Greetings from the equator!
Most of our first week was spent in the capital, Quito, and
a small nearby town in the cloud forest called Mindo. Our second week Matthew
had arrived and the 3 of us headed out to the mountain adventure town of Banos
to enjoy the hiking, adventure sports and hot water springs. Now we are in the
jungle town of Puyo learning a bit about Amazonian plants and culture before we
head deeper into the jungle. Tomorrow we are taking a night bus to get to
Cuyabeno where we will spend 4 days on a jungle retreat. Here is a link to the lodge we will be staying at. It is called GuacamayoEcolodge:
We arrived in Quito and spent the first couple of days exploring the city with Parshan, who has been living and working in Quito since the summer.
One highlight of Quito was going to the Cathedral. We could climb up inside it to this rosary window and all the way up a ladder to the very top of one of the towers.
The view of Quito from the Cathedral. Quito is famous for its colonial architecture in the old part of town and its lovely mountain location.
Dylan and I went for a hike in the cloud forest near Mindo to see a series of waterfalls. We got to ride in a Teribita (a metal bared box high up on a cable) to cross the river valley to get to the waterfall hike. The best part of the hike was to see some of the amazing plants, animals, bugs and orchids of the cloud forest.
And the waterfalls were beautiful too of course.
My cousin Matt made it to Ecuador! This was the view from our hostel in Banos.
Banos is surrounded by mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and one volcano. We got to do some hiking on the hillside above the city to some beautiful views.
Marie-Eve and her friend Alex (who are living and working in nearby Riobamba) met us for a couple of days in Banos. We all went zip lining.
Here Dylan is about to zip line across a gorge in the superman position.
We visited "the swing at the edge of the world"
We biked along a road that wings down through the mountains and past some amazing waterfalls.
For example these ones.
The highlight of the bike trip was arriving at this waterfall called Le Pallion de Diablo. It was one of the most powerful waterfalls I have ever seen. What made it so cool though was being able to get right up close to it. so close we would touch the water and even stand behind in a little.
We have been on lots of Neature walks since getting to South
America. And boy have we ever seen lots of neat things! Here is a sample of
some of the neatest ones:
Orchids in the botanical gardens in Quito
Is this a flower or a fruit? In the cloud forest near Mindo
This is a lizard, you can tell because of the way it is. In the cloud forest near Mindo
Neat!
Look closely, this humming bird is sticking out its tongue.
There are so many neat fruits here to eat!
These beautiful flowers are everywhere. We saw this one near Banos.
We went on a great guided tour of an ethno-botanical garden in Puyo. We learned all about the Amazonian plants and what they are used for by the Indigenous people of the area. The tree on the left has very hard wood that is used for spears and the tree on the right is a walking tree. It can move up to 1 m over its lifetime through growing roots in a particular direction.
First impressions of Ecuador
One thing that Matt found surprising: They let him into the
country with no questions. Didn’t even ask how long he was planning to stay or
what was his reason for travelling.
One thing that Abby found surprising: The food here has way
more meat than I was expecting. The basic meal is rice, a little bit of
vegetable and a big piece of chicken, steak, pork, or fish. I am getting sick
of eating so much meat very fast.
One thing that Dylan found surprising: There is lots of
trout in Ecuador. If he had known he would have brought his fishing rod.
A bien tot, I hope we don’t get the jungle fever too bad in
Cuyabeno.
