Quick fire update of Ecuador

Laguna Quilotoa is a beautiful crater lake in the central highlands. This lake reputedly can be seven different colours depending on the time of day and weather. We saw it change from a dark blue to a light green while we were there. Part of the fun is just getting there- the drive through the hills was beautiful.

The town of Banos is a kind of geothermal resort town. The town is also famous for a type of taffy called "melcocha" made by hand in doorways of numerous sweet shops. We also saw a very cute kitten.

We really enjoyed the town of Cuenca in southern Ecuador. We stayed with couchsurfer Oswaldo, who was a great host and showed us around town. We also caught up with family friend Ivan who took us out for some great comida tipica (local food). We saw our first South American ruins, the important Inca centre of Pumapungo.

Cuenca also produces "Panama hats", which should actually be called Ecuador hats as this is where they were invented, and where they are still mass produced by hand. We visited a really interesting factory where we saw the whole process. You can see some of the steps below:

Finally Vilcabamba or "Gringobamba" is a pleasant town in the far south. Lots of foreigners come to work and retire here. Was still worth a visit for the hiking.

Ecuador's central highlands

Ecuador has very diverse environments, roughly divided into four zones: the Amazon Basin, the highlands/Andes, the dry Pacific coast, and of course the Galapagos Islands offshore.

We visited two national parks in the central highlands. Ecuador's national parks are all free thanks to a recent Government decree, which includes camping.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi is based around the Cotopaxi volcanic cone at 5897m. The park has hiking trails, climbing and some pre-Columbian archaeological sites. It also has lots of horses and cows, which doesn't really make sense for a national park. It is stunningly beautiful though, with lots of unique flowers.

Parque Nacional Chimborazo is based around the Chimborazo volcanic cone. This is Ecuador's highest point at 6268 m. It is actually the furthest point from the centre of the earth, beating Everest on some technicality, something about the equator or the curvature of the earth or something. The visitor's centre where we camped for the night is at 4400m, and the top carpark is at 4800m. There is a walk to the snow line which starts over 5000m. This is pretty high altitude stuff, easily high enough to bring on altitude sickness if you aren't careful. In fact it's about the same altitude as Everest base camp. We had a good night camping here and hanging out with the park rangers, who taught us some Quichua (the indigenous language spoken by lots of people throughout the Andes).

Chimborazo also has a huge population of Vicunas, wild relatives of llamas and alpacas, which are native to the Andes. We had heard about these guys and were really hoping to see some, and then it turned out that they're everywhere.

Ecuador and the equator

We finally crossed the Equator into the southern hemisphere (the hemisphere where one of us has spent most his life). First we spent four nights hanging out in a relatively dull town called Ibarra getting van repairs. We got our front brakes fixed, a good thing considering we are heading into the Andes. We also got the roof repainted as it was getting a wee bit rusty.

Torrey straddling the equator at 0° latitude

Kellie showing off the Gladiator's new paint job

We spent a weekend in the nation's capital of Quito. We stayed with Michael who we met through couchsurfing. I would like to say we spent the whole weekend taking in the history and culture of this fine city...but we got our party hats on for the Friday night, and our hungover hats on for most of Saturday. We ended up just eating fish soup, a traditional Ecuadorian hangover cure, and going to the cinema to see the new Mad Max film.

Before Friday night's shenanigans we did manage to see some of the city. We did a tour of the Presidential Palace, and visited the cathedral. We also went up the teleferiqo, a gondola up to above 4000m altitude with great views of the city.

Miscellaneous good bits of Colombia

North of Bogota there is a Salt Cathedral. The town of Zipaquira is home to a huge salt deposit, formed when the area was under an ancient ocean. It was mined by indigenous groups, then the Spaniards, and modern companies. Being Latin America, the obvious best use for the abandoned parts of the mine was to build a church.

South of Bogota there is a valley that is straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. The Valle de Cocora is home to these unusual wax palms that tower above the canopy. 

Near the aforementioned valley, there is a picturesque little town called Salento. Very colourful and a great place to eat lunch after hiking in the valley.

This area is known as the Zona Cafeteria, the coffee growing region of Colombia. They must grow a shitload of coffee, as Colombia is the world's third largest coffee producer (behind Brazil and Vietnam).

Finally, near the border we found a ridiculously beautiful church. The Santuario de Las Lajas was built in a canyon where a young girl walking with her mother heard the voice of the Virgin Mary...or something like that, the signs were hard to read. It was like something out of a Disney movie.

Bright lights, big city

Thanks again to Sergio and family for putting us up in Bogota, and thanks to the city for showing us such a good time! It was good to get into the mountains and the cool air after so many months in the tropics. The altitude of 2600m+ made us question our fitness levels until we figured out what was happening.

The Museo del Oro has a fantastic collection of pre-Colombian gold. At the museum we caught up with our old pals Ali and Jeremie, who we first met in Nicaragua, then hung out with in Panama. Great to see some familiar faces when we're on the road.

We visited an art gallery with a collection of work from Colombian legend Fernando Botero. He is known for painting and scuplting voluptuous figures.

Finally, we had our first game of "tejo". It is quite possibly the world's best drinking game. It is kind of like darts, but instead of darts you have heavy rocks, and instead of a dartboard you have a clay backboard with little explosive packets of gunpowder. Let me demonstrate:

https://youtu.be/pOVrxvJEPKg

Pueblo de zocalos

We have found our favourite small town of the trip. After visiting more quaint, colonial towns than you could poke a stick at, we found Guatape. This town is on a lake a couple hours east of Medellin. It is extremely colourful, and every building has bas relief tiles (so-called zocalos) around their bases with representations of what happens in the building, or just general local scenes. Guatape also seems to be the place to be if you are an old man who likes shuffling around while wearing cool hats. Kellie, the collage master, has made a couple of picture compilations to show you what it is like:

Another reason Guatape is so impressive is the granite monolith "La piedra del Peñol". This geological beast is over 200 metres high, and has 700 odd steps to reach the top. There is a fantastic view of the lake and region from the top. We love this place.