Ecuador
December 28, 2019 - January 04, 2020:
Adventure time! The itinerary on this trip included: Trekking, Mountain Biking, White Water Rafting, and Canyoning.
First up! Trekking! We departed from the Swissotel in Quito towards Cotopaxi National Park. We weren’t going to hike up Cotopaxi, but rather up another route so we could get a view of it. There was cloud cover most of the time so we couldn’t see much. I was shocked at how out of breath I was. It was only a 4 mile hike, but it started at 12,700 feet up to 13,850 feet.
After our hike we hopped on the bus and headed towards Baños, a town our guide had hyped to us as super fun. On the way we stopped at a park where our guides provided us a delicious packed lunch! We finally reached Baños and got settled in just in time for dinner. After dinner we hit the town for some Salsa dancing lessons. They love to salsa in Ecuador!
I didn’t sleep much that night because at about 4am roosters started making a ton of noise and they did not stop. They were SO LOUD! But neverthelessless next up on our agenda was mountain biking.
Let the drama with THE BUS commence. So, there were about 15 people in our group, which was rather large. Our guide said they haven’t a group that big before, so they had to get a bigger bus than usual. On the way up to mountain biking, we stopped. Our guide got out to look at the road. He didn’t think we would make it the usual route so we went a different way. Then we got lost. He asked for directions, and then some strangers got on our bus. We gave them a lift to the public transit bus stop. Then our bus got stuck, but Carlos, the best driver in the world, got us out! The locals came out wondering what on earth was going on in thier neighborhood. Then we got lost again. Anyway, we made it to our destination, which was just another truck with the bikes.
We got geared up and ready to go. I thought we’d be riding on dirt but we were just riding on the pavement. We rode about 10 minutes uphill then it was all downhill from there. There were some muddy spots so it was good to have the mountain bike. Sometimes the road was pristine and then all of a sudden it was not. We stopped towards the bottom to make sure our bus would get through this rocky section. The drama with bus really amused me.
After biking we stopped in town for lunch and a beer. Baños was getting ready for New Years Eve, which like most places in the world, is a big holiday. We then headed towards The Swing at the End of the World. This is where the 2014 Nat Geo photo of the year was taken. I almost didn’t do it, but I did! It’s not an optical illusion, you are swinging off the edge.
PHOTOS PART 1:
(click • dot on mobile device or hover on desktop version for captions)
After Baños we headed towards the Amazon. First we stopped at a really powerful waterfall.
When the itinerary says “stay with a family in the amazon jungle” it quite literally means stay with an Amazon family in the jungle. Our guide said that the shaman, or owner of the property really didn't want to make their home a tourist destination, but did so to help with the local economy and give work to the locals. The accommodations were relatively newly built, but very minimal. There was a bed in my room with a mosquito net. That’s it. No electricity. We had shared bathrooms next door.
The next morning we went white water rafting. It rained so much the night before that the water levels of the river was really high. Lucky for us, we worked together and didn’t capsize our boat! After being soaked all day it was a delightful surprise to learn that our accommodations for the night was a boogie spa. Yes please and thank you!
The next day we checked out the equator line, the Otavalo markets, and stayed at this old farm. It was our final night away from the city. Our last active day involved a 5 hour hike around a still active volcano. It was covered in clouds in the morning which kept us cool.
PHOTOS PART 2:
