Ecuador: Quito to Guayaquil

I have to correct my earlier post.  I was not at Santurario de Las Lajas for Easter Sunday, but for Palm Sunday (the beginning of Holy Week in Latin America).

I arrived in Quito, Ecuador, at the crack of dawn on an overnight bus and immediately jumped aboard another bus bound for Latacunga, a city near the middle of the country in the Andes Mountains.  It was to be a good jumping off point for visiting some of the sites in the area.  Latacunga is a surprisingly large city.  I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't that.  There are many churches in the city (like most Latin American towns), which light up at night and make for some really beautiful nighttime sightseeing.  The city locks up at night and finding restaurants, bars, cafes and the like after 9 p.m. proved to be a rather difficult task.

While in Latacunga, my friend and I wanted to see Quilotoa, a crater lake that is renowned for it's emerald green waters.  Quilotoa didn't disappoint.  It is the second most beautiful crater lake I've ever visited (second, of course, to my home state's Crater Lake).

There are some quaint small villages surrounding the laguna and the Ecuadorian people are dressed in their traditional garb, giving the villages a very "real" feel.  We stopped so my friend could try a local dish: chicken feet.  Ewww!

Also, my friend wanted to go hiking on Cotopaxi (the second highest peak in Ecuador, I believe), but because of my bum knees I couldn't make the trek.  I was hoping to catch a ride up the mountain and bike down.  Unfortunately, I was the only person who wanted to go that day, so the fee would've been $90.  I passed on it and relaxed.

After Latacunga, my friend and I ventured to Baños, another city in the Andes.  We were in the middle of Holy Week.  Holy Week is a major tourist period for travelers and locals alike, and finding accommodations and buses can be difficult.  Fortunately, we didn't have any problems with buses, but accommodations were a different story.  We thought we'd made reservations at the hostel in which we wanted to stay (we arrived the Thursday before Easter Sunday, at the height of Holy Week travelers), but discovered upon arrival that our reservations didn't go through.  We had to scramble a little to find accommodations, but we managed to find a place (well, one place for one night, another place for another night, then back to the original place for two nights...whew!).

Baños, so named because of its many thermal baths, wasn't a place I was sure would be worth the trip.  Before going there, I honestly thought, "what's so special about the thermal baths?  Is that all there is to do there?"  Boy was I wrong!  I adore Baños!  The town has lots of character.  Sure, maybe it was because we were there for the tail end of Holy Week, but there were lots people and excitement buzzing around the town.  The market in the town square had more color than I'd seen in one location in quite a while. The church in the middle of the city is really worth the visit: I've never seen an altar so golden!  It is intricate and delicate and beautiful.

Banos from a hilltop:

One of the days in Baños a group of us went on a long walk to one of the thermal baths.  The baths are strange.  People have built cement walls around the areas where the water comes out of the ground to create pools of varying temperatures.  The water ranges from sort of murky to downright opaque, with the more opaque pools emitting a strange odor similar to sulfur or dirt or God only knows what.  None of us felt exactly clean after our "baths," but it was worth the experience.  Afterwards, we took a cab ride up one of the surrounding mountains to get a better view of Vulcan Tungurahua and to try our luck at "The Swing at the End of the World."  The swing is on a precipice similar to a canyon but with a gentler slope; you swing out over the canyon (for lack of a better word) into a sort of abyss.  I wasn't sure that I would actually have the nerve to do it (I'm afraid of heights a bit), but I'm glad I did!  It was exhilarating and we all had a blast.

On another occasion, my friend and I took a bus tour of the Avenue of Waterfalls.  OK, remember what I said in a previous post about waterfalls being awesome no matter how many you've seen?  Well, these were no exception.  Because of the high mountains, the waterfalls around Baños are some of the most stunning.  Perhaps the sheer number of waterfalls in the area is what's so impressive, or maybe it's the size of the waterfalls, but either way these waterfalls literally had my jaw dropping at various points throughout the tour.

From Baños, my friend and I made our way to Guayaquil.  Guayaquil was more of a stopover than anything, because our flight to Galápagos Islands would depart from there.  Nonetheless, we gave ourselves a couple days to explore the city and I can't say I'm disappointed.  We came upon a park known for the many iguanas just roaming around.  It's strange to me that the first thing you hear about the park is about the iguanas, and not about the huge church directly facing the park.  Anyway, the rumors of the iguanas were true.  They were everywhere...and hanging out with the local pigeons as well.  So weird.

My favorite part about Guayaquil were a couple of twin hills with buildings painted in every color of the rainbow, giving the appearance that the hills themselves were painted.  My friend and I climbed 444 steps (no, I didn't count each step, they are numbered) to the top of one of the hills, affording us a panoramic view of the city at sunset.  It was worth every step and my knees now seemed to be doing considerably better.

After Guayaquil, we boarded a plane bound for the Galápagos Islands.....

San Agustín to the Ecuador Border

San Agustín, Colombia, is famous for its stone statues.  It's a World Heritage Site.  I figured, why not?  A friend of mine and I left Bogotá for San Agustín on an overnight bus and arrived early the next morning.  The town is actually bigger than either of us anticipated (bigger than Salento), but it's still small enough to walk most of the city in an hour or two.  We were greeted at the "bus station" (really just the side of the road where the bus driver told us to get off) by tour operators and hostel representatives.  It was a bit overwhelming for us weary-eyed travelers, so we grabbed a cup of coffee to mull over where to stay and what to do with our time there.  After deciding on a lovely hostel about a 15-minute walk up a dirt road to a hill with sweeping views of the valley and town below, we decided to head to head to the archaeological park.

