Warning -
This entry is long! But I am new to this, and I promise to keep the length down in future and not keep you all from the work/study/going out that you know you should all be doing!!
Ecuadorian Bus Adventures
So if you believe your guidebook it will tell you that bus travel in Ecuador is a breeze, or at least more user friendly than other neighboring countries. My advise to you... don´t listen to the guidebook!! Either that or we´re in for a nightmare in other countries! But in my opinion bus travel in Ecuador has a long way to go before it even competes with Guatemala... let alone Mexico or Cuba! So where am I taking this? Let us delve quickly into our first Ecuadorian bus trip...
We left the Secret Garden, content that we would soon be returning, and headed you Chugchilan where we had been advised there was some great hiking possibilities.
Things were going quite smoothly as we easily found our bus for Latacunga (transit stop for our destination) and were on the road. It was later, on arrival in Latacunga that things turned. We were informed on arrival there would be no bus until mañana (despite being early afternoon) and that we would have to wait in town. So we did the only thing we could think to do... wandered the terminal, slowly digesting this information, and no doubt looking like stupidly lost Gringos. And our brilliant strategy worked, for no sooner had we begun our aimless wander thana guy approached out of the blue and said, "Chugchilan? Jump on!". And we were off... too easy, right?
But
We arrive at Sigchos (tiny town with not a whole lot on offer) and everyone gets off the bus. Everyone... except for us. There is a momentary pause as we wonder what effect this will have on our journey before the driver cleared things up for us.
"No more passengers... end of the line!!".
Sweet. And thus begins the furious Gringo Vs Ecuadorian bus driver stand-off. The sun is slowly setting, we are in a town at least an hour from our destination, there is some furious foos-ball battles going on outside the bus (admitedly tempting us to give up on the bus and join the fun), we have no idea what sort of accommodation we can even find in this town, and we are flat out refusing to get off the bus! Not quite knowing how to deal with 2 stubborn gringos the bus driver sends his laky off on some mission of sorts (perhaps to round up passengers, or perhaps to round up some drunken locals to kick our asses... who knows) and we sit and continue the now very serious battle of wills. The sun sets, and our situation is not looking good. The laky has returned once, and after a quick exchange disappeared again. I am starting to think we are better off looking for a hotel before it gets too late. And then...
Gringos - 1, Ecuadorian Bus Drivers - 0
Out of nowhere they give in! The laky returns, and without so much as a word we are back on the road. Easy! We both kick back, half-grinning, half-expecting that the laky has organised an armed robbery further down the road, but happy to be moving...
After about 30mins of high-speed, mountainous (read: sharp drops on the side of a gravel road that don´t seem to scare our driver) driving in the now pitch black country-side the laky approaches us and demands another $5 each. Now... I know most of you will think, "come on man... what´s 5 bucks to get you where you´re going, especially given the circumstances!". Before I start ranting about principle let me first state that we had not yet entirely decided we were safe yet, and thus offered what I still believe was a very fair trade-off. When we arrive at our hostel, we pay the extra cash (despite the principle, which was admittedly burning inside me!!). The laky delivered the message and no sooner than the words had escaped his lips the bus screeched to a stop, middle of nowhere, pitch black, declined.. The driver turned in a rage, eyes red, cheeks red, and ordered us off the bus. This was not the win I was looking for!! Shit, I would have taken my chances on the town before jumping out here in this no mans land!! Where the hell were we? Was it safe? The driver told us we were within walking distance to the town, but screw that! And thus began the second stand-off of this eventful bus trip. A staring contest ensued, as we again stubbornly refused to get off the bus. Both secretly turning over the possibility that we may be camping out under the stars this night. But...
Gringos - 2, Ecuadorian Bus Drivers - 0
The good nature of the bus driver prevails and he see´s the reason in not wanting to be let out in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where you are in a foreign country and he drives on, angrily. Though refusing to go as far as to take us into town (preferring instead to drop us at the outskirts, but this is agreeable, as according to the deal we had previously put on the table this also saves us our fiver... done and done. So we walk the 15mins into town and to our hostel where we are greeted kindly and informed that our dinner is already ready, and life is good. A good start to bus travel in this country, but hey... it´s all about the adventure right?
The Three Giant Treks
We did three giant and absolutely fantastic treks while in Chugchilan as follows.
Cloud Forest Hike
No doubt the lowest intensity hike of the first day still had us climbing up to 4000m to the top of the ridge behind our hostel and then down into the cloud forest on the other side. Fantastic views all around but no real excitement bar the clouds rolling over and causing us to loose the path for a bit, which I guess will happen... being a cloud forest and all. Good warm up hike for the days to follow...
Canyon Hike
Now this was a little more exciting. We set off early and headed down into the Canyon that borders one side of the town with no real plan on where we would go. We made our way to the river lining the canyon floor and decided to follow it upstream in the hope of finding our way out of the canyon. Now this is how you begin a truly adventurous hike!! The river wound its way through the canyon and we were forced to cross several makeshift bridges as we followed the coarse. Soon we came across a path that headed up the opposite side of the canyon and decided to follow it to get a glimpse of what lay ahead. As we made our way up the canyon wall a distant drumming began to sound.
