Oro Verde Machala

23rd September 2009

Hotel Araujo, Machala, Ecuador (15 usd)

Very warm but cloudy

naranjal – Machala (96 kms)

Today was all about bananas and cocoa, but mostly bananas. We've decided to call Machala The Big Banana and we think it has a bit more going for it than The Big Apple, where they don't even grown fruit! Most of the ride was spent riding through banana ...

Nota bene op de mooiste dag sinds jaren in Quito, vertrokken we zuidwaarts naar Guayaquil en Pasaje. Met een adembenemend zicht op de vulkanen Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, Reventador, Antisana en Sangay ging het naar de tropische kuststrook, waar bananensnacks, al wat schaarser geklede deernes en koud bier nooit veraf zijn. Een heerlijk gevoel om de spreekwoordelijke deur dicht te trekken achter onze respectieve ...

... we decided we were
going to stay there when we returned form the jungle. Our weekend in Quito was also a chance for us to eat mass
quantities of fruits and veggies to make up for our starch based diet during
the previous week. We did our first run
to the Mercado and the Supermaxi. The fruit at the Mercado is piled high and is
just beautiful I am pictured next to one of at least 10 stands that look very
similar. After our shopping we made a ...

Endlich sind wir an der Küste angekommen. Auch wenn die Südküste Ecuadors nicht grade für ihre Traumstrände berühmt ist, wollten wir doch zumindest ein paar Tage am Meer verbringen. Wenns geht etwas Abseit der Touristenpfade. Und da hatten wir mit der Mangroveninsel Jambeli genau ins Schwarze getroffen! Machala ist eine Hafenstadt (der wichtigste Bananenexportierende Hafen Ecuadors, Chiquita lässt grüssen) und nicht besonders schön ...

... beguening we wanted to cross the jungle on our own and reached Iquitos in Peru but the challenge was (in a question of time) to big... and we would not have seen and experiment as we did... We met a couple of guide (father and son) that are running a family project and ended up to move with them for a 600km loop through the jungle on a canoe : down stream Rio Tiputini and up Rio Napo... The whole journey has been amazing with some ...

... as amazing as the previous times, with more opportunity to really hike within the rainforest to learn and experience the sounds and sights of the place. It took a 1/2 hour plane ride to Coca which is a town that could be sterotyped in a hollywood movie about outlaws and drug trafficking. You know the hero american goes into the hostile world of lawless people and kills all around him and also controls the wild jungle. We then had a 3 hour (100km) boat ride and 30 minute ...

It would be nearly impossible to explain exactly what this border crossing is like. When we first got here(South America), a girl in Quito warned us about this place. We scoffed at her. It couldn´t really be like that.... she was right. It was hell. The bus drops you off directly between both immigration offices. 3k to the ecuadorian ...

My friends and I left the bus station in Rhuaquillas, the fronter town between Peru and Ecuador, headed for Quito. Little did I know the convoluted trip we were to embark on. We never stopped, just to disembark, hang around for another bus, and get on the road again!

... to get back to you when trying to set it up. Therefore, after Tia gave me the name of an Ecuadorian guide, Sani Lodge was recommended - about 3-4 hours from Coca. Expensive ($1,000 for a housed option but a 5 day camping trip all in cost $400 only) - but I really wanted to see some jungle and it did come very highly rated. First task was to get from Banos to Coca. This was a hot, dusty journey split over 2 days on a bus. Some spectacular views ...

The border crossing I was going to do that day - the first of my trip - was known to be the most corrupt border crossing in South America. So I was a little nervous. I had bought my bus ticket to Quito the day before and was then just after midday waiting at a large restaurant (which also had a bus ticket desk) for my bus to pick me up. The bus was making a mammoth bus journey from La Paz in Bolivia all the way up to Bogota in Columbia, making stops along ...