Quito

Driving back to Quito from Mindo, we realized that we had crossed the equator already several times on our journey through Ecuador without giving it any official recognition!  So we stopped at the “Mitad del Mundo” (Middle of the World)… and here it is (drumroll please) – the requisite Ecuador picture standing with one foot in each hemisphere, straddling the line that is drawn on the earth marking the Equator.

 

Ha ha, ok, the truth is that we pulled in to the parking lot of the “Mitad del Mundo” tourist trap, took one look at the long line of elderly gringo tour groups waiting to get in, and decided to just draw a line in the parking lot and pass it off as the Equator.  And no, there is no actual line marking the Equator; in fact, we had passed over it so many times without knowing because there is no sign or marker designating it, except for the “Mitad del Mundo” complex, which we had read is not actually on the equator anyway…

But to get on with the story, we were now officially in the southern hemisphere.  We had heard good things about Quito and wanted to spend some time there.  Unfortunately, most of the few days we spent there were occupied with non-blogworthy things.  We had to replace the car's radiator (yes, we thought we had fixed it a couple weeks before, but turned out we needed a whole new one).  We also spent almost an entire day trying to pick up a package from the Quito post office - after hours of waiting, trying to convince the post office officials that a pocketknife is used for camping and NOT a weapon, and driving around to receive special permission from the military to pick up a package containing a pocketknife.  In the end we got our package but had to pay more than $70 in taxes.  Not worth it!!

Luckily, through all of this, we had friends Linda and Dario still traveling with us to cheer us up. Besides being awesome people, these guys can cook!  Here we are in Cubby, cooking up a storm!

 

In between all the mundane tasks, we still managed to do some sightseeing in historic Quito.  Here are some of the highlights:

The Basilica del Voto Nacional - a beautiful neogothic church.

 

The coolest part is the stone animals that appear to be leaping out of the church.  Anteaters, monkeys, iguanas, Galapagos turtles... at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!  They are all native animals of Ecuador, apparently.  Cool.

 

Museo de la Ciudad - this museum has a good history of Quito and Ecuador.  There are cool wax figures that you can pose with (ok, maybe that's not encouraged, but...)

 

 

Ricardo felt right at home when he found the street called Chile.

 

The Virgin of Quito statue is up on the hill.  We wanted to walk up there, but never had the time!

 

 

The historic buildings lining Quito's streets...

 



 

Enjoying the warm sunshine on the plaza.

 

Quito is a beautiful city.  We had a great visit!

 

 

After Quito, we drove south toward Cotopaxi National Park...and yes, this is the story you've all been waiting for: involving a volcano, a South African we nicknamed "Jab", and a donkey!  Stay tuned.

Mindo Lindo!

Heike and Pedro from Mindo Lindo, Ecuador, happened to travel to Chile last year, and they stayed at Ricardo’s mom Perla’s hostel (Casa Perla) in Puerto Montt.  They became good friends, and Perla told them all about our upcoming trip.  They were excited about it and invited us to visit them at their home, hostel, and bird sanctuary in Mindo, Ecuador.  We of course accepted, and that is how we ended up going to Mindo Lindo.

Heike and Pedro were wonderful to us.  Their home, Mindo Lindo, is absolutely beautiful.  They are in the process of building a large environmental training center, and they let us park Cubby right beside it.  Linda and Dario, our friends from San Agustin, were still travelling with us and they actually camped inside.  We got to take advantage of the bathroom with HOT SHOWERS – niiiiiice.

 

Heike is an ornithologist, an expert on birds, so she taught us all about the many species of birds that they have at Mindo Lindo.  She has hummingbird feeders outside their house that attract hundreds of hummingbirds.  It is amazing to walk through the area and not only see the many different species of hummingbirds, but experience so many of them whizzing by you at once – they sound like they have little engines!

 

As nature conservationists, Heike and Pedro have worked very hard to reincorporate native plant species in the forests around their home.  They have many trails on their property that you can wander and enjoy the plant and wildlife of Ecuador cloud forest.  We spent a lot of time enjoying the beauty of the area.

sunlight through the leaves

the river

slimy fern

beautiful colors

look closely - this butterfly is laying eggs

 

butterfly number 89

 

We also enjoyed the town of Mindo.  It is a small, quiet town, that is surprisingly touristy for the birdwatching and rafting.

Mindo

 

hummingbird statue in Mindo's plaza

 

The best thing about Mindo is that right outside the town there is a lot of nature to explore – rivers, waterfalls, mountains, and wildlife. 

 

Each night at Mindo Lindo, Heike and Pedro invited us to eat with them, and we spent the evenings talking about Ecuador and Germany (where Heike is from), Mindo Lindo, travel experiences, everything.  Ricardo and Heike even discovered that they are both Tolkien fanatics, discussing Lord of the Rings and swapping books!