Now this, if you are ever in a situation far from home, well, far from anywhere in fact, and if you have ever watched Indiana Jones, or any movie that involves savage natives who desire blood and beat drums before sacrifices, this is exactly the sort of drum beat that will bring all those memories to the fore-front of your imagination, and thus, in short, terrify you. We found ourselves looking at each other with that What the fuck?!? look that only abstract terror can conjure. Yet curious fascination got the better of us, and we found ourselves slowly creeping further up the trail to find out what mysterious cult would be beating that monotonous rhythm, and slowly luring us forward like the pied-piper. We edged slowly over a rise (breath subconsciously held) to find 3 of the cutest little children ever, the cause of our fear, banging on a drum. We both breathed sighs of relief continued on our way, after thanking the 3 up-and-coming rock stars for the entertainment.
Later in the journey our second bout of excitement came in the form of a very angry dog who´s turf we were obviously on and who came at us like a lightening bolt, a look of crazed blood-lust, and gringo hate, burning within his charcoal eyes. With hearts pumping we made a hasty escape, and continued the now epic walk. As we neared town we came across another group of kids, who came running down the hill to watch us pass. The brother of the group had a soccer ball so I challenged him to a game, while his sisters sat and watched on and cheered him on. Unfortunately I have to report that Australians (or at least this Australian) are not very good soccer players and the cup went to Ecuador this time... But I´ll be back!! And next time there will be no prisoners! LOL, I let him win!! haha (As if any of you will believe that!!). And thus concluded our second big hike, and with very sore legs we hobbled back into town.
Volcano Hike
The final hike was meant to be from the Quilatoa Crater (beautiful Volcanic crater lake) back into Chugchilan... this was not to be. After a 4am bus adventure (term not used loosely, but hey.. Ecuadorian bus travel right, already covered that!) we found ourselves looking over the beautiful crater as the sun rose. From here we were meant to take some photos and then walk about to Chugchilan (about 5 hours through stunning country-side), but instead we decided to walk around the crater, and thus began the biggest adventure yet, and one that at times I felt could quite possible end in death (seriously!). Let us just say that Ecuadorian safety standards are certainly not world-class, and in most western countries this walk would have been well and truly off limits!! We found ourselves scaling rocks with drop-offs on either side (drop offs over 100m down in some sections), clinging for dear life as the rocks broke away at our grasp, and facing the horrible reality as we continued that going back was not really an option as some of the most difficult, and seemingly death-defying sections of the trek were out of the way in the first hour (or so we thought).
Then just when we thought we had completed the worst part of the trek we were confronted by a new problem. Two very angry, savage dogs spotted us and moved in to attack. Now one would have thought that yesterday´s encounter would have prepared us for such a situation. Not so! Also these dogs were far more serious than the last, one lunging at Shawn from less than 2 feet, while the other eyed me from the background (this also reflects Shawn and my positions, Shawn seemingly unperturbed by rabid looking dogs that appear to want him dead). Meanwhile an Ecuadorian family (presumably the owners) stood and watched from 50m away while they plowed their fields, and made no move to assist. If you have never had an encounter like this, or at least seen Cujo, then perhaps it is hard to understand just how soul shaking this can be... I do not know if I have ever been so scared! Eventually the family sent their 6 year old son to the rescue, who with sharp aim and a strong pitching arm sent one of the dogs wheeling in the other direction.
"Are the dogs dangerous?" I asked our in Spanish, "Si!" the kid replied without batting an eye. Had you been there at that moment you would have witnessed the funny site of Shawn and I backing behind the 6 year old (the saviour) and slowly trying to put space between us and the dogs, with him in the middle. Thinking we were home free we legged further up the hill trying to get as far away as possible. I turned back as we approached the top of the hill and saw 2 small specs moving very rapidly in our direction.
"They´re coming...", I informed, and no sooner than the words were out of my mouth was Shawn 20m further up the hill than me at top speed. The dogs were right on top of us (or me!) again, this time we armed ourselves with rocks and legging over a line of small shrubs, which unbeknownst to us also marked the edge of the territory, and here the dogs stopped, barking and watching, but thankfully no longer chasing. Trembling from the second encounter we continued on our way, silently preying not to meet anymore rabid dogs! This is when things got really stupid...
Faced by a fork in the path we chose the one that looked like the most used path (wrong!) and ended up facing the same type of big drop-offs that we faced earlier that day, only totally exhausted, and at this point it really did cross my mind (something Shawn also later admitted to) that it would be possible in this state to make a small mistake and fall to my death. Not a comforting reality. Though needless to say we did survive and wobbled back into town shaking, and mentally broken, and ready for a beer!! And are no doubt stronger trekkers for it, which will certainly come in handy in the next 8 months or so...
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