Beautiful Cuenca

So next stop from the loop was the relaxing spa town of Baños (below).

Known for it's natural hot water spas. So what do Lesa and Gio do? Go for a three hour long bike ride in the rain! It seemed like a good idea at the time.....

amazing views helped make the bike ride worthwhile

Needless to say we got the bus back in to town.

After Banos we headed further south, finally making some progress across Ecuador, to Cuenca where we had signed up for some spanish lessons. The problem with all this travelling and action packed stops is that we don't speak any Spanish. Truth be told I am usually too out of breath hiking, biking etc to speak at all. So time to get back to school.

Cuenca turned out to be a gorgeous town. And to add to the luxury of sitting on our backsides for a week it also turned out to be the home of very very many cake and ice cream shops. Mmmm maybe we'll stay a little longer....

Main cathedral in Cuenca

Lesa's favourite shop in Cuenca, we couldn't decide between the cakes on the counter so bought a slice of all of them!

The market and the 'pork lunch' section. Second favourite discovery.

After over a week in Cuenca, yes I blame the ice cream shops, we headed for our final stop in Ecuador. A town a few hours from the border called Loja. And then that was it, having arrived January 6th for supposedly 3/4 weeks - about 9 weeks later we said good bye to Ecuador! And it was a beautiful good bye - the scenery from the bus was absolutely amazing.

More of Cuenca:

Cuenca from a viewpoint out of town:

Cuenca market:

A trip to the local museum discovered some delightful shruken heads.....

....and amazing wildlife outside:

Loop the loop

Quilatoa Crater

Next on the itinerary, now we were back in Ecuador, was the Quilotoa loop.

First stop was Latacunga, a cute town with beautiful town squares and a very enthusiastic brass band. We lucked out finding a little Italian that did the absolute best pasta.....yummm I can still remember it now! So, stocked up on carbs we set out early the next morning for the first section of the loop.

Quilotoa (pronounced 'kilo toa') is a water filled caldera 2 miles wide that was formed by the collapse of a volcano following a catastrophic eruption about 800 years ago. The Quilotoa loop is the journey between a series of villages around it -about 200km. You can do this journey by bus, bike, horse, milk truck or by foot. We did a bit of a combo.

First stop was a dusty little town, with chickens everywhere you looked, called Isinlivi, by bus. The bus ride itself was an experience. Amazing scenery and everyone from the very old to toddlers wearing amazing fedora hats. We stayed in a gorgeous little hostel called Llulu Llama.

Greenhouse toilet at Hostal Llulu Llama

View from said toilet

The next day was a walking day - which was lovely and a little bit like a treasure hunt. We had a page of instructions including things like ' turn right at the green bushes'! About five hours later, we arrived at Chugchilán another very small and dusty town. We found a lovely hostal - hostal Mama Hilda and sat down - for a long time! Food was very welcomed and plentiful - four courses with pizza as a starter! As all good meals should start!

Lesa standing on a log

Not to be out-done, Gio standing on a log

Evening entertainment at Chugchilan

Next day, next stage of the loop. Back of a truck to the crater rim (having been told it was 7 hours straight up to walk it). The scenery continued to amaze us but nothing prepared us for how glorious the crater would be.

Lesa on the back of a truck

The Quilatoa trail

We finally finished the loop about 5.5 hours later. Found a little shop for drinks, where the lady there told us that the locals do the walk in 3 hours! She arranged a ride for us to get to Zumbagua and the bus home. Poor old Gio had to stand for the next 2 hours on the bus home, whilst I got a front seat and the driver slowing the bus to show me the best views of the volcanoes we passed!

Quilotoa Loop local record holder (3 hours, 2 mins, 14 seconds)

And so, a few days later, loop looped, we sat with pizzas back in Latacunga discussing the absolute beauty of Ecuador, how amazing it was to see how the local indigenous people existed in pretty tough conditions - harvesting almost vertical slopes, oh and how happy we were to be going to lie down!!

Not wanting to be out-done, Gio on the back of a truck.

Cotopaxi Volcano

Miami (my mammy)

Having spoken to and seen Gio’s mum on Skype we decided to surprise her with a visit. She is currently visiting Gio’s brother, Ronnie, at his home in Fort Lauderdale. So we booked some last minute flights to Miami and off we went. I wish we had had a video camera for when Gio’s mum answered the door – it was a perfect reaction with plenty of tears, and it felt good to back with family.

