So with the train ride complete we left
Alausi in the afternoon and headed off towards Banos. We really struck gold with this journey as the bus company we had originally planned to travel with turned us towards a different company that let us leave earlier. Not only that but the bus route actually took us straight past the end of our road and we were able to hop off there, score! So off we trotted down towards our accommodation to be greeted by Bruno the barking sausage dog, he just barked at us a lot. Our apartment was a small two room flat that had been built on top of another building. We had a simple kitchen and a large back bedroom. The views from here were fantastic and we could see all the way to the Tungurahua volcano. We later discovered that this volcano last erupted in 2014, not that long ago... From here we watched the beautiful sunset before going to bed as it had been a long day.
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| The beautiful sunset |
We rose the next morning, the morning of our wedding anniversary and we were in Ecuador which is the strangest thing ever. We had originally planned to buy some breakfast from the shop at the end of the road, but then couldn't as there was very little at one shop and the other was closed. So we headed in to town to try some Arepas (a bit like maize flat breads stuffed full of all sorts of great stuff). Unfortunately the shop wasn't open yet so we decided we'd go elsewhere. We eventually found somewhere called Honey's and had a really nice coffee and some panini type things for breakfast/brunch. After wolfing these down we headed off towards the bus for the Casa del Arbol, the tree house.
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| Us at the treehouse |
The Tree house is located on a hill near to the aforementioned volcano. It's purpose is as a seismic monitoring centre, essentially keeping an eye on the volcano. But the real attraction of the tree house is the swings that are there. Although the pictures make it look like you have thrust yourself off the end of the earth, it is in fact just a steep hill. Nonetheless you still get that drop in your stomach as you watch the edge fall away from under your feet. As it turns out no one really knows where the swings came from, but it appears that it may have been a whimsical seismologist.
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| The swing over the edge |
From here we decided that we would walk down rather than take the bus. We had read that it was possible to climb up to the swing, but decided the bus was better and we would walk down and marvel at the views. This didn't quite go to plan, the first half of the track was alright, but once we got further in it turned out that the path was less maintained than we would have liked. It was however a little too late to turn back, so we pressed on very cautiously and finally made our way down to the Mary Statue view point. Banos' full name is Banos de Agua Santa, it received its name from the natural hot springs and their healing properties, the name literally means baths of the holy water. I did have to chuckle a little as Bano is also the word for toilet here, so it could also be the toilet of holy water... As I understood the sign, the statue of Mary was placed there to care for the town after an evacuation due to the volcano. This said there has also been visions of Mary, which gives the town's church its name, which could also attribute the presence of a large Mary on the hill. After we finally got home we chilled out at the house for a bit before going out for dinner at a local restaurant for our anniversary.
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| The views on the way down |
The next day we were sadly leaving, but only had a short journey to Latacunga so decided to spend the morning in the zoo. The Zoo here contains many animals from around Ecuador and as we were unable to reach Galapagos (time constrictions and budget, it's quite expensive to get to, but we shall be back! hopefully...) we decided it would be a good idea to visit. The zoo was about two blocks south of our accommodation and took us over a very deep canyon with a river flowing through it. The bridge over it gave you that stomach dropping sensation again. Unfortunately when we arrived the zoo was closed as there had been a fire in the area which we think had got too close to the zoo. The zoo itself hadn't caught fire but it was closed nonetheless. So we headed back to pick up our stuff and head off to the bus station.
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| The view from the top |
On the way we decided that we would grab a bite to eat, as it was now going to be open we went back to the Arepas place we'd tried the day before for breakfast. The Arepas there were amazing! They were stuff full of fillings of meat, beans, cheese and avocado and it was absolutely delicious. Now Arepas are not a traditional food in Ecuador, the food stop we'd gone to was actually described as Venezuelan food. But on a brief google search we have found that Arepas are also common in Columbia (our next destination) where three of the cities we are going to take it in turns to host the Arepa festival between August and December. So we may come back in the round shape of an Arepa...
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| Olivia on the Swing |
Latacunga
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| Quilotoa Lake |
After our Arepa lunch we headed up towards the bus station and got on the bus to Latacunga. Latacunga is small town, a little further north than Banos, we'd taken a detour eastward to reach banos) and was our final stop before we headed up to Quito and out northward to Colombia. Just to make things a little more interesting, Latacunga is also dwarfed by a ginormous active volcano, this one is called Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. We had a few things that we wanted to see in Latacunga and around so had an extra day here. Our bus unfortunately, despite being told it would take us to Latacunga, only took us to the outskirts of town as one of the roads to the terminal was closed. The bus could have gone round, but technically it dropped us of in town. We were a little unsure of what to do and could only find a taxi to take, so asked a man who quoted $5 for the centre of town, deciding that it made as much sense to take us to our accommodation I asked about going there instead as it was on the way to town. Somehow the price changed to $7, so we politely told him to do one and asked someone else, he quoted us $4 which was even better and took us there. He was very nice and reassuring that the road was closed, we didn't know this at that point, hence why he was taking us a back route way. He said all this before assuring us that he wasn't going to rob us, to be honest, if he was going to I don't think he'd have forewarned us. Our accommodation was a little awkward to find, but eventually we found it and discovered we had the whole apartment to ourselves, rather than just renting one room.
