We made it to Ecuador and finally we are really loving it! Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, was really interesting with amazing colonial Spanish Churches, museums and cobbled streets, but very noisy. With a population of 1.6million cramped into an Andean valley at 2800m above sea level, it’s the 2nd highest city in the World and really busy day and night. We stayed in a great hostel called Community Hostel, which is not for profit and supports community projects with the receipts as well as paying fair wages. 3 nights was more than enough though.
On our second full day at Altitude we decided to walk (2hrs most of which was up hill) through Quito to the Teleferico, where we then climbed (via cable car) to 4060m and went for a bit of a hike. Within an hour Laura had a headache and felt ill. By the time we got back to the Hostel Laura was very quiet – a sure sign of serious illness and we were both very ill that night.
The next day we were desperate to get out of Quito and found a working farm only 1hour away to chill/recover. The scenery was pretty, bit like Wales.
After 2 days chilling with 2 affectionate Labradors (Damian befriended) and some Llama, we picked up a card in the lodge for The Black Sheep Inn, at Chugchilan. It took a 1hour $1 bus ride to Latacunga, then a 4hour $2.5 bus ride (the most amazing bus ride ever) to get here, but we were both gob smacked by the beauty and silence of the place.
The views are really hard to describe – vast vista’s, enormous mountains, really really really deep canyons, a huge caldera lake with crystal blue water, more Llama and lots of Humming Birds! We have some rather rubbish pictures, but better ones to come. We have put in requests for photos from all the people with BIG cameras, so when they get home (in a week or two – hahaha) one of them will hopefully email us.
Off to bed now at – 8.30, as we (Laura) got up before 6am (again), forced Damian to get up, then watched the sun rise – brilliant! Oh… also forgot to say the lodge here is a Permaculture lodge, all veggi (amazing meals) and compost toilets with the best view in the WORLD.
Love from Laura and Damian – LOVING ECUADOR!!!
