We have made it to South America – the original aim of our trip. Here we will spend 4 months travelling down and around to Brazil. We are very excited to have commenced this leg of our trip, however, we are aware that it may be the hardest of all. We are camping for half of the time we are travelling for and we have not brought or bought sleeping mats (they would have been too heavy to carry for 5 and a bit months and they are too expensive to buy in Quito – about $40-50 USD for one). The other part of the travel is that we will have some very long travel days – some over 12 hours and, I am sure, some that start at ungodly times of the morning.
Our first stop was the capital city – Quito – which is at altitude (approximately 3000 m). Having never been at this level before, I immediately noticed that my heart rate was racing even while walking up the slightest of inclines (or just walking slowly downhill). Laurence mused that I was incredibly unfit, however, soon after he felt unwell and ended up taking half of an altitude sickness tablet (instant karma). Even with this setback we powered on and walked around the city (in total we walked 17km – mainly due to Laurence leaving something at the shopping mall and having to waln all the way back to get it!). It is a lovely city, with an old town and a new town. Little cobbled streets, churches galore, and the usual things that you would expect from a Spanish colonised city. The surroundings itself was beautiful – set high in the mountains with valleys below. As we drove out of the city we could see all of the colourful little houses built on the mountainside.
After a short drive through the mountains we made it to the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was a beautiful little resort and Laurence and I were in the last bungalow in the row – so we had a view straight into the jungle. The resort provided breakfast, lunch (three courses), dinner (three courses), and excursions into the jungle and through a number of cave systems. Our two and a half days here were jam packed with walking – and the heat of the jungle. We managed not to be bitten to death by the Amazonian flying bugs, but we know a few people who could play join the dots. Here we must also mention that we watched the USA elections – we went to bed at around midnight knowing that the world was coming to an end.
Just down the road (about 4 hours) we arrived at our first campsite, Rio Verde. We (Laurence) skilfully put up the tent and we scavenged a couple of sleeping mats that had previously been left on the truck (you know the kind that was used before air beds were invented – approximately 1cm thick). The site managers prepared an Argentinian BBQ for dinner – which Laurence was extremely excited about (Meat! Meat!). He struck up a conversation with the cook and was forever more seen next to the BBQ that evening – I mean, did he even make it to bed? I must admit that this night, this first night, was the hardest night camping that I have ever had. We were squished into the tent (our packs are quite big and take up a lot of space), it was raining (so we were trying to make sure that nothing was touching the sides), and we were on these pathetic little mats – in fact I am pretty sure I tried to sleep between them for part of the night. Both Laurence and I were intermittently awake during the night, trying to find a comfortable position (if you are ever in this situation, don’t bother – there isn’t one). We woke up broken, bruised, and a little bit grumpy.
After breakfast on our first full day in Rio Verde we set off to go canyoning – jumping off waterfalls, repelling down waterfalls, and sliding down rapids in the river bad. Well that we how it was supposed to go. All started off well, we ‘fell’ backwards off a small waterfall (1-2m), we jumped off a medium waterfall (5m), but then things started to go askew. As we were waiting to jump off the big waterfall (10m) one of the other people got into trouble. You had to run and jump (to clear a rock on the way down and to get to the middle of the pool below), he did not jump far enough. We didn’t see, we only saw the guides and the leaders faces as this was unfolding, the reactions of the people as the searched for the man, pulled him out of the water, and started CPR. I am happy to say that the man lived, with no known side effects, but it certainly shone a bit of reality on the situation. Amazingly, of the 10 or so people left to jump off the waterfall, only 2 decided to repel down the side of it instead. Of course, Laurence jumped and I repelled. It was at this stage that the rain kicked in, the river rose noticeably, and the speed of the water was frightening. However, what can you do when you are halfway down the river, you can’t go back – so you have to plod on ahead. After a repel and zip-line across another waterfall and some bum sliding rapids we reached the fourth waterfall – a raging river of water tumbling over the edge. Our guides decided that it would be unsafe to continue (come on – just look at what had already taken place), and we climbed up an extremely steep, extremely muddy, and extremely slippery bank. Finally, we were cold, wet, shaken, and safe. That afternoon we went into town in search of an airbed and a diversion – we didn’t find an air bed, but we did find some ice-cream. Our final day there was designated an admin day and we did not leave the campsite.
After a monstrously long drive we made it to Chugchilan way up in some of the more remote mountains in Ecuador. Given the long day, and after camping, we were tired and happy to be sleeping in a real bed. Early the next morning we took a ride up to Lake Quilatoa, a crater lake, and hiked our way back to the hostel. I must say that this was quite difficult at the beginning, we were up at around 4000 m and the altitude did make it harder to breathe and walk. If we had only have been going down, then I think it would have been fine. However, the way was difficult – at points we were climbing higher and at points the way down was so steep it might have been better to slide down on your bum. In the end I found the middle part of the hike quite pleasant – the scenery was beautiful and it felt like I had time to take it all in. The end was a dirt path that led us up out of the canyon that we had descended into to cross the valley to our hotel. The hour or so constant climb was unpleasant. Laurence seemed to do alright – but I will put that down to him taking an altitude sickness pill prior to the hike. I would like to think that my difficulties were because I didn’t take one. I might have to admit later in the trip that I am more unfit than I would like.
No rest for the wicked on our whirlwind tour of South America. Our next stop was a bigger city in the southern part of Ecuador, Cuenca. Here we went to the Panama Hat manufacturer – convinced Laurence that he did not need another hat, especially one that cost $1000 USD. For the rest of the day is was basically ‘maintenance time’ – we both had haircuts, I bought some socks, Laurence got a replacement bit for his hiking boots and some ‘back up parts’ in case it breaks again. We even bought an airbed and a pump – the decision was that if we had 47 more nights of camping in South America we wanted to be able to move each morning and not groan as we tried to get up. Plus, our hips were quite sore from the hard ground and trying to sleep on our sides. We also found a place that made the closest thing to a Mince and Cheese pie – it was a pizza place that put mince, ham, and cheese in pastry and cooked it in the pizza oven (kind of like a Cornish Pasty I think) – Laurence loved it! We also wandered around the city, viewed some churches, and even took a look at the super moon one night.
Oh, and we found a corridor that someone might actually get killed in…
It was finally time to say goodbye to Ecuador as the next day we headed to the border and Peru!