Off to the beach and boobies

After leaving Banos, drove on some pretty crazy roads, at one point we were on the highest paved road in Ecuador. The bus rides were pretty cool, but not as cool as the guidebooks made them out to be.

Eventually we made it to the beach town of Montanita...View of Montanita (from beach)

Can I say crazy. I was totally not expecting a town like this here on the beach. Total party town. I knew it was a surfing town, but I didn't expect there to be so much of a party atmosphere. we could hear music from our hostel room until like 3 am and then we could hear people up ina room above us til like 0630am.. it got a little annoying but we were super excited to be at the beach so it was worth it.

Surfers

By party I should say i think that it was mostly European tourist or something, most of the people that we ran into didn't speak english but they were white and not ecuadorian, we saw lots of dreadlocks, lots of hippy type, lots of surfer dudes and much more.

Cows hanging out on the beach

It was really nice to hang out on the beach and to be in the warm sun. Even though it was a busy town there was still a ton of beach there so you could just chill. We watched surfers and spent a lot of time just on the beach.



After we left montanita we headed up to the town of Puerto Lopez, which was a small beach town/ fishing town. It was nice to chill there and have a more relaxing atmosphere.



We then headed out to Isla de la Plata or the poor man galapagos.

We had to hire a guide for this trip and we headed out about 50km to the island( which is part of a national park). Once we got there we hiked around the island. There are only 2 trails on the island and one of them was closed due to a mating season of one of the islands birds.

so we hiked around and saw lots of Boobies...

Blue footed and masked that is. anyway here are a bunch of photos from that trip



Blue-footed boobies

View of cliffs along island

Masked Boobie


Wide angle view of a beachDid I mention we saw some turtles (they were awesome)

Banos

So those of you who know spanish know what that Banos means bath, but it is also the name of a really cool city in Ecuador.

So we left the jungle and headed kind of up into the mountains to the city of Banos. Banos is somewhat of a touristy town, but it was still cool none the less. Banos is very near a volcano that is currently quite active, the last time that that city was completely evacuated was in 2006. So we were hoping to get a view of this volcano. It is also known for its hot baths (aka it name), really good hiking, and much more

We go into Banos, and found a place to stay, and then decided to head out and explore the city, there was all sorts of stuff to explore and all sorts of little shops. We found the local tourist center and got a map of the town and the local trails around. We decided to do what appeared to be a fairly short hike. well we started out an found what we thought was the trail. We start walking and it just gets steeper and steeper and the trail starts petering out. At times the only way that I can keep going up is grabbing hold of the plants and grass that is next to me and just hoping that they don't let loose.

Eventually we got to a spot that flattened out, found a road and then ended up on top of the hill at a big cross (where we wanted to be). There we found another awesome view of the city, the whole way up we had an awesome view of the city below us. After we got to the top we found the trail that lead down no problem and started back

We found these crazy looking trees. I so wouldn't want to run into one of them, yes those are like little spike coming out of it

We got up the next day and found ourselves some real coffee (it was hard to do here they often served you instant). We decided during coffee that we would do another hike and try to hike up and try to get a good view of the volcano, we hiked up a trail this time, the first part of it had like 650 steps to get to a statue of the virgin and then after that the trail just keeps going up and up.


There were really cool views the whole time, it was so green, tons and tons of different shades of green everywhere. We went up forever it seemed, we were looking for a small village the trail was supposed to lead us to. we ran into a very nice old man who lived up there who found my limited spanish quite funny, but we were still able to have a conversation even though he knew no english, he was nice enough to keep it simple so I could understand.
We realized that we had hiked above the village that we wanted to go to, but we still couldn't see the volcano because of the low clouds and fog, so we kept hiking in case it cleared up. We couldn't see it but we could hear it. Every now and then we would hear this rumbling off in the distance and it wasn't thunder
After a while we stopped and just enjoyed the view for awhile and sat in the sun, we then headed back down, this time taking the road and hooking up with a trail that took us back to town

By the time that we made it back we had hiked I don't even know how many miles we walked and lets just say the baths felt way good when we decided to go sit it them later.

