1 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We caught the bus to Canoa, a small sea side town about ten minutes along the coast. The buses go every half an hour and it’s only $1 each for the 30 minute journey. Canoa is a surfing place, so there are loads of surfers and hippies wandering around everywhere selling their silver and macramé jewellery. For some reason, there seems to be an abundance of small pipes and small pouches on sale...
We called in at a hostel called Coco Loco and found out that they can arrange horse riding with just an hour or so notice. A two hour ride costs £25 each and they’ll take us along the beach or inland around the fincas. Unfortunately, they couldn't arrange anything today because everyone (including the caballeros) has a hangover after a big parade and party last night!
We walked onto beach and came across a few old guys with four horses. They only charge $10 per hour, so Glenys couldn't resist. We went with a guide for a two hour ride in sandals and shorts. The horses were very responsive, but the tack was very basic – my saddle was made from carved wood with a tiny blanket to soften it up a bit. I felt a bit precarious perched on top of it and, after half an hour, I’d managed to rub the skin off one of my ankles – not pleasant.
We had a good canter along the beach and then went inland past shrimp farms and up into the hills, ending up on some impressive looking cliffs with a great view back to town. It was a fun ride, trotting and cantering whenever we wanted. The guide didn't mind us taking off ahead of him, which was a good job because my horse was loco.
Back in town, we went into one of the many restaurants for lunch. They brought out a full menu offering a variety of meals including cerviche and fried fish – all between $5 and $10. The secret in these places is to ask for Almuerzo, which is a set lunch normally consisting of soup followed by a plate of rice and beans with some meat or fish. We opted for Almuerzo and had a really nice tasting fish soup followed by fried fish with rice and beans. They also served us with some fruit juice that I think was fresh mango - a bargain for $3 each.
In the evening, we were invited over to “Sundancer” by Ron and Heather for a beer or five.
2 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We had an internet day today. Glenys was on a mission to organise an inland trip to Quito and the Valley of the Volcanoes, with horse riding and hiking. We’re planning to go later this week because there’s a festival running in Quito at the moment, which finishes on Friday, so it would be good to see that.
I wandered into town to send off some paperwork to a couple of banks in the UK – it cost me a massive $82 to send the four letters, but I can’t trust the post here or in the UK around Christmas. I also arranged to pick up a mooring tomorrow morning, so that Alba will be safe while we go on our road trip.
The mosquitos are a damn nuisance around here - we killed ten in our bedroom the other night. They’re fast little buggers – we’ve resorted to having mosquito netting up on all the windows and in the cockpit all the time. We’re also running small tablet heaters all day and night. We finally seem to have them under control now, but there always seems to be one lurking somewhere.
3 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We picked up our mooring in the morning. Each boat has a bow and stern mooring and we’re all lined up very close to each other, so it’s a bit of a shock when I look outside and see a boat only 5 metres away.
Glenys spent the rest of the day doing more planning on the Internet. She booked a hotel in Quito for five days and then went to the bus station to book tickets to get us there – it only cost $10 each for the 8 hour journey. I chilled out, playing the guitar and messing about on the internet.
We had David and Gita from “Aros Mear” over for cocktails and they’ve kindly said that they’ll drop us ashore when we go to Quito, so that we can leave our dinghy securely pulled up on our davits.
4 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
Glenys continued acting as a travel agent and booked us into two hostels that are in the area of the Quilotoa Volcano. The idea is that we’ll hike for five hours from one hostel to the other. However, we don’t want to be carrying our heavy luggage with us, so the hostel can transfer our luggage by road for $30 or alternatively we can hire a guide and a pack horse for the same price. It’s a no brainer – it will be much more interesting to spend the $30 on a pack horse.
We spent the rest of the day packing and getting the boat ready to leave it for two weeks on a mooring.
