Ecuador

We arrived in Ecuador on 6th September after a night bus from Cali in Colombia to the border. After the usual slow land border crossing; a long queue to get out of out Country A, a short walk across no-man's land, and a slightly shorter queue to get into Country B, we had arrived in the second country on our travels.  Despite everyone having their bags searched for drugs in Colombia before we boarded the bus and again on arriving in Ecuador, the bus was pulled over by anti-narcotics police less than 5km into Ecuador. Fortunately this time they only picked on random people and we weren't chosen, but it was a bit nerve wracking nonetheless.

Quito, the second highest capital city in the world at 2850m, was our first stop. We stayed at the really good Secret Garden Hostel where we had pancakes for breakfast and lasagne/pie for dinner. The food was a welcome change from the rice/meat combo prevalent in Colombia. The highlight of our stay in Quito was a trip to the Equator which is just north of the city. The bus took about 90mins and cost us less than $1 for us both! Ecuador in Spanish just means Equator so the line is known as El Mitad del Mundo; The Middle of the World. There is a large park and monument where we took the obligatory photos and stepped back and forth from the Northern to Southern Hemispheres. 

Ben at Mitad del Mundo

However the monument is actually in the wrong place! The equator was 'accurately' measured in 1982 and the monument built accordingly. With the advent of GPS technology we now know that the Equator is 240m further north. (NB: The Equator actually moves due to the Earth not being a perfect sphere and other reasons. Google it if interested). There is another small museum next to the larger one where they also claim to have the Equator. We learnt a bit about indigenous cultures in Ecuador, saw some shrunken heads and balanced an egg on a nail (apparently it's easier on the Equator but I don't believe it). The guide also demonstrated to us how water will spin anti-clockwise out of a sink in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Again this is a fallacy and can easily be done as a trick anywhere in the world. I'll leave interested parties to use Google again for more info.

Fiona and her egg

From Quito we headed to stay just outside the Cotopaxi National Park. The Secret Garden also own a hostel there which was amazing. We stayed 3 nights in the middle of nowhere absorbing the stunning scenery. Due to it's remote location the hostel is all inclusive so everyone sits down for meals together making for a great social atmosphere. We made some good friends in our short time there. The hostel is at an altitude of 3500m which makes even the shortest of walks more breathless than they should be. 

Our home for 3 nights in Cotopaxi. No power, just a log burner to keep warm.

Our first two days were spent doing a short hike to a waterfall, a hike up to the summit of Pasochoa, an extinct volcano at 4200m and playing card games in the evening. Cotopaxi itself is an active volcano and last erupted from August 2015 to January 2016. The national park had only just re-opened and attempts at the summit are still prohibited. Instead we drove up to the last car park and hiked for 40mins in the snow and wind to the refuge at 4864m. The whole climb was up volcanic sand which made for difficult time even without the altitude. After a quick cup of tea we headed back down to the minibus and then mountain biked down the lower slopes to the exit of the park. The terrain was like nothing we had experienced before and looked like it belonged on a different planet or distant moon. The huge boulders bigger than cars strewn about demonstrated the awesome power of the volcano. We would happily have spent much longer in the area climbing other volcanos and enjoying being completely isolated from the rest of the world.

 Cotopaxi Volcano

 At the refuge after a tough hike

Making friends with the locals

From Cotopaxi we headed to the adrenaline capital of Ecuador - Baños. This is a tiny town on a plateau at the foot of another volcano - which we were made very aware of by all the volcano evacuation posters in every room of our hostel. (Fortunately there were no signs of eruption during our stay). Despite it being cold and rainy when we arrived, it was much sunnier the next morning - perfect weather for hiring bikes (guess who's idea that was!). We chose a route out of the town passing by several local waterfalls which were very picturesque. The final one was huge and if you were feeling brave (and didn't mind getting wet) you could crawl up a tunnel in the rock to stand behind it! After a morning of cycling we had earned a good lunch in a well placed empanada shop. The banana and chocolate ones were amazing! Later that evening we treated ourselves to a rather extravagant spa session in a local hotel. Situated half way up the mountain, we enjoyed beautiful views over the whole of Baños, both before and after the sunset, while lounging in a series of hot pools and jacuzzis. (They also had amazing showers!).

Ben in the Devil's Cauldron

During the next few days in Baños the fun really started as we went white water rafting, canyoning (abseiling down waterfalls) and went on the swing at the end of the world. This is a swing from a treehouse high up on the mountain side, enabling fantastic pictures of the view. When we got there however the clouds had set in so instead we swung out over mist. Still got some good pictures though. 

White Water Rafting

Fiona on 'The swing at the end of the world'

From Baños we headed back up to Quito (via a short stop in Latacunga where we didn't do anything due to illness). Here we enjoyed our final few days in Ecuador, wandering around the old town streets and mentally preparing for our mammoth bus journey to Lima. But more about that in the next installment....