8 December 2013 Quito, Ecuador
Went horse riding at Green Horse Ranch, which is located in the extinct Pululahua Volcano Crater to the north of Quito. The owner, Astrid, picked us up about two blocks from our hotel and drove us one hour to her small ranch.
Pululahua is one of only two inhabited volcanic caldera in the world - it is believed that it was first settled by the Incas. It’s a national park and the small farms here grow various crops in the rich soil of the fields around the floor of the crater. Pululahua is Quichua (the indigineous language) for "Smoke of Water” referring to the cloud which rolls in every day and fills the crater. Apart from the cultivated fields, the vegetation on the slopes of the crater is Cloud Forest, which is formed when warm equatorial air from the Pacific hits the steep slopes of the Andes, rises up and covers the mountains with moisture and clouds.
As the forest is on a slope, the sun’s rays are able to penetrate deeper than in the Rain Forest, so the trees and vegetation doesn’t grow as tall. It also rains very little in the Cloud Forest, so the plants have evolved to obtain their water from the air – there’s an abundance of air plants and mosses on every tree and rock surface.
The horse riding was great, with very well trained horses and good tack. We did a lot of cantering around as well as going up and down steep paths as we circled a small hill on the crater floor.
At the end of the ride, I was intrigued when Ingrid hung up a banana in a tree and they sprayed the horses with something before putting them out to pasture. Ingrid told me that they have a problem with Vampire Bats and they have to spray the horses with a local concoction to deter the bats. Even so they can have up to 10 bites to deal with each morning. The banana was hung up as a test – apparently vampire bats like bananas, so if they eat the bananas, Ingrid is going to poison bananas to try to get rid of the bats.
Ingrid dropped us back in Quito, where we found to our horror that alcohol is not sold in Ecuador on a Sunday. Fortunately, we still had a nearly full box of Clos.
9 December 2013 Quito, Ecuador
We planned to go on the cable car above the city and then hike to the top of the Guagua Pichincha volcano which is 4,794 metres high. Unfortunately, there was dense cloud cover and we couldn't see the top station for the cable car, so there was no point in going up there.
Instead, we walked to the Botanical Gardens (which were surprisingly interesting) and whiled away a few hours pottering around and having lunch. On the way back, I managed to find a shop selling HP ink cartridges for our printer – it’s only taken six months to find a colour one.
We had a lazy afternoon, chilling out in the hotel room after our exertions yesterday and then went for a Mexican meal in the evening – a nice relaxing day.
10 December 2013 Quito to Isinlivi, Ecuador
We were up at half past six and caught a taxi for the 45 minute trip to the Terminal Quitume bus station. It didn't take long to buy a ticket and within 10 minutes of arriving we were on a bus to Latacunga. The bus goes south along the Pan-American Highway through the Valley of the Volcanoes and I was hoping to get a good view of Cotopaxi and the other peaks in the area, but unfortunately it was very cloudy and we didn't see a bloody thing.
We arrived in Latacunga with two hours to spare before the bus to Isinlivi. Unfortunately, because we had our heavy luggage with us, we had to take turns to wander around while the other watched our bags. The bus station is on the outskirts of the large town, so we didn't see much of Latacunga, but we’we've been told that it’s not too bad around the main square where the hostels are located.
It wasn't too bad sitting on the bench in the bus station because it’s so fascinating to watch people. There’s a mixture of trendy young people walking around carrying iPads and poor villagers with tatty clothes and bare feet, carrying chickens.
The bus for Isinlivi left just after noon. It was a very interesting journey, passing through small towns and local villages. It’s obvious that many of the indigenous villagers are extremely poor and survive on subsistence farming – small fields growing maize and potatoes, with chickens and pigs. We were hoping to see Llamas and Alpacas, but didn't spot a single one.
At one stop, there was a bit of a commotion when an old lady wanted to get on board with a small pig. She was trying to get it into a small sack, which the pig took as a personal insult and started squealing like (errr…) a stuck pig. The bus conductor and driver gave her a hand and, after an epic struggle, they managed to get it all trussed up before unceremoniously tossing the poor animal into one of the luggage lockers under the bus.
We arrived at Isinlivi mid-afternoon and were dumped in the village square. After a bit of confusion, we soon found Hostel Llullu Llama, which is a very nice place. They gave us a very small room which barely fitted a double bed, but the place is very clean and the bed was comfortable. The hostel has enough beds for twenty or so people mostly in a large dormitory in the roof space. It’s a very nice place. The only downside was that the showers were cold.
The only other people staying are an American couple, Shaun and Kendra, who walked here from Sigchos, a small town that we passed through on the bus. They told us that the buses to Sigchos are more frequent than the two buses that go directly to Isinlivi.
We had a fabulous, filling evening meal – soup, salad and cottage pie – far more than we could eat. It was really cold in the evening, so we were grateful for the pot belly stove in the lounge – it was lovely to sit around chatting and sipping a cold beer.
Tomorrow, the plan is to hike to another hostel at Chugchilan, which is 12 kilometres away.