On our last day at Mindo Lindo, Pedro took us on an “adventure tour” of the river that goes through their property.  We didn’t know what to expect when he invited us, (Pedro is quite the story-teller, you never know if what he’s telling you is true), but we donned the rubber boots and followed him to the river.  The “adventure tour” consisted of climbing up, (beside and sometimes through), the river’s waterfalls to get to the top. 

even the dogs went along

I had to put away the camera for the really wet parts.

Everyone made it without falling in!

Made it! (with only one dog though - Tommy chickened out)

That night, everyone went into the town of Mindo for what was supposed to be a music jam-session at one of the cafes. Ricardo brought his bagpipes and was a big hit as usual.

 

Dario grabbed a caja to accompany the pipes and the duo impressed everyone.

 

A little later, they let us know that they had even set up a stage outside.  Everyone paraded out to the stage, and Ricardo was (unexpectedly) putting on a show for the town of Mindo!  It was a fun night, and a memorable way to end our time in Mindo.

We are always indebted to the wonderful people who receive us and treat us like family on our trip – Heike, Pedro, and their daughters were great to us.  We had an amazing time, and we look forward to seeing them again, on their next visit to Chile! 

Thank you Heike and Pedro!

 

Into Ecuador

Before we left San Agustin, we had planned to drive towards Popayan and then south to Ecuador from there.  Manuel convinced us, however, to take a “shortcut,” and drive south from San Agustin and cross into Ecuador further east.  It’s a good road, he said, and much shorter.

BIG MISTAKE.

It may have been shorter distance-wise, but the road was so bad -- muddy, steep, and filled with huge holes – that it ended up taking us a day and a half just to get Cubby to the Ecuador border!  Our friends Linda and Dario, who we met in San Agustin, were along with us…and the four of us were cursing Manuel the whole time!  Never rely on the local’s “shortcuts”, we’ve learned…at least with a camper!

On the drive, we did have some pretty awesome scenery, though.  It began looking more and more wet and jungly as we drove.  We were getting close to the Amazon!

We entered into Ecuador at a point called San Miguel.  Country number 13 for us!

 

We drove straight to the next town, called Lago Agrio.  It was dark already by the time we arrived.  Some locals recommended that we park at the plaza, so we pulled in, made ourselves comfortable by setting up the table and chairs on the sidewalk, and drank some boxes of Chilean wine.  A little too much wine maybe!

Cubby by the plaza in Lago Agrio

The next day we headed toward a park called Cayambe-Coca.  On the way, we noticed green slime coming out of Pichula... a hole in the radiator.  There was a town nearby, but it was Sunday, of course, just our luck, so nothing was open.  Luckily, one guy agreed to open up his shop to help us.

 

On a trip like this, some entire days are spent on unexpected things like car repair… you get used to it!

We got the radiator all fixed and started the beautiful drive toward the Cayambe-Coca reserve, passing farms, gorges, rivers, and waterfalls.  Everything is so green!  The roads on the Ecuador side were perfect, by the way.

 

With such good roads, we got there in no time, and stopped at the San Rafael falls.

It was too late to hike down to the falls that day, so found a spot for Cubby and spent the night.

 

beautiful river near our campsite

 

In Ecuador, you also find oil pipelines running through the National Parks.  I guess that cheap gas has a price…

oil pipeline, also near our campsite

 

The next morning, we hiked down to the San Rafael falls.  You pass many smaller falls on the way down.  What a beautiful hike.

on the way to San Rafael falls

We spotted some beautiful birds.

This is a huge toucan just hanging out above us.  Unfortunately, the zoom on my camera is not very good…

toucan

The first view we got of the San Rafael falls was breathtaking…we had no idea how big these falls actually are.  From the first viewpoint:

 

 

We heading down further to the second (and last) viewpoint, where you could see the falls even closer.  There was so much mist created by the falling water that at some points you could not even see the waterfall.  But as we watched, the mist would disappear, revealing the water crashing into the river down below.

 

We didn’t know it at the time, but Ecuador building a dam on the river farther upstream.  In a few months (maybe even already), this powerful waterfall will be reduced to only 20% its original volume. So sad that this beautiful sight will be destroyed…

 

We left the park and drove on toward Quito.  We watched the scenery gradually change as we left rainforest and entered the Andes region...

The vegetation begins to be less dense,

and the mountain peaks start becoming sharper.

Awesome views!

We passed through Quito on our way to a town called Mindo, where we would visit friends of Ricardo’s mom at their amazing home.  But don’t worry, we came back to visit Quito as well!  Stay tuned for the next post…

Looking out over a section of Quito from a small mountain we climbed...we'll be back Quito!