5 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques to Quito, Ecuador
We were up at half past six and finished of the few small jobs on the boat, switching things off and closing sea cocks. David from “Aros Mear” picked us up and dropped us ashore and then we caught a local bus to the bus station.
The Quito bus left on time, the only hassle was that the woman checking the tickets wouldn’t let us take both of our small rucksacks on board. I admit that they were rather jam packed, but the bus was half empty. Anyway, we had to do a bit of panic repacking leaving our netbook and some other valuable items in my rucksack which went into the luggage hold – a bit worrying.
The trip to Quito is interesting because the landscape changes as one travels from the coast into the high mountains – Quito is at 2,800 metres altitude. At the coast, the vegetation is quite arid with thousands of shrimp farms dotted around - I believe that Ecuador is one of the largest producers of farmed shrimp in the world. As we gained altitude, the landscape became more verdant with crops of bananas and then to Cloud Forest, which looks similar to Rain forest. As we approached Quito the landscape became more dry and mountainous.
The bus stopped several times in the eight hour journey – once for lunch where we had a massive meal for $3 each. The other stops were at various towns, where vendors would be let on board to allow us to indulge in a bit of street food – Pan de Yuca, pastries, fruit, etc. There was no way that we were going to starve.
Quito is in a valley formed by volcanos and the city sprawls along the valley floor with over two million inhabitants. It’s an impressive sight looking down into the valley as the bus comes over the mountain ridge.
The bus dropped us off on a street corner somewhere in the middle of the sprawling city. I was quite relieved to find that our two big rucksacks and my small rucksack were still in the luggage hold. We took a cab for $4 to the Hotel Antinea in the Mariscal area of town (also called the New Town). The hotel is very nice. It’s a small colonial type hotel with 15 or so rooms and costs $70 per night for a double room with continental breakfast. The receptionist speaks very good English and is very helpful.
We unpacked and went out for a walk around the bustling streets. Tomorrow is Quito’s Founders Day which celebrates the creation of the city by the Spanish in 1534. The whole place has been in party mode for past week, so there were bands playing in various squares and loads of people wandering about having a good time. We watched a rock band play a few Oasis numbers and another band that were playing Latin American music with a great brass section. There are loads of restaurants in the area, but we’d eaten so much during that day that we satisfied ourselves with some Nachos and a couple of tacos in a small bar.
6 December 2013 Quito, Ecuador
Our grand plan was to go to a bull fight today, despite the fact that the Ecuadorian government has recently caved into the animal rights people and banned the killing of bulls. A series of bull fights had been arranged over four days with the final day today. Unfortunately, because of lack of attendance and hassle from the anti-bull fighting organisations, the bull fight today was cancelled. It’s a shame because I was looking forward to watching the horse riding and the overall pomp and ceremony. It may be that we’ve missed our last chance to see a real bull fight.
Instead, we went shopping for a pair of hiking boots for Glenys because the soles fell off her old ones in Costa Rica. There are a few outdoor activity shops in Quito, so she’d bought a pair by lunchtime. As we wandered about, I tried to find somewhere to buy some printer cartridges and a camera battery, but a lot of shops were closed because it’s a holiday – just my luck.
We came across a bunch of stalls selling food on a busy crossroads. It was a very festive affair with packed tables and loud music. We bought our lunch from one of the barbecue stalls and it was the most meat that I’ve ever seen on a single plate - four types of sausage, a piece of chicken, three small potatoes, a tough bit of corn cob, a token bit of lettuce and a plate-sized piece of barbecued pork sitting on top of it all.
Stuffed with enough protein to last a week, we caught a cab to the old town and wandered around the streets with thousands of locals enjoying the day. It was pleasant enough, but just another city. In the evening, we joined the crowds lining the Avenue de Amazons to watch a big parade, but it absolutely threw it down, forcing us to escape to an Italian restaurant for a pizza – carbohydrates to offset all the protein that we had for lunch.
