Down to Cuenca

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  Cuenca, Ecuador
Saturday, July 1, 2006

Down to Cuenca

It is ages since we last posted a blog and we have been to a lot of places: from Mindo, to Otavalo, the Quilotoa Loop, Banos and now we have just arrived in Cuenca. We found this camping place by following our GPS to its coordinates which we had never done before and it makes for interesting driving with Sheila shouting out the reducing kms and the bearing the GPS says we should be following; much frustration when the bearing conflicts with Una Via; you go in ever decreasing circles - remember those childhood games with Grandpa? Warmer cooler, really hot - there is the gate!
Anyway Sheila is now happy playing housewife and cleaning all the mud out of the tent and re-stowing the car: we got unceremoniously chased out of Banos which is on the edge of the Oriente (the Amazonian jungle) by the rains; we had not really read our guide books properly. We put the tent up in the rain and the next morning took it down in a tropical storm and a quagmire. So we cannot say much about Banos except to say the deforestation is pretty well complete and if the clouds had not been there we might have seen the nearby active volcano Tungurahua which caused the authorities to evacuate the town six years ago and which is currently very active again. I had some terrifying driving through all the road tunnels which are mostly unlined and all unlit so you come from strong light to complete black and my older eyes take some time to adjust - screaming "I can't see", reply "drive slower", "I can't huge truck bearing down!".

Colour in Otavalo

Also inside the tunnels the water was pouring through the roof like waterfalls....terrifying!
But to go back to the beginning we sadly left Playa Escondida and made our way via the Post Office in Esmaraldas (yes we finally found one) then up into the mountains to Mindo which is rather a quaint little town, totally given over to tourism but not yet completely spoilt by it. It lies at about 1,200m surrounded by hills/mountains completely covered with thick forest - it looks like a huge caldera. We arrived in the rain so turned from camping into a hostal stay and a meal in town. The next day we went to what must once have been a very upscale "spa" El Carmelo, out of town, where the remains of the beautiful gardens and ponds and pools were still evident but they did have camping down by the river. The road to the campsite was pretty scary and they looked surprised that we were willing - anyway an idyllic site all on our own with the most vicious mosquitoes we have ever experienced and bites that left us scratching raw for days. We spent a lovely day bird watching and wandering the paths around the area. In retrospect we should have stayed longer but we wanted to get to Otavalo north of Quito for its famous Saturday market.
Getting to Otavalo we were determined to take the back roads and miss out Quito. We had three maps all with different routes marked that appeared to take us where we wanted but whenever we were lost (I have told you before how we get lost every time we hit an intersection or a town) anyone we asked said you have to go to Quito.

Fields on Quilotoa Loop

This brings up the subject of maps in which we invested lots of money: they are all shockingly misinformed; roads we go on not marked; roads shown that do not exist; or marked as main roads but are just tracks. A traveler like us complained to one map maker who was quite happy to take the travelers corrections for their next edition! And the worst seem to be those produced by International Travel Maps in Vancouver.
Whatever the map deficiencies the drive up is stupendous and we quite easily found the Hostal, La Luna, where we camped (and watched England beat Ecuador). This was our first experience of high altitude camping and we had no idea how cold it was going to be at 3,000m. We froze cooking dinner and were in our sleeping bags by 7pm trying to thaw out. The next two evenings we swallowed our pride and ate in the charming but expensive and not very good restaurant. The Hostal is in lovely gardens a few kms out of Otavalo surrounded by farm land and all the roads around are cobbled - they must be like those in Europe several hundred years ago. We followed one for some 15kms up into the mountains behind to a beautiful crater lake at about 3,800 - Lagos Mujandos - and went for a brisk walk: the briskness was mostly the howling gale because at that altitude our walking was very measured.
On the Saturday we were so early into town that we watched them putting up the stalls. The town is small and really quite touristy - but pretty - building on the fame of the market and stuff is brought in from lots of other countries but most of the trading is carried out by indigenous peoples in their lovely dress and the whole thing makes a splendid display.

