trip was a real hair-raiser, as derailments were commen and you were allowed to sit on the roof to make the most of the visew. All Ecuadorian train routes were since closed down due to lack of maintenance. Since then only a small part of the tracks have been restored, and these days the El Nariz del Diablo is aimed at tourists, with multi-lingual commentary, expensive souvenirs and not so much fun to be had. However touristy, the view was still great and at least we were spared any derailments.

We still had a few days left, before we needed to be back in Quito to board the plane for Colombia, so we decided to head towards Quito over a couple of days. In the town of Riobamba, our plans changes slightly, when we walked into a tour company and got talked into a two day trip through a high-lying national park and back down towards the jungle, visiting a local Shuar village on the way. It was the charismatic owner John, who talked us into and joined us on the tour. John was born in Ecuador to Ecuadorean parents, but the family immigrated to Canada when John was five. Only in his adult life did he move back to Ecuador and is now running a local tour company specialising in climbing. He was a great source on all things Ecuador and had more than a few travellers tales to tell. The tales came in handy as our plan to ride bikes down a mountain on the first day, got cancelled en route due to heavy rain. The road through the national park was only finished in December last year and was in pretty good shape, but huge landslides had in several places washed the road more or less down the mountain, so probably good not to go riding.

The following day we visited a small Shuar village in the jungle. They were John´s personal friends and we were treated to a traditional meal of heart-of-palm and chicken steamed in leaves. We also picked and ate oh so sweet papaya and went for a walk to the nearby river. At the end of the day we were dropped off at a bus station and five hours later we found ourselves in the brand new Quito airport, feeling slightly out of place and very muddy.

All in all a very plesant way to end our adventures in Ecuador and start new ones in the big country to the north. 

See you in Colombia!