7 December 2013 Quito, Ecuador
We had an early start and took a taxi cab to the North Bus station (Terminal Carcelen) to catch a bus to Otavalo Market. The first cab that we got into said that it was going to cost us $10; then quickly dropped to $8 when I argued; and finally dropped to $7 as we climbed out of the cab – robbing bastard. The next taxi driver agreed $5 for the trip. I know taxi fares are low here in Ecuador, but even I was getting embarrassed after we’d been driving for 30 minutes and still hadn’t arrived. The bus to Otavalo was even cheaper at $2 each for the two hour journey.
The Otavalo market is huge and is a mixture of items for locals and stuff for tourists like Llama hats, Llama blankets, Llama dolls, Llama hoodies, Llama jewellery, etc, etc. I wasn’t too impressed because I was hoping for a more “local” market with some animals, but Glenys had a good time and bought some earrings and a cowboy hat ready to go riding tomorrow. The only thing that I bought was a lovely little gourd which has been intricately etched and painted with (errrr) Llamas and other stuff.
I found out later that the animal market is a couple of miles away, although we did see a guy driving a small gaggle of geese through the market. It was interesting to see the way that the geese threaded their way through the crowds without scattering. They even had some small goslings among them.
The highlight for me was watching the local people. This was the first time that we’d seen the indigenous locals. They wear a variety of clothing – ponchos and felt hats are in abundance, while some of the ladies were stepping out with lovely white embroidered blouses. The most striking thing is that the older locals are so tiny – between 4 and 5 feet tall, and they look so weather beaten and ancient. They also carry heavy loads on their backs which are slung in a blanket. I watched one old lady, who was only 4’6” tall, haggle to buy a huge, 3 foot diameter, 2 foot deep pan and then promptly sling it on her back and stagger off.
Back in Quito, we went to a local bar and tried a Micheada, which is the trendy drink around here. It’s made from beer mixed with lime juice, Worcester sauce, hot chilli sauce and served in a glass rimmed with salt – pretty horrible and a total waste of beer.
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.
15 December 2013 Chugchilan to Machachi, Ecuador
We walked up to the village at half past eight ready to catch the nine o'clock bus to Latacunga. By quarter past nine, there was no sight of a bus, but there were lots of locals coming into town on various trucks, so we were kept occupied by watching people. Many of the ladies were dressed up in their Sunday best with white knee length socks, shawls and the inevitable felt hats. Quite a few of the men joined in a game of Ecu-volleyball - interesting to see forty year old men playing street volleyball, it’s a very popular game here.
The bus finally turned up at quarter to ten, all the locals poured off and a few of us gringo backpackers climbed aboard. It took three hours to drive to Latacunga and although the road was bumpy and winding, time soon passed. The highlight for me was watching the conductor deal with a guy with a sheep. The conductor had to rearrange the underside luggage locker to free up some space and the owner of the animal then pushed & squeezed the poor animal in before slamming the door. Fortunately, no one wanted to get into that locker until we arrived in Latacunga.
Once in Latacunga bus station, it didn't take long to get a bite to eat and board the next bus towards Quito, which was soon speeding North along the three-lane Pan-American Highway – a massive change from the dirt roads that we’we've been on for the past five days. We needed to get off a few miles before the town of Machache - it’s always a bit nerve wracking wondering if you’re going to miss your stop, but the conductor was on the ball and the bus stopped right opposite the turning for the Papagayo Hostel.
The hostel is nice, but for $75 per night, they just haven’t got it right. The main problem is that it’s bloody cold. They should have their heating going as soon as the temperature drops in the afternoon. I asked for a pot belly stove to be lit in the lounge area. One of the staff grumpily had a go, but they only had large, wet logs, which didn't catch fire, so he gave up. I was a little pissed off having to sit in a fleece and goose down gilet in this “luxury” hostel.
