Quito was our first stop in Ecuador after a little confusion at the border where we had somehow failed to obtain Columbian exit stamps. Oops. All sorted easily enough though with the help of a friendly Spanish speaking guy from San Fransico. We are still a little concerned about two Chekoslovakian guys that where in the collectivo with us from the Columbian side of the border though as they appeared to jump straight out of the mini-van and into a taxi to go wherever they were off to in Ecuador without visiting ANY of the immigration offices at all. Nadia was curious as to who in the world thinks that they can just cross borders and change countries without any sort of entry/exit stamps....well, that would be people from the EU I guess. Every so often when we are wandering around whatever town we are in we wonder how they are doing and if they got slammed with a massive fine when they tried to leave Ecuador.
Anyway, Quito. Quite a nice place actually, I am not sure what I was expecting but it was not as hostile as some other travellers had led us to believe. We had fun wandering around and checking out all the beautiful old architecture, plentiful supply of piñata stores and most of all climbing up to the towers of a huge old gothic style cathedral. It was awesome - for pics see facebook. Possibly not the best day for me to have worn a skirt though. We also did a day trip out to Mita del Mundo which is where you can stand on the Equator. It is pretty cool actually and being the nerds that we are we took all the pics of ourselves with one foot in the northern and one foot in the southern hemisphere - story of my life recently. Had a great time messing around and pretending we could not get our balance standing on one leg and all that kind of nonsense.
Most memorable points about Quito are:
1. Seeing a Nanna peeing in the street right outside a family get together on the church steps.
2. Goat stew. Delish.
3. Piñata stores EVERYWHERE
After Quito we headed down to the town of Baños where visions of wonderful soothing thermal pool awaited us. They actually turned out to be pretty mediocre but they were lovely and hot and that was really all that we cared about as the weather had gotten significantly cooler on the way down there. A sweet little old man named Cecil befriended Nadia in one of the pools and they had a lengthy Spanglish conversation about Australia, kangaroos, Baños being modelled on the ancient Roman baths and tourists being murdered while climbing a volcano called Cotopaxi. Much to our relief after further Spanglish interpretations we discovered that they had died, yes, but from an avalanche or exposure, not by being murdered. Just for your own future reference, if you are planning to visit Baños then please be prepared for the severe shortage of elastic in the locals swimwear. Particularly the men. Believe me, it does not leave much to the imagination when speedos have no elastic in the leg area. Not much else to say about Baños except that every other shop on the main streets had people out the front doing old fashioned taffy pulling. That was pretty cool to see.
From there our next stop was back slightly north again to check out the Quilotoa Loop. The first town we stayed in was called Saquisilli and we arrived there just in time for the spectacle of the weekly markets. It was great fun to explore all the local produce and crafts. We saw fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before and still do not know what they are. I brought some gorgeous blankets and Nadia purchased some stylish knitted socks and gloves. I think the highlight for us was the variety of food available and the gross but also hilarious novelty of seeing roasted pigs heads, guinea pigs on spits, raw cows legs/hooves, boxes full of little live chickens and chicks for a buck apiece and all manner of other wierd and wonderful stuff. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Nadia had a bargain of a haircut. US$1! May not have been exactly what she asked for but oh well, at least it is short again ;-)
Next stop was Chugchulan where we stayed at a nice enough hostel with a great view of the valley and had a few beers in the evening with some fellow backpackers. The next morning we all piled onto a local truck to get dropped out at the Quilotoa Crater which is one of the most beautiful places I have seen on this trip so far (again, pics on facebook). The more hardcore of the group hiked down into the crater but Nadia and I decided that the view from the top was not going to be beat so we chilled out on the crater rim and enjoyed the sunshine. When it was time to go catch our bus back to Ambato we went into a little hostel/family home to collect our packs and Nadia was horrified to see Nanna sitting by the fireplace in the family room skinning a guinea pig!
Ambato was nothing more than a place to transfer buses but from there we headed via Guyaquil to the beach town of Montanita. More on that in the next update!