The river that flows by Banos
A view of the old bridge from the new bridge
If it was clear you would be able to see the volcano we thought we saw a glow from it one night but weren't sure

After banos we hoped on a bus and took a bus ride on the highest paved road in ecuador, which lead us to the town of Gruanda where all we did was spend the night and then the following day we got on another bus and road it to the Guayaquil( the largest city in Ecuador) spent about 15 minutes in the bus station that was bigger than some airports, and then headed off to the beach

Jungle

Since no one seems to want anything free from me or maybe no reads this anymore I guess it is time for me to babble some more about my trip. At least this way I have it all documented to myself. Although I am going to take Kathy R's advice and I think I am going to make a book with pictures from my trip. I am probably the only one who will ever see it but I a friend of mine made one from his trip to Africa and it was cool so Im gonna do one for Ecuador, may do one for Ben as well and give it to him for his birthday or something like that.

anyway back to the jungle tour

So we went on a four day tour of the jungle. we drove for an hour or so outside of tena, made it to the end of the road and then took a motorized canoe up river and arrived at the jungle lodge where we would be staying. The lodge was pretty cool, way up high above the river. it had some awesome chairs where you could just sit and look out towards the river. It also had a bunch of hammocks that you could just relax in.

Our room at the lodge

The highlights of the tour were just hiking around the jungle, we saw all sorts of different plants, heard tons of birds and some animals, and even got to swing from some vines on the hike and swing from vines I mean totally tarzan style. I tried to get some video but I wasn't sure how to do it with my new camera. We were honestly like 30 feet in the air.

A Walking Tree
(seriously it moves towards sunlight)

Ben swinging from the vines

Me after our guide painted my face with a dragon fruit
Ben couldn't get his face painted because it is only for womenBen and Pato with the handicraft that we made from a palm branch

We also walked around and talked to a couple of families in the jungle, ate some yummy pineapple, got offered Jungle Juice (which is a haluctiongen) and also walked around at night checking out spiders and other inscets.

Random flower I took a photo of

One day we walked about 3 hours from the lodge and arrived at a jungle community. it was very rustic and small. no electricity, no water, not much. We spent the night there and spent sometime with the kids. there weren't many adults around do to a party in a neighboring community (30 min walk away) anyway it was interesting to be in a community like this. The kids learned how to say my name and that is all they would say from then on, until we were playing a soccer game with them and they learned how to say "so close" from Ben (they thought it was his name) Later they learned his name but there favorite thing to say was AmyOne of the waterfalls that we hiked to and swam in


A typical house in this community
one of the nicer ones actually


Our Luxurious sleeping quarters
(we were lucky to stay dry when it was down pouring, yes the roof leaked it was straw)

It was a very different lifestyle than we are used to, I think they see quite a few outsiders so it wasn't that big of a deal that we were there.

Some of the local kids

We also got to see some monkeys, not totally wild like I would have liked. The tour advertised seeing monkeys so I was all excited, turns out they were found on a beach very neat a town, they weren't tame but were very comfortable with people around.

My favorite part of the jungle were the noises at night. There were so many different thing to hear, I couldn't tell what half of it was but it was so cool to hear all the insects, wildlife and rain or whatever else all at once

So how were the bugs you may ask, well the bugs were not all the bad, I expected there to be a ton of mosquitoes but there weren't. The most annoying bugs were these little no-seeunm which you didn't even notice until you realized you were all bit up. and well they didn't go away very fast at all either and the only place the seemed to bite me was around my ankles and up my calves a little ways, so I seemed to walk around for the next week looking like I had chicken pox one my ankles

Oh yeah one other thing about the jungle is that our clothes smelt so badly after being in the jungle, the whole time we were there they never really dried out since it would rain at least once a day, so I tried to wear the same thing the whole time that I was there. I don't think my pants will ever go back to their original color, well it doesn't help that they were already stained red from mine and Laura's adventure to Hawaii last year. but anyway our backpacks stank after the jungle, even though once we were back in town we tried to wash all of our stuff in the shower.