It was even colder in the restaurant - it's not right to be sitting in a nice restaurant wearing outdoor clothing. I asked for a gas fire to be lit, but there was only one burner out of three working, so the fire made little impact on the room while we were in there. Also the food was very poor, I had a lasagna with garlic bread, which turned out to be a single slice of thin white bread that had been slightly toasted with no sign of any garlic. This experience did not make us want to try any of the more expensive dishes.
The manager, Raul, is from Cuba and we had a long chat with him. He’s only been here for a week and seems to be struggling with providing the requisite level of service. It sounds like they’re short staffed and he’s been brought in to sort out the issues.
16 December 2013 Machachi to Quito, Ecuador
We had an awful night. There are four or five dogs that live at the hostel, which are very nice, but they bloody things woke us up four times during the night, barking outside our window. I don’t think that they were barking at anything in the grounds, but were hearing other dogs barking in the distance and having a bit of a conversation – nice for them, but not for us.
By morning, I was really annoyed with the place, so we decided to leave for Quito later in the day – - why be cold, have a poor quality evening meal and then have a sleepless night?
We went horse riding after breakfast, which was very good. The horses were very “forward going” and well trained. Before we left the hostel, we were given the opportunity to ride around a paddock to get used to the horses, which was a good job. Glenys was given a horse called “Montana”, which was very highly strung and twitchy. She nearly got thrown off the damn thing, so she insisted on changing it. Her next horse, “Achilles” was feisty, but at least was controllable.
Our guide for the day, Xavier, was a "Chagra" (the name for the local cowboys) who was wearing an impressive pair of chaps made from Llama. He led us up the lower slopes of Corazon, which is one of the many volcanoes in the “Valley of the Volcanoes”. Unfortunately, the cloud was really low, so we only got one fleeting glimpse of the peak of Cotopaxi, which was only 20 kilometres away across the plains. We did lots of really nice, slow, controlled cantering, which I loved, but Glenys was struggling because she's pulled something in her back when wrestling with “Montana” earlier.
Back at the hotel, we checked out and I promised to send Raul an email saying why we were leaving a day early. We’re still planning to come back here in January, to do some more horse riding and climbing, so we hope that they will have improved things by then.
One of the staff dropped us off at the toll booth on the Pan-American Highway, where we were able to quickly catch a bus back into Quito and then a taxi back to the Hotel Antinea. Once settled in, we walked to the nearby bus station and booked a ticket for the bus back to Bahia de Caraques tomorrow and then went out for a Mexican meal, which was very bland (“Red Hot Chili Peppers” is much better.)
17 December 2013 Quito to Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
The bus for Bahia didn't leave until midday, so I walked around to see Gulliver’s Travels, who own the Papagayo Hostel. I asked a load of questions about a five day climbing trip and a 3 day horse riding trip for Glenys. The lady was very helpful and I came away ready to book some trips with them in January.
The bus trip to Bahia was boring – an eight hour bouncy ride. While at the bus station, we spotted Dominique from “Kea” and caught up on the past three months. He and his wife (also called Dominique) have just spent three months travelling in Peru, Chile and Argentina, so he was keen to get back to the boat. Back in Bahia, we had something to eat in the marina restaurant and hitched a lift back to Alba from the night watchman (and pilot), Pedro, when he did his nine o'clock patrol of the mooring field.
Everything looks fine on the boat, we've had a great two weeks, but it’s nice to be back home.
18 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We had a lie-in and then pottered about for the day. I spent a few hours planning our next trip inland, trying to work out the logistics for Glenys to do four days’ horse riding and me to climb Cotopaxi. We’ll hike the Quilotoa loop again, then do the climbing & horse riding at Papagayo Hostel before heading further south down towards Peru. It’ll be a three week road trip in January.
Glenys had to clean out both of the fridges – we’d turned one off while we were away, so it had grown a little mouldy and the other one needed defrosting. Her back is still hurting today, so it was a bit of a mission for her to keep stretching down to the bottom of our deep, top-loading fridges.