11 December 2013 Isinlivi to Chugchilan, Ecuador
We had a leisurely start to the day with breakfast at eight o'clock and very nice it was too – scrambled eggs, home made bread, a bowl of fruit, home made raspberry jam and a nice cup of tea. Llullu Llama is a nice hostel and a bargain at $21 per person for bed, breakfast and evening meal.
Our guide, Oswaldo, turned up at nine o'clock and soon had our two heavy rucksacks lashed onto his packhorse. The trail starts right next to the lodge and goes around one of the hills next to the village, down to a small river at 2,700 metres and then up to a pass at about 2,900 metres. This was our first hike at altitude and the thin air made itself felt. Fortunately, Oswaldo let me set the pace and he followed along behind Glenys, who was suffering with the altitude.
On the way, Oswaldo pointed out a small field of Chocho Plants, which he said are used to make beer. I looked this up on the internet and found out that this innocuous looking plant belongs to the Lupin family and the beans are being claimed to be a new “superfood” (although the Ecuadorians have been using it as part of their diet for centuries.) Disappointingly, I couldn't find any reference to beer being made from it.
The scenery was spectacular, especially when we arrived at the edge of the Rio Toachi Valley, where we had a fabulous view down to the river 300 metres below. Unfortunately, we knew that we had to descend into the valley and could see the very steep zigzagging path leaving up to the plateau on the other side of the valley.
The path down to the valley floor was very steep, with loose earth going down a narrow gully. God knows how the pack horse made it down in one piece. Once down in the valley, we crossed a very shaky suspension bridge (one at a time) and followed a dirt road along the edge of the river into a small village with a school, where we ate our packed lunch to fortify ourselves for the climb up to the plateau above us. Oswaldo had brought no food or water, so we shared some of ours with him.
The 300 metre ascent up the zigzag path was very tough - Glenys had a particularly hard time, whereas Oswaldo made it easier for himself by hanging onto the tail of his horse and letting it pull him up. Glenys made it to the top okay, but didn't recover (or smile) for five minutes.
After that it was a steady climb up to the village of Chugchilan at 3,200 meters, through a nice little valley and then along a dirt road. We arrived at the Cloud Forest Hostel at quarter past one, which was a reasonable pace at exactly four hours. When we arrived, some of the staff gathered around and stared in amazement at Glenys feeding an apple to the horse – they told us that they had never seen a horse eat fruit before.
Cloud Forest Lodge is pleasant, but basic. The place is a rabbit-warren of landings and stairs with hammocks hanging everywhere – it looks like the House that Jack Built. Jose, the owner is a nice guy, but speaks no English and his Spanish is very difficult to understand because he has a strange local accent, which makes things a little awkward. However, everyone is very friendly and the room given to us has a comfortable bed with our own bathroom.
After a nice cold beer and an even nicer hot shower, we had a quick wander around Chugchilan village, which took all of ten minutes because it’s tiny. That said, it was long enough for Glenys to buy an Alpaca shawl for only $8 in the local tienda. She probably should have haggled, but even at tourist prices, it was a bargain.
It was cold at night again, but this lodge doesn't have a nice comfortable lounge like Llullu Llama - there are a couple of rooms with fires but the only seating was benches without cushions . I suppose that I shouldn't complain because the showers are hot and it only costs $30 for a room with a private bathroom, breakfast and an evening meal.
12 December 2013 Chugchilan, Ecuador
After a surprisingly good breakfast, Glenys, I and two young German girls (Alina and Hanna) went in Jose’s pick-up truck to the Quilotoa volcano planning to hike back to the hostel. It was a one hour ride along dusty dirt roads and he only charged us $5 each. Quilotoa is a very small village perched on the edge of the rim of the huge Quilotoa - half of the buildings appear to be hostels or restaurants catering to the tourists who come to visit the volcano.
There’s a huge lake filling the bottom of the volcano crater and it’s very, very impressive, especially when the sun is shining as it was today. After staring at the crater for a while and taking lots of pictures, we set off along the trail which follows the edge of the crater for a few kilometres. The rim of the crater wanders up & down and the altitude of 3,800 metres made itself felt on any uphill sections. I still find it incredible that in the European Alps, any mountain approaching 4,000 metres is always covered in snow, whereas here we’re walking past green vegetation with flowers. I've been told that the snow line is over 5,000 metres here.
After half an hour, I spotted a very interesting looking path that went around the inside of the crater rather than following the top ridge. It didn't take much persuasion to get everyone to agree to give it a go. We descended from the crater rim about 300 feet down a very steep, loose path and then found ourselves on a narrow, but good path that slowly ascended. There was an impressive drop off down to the lake and we even had a short scramble up some rock. And even better, the path ended exactly at the point on the crater rim where we had to start descending down towards Chugchilan.
The descent down to the village of Guayamil was a little boring, down a wide zigzagging path - it would be even more tedious coming up though. We found some kind of gathering going on in the village – we weren't quite sure if it was religious or an award ceremony, but it was interesting to watch the locals in their traditional ponchos, shawls and felt hats. Hanna was quickly adopted by a small girl who sat on her knee for the fifteen minutes that we were there - this little two year old was wearing a traditional felt hat and looked ever so cute.
