Monday, April 29, 2013

Quilotoa


This weekend, I went to Quilotoa with the same friend who accompanied me to Baños last weekend. After catching a bus from Quitumbre to Latacunga, and then from Latacunga to Zimbahua (where we were actually transferred to another bus because of the traffic and construction ahead), we grabbed a taxi/truck from there to Quilotoa, getting us there around 4:30pm. After we found a hostel that included dinner and breakfast (it’s not exactly a happening town), we walked across the street to see the crater lake, which is a stunning lake of a depth of approximately 820ft in the top of a volcano that is technically still active, but which hasn’t erupted in 300 years. We took the short hike down to the lagoon itself and then back up, before going to rest up (and get warm—I forgot that 12,000ft at night with humidity is basically freezing).

On Sunday morning, we got up around 8 and started our hike around 8:15am. I still don’t actually know how far the hike is, but it took us 4 hrs and 20 minutes to complete. The view is simply stunning. Not only can you see the lake, but you can look out around the crater at the sierra and the surrounding villages. We passed one family taking their goats and sheep and llamas to feed down within the crater, but other than that we were pretty much the only people doing the hike. It isn’t as difficult as other ones, but it is still a workout, with repeated ups and downs. The trip was definitely worth it. I chose to visit Quilotoa instead of attempting a 17er and a 19er, since those just didn’t appeal to me as much. And I can honestly say that I am happy with my decision, and I can rest easy, knowing that I made the right choice for me by circling the crater instead.






































Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Baños (hasta Puyo)


This weekend, I went with a friend to Baños. Unfortunately, my camera decided to reject the memory card so there aren’t many photos. However, I did manage to do several fun things while there!

First, I went puenting. Puenting is basically jumping off of a bridge on a cable of about 70m into a canyon and swinging. There is no bungee, nor is there a safety waiver. Basically, you pay $20 and get harnessed up and proceed to jump off a small platform. For me, the conversation on the platform went (in Spanish):
                “Are you ready?”
                “No.”
                “Okay, 1, wait, no?”
                “Yes I’m ready just count.”
                “1, 2, 3!”

All went well (as you can see below). To get me back to solid ground, they lowered the rope from the bridge slowly so that a kid with another rope could throw that to you to reel you back in. And, like any good college student, I encouraged my travel buddy to also jump off the bridge.



























After puenting, we went up the river a bit and found a ziplining place. The first zipline hurls you about 800m across the river and into a little gorge, and there’s significant doubt at any point that you will be able to stop before you hit the stone wall. Luckily, again, everything worked just fine. From there, we had to take a cable bridge (which is tiny and you can see through it and it moves a lot) across a small part of the gorge. Then, we used the clips to attach ourselves to another cable and climb the wire steps up the rock wall to get to the next line. As we were climbing, one of the little rocks fell on my head (I had a helmet, don’t worry), so I basically decided that I should just get moving and off that rock face. Then we took the final short zipline back across the river. From there, we walked back into town.

Given that the original reason for going to Baños was to do a bike ride to Puyo, we decided to embark on that adventure on Sunday morning. We rented bikes for $5 each, with helmets and a repair kit. The ride is about 57km, which ends up being around 35 miles. Although the trip is mostly downhill, there are some brief inclines that made me question my decision to participate. We’d heard that the trip would take between 5 and 8 hours depending on the length of stops along the way. Apparently, we weren’t stopping a lot, because we finished the ride in 4 hours. That being said, 4 hours in the sun at the equator, having forgotten to apply sunscreen to my arms and legs, means that I have a solid burn, but it was completely worth it. 

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Photos

I went to the Papallacta hot springs on Saturday, which we followed up with a short (30min) hike around the area. It was a pretty low-key weekend since I think I'm getting a cold, which I would seriously like to conquer before the coming weekend! In the mean time, here are some photos from this weekend and some from last week's adventures.

Deciding that it's way too cold to swim in Mindo

USA, Germany, Finland together in Ecuador

Mindo

Mindo

Walking around Papallacta

Papallacta River


Sheep. It really embodies what it means to be a sheep.

Sheep and llama

Antisana

Sheep and llama

Adrian demonstrating his cat-like tendencies to crawl on
my computer while I'm working, and pushing buttons 
Hummingbird

Hummingbird