Ecuador, Peru - Galapagos, Machu Picchu and more...2014: Friday 26.9.14

Early morning call came at 6am not 6.30 but I was already up. We are now in an area called the Avenue of Volcanoes. Across the road from the hotel was a great view of Volcan Chimborazo which stands 6310m tall. As we travelled along we also saw many other volcanoes including Carihuariazo, but from the bus, hard to get good shots.

Some of the religious statues around
Hacienda.

More of the clutter, old iron filled with roses.

and some more, cash registers, kitsch lamp, bull
head etc.

Musical instruments hanging in the restaurant.

View of the Chimborazo
Volcano from road opposite hotel.

Another volcano along the way.

Larraine, traveling light.

All aboard and ready to go.

Today we are heading to Quilotoa to a lake in a volcano crater. Along the way we passed through Ambato city, named after an extinct Humbato frog. We saw Tungaraua Volcano (5016m), which is active and often gas and smoke can be seen.

Roberto, our guide is driving us a little bit nuts – he goes on and on and due to things lost in translation we are not clear on exactly what he is talking about I’m sure he knows his stuff, but…Ambato sustained a lot of earthquake damage in 1947, but the town has been rebuilt.

We stopped at 9.30 for a photo opp at a mysterious green lake – Yambo, which has some legends associated with it and could also get a shot of Tungarahua. We are now in Tungarahua province, with Ambato its capital. We stopped for a bano stop at 9.40 and Roberto bought us some of Ecuador’s famous Helado (icecream) it was really delicious, with Vanilla/blackberry/narajilla/taxa flavours in layers in the icecream.

Yambo Lake. Strange green colour.

We passed through Latacunga which has lots of statues of people doing their everyday work. It was here we turned off the Pan American to begin the side trip out and back to Quilotoa – volcano and lake. The trip out was again through farming areas, and some of the poorest areas in Ecuador. There were some small sheep flocks, with local men and women shepherding them, some were penned up – other not, no fences. These people lived in these amazing small thatched houses – all made of straw.

We arrived at Quilotoa about midday, which takes us back up to 4000m, definitely can feel it harder to breath. There was an option to walk down about kilometre to the lake and back, with choice to hire a mule to carry you back up for 15bucks. Quite a few of us decided that was all a bit much, so we viewed the lake, watched the others set off on their walk, then ate our boxed lunch and generally relaxed while the others did part of all of the walk. Several took the mule option, but others walked both ways and seemed quite ok. Back onto the bus for return journey to Latacunga at 2.30. I really appreciated a bit of ‘down time’

One of the mules, used to ferry humans back up the
steep walk to the Lake.

The Lake in the crater, lovely colour, you can see the
shadows of clouds on the Lake.

Suzie, gave this little fella the banana chips from her
boxed lunch - in return a photo.

Shot along the way...this price is per GALLON.

Here we half are at the Lake.

And another selfie, It was sunny,
so I am squinting

Enroute back to Latacunga I sat up the front in the ‘jockey seat’ which gave some great views but also a greater appreciation for the fabulous job Javier does, the road was windy, with rockfalls, plenty of traffic etc, but he was cool, calm and in control.

Once back in Latacunga we joined the Pan Amerian again to head to our stop for the night. We passed by more volcanoes – Illiniza Sur and Cotapaxi. The weather has turned and its wet along the way, so some of the volcanoes were obscured, which is the norm in Ecuador, we have been incredibly lucky with weather so far. Hopeful it will clear tomorrow for our Cotapaxi trip.

Sitting in front of bus, could see this ute load of kids
hooting along - eek!

Typical street in a town, dogs, people, cars, people selling
stuff. Cars are very patient with pedestrians here.

Some of the mountainous and rocky country, and
the farms that are all over the hills, so very steep.

More of the patchwork farm plots.

Lots of women and men working out in their fields.
It all looks like such hard and harsh work.

This fantastic tufty grass was cut and used for many
things, but they are now regulating who and
what can be cut, as people were basically raiding it
and denuding the environment.

One of the thatched houses of some of the poorest
people in Ecuador.

A church in Latacunga, as we
returned to join the Pan American
highway once more, after a very
long side trip to Quilotoa.

One of the statues, this one looks like a corn mill or
something - Latacunga.

Typical local woman, wearing hat and scarf.

A typical banos (loo) stop. One toilet and long lines.
I actually used the mens here. A bit problematic when
a local came in to use the urinal, which is out in the
open near the washbasin. Thankfully Bruce warned me
and I got out without looking.

The pace, was getting to all of us. Just a short
40 winks.

Our Hacienda tonight is Cotapaxipungo which is out in the middle of nowhere. After a very hairy trip for Javier – along a wet, skinny, slimy, cobbled muddy road, with gradients that weren’t designed for a bus, we arrived at 6.30. The road was so challenging it took 20 minutes to do the last 5 kms.

The Hacienda is at 3342m. Cotapaxipungo means ‘view to the Cotapaxi.’ Every room has a view and from the Hacienda 22 of Ecuador’s 84 volcanoes can be seen. We were greeted with Canelasso again and waited in their beautiful social area, while we awaited room allocation and bags to be sorted. The Hacienda is newly built using adobe method, in the style of the Spanish Hacienda. It took 3 years of planning and 3 years of building. They have spared little expense in decking it out too, very nice art and furniture/fittings around the place.

This is by far our best room so far. Dinner was pretty good, had lamb for the first time. After dinner, Rosie, Peter and I hit the balcony and courtyard for some night photography. We actually got a bit of a storm in the mountains to. (evidently it was a storm in the Amazon) We took some shots of Cotapaxi, the milky way and the lights of Quito along the avenue of Volcanoes. Juan Carlos the barman and general main man, came out with us, he is quite the photographer himself, he showed us some brilliant shots he had taken just today of storms earlier in the day and others he had of Cotapaxi.

The owner and staff were very proud of what they’ve built, which was wonderful to see. It would be a fantastic place to spend a few days, rather than just an overnight.

After travelling through stormy weather and rain, the
sun shone brilliantly blood red onto the mountains, as
we slowly crept our way along, a narrow, cobbled/ mud
track to our Hacienda - Cotapaxipungo.

What awaited us, when we FINALLY arrived was
magnificent, beautiful new Hacienda, purpose
built in the old adobe style, only 18 months old.
We were SUPER impressed.