With our guide that we arranged for in Tena at the last moment and a last minute price, we headed out to an eco-lodge in the forest for the day. From the lodge – a wooden construction perched on a cliff of maybe 80 metres, we had spectacular views looking over the rainforest.
Category: "Travel and Places"
Ecuador: Tena
Enough of the mountains… we had escaped the heat of the coast for here, but now the British climate of the Andes was becoming irritating. Too cold, too cloudy and annoying on-and-off rain. It was time for the Amazon rainforest and the start of our journey home.
Ecuador: Peguche
While in Otavalo we decided to take a local bus to one of the nearby towns just to see what was there. We went to Peguche and found some houses, a church, two shops and an artisan’s studio.
The area was very green and pleasant, and while taking in the scenery we found the remains of the old railway line that ran through the mountains south to Quito to Riobamba through the Nariz del Diablo and to the coast near Guayaquil.
Ecuador: Otavalo
Otavalo is a market town north of Quito and one of the main and most famous artisan markets in the Andes. We arrived on Saturday night, missing the main Saturday morning event. Market towns, however, maintain their markets every day and when we had a walk around the the town on Sunday morning, it was business as usual.
Ecuador: Mitad del Mundo
0° latitude – the equator – just north of the city of Quito
We went to see the equator and the monument that sits on it. It was here that the equatorial line was calculated by Frenchman Charles-Marie de la Condamine in 1736. It’s actually 150m off the actual equator as measured by modern GPS instruments – themselves often 7-10 meters off.
Ecuador: Quito’s Pickpockets
This was maybe the first criminal act targeted towards me in all my months in living South America.
Annett and I had left the internet cafe where we had been working on a project, it was perhaps 9 or 10pm and we had found El Rey’s Sandwiches, a small sandwich shop that sells $1 hot dogs amongst the dozens of bars and clubs in La Mariscal – a tourists haven in the day and party center for Quiteños and tourists at night.
Ecuador: Quito, the old city
We walked from the new city to the old city to save on a $3 taxi ride, it took about 20 minutes. The old city, which spans out around the Plaza de la Independencia has buildings dating back hundreds of years. West of this plaza is another, Plaza de San Francisco that contains the Presidential Palace.
Ecuador: Quito, the new city
We spent the first day in Quito using the local internet cafe for work purposes and not leaving the new city. Quito is said to be a city of two cities – the colonial old city in the south and the new city sprawling out to the north, not much more than a half century old.
Most of the tourist stuff is in La Mariscal in the new city and thats where we based until we were able to see the rest of the city.
Ecuador: Portoviejo, Manta – journey to Quito
The time on the beach was great, but we decided we needed a break from the intense heat. It was time to get to Quito. We were already this far north so we decided to go by the coastal route rather that head back to Guayaquil again.
Ecuador: Montañita
We were told that the closest beach to Guayaquil was at Salinas and we made a bit of a mistake heading there. It wasn’t one of the famous beaches of Ecuador, but we didn’t know that until we arrived there. We did get a good night´s sleep in a decent hotel and a cooler ocean breeze so it wasn´t all a waste. It also brought us closer to Montañita now only $1 and a couple of hours away. We packed up and headed there.
Ecuador: Guayaquil
Las Peñas used to be a very poor part of town – across South America the poor always live up on the hills. It has now been restored and set up as a tourist attraction, and the locals have set up a variety of shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. We were very unlucky on beginning our 444 step climb to the lighthouse at the top. It was already 32c, but cloudy. From around step 50 the strong sun appeared from behind the clouds to torture us. I am sweating just thinking about it.
Ecuador: To the border… and beyond
The journey was as expected – 18 hours from Lima, passing the famed and inviting beaches of Mancora, Punta Sal and Zorritos to arrive in Tumbes. The plan was to arrive here and take a taxi back to Zorritos to stay for a day and a night at the beach – before heading to Ecuador the next day.
But never make plans in Peru – something I know, but tend to forget.