Gotta love free stuff

Time for something new!!

I got this from Alanna's blog and I figured I'd jump in on the fun! Plus who doesn't love free stuff!!!

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something from me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I do, but I'll try!
2- It'll be done this month.
3- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a hat, one of my photos, candy, or a little invention of my own! I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something. Maybe some snow form my yard. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

Here's the catch - you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

Be sure to post a picture of what you win from me when you get it!

On the way to the Jungle

So we decided it was time to leave Quito. So we headed over to the bus station. To get there we took a trolley. The trolley was easy once we found the station going the direction that we wanted to go.

Next up walking to bus station. First thing we see is an guy in army green carrying a big old rifle of some sort. Not sure what he was doing, but he looked official.

Anyway then we go inside the bus station, now if you have ever traveled in South America you know what bus stations can be like, well this bus station was no exception. Ecuador's bus stations were different than some of the other countries that I have been to in that all the buses have driver and then another guy who collects money and works to get you to ride his bus. They try so hard to get passengers you would think that it is life or death (maybe it is)

So you walk into the bus station and you just hear people yelling out all sorts of cities, sometimes you hear so many different cities that you have no clue what they are saying, most often they only yell out the larger cities even though they stop anywhere.

Then once they realize that you have a backpack on all you hear is Donde Va?, Rhiobamba, Banos, Quito or whatever other city they want you to go to. Once you tell them where you are headed then they lead you over to that bus, sometimes you are almost running thinking that bus is about to take off, then once you get on the bus it turns out is was no hurry and that they just wanted to get you on their bus.

You discover that sometimes it is better to just ignore everyone yelling at you and walk by the buses and see which one is going where and get on the one that looks the best, sometimes you just want to get there so you get on the one that approaches you first.

Anyway we find a bus that is going to Papallacta, a small little town where there are a bunch of hot springs, we decided that it would make a good stop over between quito and the jungle.

So we are riding the bus, which is stopping whenever someone wants off, sometimes in the middle of nowhere. I am hoping that the guy who took our money tells us when we are in papallacta since i have no clue where it is.

Yep he tells us, we get off (in a torrential downpour) with 2 other gringos (who don't speak English) anyway we dig out our raincoats and read in the guidebook that "that about 1.5 km before the village on the left as you approach from quito a signed dirt road leads up hill to the Termas de Papallacta"

We had read that earlier and decided to go to the village to get off the bus since we needed to buy some water. We get water and head up the main road thinking 1.5km thats not far at all. well we walk at least 2 km (the rd was marked) and haven't seen any roads, so since we figure that 2 guidebooks said that it should be here we keep walking, as we are walking we both comment on how this road looks pretty new, thinking they must have just resurfaced it. As we had been walking uphill for about 5km now we were just getting ready to turn around, when we find a road to the left, but it goes downhill. WTF!!! Then I notice a sign for a hostal and figure might as well see if this is the road. As we are walking down the road we realize that this is the old road and the one we were on before is new and the road has been rerouted (stupid guidebooks didn't mention that the road was being rebuilt) and way we get above the village that we had been in 1.5 hrs ago

Village of Papallacta

then it becomes obvious where the road we want is and yes it is well marked and there is a sign leading to where we wanted to go. and turns we were almost there when the bus dropped us off but we followed the guidebook. Only 3km uphill left to go!!!

Anyway we find a hostal and head up to where the hotsprings were boy did it feel good. there was hardly anyone there and there were like 25 pools all of different temps, by pools I guess I should say baths, some were big and like 3 feet deep and some where small and not so deep. Anyway we hung out there for quite awhile just relaxing and soaking after our adventurous hike.

