I’m going to get started where Brett left off when we were
in Otovalo, Ecuador as we were getting ready to go bungee jumping. It turns out
that what we signed up for wasn’t actually bungee jumping, but puenting.
Puenting gets its name from puente (bridge), which is what we had to jump off
of. The rope that holds you up is tied on to one side of the bridge and you
jump from the other side which causes you to go swinging back and forth under
the bridge once you fall down to a certain point. It was frightening. Making
myself jump from the ledge of that bridge was one of the hardest things I’ve
ever done. As I was swinging back and forth under the bridge my whole body was
shaking from all the adrenaline. Brett, on the other hand, loved it and wanted
to do it again. Unfortunately, some bad weather rolled in and we had to pack
up. Brett held the camera in front of his face and filmed himself during his
jump, check out the video at the bottom of the post!
After the jump, we headed South to Quito. Quito, being the capital,
is a large city surrounded by the massive Andes mountains. We ended up staying
in the area of town called Mariscal in a hostal called Home. The hostal was in
a beautiful, old restored home and the area of town was fun with a lot of bars
and restaurants around, but the thin walls and single paned windows of the old
house weren’t quite suited for the times when the city’s local team won a
soccer match and resulted in cars honking until 4am.
For our first full day in Quito, we ventured over to the Mitad
del Mundo. This is the place in Ecuador where the latitude is exactly 0
degrees. We visited a museum where they do all kinds of experiments to prove
that that you are actually in the exact middle of the world. I believe that
they are all tricks, but they do a good job and I found them quite difficult to
disprove. For one, they show that water drains clockwise to the North of the
Equator, counterclockwise to the South and straight down when a sink is
directly above it. They also had a cage full of guinea pigs that they used to
test whether we had good or bad energy. Apparently the pigs will make a fuss if
people with bad energy enter their room. Thankfully, they were all pretty quiet
when we entered. We’ve also found out that guinea pigs are a very popular and
tasty meal in Ecuador and Peru. We plan to try them soon. :) Our guide gave
certificates to people who could balance an egg on a nail at the Equator and I
could balance it on its side so I got one! Fun day… A tourist must see.
Brett and I have been doing a fair amount of mountain biking
throughout our trip, but before Quito we were never able to find decent bikes.
In the middle of our downhill bike ride in Otovalo the derailleur actually
broke off of Brett’s bike and got stuck it the tire. It’s interesting to me
that Brett’s bike is always the one that always ends up breaking… Lol… I’m just
saying. Anyway, we were happy to find out about the Biking Dutchman in Quito
that hosted downhill biking on quality Trek bikes through the Cotopaxi National
Park. The bike ride started at 4,500 m and ended at 3,200 m. When we got to the
starting point it was really cold and there was snow just up the volcano from
us.
The road was steep and we flew down the mountain. The first
path took us on a ride above the tree line and down to trails leading to a
lake. As we continued, we took twisting dirt roads that were surrounded by high
reaching mountains and came to a museum where we stopped for lunch. We ended
the ride on a path through pine trees. Although the day wasn’t incredibly
clear, the scenery was amazing and it’s hard to beat flying down hill on a
mountain bike.
From Quito we went to Guayaquil. We had been
wanting to visit this city for a while, because Brett’s dad spent some time
there during his teens. The city is built up on a big river and has developed a
walkway called the Malecon that runs right next to the river. There are shops,
restaurants, an IMAX, giant dinosaur statues and a dozen other things to look
at. One end of the Malecon runs into a market that is the biggest that we have
seen in our travels and sells every kind of knock off product you could
possibly want to buy. The other end leads to a stairway that winds up the
hillside to the statue of Cerro Santa Ana. This is a very bohemian area with a
lot of cool restaurants and bars. As we cruised around the city, we ran into
Parque Bolivar which a beautiful little park, but the best part is that it’s
filled with giant iguanas that leisurely cruise around the park. The lizards
are everywhere and they’re very friendly. They just crawled up on people’s
shoulders as they sat on benches. We had a great time in Guayaquil and it was very cool to see
the city that helped make Phil the Congo playing, Spanish speaking person he is
today. :)