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| The mountain views from Quilotoa |
We slept the night and had a lazy morning before exploring Latacunga town. We headed via the terminal to see the bus times for going to Quilotoa and Tigua, our activity for the next day, and were happy to find that they were frequent. Content with this we headed off into the town. The town itself is not much to write about, it basically consists of hotels and guesthouses. The church was closed to the public so we couldn't even have a look in there. Ultimately we found that the centre, despite the cloudy views of Cotopaxi was a disappointment. But we did find cake which made it better, I had some cheesecake and Olivia had a soggy orange cake, they seem to do that here, no idea why but it was nice. After this we also decided to try some Ecuadorian chocolate when we'd returned to our accommodation, as it turns out of the top 5% of cocoa beans 60% of those are produced in Ecuador. We tried some single origin from Esmeralda in the north west of the country and some milk chocolate as well, they were amazing and we may have to try some more!
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| Amazing Ecuadorian Chocolate |
The next day we rose early to catch the bus to Quilotoa. The bus going here went past Tigua as well so we decided we would do that on the return. The bus wound through the hills in the manner that makes you feel like you could vomit up your breakfast empanada up at any second. But eventually we spied Tigua and thought we'd take a look. We'd read that Tigua was a village adorned with bright and marvelous paintings. However upon driving through there were a few galleries dotted along the main road, miles away from the village, but in the village itself just a small gift shop type set up. For this reason we decided to give it a miss on the way back.
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| More mountain views |
After Tigua, we found ourselves in the village of Zumbahua. Despite the office stating that the bus went to Zumbahua and Quilotoa this was not the case. The bus dropped us off in Zumbahua and made us all get off as there was a market there and we don't think they could be bothered to take us through. So we were forced to take an open plan truck the final 12km to Quilotoa town where we were told that we would be taken to the top of the path for the lake. This didn't happen either and he dropped us outside of the town stating that he could go no further. So we had to walk the final stretch into town.
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| Olivia at Quilotoa |
Upon cresting the final hill we could see down into Quilotoa. Quilotoa contains a large turquoise lake in the middle of a volcano's crater. It's turquoise in sunshine but when we arrived it was a little overcast. Unsure what to do we decided that we would walk around the crater to see a little more of it. Quilotoa stands at 3,900 metres and so was a little bit of hard work walking around. We only actually made it an hour and a half around, I think annoyance at the rip off nature of getting there combined with that the lake looked pretty much the same wherever you went made it a little bit of a non-event, so we turned around and headed back rather than walk the further 2-3 hours around the rim of the crater.
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| The turquoise tinge to the lake |
Upon arriving back in the town we were inundated for offers for taxi's back to Latacunga, turning these down as we were assured we could get a bus we made it back to the main entrance of the village and asked the parking attendent where we could take the bus and when. Here and in half an hour was his response, just down the road were a couple of french ladies who were also waiting for the bus. We had a taxi driver ask if we wanted to go to Latacunga, before informing us that the bus wouldn't turn up for another 4 hours. Given the conflict of information we decided to wait and see. After about twenty minutes the parking attendent was ushered over to the taxi driver before he informed us (and the French ladies) that the driver would take us to Latacunga for $2, the same as the bus, the bus after all was going to be a long time and it was going to rain soon. We double checked with the taxi driver that this was going to be the case and that he'd take us to the terminal in Latacunga, rather than the roundabout outside. He confirmed this and so we took off.
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| Olivia above the lake |
We had just passed through Zumbahua when the taxi driver pulled over and informed us that this was as far as he was going to take us. I told him that he had said he'd take us to Latacunga. As it turns out his father was coming to visit from Latacunga and he needed to go back to Quilotoa. One of the French ladies starts at him in Spanish where he states that he wouldn't charge us and we could take the bus from here for $1.50 to the terminal in Latacunga. As it turns out we sort of could, but it was a very confusing journey. We finally made it to Latacunga and had a dinner of some mock Chinese dish of fried rice with meat and beef and eggs with lentils and chips. The plates were ginormous so we probably don't need to eat for the next few days
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| The amazing mountain in Banos |
In the end, I think we found Latacunga a bit of a disappointing end to Ecuador. We've really enjoyed it and the scenery has been superbly wonderful as we have driven through the mountains. The chocolate and food has also been very good and the people very friendly. I think with all of the misinformation and dropping in the wrong places it's put a bit of a downer on things, but I think also it's a bit of a non event. The town itself is not great in comparison to the rest of it. I think if you were a hardcore hiker and wanted to do the Quilotoa loop it would be an amazing opportunity. The lake is beautiful I will grant it that and the paintings we did see were very colourful. But really it's not a must see, go to Banos instead that was amazing!
In the meantime
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