We wandered into town to get some groceries and had some trouble with our bank cards. Both of our debit cards were blocked by a cash machine and, strangely, the supermarket wouldn’t accept any of our credit cards because they’re chip and pin cards – it’s the first time that we’ve come across this. Glenys managed to get our debit cards unblocked when we got back to the boat – thank God for Skype, otherwise it would have cost us a fortune to ring the UK bank.
We've now nearly run out of fresh water in our on-board tanks. This is the last of the good water from Costa Rica and we can’t run our water maker here because the water is horribly dirty and full of silt. Consequently, we’re going to have to fill up with water from the marina by carrying jerry jugs. The water from the marina is supposed to have extra treatment and will be okay for cooking and showers, but we don’t want to drink it, so we’re going to have to buy big 20 litre bottles of drinking water – it only costs $1.75 for 20 litres, so it isn't too painful.
I transferred our photographs on to my laptop and discovered that I've got over 300 pictures to review and edit - that will take a while. In the evening, I played the guitar for the first time for two weeks and found that my fingertips have become soft already, so I had to give up after 30 minutes - very frustrating.
19 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
I had a planning day, creating a To-Do list of all the jobs that we need to do before we leave Bahia. There’s quite a few projects that we’ve been putting off like varnishing and deck work that we’ve not been able to do in the wet weather that we had in Panama. I managed to avoid actually doing any jobs, but I’ll have to start tomorrow.
Glenys is still suffering from a bad back, so she spent most of the day browsing the internet and reading. She went over to chat to Alan on “Victoria” and we’ve been invited to spend Christmas Day with some ex-pats that he knows which will be nice.
We’d heard that there’s a guy who sells cheap booze from the back of a van on Thursday evenings, so we walked into town to find him. It was easy enough because there was a crowd of ex-pats huddled around the van buying alcohol – this seems to be a weekly meeting point for the various Canadians and Americans who have moved here. The German guy selling the booze owns a restaurant in San Clemente, which is 20 kilometres south of here, and the cheap liquor is a small side line of his. We bought a couple of bottles of rum for $3.50 each, which seems a bargain.
20 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
A couple of days ago, I sent an email to our agent, Bolivar, in the Galapagos asking him for advice because our Ecuadorian visas will expire just after we arrive in the Galapagos and I want to know if we should go through the pain and expense of extending our visas before we leave main land Ecuador. Bolivar doesn’t speak any English, but he uses some kind of a translation tool to communicate in English. This morning I received a response from him - “Passports selles NO output in Ecuador blanket, I'll help you in Galapagos”. What on earth does that mean? I send him a reply back asking him to give me more details, but next time in Spanish.
I managed to avoid doing any jobs apart from lugging a few jerry jugs of water from the dinghy dock. Instead I booked a 5 day climbing tour in January when I’ll attempt to climb 3 mountains finishing off with Cotopaxi (5,896m). I also booked four days of horse riding for Glenys and our accommodation.
Glenys spent most of the day, resting her back and planning the second half of our next road trip by looking at what we can do in the southern part of Ecuador. She made some Pan de Yuca rolls, which were consumed with great gusto, when we cracked open a cold beer in the evening.
21 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
I had a rush of blood to the head and went for a run this morning. The prospect of five days’ hiking and climbing has put the fear of God into me and I need to get aerobically fit. There’s a huge white cross standing on a hill above Bahia, which has steps inside it giving a panoramic view of the town and the peninsula. I managed to run for fifteen minutes and then walked up the steep winding road to the viewpoint. My aim is to be able to run all the way up the hill to the top of the cross - I reckon that it’s one kilometre up. It will be a “Rocky” moment if I can achieve my goal.
I've pulled a muscle under one of my shoulder blades, which gave me some pain while running. I suspect that I pulled it lifting the 20 Kg water containers onto our deck yesterday – stupid idiot. It’s five foot from the dinghy to the deck, so we’re going to start using the spinnaker halyard to haul the heavy jerry cans on deck instead of me snatch-lifting it over my head from a rocking dinghy.
