¡Chau Ecuador!

Apologies for the absence. I wrote a big post on our final days in Ecuador, didn't save it and then managed to lose it. What's worse is I wrote it on a bumpy bus ride in Colombia which was quite an achievement in itself. But we move on...

So my original post included long boring accounts of ridiculous bus rides in Ecuador and how every bus ticket selling human is a filthy liar and will not hesitate to tell you a bus trip is 5 hours when it's actually 8 (yes this happened to us...more than once). 

So instead, here's a photo of one of the many Quito bus station dogs. I think we visited this terminal four times and I promise that dog is alive. I saw him a few days later several meters away (in a similar position). 

This is where we spent our last few days in Ecuador, a town called Baños. And if any of you know a bit of Spanish that's the word they use for toilets/bathrooms here. So technically it's 'Baños de Santa Agua' which is kinda like baths of holy water due to all the natural (and holy obviously) hot springs in the town. 

So we went to one of the local baths to submerge ourselves. There was two pools, one containing warm holy water. The other containing scolding holy water. I'm going to say that the scolding water was a more spiritual experience but that's just my opinion. I've never been a particularly spiritual human.

Next we set off to do the most touristy thing in Baños. We visited the supposed 'swing at the end of the world' or the Casa del Arbol (tree house). Not sure where it got its first name since all anyone had been telling us since we arrived was that we were in the middle of the world but here it is. And it's actually just a swing someone put up on a seismic monitoring station for a nearby volcano but it's turned into a 'must visit' site in Ecuador. 

After that we gave up being tourists. We missed an impressive waterfall (well not when you've seen igazu I guess) and every adventure sport under the sun but we were OK with that. We rested up in preparation for a 5am bus to get us into Colombia before dark. 

I will miss this little symbol of Ecuador. Whoever was in charge of the marketing for this did an amazing job. It's everywhere you look! Chau Ecuador, thanks for everything except the food poisoning. 

In the Jungle

We decided to pay a visit to the Amazon rain forest here in Ecuador but you can visit the Amazon from either Bolivia, Peru, Colombia or Brazil. 

We spent 4 days and 3 nights amongst the cockroaches, bats, wolf spiders, tarantulas and muchos other creatures in the Cuyabeno National Park. Our trip out to the jungle involved an overnight bus ride from Quito and both of us vomiting before we even made it onto the canoe for the trip to the lodge! Yay. Here's a photo to capture the moment.

So we actually saw heaps of animals.... but they are basically impossible to take photos of. It's bird and bug heaven for those kinda enthusiasts. I really only care about cute furry creatures or weird cool stuff. We saw about 5 of the 10 species of monkeys there, caymans, a sloth, pink river dolphins, arapaima (I've been informed these feature heavily on the TV show River Monsters), a pygmy ant eater and some snakes. 

Oh and lots of frogs...

We spent a lot of time cruising around on the river. The water was really low and we kept having fish jump into our boat or just launch themselves at people's heads. Kinda scary when they look like this...

We also went to visit one of the local communities and got to experience making a type of flat bread from yuka which we freshly ripped from the ground.

The whole process was pretty cool. It involved grating the yuka (also called cassava https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava) and then using a device made from some plant material like reeds wringing out all the moisture and cyanide (true story!) and then making it into flour. 

And then obviously cooking it :)

Our guide also showed us a cool plant where they get the colour for painting their faces. Here's me fitting in with the locals as per usual.

And Spaghetti O tried out shooting a blow gun. She actually hit the target! But I'm not sure either of us are ready to relocate to Cuyabeno as pretty as it is.

 

On the way home we acquired a cheeky Ecuadorian child. My first sighting of him was when he came up to where we were making bread and poked a stick at the Dutch guy on our tour. Haha. He sat between us on the way back to the lodge and after about ten minutes of trouble making he thankfully passed out. His grandparents gifted him to me but I forgot to collect him on my way out.

Anyway that was our adventure to the rain forest. We also saw some terrifying looking scorpion spider which I'm pretty sure featured in the Alien movies. And for me, this was the highlight..... And yes, there is an animal in this photo. It's a Great Potoo bird and it's pretty good at camouflaging  itself in case you can't tell. MIND BLOWN.

The Middles of the World

So I've now visited the equator three times...possibly. First of all we visited Mitad del Mundo which is the official Ecuadorian monument to mark the Equator. Problem is that after they put up the enormous monument and built 99 shops and restaurants around it, someone went and invented GPS and unfortunately it didn't agree that the equator crossed through the site. Looks nice though...

A few hundred metres away some enterprising locals have set up a small museum where the 'real' equator apparently lies. They also show you a bunch of tricks to demonstrate things like the coriolis effect (you know how water supposedly goes down the drain in different directions in both hemispheres). Apparently it's all trickery but amusing nonetheless.

Next we went to a town called Cayambe where they have a giant sundial...and a stamp from the army(!) to certify that their site is at 0 latitude. I also learnt that from the Equator you can see the Southern Cross AND the Big Dipper when you can only usually see one or the other depending on your hemisphere. Fascinating, no?!

Mariposas of Mindo

I've recently contracted some South American form of Ebola. I can't write much but today we went to look at some cool butterflies in a town called Mindo. I learnt that butterflies that make their cocoons near the water are able to make them look metallic. Kinda creepy. I also learnt that boxes of tissues in Ecuador are more expensive than purchasing small individual packets. What kind of world are we living in?

Also I met a dog that looked like a baby cow. 

Poor Man's Galapagos aka Isla de la Plata

Earlier in the year my brother visited Galapagos with some friends. I wanted to join them but I couldn't really swallow the +$2500 price tag for a tour of 6 or 7 days. That kind of money can go a long way over here! 

So I consulted the oracle that is Google to find out exactly what I wouldn't be able to see in Australia and it ended up being a lot of birds, land and marine iguanas and oversized tortoises. I then checked with my brother to see what his review of Galapagos was and what I might miss. His response (verbatim) "Sea and land iguanas. It's mainly just wildlife on some islands".... Hah. Thank you Christian. And so the decision was made. Poor Man's Galapagos (Isla de la Plata) would suffice. 

We got the boat out from Puerto Lopez and luckily were also in time for whale season. Within minutes of leaving the shore we were cruising along with three whales beside our boat. And on the way back from the island we saw several more putting on a bit of a show.

Cool hey. I love whales especially when they come for free. 

Once we arrived at the island we had plenty of turtles they'd arranged to greet us which was very nice. Apparently they enjoy a bit of lettuce when they can get it. Here's one saying 'Hola'. Spanish speaking turtles obviously. 

So we preceded to the island for our hike (cue the rain). Oh and I know it looks freezing but it's not...just really overcast.

Just so you know, 'plata' means silver so it's Silver Island. Spaghetti O thought the guides said that the white stuff on the island reflects in the water on the full moon and looks silver. The white stuff by the way is Blue Footed Booby faeces. Jackpot!

Here's a couple of the weird little creatures now...

I'm not sure if this is an unfair judgement but I'm going to say they're not the sharpest tools. Cute though. Yay for boobies!

And then we went snorkelling...and saw some cool fish and sub sea creatures. When the guide said (in Spanish) they had 'Sea Wolves', I immediately pictured a wolf underwater. Turns out that's how they say sea lion in Spanish. Oh snap! Luckily they don't have blonde moments here. EspanLOLs indeed.