trail to Chugchilan
As of our last blog entry we were done with our volunteering stint in the Mindo cloudforest area and heading back to Quito to meet our friend Jennifer who would travel with us for about 10 days. For a few days after we left the town of Milpe (where we volunteered for 2 weeks) we stayed in the lovely little town of Mindo. Highlights were a few guided birding outings. Somebody asked about the red birds in the trees that Liam caught a picture of and I posted in the last entry. Those are the beautful and difficult to find Cock of the Rock. We got up very early to travel about 30 minutes to a known lek (area used for communal courtship displays) and were treated to a wonderful, and cacophonous, display. Liam was seeing new species and adding to his life list at quite an accellerated pace, especially when we went out with local guides.
Jennifer was waiting for us at our favorite Quito hotel when we arrived back to the big city. We were thrilled to see her and immediately began planning our time together. Sheilah and I had the idea that we wanted to head south and explore the remarkable and remote Quilotoa region. Jennifer was game so we took a 2 hour bus ride (after a 1 hour taxi ride to get to the bus station...Quito is almost endless in the N/S direction) to Latacunga and staged our trip from there. The picutres above feature much of the rugged and steep landscape of the Quilotoa area. Laguna Quilotoa is the centerpiece of this area and our hike from this high, volcanic lake back to the hostal (5 hours) was our first of three days of hiking. The sand dune above is on the trail at the outer rim of the volcano. Not quite sure how to explain that geologic phenomenon. The caldera, situated at 3800 meters, is the remnant of an eruption in the late 1200's. The 250 meter deep basin has no inlet or outlet and has a very high concentration of CO2. There is some worry that a significant seismic event could trigger a release of toxic gases currently trapped deep under water. We opted not to hike the 300 meters down into the crater and instead skirted the rim before heading toward our base in Chugchilan.
After the hike I had time for a little disc golf at the much accoladed ecotouristic Black Sheep Inn where we were staying. A picture above shows hole 5. It was a blast to throw a golf disc at that altitude. Scary though, you let one go a little long and there's no telling where it will stop. Great fun, made me miss my SF disc golf buddies. Things were soon to get a little less cheery and frivolous.
I'm going to plagiarize myself and copy and paste an email I sent to my family from the town of Baños where we spent a few days directly after we left the magnificent, sweeping views of the high Andes in the Quilotoa region. Email from August 21st is as follows: (sorry, to those 3 of you who have read this before)
Hey family,
It wasn´t easy but we made it out of the Quilotoa region intact and are now resting up and relaxing in Baños. We´re looking forward to getting back to the old blog when we get back to Cuenca but I´ll share here a few recent highlights.
We left Quito with Jennifer a little over a week ago. Jennifer has been like a ray of sunshine to travel with. Relentlessly positive and flexible and she and Ailish have enjoyed each other immensely. We spent a fun night in Latacunga as we prepared to enter the famed Quilotoa region by bus the following morning. We reserved 3 nights at the incredible Black Sheep Inn in Chugchilan. This place is the 15 year project of an enterprising and creative US couple. The property sits overlooking the ¨grand canyon¨ of Ecuador and features whimsical and lovely things like a disc golf course (reputedly the highest in the world at over 10,000´¨), a sauna, a mini zipline, a beautiful yoga-dance studio, all vegetarian and organic cuisine, and really cool sustainable architecture. I´ll send pictures later.
Unfortunately, Jennifer and I got a food related sickness the night before a planned, and really not optional, 6 hour trek to our next hostal. We hired horses to carry our gear but still had one of the most miserable days in some of the most awe inspiring country that one could ever hope to hike through. The trails were steep and narrow through one very deep, and a second not so deep, canyon. This is rugged and incredible country populated only by subsistence farmers who cultivate the most unlikely and precarious mountain slopes. Sadly, I was too weak to even carry my camera. The two of us slept at every opportunity along the trail but tried not to slow down the caravan too much. We soldiered through ascents that seemed endless. The fresh horse shit on the trail was giving me the dry heaves...and so it went. When we finally arrived at Islinlivi and our next hostal Jennifer celebrated by puking on their front lawn. She smiled gamely at our Dutch hosts and said something about how she loved a grand entrance but this was a little beyond the pale. We spent a quiet night and following morning resting in front of the fireplace and generally feeling like things were looking up, until...
the kids started getting sick, first Liam in the afternoon, then Ailish at about bedtime. To really get the picture you have to imagine NO INDOOR PLUMBING. It was about a 50´trek across the back lawn to a composting toilet. I moved upstairs to be with Ailish in the dorm room and Sheilah stayed with Liam downstairs in our room. It was a very lo-ong night. Ailish was idominatable in spirit throughout: "well, the good thing about having a low bed like this is when I throw up it´s easy to hit the bucket!"