Ssupposedly you can see a one of the many volcanoes found in Ecuador from these tubs, but it was to cloudy for us to see. It still was a cool view, but I didn't bring my camera for fear of it getting stolen when we were in the water

View of our hostal in the morning
(it poured all night long)

The muddy road and the cow across the street from the Hostal

In the morning we headed down the road and caught a bus that took us to a town on the edge of the jungle. Tena. We found a hostal the looks over the river and then walked around town a bit and found ourselves a 4 day jungle tour.

Aww finally sunny and warm weather

Pedestrian bridge over the river in Tena

Quito, Ecuador

Disclaimer: I took a lot of pictures while there and there is no way that I can put them all on the blog and I promise that eventually I will uploadd them somewhere on the Internet for viewing. I will try to put some of my favorites up here while talking about the trip.

The plan was for me to meet Ben in Atlanta and then fly from there to Quito. Well I made it to Atlanta and was waiting and waiting for Ben to get there, for some reason I thought that he was supposed to get there before me, well as I waited they started boarding the plane way early, I then asked the lady if his flight had landed and she said yep just did, he should be here soon, well they kept pressuring me to get on the plane and I was like not til my friend gets here. They kept asking me if I was going to go if he didn't make it in time and I was like no I am not leaving him here and on his own to travel to some place where he knows none of the language, we remember that it is still like 25 minutes til our scheduled take off, they kept pressuring me to get on and I said no I am not getting on if he isn't here. Well he got there about 5 minutes before they said the wouldn't let anyone board, funny thing is it was still like 15 min before scheduled take off.

Funny thing was after all that we sat for at least 25 min on the plane before it was time to take off.

So we made it to Quito no problem after that. We spent the next day walking around old town Quito and then in the afternoon walking around the newer part of town, it is pretty big city I think over 2 million people, but it had a lot of neat stuff to see.

This is plaza is called Plaza San Francisco, the photo doesn't show it but the church that is there is the oldest church in Ecuador, it was built in 1534. Quito had a ton of old churches and we went inside as saw the insides of them but I didn't think it was right to take pictures of the inside of churches when there are people inside praying

The front of the Oldest church.

There was a fairly large plaza that had many important buildings around it, one of which is building which is the equivalent of our white house. We had read that the president is often there conducting business, now granted I wouldn't know the Ecuadorian president if he started talking to me. Anyway we walked by once and nothing was going on a little later we walked by and there were a few protesters hanging out in front of the building, and more people were starting to gather around. so we decided to sit in the park and watch and see if anything happened.

I am not sure what we witnessed since I couldn't understand anything but I am pretty sure the president made and appearance. There was numerous times that a band played and people in some crazy uniforms standing all around the palace. Then all of sudden people on horses paraded by and then they were in the park doing some formations. It was pretty cool, for all I know though it could have just been the raising of the flag for the day or it could have been something big and important.

Next we hiked over to what is called the Basillica, ok not hiked walked the streets we checked out the inside of the church and then paid the dollar that is cost to climb up to the top. The front of the Basilica

(it is decorated with turtles, birds and other sea creatures instead of typical gargoyles)
It was to big to fit it all in one picture

We climbed up to well above the clocks that you can see.

Stained glass window we saw on the way up

So let me tell you about the climb. It was scarier than shit!!, but super fun at the same time! At times I thought that the ladders that we were climbing would give out at any moment and they kept getting narrower and narrower, and railings were rusted out. At one point we crossed a bridge that reminded my of Indiana Jones. and just when you thought you couldn't go up any higher there would be another ladder or stairway. Dont forget about that as you are climbing sometimes you would see pieces of the building crumbling away

View from the top
(eventually we would climb to the top of the tower in this photo)


View of part of the city


Detail work on the one tower



Indian Jones Bridge



View of Clock tower that we climbed to the top of.


Staircases