This is more like a Week of Happiness than a Day of Happiness. I mean, how can vacation ever NOT be a spot of happiness. Actually, I take that back. I'm sure many people have bad vacations. I haven't though. And this definitely wasn't a bad vacation. Be prepared though - this will most likely be a long blog entry. I can do a short version: Went to Ecuador with my sister, hiked, shopped, ate, and saw some waterfalls. For the longer version, you'll have to read below.
The trip started on Saturday, with some long airplane rides and good plane movies. I packed as quickly as possible Saturday morning and my younger sis drove me to the airport. I didn't arrive in Quito, Ecuador until 10:20pm and by the time I made it through customs it was more like 11pm. Elizabeth, my older sis with whom I was traveling, had made arrangements for the hotel to pick me up. She had arrived a lot earlier, around 7pm, and had gone ahead to the hotel. So, I exited the airport and scanned the crowd looking for a sign with either my name or the name of the hotel. Hmm, first scan found nothing. Second scan found nothing. Ok, a thorough look around the airport and outside resulted in nothing. Guess the hotel didn't send anyone. So, I found a taxi instead. Note to self - when finding a hotel to stay at, make sure it is pronouncable in the language of the country. Hotel Eugenia is difficult enough to pronounce in English and pretty impossible for me to pronounce in Spanish. After several tries, I opted for a description that went something like: across the street from the JW Marriot, behind a Burger King. That worked just fine. Amazingly enough, I made it. Elizabeth was waiting for me in the room. Our adventure starts!
The next morning, our first stop was El Mitad del Mundo, in English, the middle of the world. The equator. Yes, very touristy, but a must. How can you go to Ecuador and not see the equator?? I've seen the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England, so I needed to see the equator in Ecuador. Done. We were planning to take the buses and trolleys from Quito to the Mitad del Mundo, but as it turns out, our hotel didn't think it was a great idea to travel on the trolley with our luggage. So, that meant a $30 taxi ride there and back. Not bad. We also got to leave out luggage in the taxi. Maybe not the best idea, since the taxi could have taken off with our stuff and left us stranded. However, that didn't happen. I guess he didn't want our crappy backpacking clothes! Here're some pics:
Standing on both hemispheres
After El Mitad del Mundo we continued on to Otavalo. This was towards the north of Quito. It was a beautiful bus ride up there and would have been even better if I had remembered to use the bathroom before we left. As it was, I spent the entire two hour bus ride trying not to think about how badly I needed a bathroom. Yeah, not fun. On a side note, Ecuador was very similar to Honduras. All the buses had ayudantes and I kept hoping Ivan would be working on one. Of course he wasn't. But it would have been nice.
In Otavalo we stayed at a quaint little hotel called Ali Shungu. It was very comfortable and homey. The restaurant was a bit pricey though. Otavalo is known for it's amazing market, the biggest day being Saturday. We were there Sun-Tues, but the market was still great. Our main activity in Otavalo was hiking though. We are big hikers. The morning of the first day we hiked out of town to Peguche Waterfall. It was beautiful. There were made friends with an Ecuadorian girl from Guayaquil, Alejandra. She decided to follow Elizabeth and I to our next destination - the magic tree, El Lechero. The only problem was she decided to ask every local on the way how to get there, and they sent us STRAIGHT up the mountain. Locals tend to go the shortest way, not the easiest. But, after a good two hours or so, we finally made it to El Lechero. It was pretty worth it - beautiful views of Otavalo and Lago San Pablo. Plus, we got to touch a magic, healing tree. Maybe it helped heal our sore legs.... By the time we got back down to Otavalo, it was a bit late. We stopped at the market but I had left my money in the hotel. Maybe that was good - I couldn't go crazy at the market. Otavalo was good.
Our next stop was Banos. This is a pretty tourist town, and we ran into a lot of tourist. However, it looked so beautiful, nestled at the base of the Tungurahua volcano. Plus, we were tourists, weren't we? It was just as beautiful as it looked in the pictures. We did a lot of hiking in Banos too. The first day we hiked from 10am until 3:30pm. Wow we were tired!! We started out hiking up to Bellavista, a lookout that overlooked Banos. From there we ran into a British guy and convinced him to hike up to el Mirador del Volcan. This was actually not in our original plan - but who could skip a volcano lookout. Well, it wasn't as fantastic as it sounded, since the volcano was hiding under a bunch of clouds. Volcanoes are not as impressive when you can't see the top. It was a fun hike though. From there we hiked across the mountain to the Virgen de Agua Santa. Equally beautiful and another lookout over Banos, from the other side. Then we had about a 1000 steps to hike down. By the time we made it back to our hotel I thought my legs were going to fall off. At that moment, I wished they had. I couldn't stop my legs from shaking and I had two HUGE blisters on my little feet. The next day we opted to not hike and to partake in a completely touristy activity. A ride on a Chiva bus (photo below) down the road of waterfalls. This included getting soaked while sitting on top of the bus (we went under a waterfall), taking a (sketchy) cable card across a ravine, and hiking to the bottom of a very tall waterfall. In the afternoon we went to the zoo and saw some monkeys, weird looking pigs, a large tortoise, a puma, and other fun animals. On our walk back to the hotel we bought some sugar cane and taxo, a fruit we had never had before. We took pics of both. Banos was excellent!
El Mirador del Volcan - we finally made it!
The little white thing on the side of the mountain is Virgen de Agua Santa - yup, we climbed across this mountain.
The Chiva bus
The beautiful river - I was actually hanging from a cable car when I took this
We even got to eat Thanksgiving dinner - complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Yum and totally worth it!
Our hotel was really nice and cute too. It was Hostal Posada del Arte. We ended up having to stay in the suite because it was full. It came with a queen bed, two bunk beds, and a jacuzzi.
Our room
Our hotel
Now the sad part. After Banos we headed back to Quito. It was more of an adventure than it should have been. Remember that crazy hotel we were staying at - with the name I couldn't pronounce. Well, this time the cab driver couldn't find it. So, we drove around and around for an hour and a half looking for the hotel. Finally, after asking a gazillion people, we found a person that new of our hotel. FINALLY. The next day we headed to the airport and were off to the USA. Back home. Vacation over. The view of Quito and Ecuador were beautiful from the plane though.
This is a view of Cotopaxi - the only way to get a photo of a volcano was to fly above the clouds!
Oh, and a final note. People talk about bad water and dirty food in places like Honduras and Ecuador. Food that will make you sick. So, the entire time I'm in Ecuador I have no problems. Food is delicious. I am not sick.
I return to the US, order a coffee while waiting for my plan to leave. Take a sip of my Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. Feel something weird in my mouth, like a clump of powder. Spit it out.
IT'S A DEAD FLY!!!
Gross-a-roni.
Standing on both hemispheres is SO cool!
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