It´s a Party in Banos

Feb. 12-16:

Banos, half way down the eastern slopes of the Sierra towards the Amazon (Oriente), is always a tourist trap, but on Carnival weekend, it is a blast. Of course, the water balloons and spray foam are everywhere. Our open-air tourist bus to see the waterfalls was a target for sure - surprise, surpise! Even buckets of water were sent our way! The falls all down the steep valley sides are famous in this area and the new tourist activity of bridge jumping is entertaining to watch as well (with an emphasis on watch)! Live music, some good, lots fairly poor band music, has been blasting through the streets into the evenings and a parade with many groups of dancers in flashy costumes made our freezing cold Santa Claus parade seem a little tame. The streets, although busy, are safe. Vehicles rarely get a chance to get out of first gear as they weave their way through the streets. Sleeping is fine if you can tune out the party music and loud voices! One of us is more successful than the other...!

The Sierra of Chugchilan

Feb. 8-11:

We bused down from Otavalo, through the snazzy new bus station in Quito, to Latacunga and then up to Chugchilan. The ride through the Andean hills afforded amazing views of ancient indigenous farms, including grass roofed houses and steep fields high up the hillsides. The last 20 km from Quilatoa to Chugchilan felt quite adventurous, shall we say, with many steep ledges. Sue decided that the 10 km centuries old trail back to Quilatoa, which we had already talked about doing, would be a much better way out!

We loved Chugchilan. The countryside is breathtakingly beautiful, and quiet. We hiked the roads for 20 km in the vicinity of the Hostel Cloud Forest where we were staying, seeing more pedestrians, horses, cows, sheep and pigs than vehicles (6 all day). Sounds easy? No way. The hiking up hill, even on a road, at 3000 m is tough going. We climbed two large hills, i.e. takes over an hour just going up, and enjoyed the long walks down. Along the way, we got to "share" in our first carnival experience, all because Sue winked at a couple of boys walking by with water balloons! In the week leading up to Carnival, a pre-Lent celebration, everyone knows that they are targets for water balloons and spray foam from local school kids.

After sending a young Aussie out to scope our prospective hike to Quilatoa, we headed out the next day with a terrific guide, Barnardo. He acquainted us with many local medicinal and herbal plants and was encouraging as we huffed and puffed our way up to the crater edge. The day was sunny and clear and it was a terrific experience. Thanks Barnardo! We again had stunning views of the centuries old agricultural and sierra landscape down to Latacunga.

Otavalo Area

Feb. 1-7:

We spent one week in Otavalo, watching each morning as the market vendors carried heavy loads, pushed wobbly carts and set up frames for their awnings. The famed woven goods, sweaters, blankets and paintings are colourful and beautiful. We hired a guide through Runa Tupari Native Travel, a community based indigenous tour company, to visit three indigenous villages and at each one had a demonstration of their traditional weaving techniques and at one, flute construction and playing. We also saw the Peguche Waterfalls (cascades) and the Cuicocha collapsed volcano and lake. Cuicocha was beautiful, so we headed back up there the next day to hike around the lake. The so-called easy 4 hour hike was very challenging. Firstly, we were at an altitude of 3100m, then we found out that it is 14 km around the lake, and we had to climb another 500m on the route. After an hour of climbing, Sue was puffing hard and turned around. After 5 1/2 hours, Ian finished the hike. The views, both into the lake and of the surrounding valley, were stunning. We are going to stay at altitude for a few weeks now so that our future sierra hikes are a little less challenging!

The Riveras Welcome Us to El Cauchero

From Mindo, we went to visit Hector and Rosario Rivera, close friends of friends of ours in Peterborough, where they are busy adding an Ecotourism Hostel to the farm. Hector and Rosario treated us like old friends and we felt most welcome at El Cauchero (named after the native rubber tree). We were the first guests to stay in one of their new chalet type accomodations, which are lovely. We also enjoyed meeting all of their children, Daniel, Andrea and David, and eating Rosario's delicious local food!. Our Spanish improved immensely while we stayed with them because we were so eager to share stories and ideas. Danny was great, showing us around and acting as an interpreter when we reached language road blocks.

The property is Hector's childhood farm, located on the whitewater Guallabamba River. It is near the small town of El Chantal in the lower cloud forests of the sierra's western slope. Hector shared his extensive knowledge of local plant uses, history of the region, and the ancient ceremonial site of Tulipe. We hiked up the large hill on the property to gain beautiful vistas of the sierra region with tropical forests and small farms as far as we could see. We also went in the small waterfall in a lovely rock canyon along the way. Other highlights of the visit were going to see the oil birds (a strange nocturnal bird that is quite rare), hummingbirds in the garden, helping paint the kitchen, and visiting artesans who use rain forest tagua nuts to make and export jewellery. The Riveras were also very generous by giving us a ride back to Quito and putting us up in their city home too!




We had a tremendous time with the Riveras and will miss them dearly. Mucho gracios por todos!

The Rain Forests of Mindo

We spent 4 great days in the Mindo area exploring the local waterfalls and birding. We stayed at the Cabanas Armonia where we had our own cabin surrounded by luxuriant vegetation and an orchid garden with about 200 delicate varieties on display. We thought often of our friend Ben Taylor as we watched about 10 species

of hummingbirds at feeders at three different places. The long tailed sylphs with irridescent green and purple tails are hard to beat! We also enjoyed dinner with some local folks at hostelier Claudia's Rocherio.

On two separate days, we hired guide William from Bird of Paradise Guiding. The first day, we birded from the road (up) to the waterfalls and saw over 50 species including 2 species of toucans, mot mots and tanagers. We enjoyed the Butterfly Garden a

nd lunch after a full morning's birding. On the second day, we visited a private reserve ca

lled Parais de los Aves. The owner Angel is a farmer and now passionate birder who calls in many different birds from different places along the trails. He has a feeding routine, so we got to see many species up close that are usually very difficult to see. The bright yellow tanagers, toucans, hummingbirds and antpittas were particularly beautiful/interesting. We also saw two of the legendary Cock of the Rock birds that are fairly large, bright red birds. Famous empanadas on si

te for a later breakfast, too!