En Suramérica: A Tale of Two Cities: Quito & Latacunga, Ecuador

Greetings from Ecuador!

Our trip continues as we are now in Baños, Ecuador- a quaint city right in the middle of the mountains, on the edges of the Avenue of Volcanoes. Baños is a touristy city filled with hostels. Just about every block there is at least one hostel offering "cheap rooms, internet, hot water" etc. A lot of the translations are quite hilarious, too. You think they would verify that everything is spelled correctly, but my guess is they just don't care.

After finishing Cotopaxi we spent an extra day in Quito visiting "Old Town" and recuperating from the climb (my face is still wind-burned). Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest... cold and rainy so we decided to get out of there on Saturday, June 25. We left in the afternoon for a small town called Latacunga and spent two nights there so that we could see Lake Quilotoa which we had heard was a must-see and has some great hiking.

Quito is an awesome city. I really enjoyed my time there. It's the second-highest capital city in the world next to La Paz, Bolivia, and it's cold. Everyone I've been talking to has been quite surprised to hear that considering that it's pretty much directly on the equator. I guess being at 2,800 meters (9,200 feet) makes all the difference. The only thing that really reminds you that you're on the equator is the strength of the sun. On a sunny day, although it may not be hot, the sun is definitely powerful. Very easy to get burned walking just a few blocks. Don't worry dad, I've been wearing sunscreen everyday.

We stayed at a great hostel located right in the middle of "Gringolandia" (as it's known by the locals) or La Mariscal neighborhood. The neighborhood was like "Little USA" in Ecuador. Firstly, tons of tourists. Met some German travelers, French, Mexican, Argentine, Texan, British, you name it. They were all over the place. Secondly, there are countless restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. for tourists. In the mood for Indian food? They have it. Chinese? Sea food? Barbeque? Hookah bar? Pretty much anything and everything. Unfortunately the prices were pretty high for most places. Thirdly, they use the US Dollar. Never thought I would have been exchanging my Colombian Pesos for US Dollars at the border. However, the value is much lower here- taxis cost between $2 and $5 to take you across town, and lunch in el centro was somewhere around $3. Another difference is that the Sacagawea coin is used more frequently than the $1 bill. Also they flip-flop using either US coins or Ecuadorian coins which confused me a bit at first. The best part of it all was that Quiteños are typically very friendly people, even with foreigners- something you really don't find in every South American city.

We arrived in Quito on Friday, June 17 and spent the day walking around La Mariscal and getting to know the area. Saturday we had heard was the best day to visit the Otavalo Market in the city of Otavalo, located just one and a half hours away from Quito. We took a bus in the morning and spent the day wandering around the giant market. There are many indigenous people in Otavalo, most of which make their living from the huge market that is open everyday, but peak days are Saturdays where a major portion of the town is closed off for the various market stalls- it apparently occupies one third of the city on peak days. The most popular items at the market are made from alpaca. Sweaters, pants, gloves, hats, you name it. Also a site quite saturated with foreigners.

Sunday the 19th we intended to make our way to Old Town but unfortunately the day welcomed us with rain and cold, so we slept in and decided to take a break and do some planning for the rest of our time in Quito. On Monday, we went to the Middle of the World. The Middle of the World City is located about 30 minutes oustide of Quito and is quite the tourist destination. Again one of those sites where it was surprising to see the number of foreigners. A huge monument stands in the center of the town, pointing in all four directions, and there is a large yellow line drawn to separate north from south throughout the entire city. Pretty cool to be able to say I went to the middle of the world, needless to say, and got to stand in two different hemispheres at the same time. On our way back from the monument we flagged down a bus, thinking it was public transportation, but turned out to be a school bus. The driver was very friendly and gave us a ride all the way back to La Mariscal without any charge! He told us all about Quito and gave some good advice on things to do while we were in town.

Tuesday was spent acclimating ourselves for the Cotopaxi climb on Wednesday, so we took the teleferico up near the volcano Pichincha and walked about 1,000 meters towards the peak. Unfortunately neither of us had not known what to expect and therefore were not dressed properly for the conditions. It was freezing cold and at one point it began to hail on us, so we decided to call it quits and head down, running. Add it to the cold weather and hail sure can sting, even if it's pea-size.

Wednesday through Thursday was spent on Cotopaxi, as you'll see in the last post.

Friday, June 24 was to be the day we would leave Quito but we changed plans to stay and attempt another summit, Chimborazo, with our friend Ricardo who we met on Cotopaxi, if possible. Ricardo unfortunately told us that the climb was even more expensive than Cotopaxi, and a lot more technically difficult. This one would require lots of climbing and a whole slew of equipment was needed. Therefore we decided to spend our Friday getting to know another part of the city before we would leave. We headed to "Old Town" on Calle La Ronda to check out some old churches and the awesome colonial architecture of the area.

Saturday we decided to head to a smaller town outside of Quito called Latacunga so that we could make our way to Lake Quilotoa the next day. Quilotoa is a "caldera" lake just an hour and a half outside of Latacunga. A caldera is an area of land that has collapsed due to volcanic eruptions. The last eruption of Quilotoa happened sometime in the 13th century. Lake Quilotoa is up to 250 meters deep at its deepest point and about 9 kilometers in diameter. The lake is decieving; on Sunday Adi and I went kayaking and it felt strange once we reached the center- all of the sides appeared to be so close, yet no matter how quickly we paddled it felt as if we weren't getting any closer. The water is an eerie blue-green color, apparently caused by dissolved materials over the past thousands of years. After climbing back up to the "peak" we were lucky enough to catch a ride with a friendly Ecuadorian and some friends we met all the way back to Latacunga.

This morning (Monday) we made our way to Banos, where we are currently. Looking forward to either some white water rafting, mountain biking, zip-lining, or hiking tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. Hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend.

Otavalo Market- this picture really doesn't do it justice considering how giant it is