Ingapurca

While we were there they had a dancing exhibition by children from several Latin American countries which was lovely. True to Latin American organization a rival band and dancing struck up at the same time on the other side of the square and drowned out the children. I had my best meal of the trip so far in the market where they were cooking whole pigs: did it like my Mum with all the crackling and juicy fat - and it cost all of one dollar.
We then by-passed Quito on to the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" (which is the main N/S route) to our next destination called the Quilotoa Loop which starts at Latacunga. I am sure the volcanoes are spectacular if you can see them past the cloud but we only had some tantalizing glimpses of snow-covered flanks - we will try harder next time as we are going to travel this road at least three times on our trip (unless we change our minds and Chris flies from Cuenca to Quito en route to Oz and leaves Sheila at school in Cuenca).
We turned off the Americana into country that was probably the most beautiful we have seen so far - the Guide Book did not exaggerate. You climb and climb through very precipitous country which is heavily but beautifully farmed in a patchwork of little fields all with different crops at different stages of ripening and therefore different colours; and farmed to what look like near vertical angles mostly by hand. We do not remember ever seeing grain like wheat being harvested by hand except in the medieval paintings of Breuhgel(?).

Pigging on Pig

You see all these little brightly coloured dots moving about the fields as the indigenous ladies favour wonderful reds, purples, bright greens and oranges often mixed with no thought of matching. Our first destination was Zumbahua and we knew we were approaching when we could see lots of men staggering around (as usual being supported by women); horse riders madly galloping; and one horse standing patiently as his completely plastered rider tried to stay upright in the saddle - fiesta day in Zumbahua. And going ding-dong right outside our Hostal. Our round little hostess (an indigenous lady) told us that by 9pm it would be "muy tranquil" as the big band would go home - oh yeah! It was still going strong at 2am! I think tranquil was her only word in Spanish as the locals speak mostly an old Inca language. We heard her cursing a drunken local out of the hotel and the noise was fearsome.
Of course Chris could not resist the festivity - and all were having a great time bouncing around in the awe-inspiring noise of the local band - so of course he ate copiously from street stalls and suffered all night and the next two days. We left early, and chastened, for Quilotoa where there is an emerald crater lake (me groaning miserably the whole way and Sheila being bright and breezy and sickeningly cheerful).
We stayed the night in the local Hostal Pacha Mama which Sheila thoroughly enjoyed as it was essentially with a local indigenous family while I lay in bed and groaned. She even hiked down to the crater lake all on her own which was quite something as the rim is at 3,800m and it is very steep and slippery and a few hundred metres down.

Quilotoa Lake

(editorial comment: I have never been so breathless in all my life...was bitterly regretting not arranging for a mule to bring me back up!!)
The countryside is lovely the whole way round the loop, and we were another day slowly making our way around and onto Saquisili for the night and the next day to Banos - where our stay was curtailed by rain. Now we are in Cuenca where we are going to stay a few days doing day trips.
We have experienced our first roadblock manned by three males none of which could have been over six where they threatened us out of 25c! Of course only a few hundred metres on another group of kids were trying the same thing. They have several mutli-coloured ropes across the road which they pull tight as you approach but if you show no signs of stopping they quickly drop them - enterprise. Which reminds me there are so many things we continually remark on through the whole trip: humps in the road at every village, or even opposite a shop where they want you to slow down can be temporary piles of earth or can be permanent reinforced concrete sometimes with the reinforcing poking through, they might be signed and painted or exactly the same colour as the road - deadly; the fence posts that mostly sprout into good sized trees so they never have to re-new the posts; of course the potholes and the completely unprotected road edges where they descend abruptly to a concrete culvert; and in Ecuador so many stretches of permanently closed road because of land-slides (it costs enough just to put in the road in such perilous country but there just does not seem to be enough money - or interest or planning - to keep them maintained); and several times a day we see death cheated by drivers on blind bends - we cannot seem to get used to that aspect; and "bloques" manufacturing - never seen so many back-yard concrete block manufacturing, maybe a good sign if they get converted into buildings which they do seem to be in Ecuador where there is masses of construction; hundreds of ice-cream parlours; and for Sheila, all along the road tethered pigs and donkeys - and lots of other livestock - keeping the verges well mowed, sometimes the rope is long enough so they can stand in the road, or in several instances the pigs can lie sunning themselves on the warm tarmac narrowly avoiding death.

Sheilas joy

Just before Cuenca we went to Ingapirca which is Ecuador's Machu Picchu a few kms off the main road but far fewer tourists and very accessible and well worth the visit especially since a small restaurant was showing Germany playing Argentina and the fried chicken was excellent - my memory of groaning fades fast.

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