Joie de Vivre: January 2011

After our time in Cotopaxi, we heading back to Quito for a day and a half before making the trip to the jungle. We didn't do all that much...we strolled around the Old Town, checked out some churches, and the highlight...went to the Equator! What's a trip to Ecuador with standing at Latitude 0-0'-0"?

We started taking pictures of this huge cathedral and then found out it was build in the 1900's, so I stopped taking photos.

This one didn't turn out quite like I hoped...finger placement is a little off.

This one is bit more accurate.

The reason we went back to Quito in the first place was to wait for our luggage....and guess what? It came!!!! We were so happy it only took a few days instead of an entire week to get to us. I guess we were lucky! So with our luggage in hand we headed east into the jungle, or rather the secondary jungle. Getting into the heartland of the jungle costs a pretty penny so we settled for the next best thing. The bus ride alone was quite the experience. Have you even taken a bus through South America? It's pretty intense. Most of the mountain roads do not have guards on them and the bus drivers drive the bus like it's a motorcycle...the experience almost cured me of my fear of flying, almost.

We had a little tire trouble...

So Brian took the time to buy a snack from this cute little guy.

Side note - it always amazes me how Coca cola is everywhere...even in the jungle of Ecuador!

Our day and a half in Tena included jungle exploring, river swimming, and animal watching.

Peter, we took these monkey photos for you.

Porcupine

Termite nest

Jungle trees

Hors devours - popcorn and salsa...random, but good.

We went on a jungle stroll the next morning before leaving for the mountains again. We had to get on another bus, but luckily the ride was only 4 hours so it wasn't too bad.

Next stop was Banos, where we had an amazing time! Banos is situated right below an active volcano, and while we were there it was smoking...scary. It was an awesome place and we had far too much fun while we were there. Stay tuned for the next segment of the trip...

We've been home for a week now from our South American adventure and about all that I have been able to get done is 5 loads of laundry. And that's not even the whole truth because those 5 loads of laundry are still sitting in the laundry room waiting to be folded. This flu/cold/cough/sinus thing that I caught the day after we got back has really done me in! Oh well, lets get on to more exciting things...

Our flight to Ecuador went quite smoothly, except for me not being able to sleep, but that's normal. Brian of course was out like a light, so I sat there the whole flight by myself, clammy hands and all. We had an inkling that our luggage might get lost during the transition from Bogota to Quito...the guy that checked us in assured us that our baggage was checked all the way through, but we still had our reservations. Sure enough we watched bag after bag go around the luggage carousel until there were no bags left; our inkling was correct, no luggage. So we filed a claim and headed off to our hostel.

Day 1:
Upon checking in to our room, we told the manager what happened with our bags and that he might be getting a call from the airline soon....he laughed when we told him that our bags would probably get in later that day or the following day....he said we would be lucky if we got them in 3 days and that it could take up to a week! Not what I wanted to hear when all I had was the clothes on my back (Brian was smart enough to pack underwear and a pair of shorts in our carry-on). Luckily, I bought Travel Assure traveler's insurance through American Express, best $40 I've ever spent! We found out about an "American" type mall, so we headed out to stock up on our essentials for the next few days.

Quito, right outside our hostel.

So this "American" mall was not what we expected...it was completely over the top. With stores like Hugo Boss and Bebe, we had a hard time finding anything but suits and formal wear.

Needless to say, our first day in Quito was spent running around shopping malls trying to find jeans, shirts, sandals, raincoats, a backpack, pajamas, underwear, towels, and toiletries. Have you ever tried to find jeans in Ecuador? Do you know how short they are there? Do you know how long my legs are? I got desperate...I was about to buy jeans from the teen boy section when I spotted them, mom jeans. They were perfect, or should I say, "perfect." They were dark, long, had some stretch, and were somewhat high-waisted, but they worked!

The reason we were in such hurry is because we had made arrangements to go to the mountains for two days, and we were leaving at 10:00 the following morning. All I can say is that we did our best with what we were given.

Day 2:
We took off with a group of people to a place in the Andes called Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is also a national park and the name of a volcano within the national park. The Cotopaxi Volcano is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and is also part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Brian had a nice 2 hour, bumpy ride in the back of the pickup.

The place we stayed, The Secret Garden Cotopaxi, was awesome! It was nestled on a hill toward the back of a valley and had views of 6 different volcanoes/mountains. They had farm animals, their own garden, a cozy lodge, and our little cabin even had it's own fireplace...it was the perfect spot to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Here are a few photos from the hike, or excursion rather, that we all went on the day we arrived.

Our new friend, Thompson

So many Llamas!

Most of our crew. We had an awesome group of people!

As I mentioned before, we had an awesome little cabin that had a fireplace and great views. Here are the three cabins; ours was the one on the left.

There was no electricity, so we used candles placed in beer bottles to find our way around the cabin.

And this was the view from our room. It doesn't look like much, but what you can't see is a snow-covered volcano that is blending in with the clouds...it was beautiful!

Here's a close-up for you.

Some sunrise shots of the surrounding mountains, taken from our room.

Day 3:
By the way, have you ever tried mountain biking at 3,500 meters? Especially when you have only been at that altitude for a day? Believe me when I say they are not pulling your leg when they tell you that you need a few day to acclimatize. For that reason mountain biking didn't last long, but it was fun!

The horses were literally hiding from Brian...he tried so hard to get close to them; he even spoke to them in Spanish, but they still weren't convinced.

When we got back from our bike ride, the hammocks were calling our names. By the way, why doesn't everyone have a hammock? I think we need to remedy this.

Proof that Brian relaxed on Christmas :-) And ignore the sandals...they were part of the emergency purchases.

We had such a great meal for Christmas...they really went all out. Our afternoon hors devours though were a different story. We had a traditional Ecuadorian Christmas lunch, and here it is: three kinds of corn and pig fat, with the pig skin attached! The corn was good....