We followed a dirt road for ten minutes out of Guayamil and then came to a cliff edge with a very steep path leading down into the Rio Toachi Valley. It was an interesting zigzag path that led through some small gullys cut into the mountain side. We met a few locals walking up the path and also came across Shaun and Kendra who had been delayed after losing their way for two hours – they missed a small path on the road down from Chugchilan and were worried that they might not make it to Quilotoa before dark.
The steep path led down to a bridge over the Rio Toachi which is no more than a tiny stream – it’s amazing that this whole gorge has been formed by this (now) tiny river. We then had a one hour grind uphill to Chugchilan arriving back at the Hostel just after two o’clock. Glenys really suffered for the last hour with the altitude and the lack of any proper food on the way.
We had a nice Almuerzo lunch and then chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. Glenys has booked us onto a six hour horse ride tomorrow...
13 December 2013 Chugchilan, Ecuador
The horses turned up just after nine, and by coincidence, Hanna and Alina were going riding as well. We all set off up the street, with our guide, Vernando, chasing us on, so it was into a fast trot almost immediately. Normally, a guide will walk the horses for a while to get them warmed up, which also gives us time to get a feeling for the mannerisms of our horses, but not here...
We rode up the road following a sign for the “Bosques Nublado”, which means Cloud Forest. My horse turned out to be a cantankerous old bugger. It had a horrible jarring walk, a short bouncy trot and insisted on walking along the very edge of the road, about 6 inches from the steep drop off. Any attempt at correction was either ignored or produced bad tempered pulling and jigging.
Fortunately, we soon left the road and walked up a steep narrow path, so my horse couldn't wander about, allowing me to feel temporarily in control. Vernando took us to see the Cloud Forest valley, which was (errrr) covered in cloud and then a cheese “factory” which was a small building in the middle of nowhere with one guy working there. It cost us $1 each for a five minute tour of the two rooms and a taste of their cheese (which was very nice). It only costs $3 for a kilo of the freshly made soft cheese, but we couldn't buy any because we have no room in our luggage.
While we were at the cheese factory, we spotted our very first Llama, so the four of us terrorised the poor thing by surrounding it and taking photos. Apparently, there are a fair number of llamas in this area, but not many alpacas, although you can buy garments made from alpaca fibre everywhere. Before we re-mounted, Glenys foolishly agreed to swap horses and try to see if she could handle my stubborn horse – the rest of her ride was unpleasant...
We rode up to an ancient Inca ruin, of which, only the ground-works remain as a small hill. It’s completely covered in vegetation, but Vernando did a good job of describing how the Incas were slaughtered by the Spanish, who built big haciendas in the area and then, for 300 years, repressed the indigenous people until as recently as the 1980s.
On the way back, driven by our speed obsessed guide, we did lots of cantering and fast trotting, so we were all glad to arrive back at the hostel after five hours hard riding. The horses weren't as well trained as the ones that we rode at the Green Horse Ranch and obviously have had too many damn tourists sitting on them, so they have tough mouths and bad tempers. However, it only cost us $15 each, so it was a bargain.
Exhausted, I had a kip after lunch, while Glenys booked us into the Papagayo Hostel near to the Cotopaxi Volcano for a couple of nights and arranged to do another day’s ride, hopefully on better trained horses. Tomorrow, we’ll do a short hike and then the following day, we’ll catch a bus to Papagayo Hostel, which sounds a lot more luxurious than this one.
14 December 2013 Chugchilan, Ecuador
After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a hike that followed the some of the route that we rode along yesterday. It was a pleasant walk up a dirt road and then up a steep path to the top of a round hill. (We've got a detailed description in our Hiking Pages.)
I wasn't too impressed with the view yesterday, but today we had time to “stop and stare”. To the east there was a panoramic view of the Ecuadorian Andes including the snow covered Iliniza Sud, but to the west was thick cloud stretching off into the distance below us. Chugchillan is directly on the edge of the most western ridge of the Andes and there’s a vast plain stretching off to the Pacific Ocean. The slopes below us were covered in Cloud Forest. The contrast of the thick clouds to the west and the clear air to the east is amazing.
We continued on walking through a small village and got a little bit lost, ending up at the cheese factory that we visited yesterday. We retraced our steps and asked some of the locals the way, who confirmed that we should take a road that we’d already spotted outside the village. They looked at us Gringos like we were raving mad not to know the way to Chugchilan.
It was a very pleasant walk back down to the hostel. We got the timing right because the clouds rolled in as we descended, but we managed to stay ahead of the fog.
Instead of having Almuerzo at the hostal again, we walked into the village and bought some barbecued kebabs and boiled potatoes. The lady said that the kebabs were chicken, but it was the chewiest red meat that I have ever eaten – I think that it was some kind of offal from an unknown animal. Hopefully we won’t be ill tomorrow.
This evening, in a blinding bit of foresight, we remembered that tomorrow is Sunday and no alcohol is on sale, so we bought a bottle of beer and a bottle of wine to take with us when we travel to the next hostel. Glenys paid the bill at the hostel which was only $168 for four nights with full board and lots of beer – can’t be bad.