Not only did we very much enjoy spending time with family and being able to share the stories of the trip so far, it was bliss to wash our clothes properly and sleep in a big wonderful bed. We spent every evening being fed to the brim by Ari’s (Ronnie’s wife) absolutely amazing cooking and with Ronnie very generously plying us with plenty of delicious red wine. We hadn’t realised how much we had missed creature comforts and the easy life!

Ronnie's garden

Sunday Ari had a party for a few friends, and it was a great opportunity to practise our Spanish with friends from Colombia, Peurto Rico, Dominican Republic and Ecuador – lots of Spanish and a real boost of confidence to be able to understand what everyone was talking and joking about. And to actually be able to say something!

As a surprise, as Gio’s mum loves them, Ari organised a Mariachi band to come to the party. We were ALL completely shocked when they came in to the garden singing – it was brilliant. Once more Nina was shocked to tears!

So, food, food, food, and a little shopping. The week zoomed by and I am not quite sure what we have to show for it. Ari helped me practise my Spanish which was great, but apart from that it was just spent relaxing. A holiday from a holiday – lucky, lucky us.

And so we returned to Quito, not sure what the next few days/weeks/months would hold but knowing that we were going to very much miss the amazing hospitality and Gio’s lovely family. And the bed, oh the lovely, lovely bed!!

The sunset view in Ronnie's garden:

Week three – Bread, Chocolate and Coffee

La Hesperia

Our third week at the reserve was a bit more relaxed. Gio seemed to get donkey duty each morning, and ‘El Donkey’ and he came to some sort of understanding which made it quite a nice job I think. I spent a lot of my week with Maria, from east London, a very cool and fun person to hang out with. Between us we put the world to rights whilst picking coffee, fruit, planting trees in the nursery, making bread with great success (one occasion so much so the dog could not resist stealing it, and another with a chocolate bread plait!), making coffee from scratch and making chocolate from scratch.

Coffee making.

I found the chocolate making so exciting I was skipping around in my wellington boots! It didn’t taste quite the same as the chocolate that Lindt produces but made the most amazing hot chocolate ever.

Our last weekend was spent at the reserve. The cloud forest wasn’t a super comfortable place to spend a weekend but it was peaceful, beautiful and true escapism.

It was really interesting getting to know Alexandra, the lady who (with her husband) owned and ran the farm and learning about their aims and the difficulties that they face. As owners of many many acres of cloud forest filled with endangered trees, plants, animals and birds they really feel the responsibility of protecting it. But having this much land and not utilizing it all for crops or cattle is something that many local people can not understand. And slowly people have started cutting down trees on the edges of their land and starting their own little farms. In addition to this they have a constant struggle with staff. Working on the land does not seem to have much kudos, where as wearing a uniform and working for a big corporation (such as the hydro-electric project down the road) seems to hold much more of a draw.

Alexandra and Juan Puablo are trying to build a model of sustainable living that can be replicated across Ecuador – something that allows people to live off of their land whilst still protecting the rain forest and it’s inhabitants. Both are very eloquent and very interesting to talk to and we would have loved to get to know them better. But three weeks came to a close and the bug free city of Quito was calling us – so we hitched a lift with Juan (giving El Donkey escape from carrying our bags!) down the hill and waited for a bus to stop.

The volunteer house (Charlotte and I)

The view from where we brushed our teeth:

My bus ride was entertaining as I practised my Spanish with the lovely lady I sat next to, she had just spent the last 9 years living in Stockwell of all places. But now was back enjoying the beauty of Ecuador.

We had two nights back in Quito, and spent our time enjoying a new coffee discovery – a cafe recommended by Dale and Karen, which was run by a guy straight from the Sopranos – he had the best throaty New York accent and also served the most amazing coffee. His advice to us – open a coffee shop!

We also wandered around the local market and discovered hidden bargaining talents. Our indecision, mmming and arghhing and wandering off solely due to said indecision lead to the indigenious ladies virtually throwing their produce at us!! We picked up some souvenirs and packed up for a surprise visit to Miami.

Walter sharpening the machetes ready for a day's work:

Our favourite comedy duo at the farm:

The lovely, very noisy, pigs:

A totally amazing butterfly - this was the outside pattern on it's wings:

And the number 98 appeared on the inside of it's wings!

Gio and the gang on a big Friday hike:

Amazing trees, high in the cloud forest:

DON'T SCROLL DOWN IF YOU ARE SCARED OF SPIDERS!!!!!!