Parque arqueológico de San Agustín contains statues carved in stone that depict fictional animals and maybe gods to the people that carved the sculptures.  The statues are part of burial plots hidden in seemingly man-made hills, complete with tombs and sarcophaguses.  The stone artifacts were discovered in the early 20th Century, if my memory serves correct.  Archaeologists had to dig out the stone statues and some still have stains from the dirt.  It's a very fascinating self-guided tour that took us three hours.  Sadly, the museum connected with the park was closed when we were there, but we still saw enough of the artifacts to appreciate the history of the area.

My friend and I also took a jeep tour of the surrounding area to visit a few more archaeological parks with similar stone statues and see some amazing landscape.  The river that runs nearby narrows from about 10 meters (roughly 32 feet) to about two meters (roughly 6.5 feet) into a gorge of stone.  It's quite impressive.  We also saw some amazing waterfalls.  I've marveled since that day at how water falling over a cliff can be so beautiful -- no matter how many waterfalls you see, they are somehow still all impressive and leave one feeling awed.

After San Agustín, I found a new travel companion and we headed to Pasto, Colombia together, on our way to the Ecuadorian border.  We traveled on a road called the Trampoline of Death (I know my mother isn't very happy reading this...lol), which is a one-lane dirt and gravel road that zigzags and circles and twists through the mountains, leaving little to no room to pass traffic going the other direction.  It supposedly rivals Death Road in Bolivia.  Several times our bus had to back up to an area with sufficient room to allow oncoming traffic to pass.  There are no guardrails (unless you count caution tape!!) and there are sheer drops on one side of the bus at all times.  Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, I found it thrilling, beautiful and impressive.

Pasto was just an overnight stop necessitated by bus schedules and timing.  Still, we were nearing Easter Sunday and the town was getting ready for its festivities when we arrived.  The next morning was Easter Sunday and it seemed that the entire city was celebrating and heading to church.  My new friend and I eventually made it to the bus station, bound for Ipiales (the border town).  While in line buying tickets, we met two Colombian people headed the same way and decided to travel with them to Las Lajas, a church that defies description near Ipiales.

Santurario de Las Lajas is one of the most impressive churches I've ever seen.  Legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared to a local girl in the 1700s near the present-day location of the church.  In fact, the church was constructed in it's specific location because of the appearance of the Virgin.  It has spires that rival European architecture and spans across a river canyon.  The inside of the church is stunning and huge.  As it was Easter Sunday when we arrived, we got the full feel of the throngs of people that flock to the historical church because of it's supposed legendary healing properties and the multiple appearances of the Virgin Mary.  It was an experience unlike any before or since.  I was humbled and inspired.

After Las Lajas and Ipiales, me and my three traveling companions crossed the border into Ecuador and the town of Tulcan.  Tulcan is so small that there isn't much to it, but it is well-known for it's cemetery.  Strange, I know.  A cemetery, really?  Yep.  It's famous because of the topiary sculptures and because legend says that there is some strange force (souls of the dead, perhaps?) that guards it at night.  We toured the cemetery for about 20 minutes; fascinating!

Another night bus from Tulcan, and we arrived in Quito the next morning...all about that in the next blog update!

Medellin to Salento, Colombia

I spent several days in Medellin, mostly just resting my knees.  It was a beautiful city and one that I would recommend to any traveler.  Medellin is full of greenery and hills.  The public transportation rivals any big city and made it very easy to get around.

After Medellin, my friends and I went to Rio Claro, a beautiful river in the middle of nowhere.  Sadly, I still couldn't do anything really strenuous, but my friends said the caving there was lots of fun.  The scenery was enough for me though.  We stayed in a lodge with open air rooms overlooking the river and woke up to the sounds of the forest and the river currents.  It was lovely and good for some R&R.

Salento, Colombia, was next on our list and after nine hours of bus rides, we finally made it.  Salento is a lovely town with one town square and lots of coffee plantations in the surrounding hills.  Perhaps the most beautiful "hike" there is through the valley of the wax palms (Valle de Cocora).  Palm trees rising 60 meters high blanket a small valley filled with beautiful flowers, cows, horses and farms.  It was a lovely walk and worth the pain in my knees.

The next day, a group of us went horseback riding for a few hours to tour a coffee plantation.  I hadn't been on a horse in years and after a few frightening gallops I finally found my stride and enjoyed every moment!  We rode for about an hour or so to reach the plantation, took a tour with a man the epitome of the romanticized version of the coffee grower, complete with his Panama hat and working hands.  The best part is that the tour only took about 20 minutes and gave us enough information without boring us.  Afterwards, we enjoyed perhaps the most delicious cup of coffee (all organic) I've had.

That night, a group of us found this strange game we'd heard about from other travelers and the locals.  It's called Tejo and is something similar to horseshoes with gunpowder.  The object is to throw small lead weights into clay pits on the other side of a small game area to explode triangle-shaped pieces of paper loaded with gunpowder.  We made a night of it and had so much fun!

I didn't want to leave Salento, but alas, new adventures awaited in Bogota!  Bogota is a huge city.  It sprawls like nothing I've seen before.  From the top of the hill, complete with a gondola ride, church and sweeping views, you can still only see a fraction of the city.

I visited the Gold Museum, which didn't disappoint.  There are artifacts from centuries of peoples living throughout Columbia and I even saw some of the artifacts removed from Ciudad Perdida.  I also visited the museum of the sculptor of the fat statues in Medellin.  He is really quite amazing in his work and I enjoy his "take" on the human form, but I also got to see some Picasso, Monet, Manet, Renoir and other amazing artists too.  Life would be incomplete without art, in my humble opinion; for every person that says they don't "get" art or don't really understand it, I think they just need to lose themselves in a museum for a while.

After Bogota, a friend and I made our way to San Agustin, Colombia...that will be in the next blog update.