I managed to motivate myself to do some jobs this afternoon – I've re-fitted a couple of brackets on the stern toe rail and the Hydrovane that will allow me to connect a small auto-pilot to the Hydrovane auxiliary rudder. This will let us use the small Hydrovane rudder to steer the boat if the main rudder fails. It’s not that I'm lazy, but I removed the bracket over two years ago, when we fitted our stern arch, and I've only just got around to refitting it.
There’s a lot of dust and grime building up on the boat, so while I was messing around at the back of the boat, I suddenly decided to wash down the solar panels. Not thinking, I climbed up the arch without turning off our wind generator and, as I stood up, I stopped the spinning four foot diameter blades with the top of my head. I was really lucky because the fibreglass blades didn't cut my scalp – I've just got a couple of big lumps on my head now. These high speed blades are pretty dangerous, we met a guy in the West Indies who had broken his arm in three places, by doing a similar thing – I was very lucky this time.
We went over to “Aros Mear” for sun-downers and met Buzz and Maureen from “Encore”.
22 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
My legs were stiff and aching this morning, so I did some light stretching and didn't go running – the last thing that I want is to injure myself.
Our friends Chris and Anne from “Mr Mac” sent us an e-Christmas card, which made me realise that there’s only three sleeps to Christmas Day and we haven’t sent out any Christmas emails. It took me a couple of hours to find a Photoshop template for our e-Christmas Card and merge it with my favourite photo from 2013. Once I had the card made, we then had to write and send out a hundred or so emails to family and friends, which took most of the day.
In the evening, all the cruisers met up in the marina restaurant for sun-downers. The restaurant is closed on Sundays, so Tripp and his wife are happy for us to make use of the tables and chairs. People from ten boats attended, so it was a good session. Every one brought some nibbles and there was a good selection of food – I particularly liked the hard-boiled Quails Eggs that somebody bought in town for $0.10 each (cooked and peeled). Apparently, quails eggs are a popular snack here in Ecuador – I’ll be keeping my eye out for them in the market.
23 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
Only two sleeps until Christmas. I went running this morning again. My legs were aching for the first five minutes, but I paced myself and managed to run the route and then 100 metres up the hill. That’s 10% of my goal. The rest of the day was spent running errands and doing small jobs.
In the afternoon, we walked into town to do some shopping. It was heaving with people rushing around doing their last minute Christmas shopping – just like everywhere else in the world. Glenys and I have agreed that we’re only allowed to spend $10 on presents for each other mostly because we've already got too much stuff on the boat, so we split up and went off to find our gifts. I did quite well, spending exactly $10 on four presents.
We had lunch in one of the restaurants on the sea front, which was a very filling Almuerzo Tipico for $3 each. We then went food shopping and by the time that we’d got back to the boat it was mid-afternoon and too late to start any serious jobs – oh well!
24 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
Being Christmas Eve, I had a rest from running. Charlotte from “Salamander” came over and told us that there’s a 4 kilometre run in town on the 28th December, so I've entered both of us. This will be a bit of a shock for Glenys’ body because she hasn't been running for nearly two years
I ran some wiring through the aft lazarette to change the antenna cable for the SSB radio and also to provide 12V power to the tiller pilot for the Hydrovane. It all went pretty well although it’s very claustrophobic lying in the narrow lazarette locker.
In the evening, Alan from “Victoria” invited all the cruisers in the bay over for Christmas Eve drinks. It was a good do and we didn't get home until after one o'clock.