We again really didn´t have a choice but to travel the next day as planned. (These places are small and when your stay is over they´ve got more people coming to take your place.) So with our still-sick-but-holding-it-together children we headed off to the bus stop at 6:30 the next morning (for a 3 1/2 hour trip back to Latacunga and the Pan-American highway). The bus stop is in front of the town's church and it was no easy feat getting just that far, maybe 300 yards. I almost cried when I caught up to the others and heard from inside the church a morning mass singing "Hallelujah". Auspicious as that was, our morale sunk immediately when the bus pulled up. Every seat and the aisle in between was filled with campesinos in their felt hats looking at us like we were some kind of foreign curiosity. I guess they had that part right. We made it on the bus (picture dirt road, sheer cliffs, 3 point turns at some tight hairpins) and on to Sigchos where we were thrilled to see half the bus clear out.
Baños, it turns out, is the perfect place to recover. A balmy 5000´, there´s water everywhere, mineral baths, good restaurants (still no appetite but maybe today´s the day), and great, cheap accomodations with toilets with water in them. We´ve decided, I think, to take a direct bus back to Cuenca on Tuesday. It´s been an incredible summer of travels but we´re ready to get back to our home.
It wasn´t easy but we made it out of the Quilotoa region intact and are now resting up and relaxing in Baños. We´re looking forward to getting back to the old blog when we get back to Cuenca but I´ll share here a few recent highlights.
We left Quito with Jennifer a little over a week ago. Jennifer has been like a ray of sunshine to travel with. Relentlessly positive and flexible and she and Ailish have enjoyed each other immensely. We spent a fun night in Latacunga as we prepared to enter the famed Quilotoa region by bus the following morning. We reserved 3 nights at the incredible Black Sheep Inn in Chugchilan. This place is the 15 year project of an enterprising and creative US couple. The property sits overlooking the ¨grand canyon¨ of Ecuador and features whimsical and lovely things like a disc golf course (reputedly the highest in the world at over 10,000´¨), a sauna, a mini zipline, a beautiful yoga-dance studio, all vegetarian and organic cuisine, and really cool sustainable architecture. I´ll send pictures later.
Unfortunately, Jennifer and I got a food related sickness the night before a planned, and really not optional, 6 hour trek to our next hostal. We hired horses to carry our gear but still had one of the most miserable days in some of the most awe inspiring country that one could ever hope to hike through. The trails were steep and narrow through one very deep, and a second not so deep, canyon. This is rugged and incredible country populated only by subsistence farmers who cultivate the most unlikely and precarious mountain slopes. Sadly, I was too weak to even carry my camera. The two of us slept at every opportunity along the trail but tried not to slow down the caravan too much. We soldiered through ascents that seemed endless. The fresh horse shit on the trail was giving me the dry heaves...and so it went. When we finally arrived at Islinlivi and our next hostal Jennifer celebrated by puking on their front lawn. She smiled gamely at our Dutch hosts and said something about how she loved a grand entrance but this was a little beyond the pale. We spent a quiet night and following morning resting in front of the fireplace and generally feeling like things were looking up, until...
the kids started getting sick, first Liam in the afternoon, then Ailish at about bedtime. To really get the picture you have to imagine NO INDOOR PLUMBING. It was about a 50´trek across the back lawn to a composting toilet. I moved upstairs to be with Ailish in the dorm room and Sheilah stayed with Liam downstairs in our room. It was a very lo-ong night. Ailish was idominatable in spirit throughout: "well, the good thing about having a low bed like this is when I throw up it´s easy to hit the bucket!"