25 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
Only spending $10 each on each other’s Christmas presents worked quite well and was fun. I got a small bum bag and a huge Toblerone – Glenys confessed to overspending a little, but having received a nice slab of chocolate, I wasn't complaining. Glenys received a couple of small egg-shaped maracas, a little snow-storm toy, a plastic box to hold her collection of small shells and a packet of three Ferrero Roche balls. She immediately noticed that one of the chocolate balls was missing, so I explained that I HAD to eat one because the pack of three cost $1.50 and I was going to overspend by $0.50 …
After breakfast, we went with some other cruisers to the apartment of a local ex-pat (Alberto) for brunch, which was very pleasant – French toast, fruit salad and Buck’s Fizz. Glenys and I then went for a long walk along the beach under the impressive cliffs. We also visited the local school, which (strangely) looks after a huge Galapagos Tortoise called Miguelito. This animal has been living at the school for over 70 years and is estimated to be over one hundred years old.
Later in the afternoon, we joined ten other cruisers for Christmas dinner in the Puerto Amistad restaurant. It was disappointing – a buffet with a pork dish that was tasteless. I wish that we’d stayed in and had some roast chicken by ourselves. However, on the plus side, in the evening, we watched a James Bond Movie – it’s a tradition!
26 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
Gasp, Shock, Horror! I actually got Glenys out for a run – it’s only two days to the Fun Run, so she was motivated to come out for a training run. Unfortunately, by the time that we’d got up to the cross, the sole of one of her running shoes fell off, so in the afternoon, she had to go and find a cobbler to get it repaired.
It was a pleasant day and not too hot, so I did some work on our teak deck. I've not done anything on it for over a year and found that we had over 60 screws showing. I removed each screw, drilled a deeper hole and replaced the screw with some sealant to stop water penetrating the deck. I now need to glue in some teak plugs and then trim them flush with the deck planking. It’s a laborious, but pleasant little job that took me most of the day.
Somehow, over the past couple of days, I've managed to sprain my wrist. It’s not enough to stop me doing jobs on the boat, but it aches like mad if I play my guitar for more than fifteen minutes. Oh Miser!
27 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
I finally managed to sort through and edit all of the 300 photographs, which I've been putting off for more than a week now – it took all morning.
In the afternoon, we went to pay our registration fee for the Fun Run, picked up Glenys’s repaired running shoe and bought some more food. It was very busy in town, with people rushing around, getting ready for New Year’s Eve - we’re told that a lot of the apartments here are owned by wealth Ecuadorians who live in Quito and only come out for major holidays.
The street vendors are starting to sell papier mache effigies, which Ecuadorians burn on New Year’s Eve. This tradition is symbolic of cleansing the bad from the previous 12 months before the New Year commences. The effigies are often people who have been part of an important event during the year, so politicians are common, and I've been told that a very popular effigy this year is the footballer who let in the goal in the World Cup match against arch-rivals Peru. However, most of the effigies that we saw today were superheroes and cartoon characters, which are obviously targeted at children.
On the way back to the boat, we bought half a dozen Pan de Yuca rolls from an old lady who sells them every afternoon across the road from Puerto Amistad. Glenys boiled up some Quail’s Eggs and served them up with the Pan de Yuca as an aperitif with our evening beer – very decadent.
28 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We were up early to go for the Fun Run. It was a well-attended event with a few hundred participants, but the only other cruiser to participate was Charlotte from “Salamander”.
It was only 4 kilometres, but it was a demanding course. The first kilometre was along the Malecon to get warmed up and then down onto the beach running along next to rocks underneath the sea wall. The tide was coming in, so at times we were wading through knee deep waves or scrambling on slippery rocks. The beach eventually turned dry, which was even harder - ploughing through deep heavy sand.
To make it even more difficult, the organisers had put out some small obstacles – crawling under ropes, running through tyres, etc. By the time that we were taken back onto the road, I was knackered and had sand in my eyes, so the last kilometre was tough even though it was just on normal road.
Once through the finish line, the nicest sight was a fire engine, which was hosing down the hot, grimy runners – fabulous. All three of us survived the race without injury, but the sole pulled off one of my running shoes and another one of Glenys’s. Both sets of shoes are scrap. It’s very strange that we’ve now had three pairs of shoes self-destruct – perhaps it’s the heat and humidity?