We again really didn´t have a choice but to travel the next day as planned. (These places are small and when your stay is over they´ve got more people coming to take your place.) So with our still-sick-but-holding-it-together children we headed off to the bus stop at 6:30 the next morning (for a 3 1/2 hour trip back to Latacunga and the Pan-American highway). The bus stop is in front of the town's church and it was no easy feat getting just that far, maybe 300 yards. I almost cried when I caught up to the others and heard from inside the church a morning mass singing "Hallelujah". Auspicious as that was, our morale sunk immediately when the bus pulled up. Every seat and the aisle in between was filled with campesinos in their felt hats looking at us like we were some kind of foreign curiosity. I guess they had that part right. We made it on the bus (picture dirt road, sheer cliffs, 3 point turns at some tight hairpins) and on to Sigchos where we were thrilled to see half the bus clear out.
Baños, it turns out, is the perfect place to recover. A balmy 5000´, there´s water everywhere, mineral baths, good restaurants (still no appetite but maybe today´s the day), and great, cheap accomodations with toilets with water in them. We´ve decided, I think, to take a direct bus back to Cuenca on Tuesday. It´s been an incredible summer of travels but we´re ready to get back to our home.
That letter, written when all was much fresher in body and memory, describes better than I could now those unforgettably trying days as we made our way out of Quilotoa and back to good health. We concluded our summer travels in Baños, but that will be for another post.
Mark
I have to add that the first moment of seeing Jennifer leaning over the balcony in the hotel in Quito was one of my highlights of the summer. It was nice to see Jennifer in particular but it was also special to see someone from home. She brought a little bit of the heart that we had left in San Francisco. And I feel like I still have it with me.
She was an amazing traveling companion, so full of good energy and cheer even amidst the all the stomach problems. And she is also an amazing hiker.
Sheilah
On to a new subject.
I am always telling myself that I don't want to lose any of this year. And every moment is really special because I am having a lot of fun. And I'm learning how I am here. I am getting comfortable with what I do every day, how I am now some gringa, but I'm happy that way and I feel common and good, like somebody with a purpose and a routine. I especially feel that way in my neighborhood, when I am playing with my neighbors. I get a feeling that they don't notice that I'm not from here, they just notice that I speak English and that's cool. I also feel kind of grown walking to the corner store. I know that it's super close but it's still a cool feeling. In school it's a little different because I'm not just playing with little kids and doing stuff that seems totally trivial to most people. But it's kind of cool that a lot of kids speak English. I enjoy making up games about some of the exchange students. Most of them are way older than me so I don't talk to them. I'm exaggerating, there are only a couple. But there are a lot of Ecuadorian kids who speak English. I speak Spanish most of the day anyway but it's nice to know the English speakers are around. So, especially, since we got back from our vacation I'm begining to feel my place here.
I am always telling myself that I don't want to lose any of this year. And every moment is really special because I am having a lot of fun. And I'm learning how I am here. I am getting comfortable with what I do every day, how I am now some gringa, but I'm happy that way and I feel common and good, like somebody with a purpose and a routine. I especially feel that way in my neighborhood, when I am playing with my neighbors. I get a feeling that they don't notice that I'm not from here, they just notice that I speak English and that's cool. I also feel kind of grown walking to the corner store. I know that it's super close but it's still a cool feeling. In school it's a little different because I'm not just playing with little kids and doing stuff that seems totally trivial to most people. But it's kind of cool that a lot of kids speak English. I enjoy making up games about some of the exchange students. Most of them are way older than me so I don't talk to them. I'm exaggerating, there are only a couple. But there are a lot of Ecuadorian kids who speak English. I speak Spanish most of the day anyway but it's nice to know the English speakers are around. So, especially, since we got back from our vacation I'm begining to feel my place here.
Ailish
I have to echo Ailish's sentiments. Up until we left for our summer travels I was really struggling with what my role here is. And now that we've returned I feel much more at peace with myself here. Maybe it's the little bit of heart that Jennifer left with us but I feel more comfortable in my skin. I'm still working on the details of how to get the most out of our stay but I'm more at home.
Sheilah
Wow! I just caught up with all your postings--what a wonderful experience! Thanks for the descriptions and the pictures of this amazing place.
ReplyDeleteLove, Laurel
I've been reading your posts for the past several weeks -- thanks for putting the effort into it, it has been a great experience sharing. One request -- I'm extremely curious about how your day-to-day experiences work -- shopping for food and stuff, getting around, friends and neighbors, how you (individually) spend spare moments, etc., along with any personal observations of the culture, political issues. And I stress personal -- I'm not looking for experitise but just a sense of how it feels to be there. I have really enjoyed the tone and style of your descriptions, and the different voices writing. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete--Bill