We went out for an Almuerzo Tipico lunch at another one of the sea front restaurants and then went shopping for running shoes. Glenys managed to find a pair, but I was unsuccessful because my feet are too big – no one sells shoes larger than 44. I’ll have to make do with a pair of approach shoes that I’ve got tucked away somewhere on board.
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and watched another James Bond film in the evening – perhaps we’ll get through all 23 of them before we leave here.
29 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
It was a pleasant day, so I went around the deck and epoxied 60 teak plugs into the holes left after my efforts a couple of days ago. When the glue's set, I’ll chisel off the surplus, but for now we've got lots of nasty toe stubbing plugs sticking ¼” out of the deck, so I've marked them all with blue masking take to make them obvious.
Glenys wandered into town and noticed that there was an inordinate amount of bright yellow women’s underwear on sale. She googled it when she got back and discovered another Ecuadorian New Year tradition. Women wear coloured underwear on New Year’s Eve to bring them luck for the year - red is supposed to bring love, yellow brings wealth.
We were invited over to “Viatrix” by Mauricio and Vanya for evening drinks. They’re heading up to Panama in January, so we gave them some of the information that we've accumulated over the past six months.
30 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
It was a miserable day with a drenching, steady drizzle. I went for run first thing in the morning - up to the Cross again, but I only managed to run up the steep hill as far as last time I went out. I'm not sure whether I'm going to achieve my “Rocky” moment.
There was no chance of working outside on the deck, so we had a day lurking down below. “Salamander” and I swapped some films and music – they had over 200 films that we haven’t seen, so I spent a few hours copying stuff onto our hard disks and starting to reorganising it all because I'm running out of space now. I can't believe that I've filled three terabytes of disk space with my junk.
The rain stopped in the afternoon, so we went food shopping and then walked back into town to watch a parade in the evening. It wasn't exactly up to Disney World standards, but they had some nice floats depicting various Disney themes and fairy tales. We enjoyed it for an hour and retired back to the boat.
31 December 2013 Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador
We didn't have a good night sleep because the Puerto Amistad restaurant had a big party last night with incredibly loud music until dawn – these Ecuadorians know how to party.
We had a quiet day pottering about. I trimmed off the sixty teak plugs in the deck and found another dozen loose plugs in the side deck, so I've re-seated the screws – this is turning into a Sisyphus job.
We had dinner on-board and stepped out at nine o'clock with Mauricio and Vanya from “Viatrix”. There was a huge crowd gathered along the Malecon by the beach to watch the fireworks, which were very good, being set off from a sand bank in the middle of the estuary which dries at low tide.
After the fireworks, everyone started to leave, so we wandered around to the other side of the peninsula to the skateboard park where there was a huge crowd gathering. There were lots of food stalls, so we had a portion of chicken and chips and wandered around. Glenys spotted some stalls that were selling “Canelazo” which is a hot spiced drink laced with Aguardiente. They sell the stuff in old beer bottles and make a big show of showing you the amount of Aguardiente that they are putting into the bottle. The typical mixture is 25% Aguardiente to 75% fruit punch – pretty potent stuff.
The local kids (mostly boys) were running around all night armed with cheap (and very dodgy looking) fireworks, which they were setting off everywhere. There were several stalls selling firecrackers and other exploding firework – I assume that they are very cheap because the kids were running rampant.
At midnight, there was the usual cheering, fireworks and hugs. Then the locals started to burn the effigies that they’d been carrying around all night. It wasn’t as manic as I expected, but there were fires in all sorts of places – on the beach, at the side of the road and a major bonfire in the middle of the busiest road junction in town. The policemen riding around on motor bikes just ignored the lot…
We gave up at two o’clock, but the music and partying carried on until dawn.