Link to my pictures

Here is a link to which you can see my pictures from Ecuador. I've added captions to some of them and will continue to do so!

Just click on the slideshow below and you should be able to see the album.






I will add more later about the last few days of my trip.

Puerto Lopez

I have a bit of a headache so I´ll probably just do a quick update here.

I went whale watching and to Isla de Platas yesterday. Whale watching was great - I´ll post some pictures later. Isla de Platas .... well .... it was entirely underwhelming! The island looked arid and desolate and all the vegetation was gray because it is the dry season. The only thing there was blue footed boobies. Despite the interesting name I can´t say I was all that thrilled to see them. It was interesting to see one. However the people on my trip wanted to stop and take pictures of each blue footed boobie - I think it was the longest 2 hours of my life. Okay, maybe that is extreme, but for how much the guide book built it up I thought there would be much more to it. No where near comparable to Galapagos, well from what I´ve seen in pictures. Too expensive to visit there - maybe when I´m older and have money!

I did meet some young german people on the trip. They were interesting to talk to. The guy who lived in Berlin was traveling for a few weeks in Ecuador with his girlfriend and then leaving to study in Helsinki - which I had to look up on google because I wasn´t sure where it was! Sorry my geography is lacking sometimes! The pair of sisters that were on the trip were traveling for 5 weeks in Ecuador and Peru. One was going to study medicine after she took her final exam. Wasn´t sure what that was so I asked. From my understanding their highschool is extended 2 years and the last 2 years prepare them for whatever professional school they want to go to, or some people just work after that. This girl wanted to go into medicine and told me that medical school was 6 years. So ultimately the same amount of time.


Today I didn´t do much of anything. Wandered around. Had a headache most of the day and wasn´t feeling especially well. I think its a combination of being a bit stressed about getting home and getting too much sleep.

I´ll post some pictures later!

Day 6 Montanita

Today Hannah and I didn't do much of anything. Hannah hasn't been feeling too well so she took a long nap in the afternoon. I wondered around looking at the different shops here for a bit. When I look at things in shops or things people are selling on the street I can never manage to buy much of anything. I suppose in some ways that is good. The reason being is because as soon as you look at something whoever is selling it stares at you while you are looking at their things and tries to sell you there stuff "are you looking for something special" or naming the price of an item, asking you if you like it - and I can't think straight when they do it! So I usually end up walking away shortly after they start talking to me - even if I'm just trying to buy a snack at one of the convience stores. My favorite here are the hippy stores. I think their owners are often people who traveled to montanita and liked it so much they wanted to stay and become one of the montanita hippies. My favorite store here is owned by a women in her late twenties who tells us that all of her items in the store are from Africa - that is why the purses cost $30. Montanita doesn't even have a post office so I find it very hard to believe these things she sells are from Africa. I mean I know that she is in fact lying but she must fool quite a few people!

The waves were not very good earlier in the day, which made me a bit bummed in the morning. I had planned for today (Sunday) to be my last day surfing. Later in the day the waves looked better and I needed to get some exercise, so I went surfing and Hannah went swimming. Surfing is quite tiring but I must say I am getting more and more in "surf shape". However, surfing had a bitter end today. My shoulder has been acting up (from which I injured playing hockey in highschool) when I have been surfing this week. Paddling puts my shoulder in a position that makes in much more vulnerable to sublexing (sort of popping out of place momentarily). When I injured it I torn a ligament in my shoulder which apparently doesn't ever heal on its on. Anyways I haven't had problems with it for the last few years so I thought it was getting a lot better. The first day of surfing it was bothering me but I thought it had been getting better during the week. Long story short today while paddling my shoulder "sublexed" out of place for a lot longer than it has in the past. Usually it just goes back into place but I had to physically put it back in place to some extent. In the moment I thought I had dislocated it. Luckily I didn't but my shoulder is getting worse and not better. So I think I will need to start the physical therapy they had recommended for it soon - not happy about it!!! So I was really upset today after that, the pain is only momentarily but it is more the fact that it is shocking when it happens. So that was my somewhat bitter end to surfing - I won't be doing it anymore this trip :(

I'm leaving Montanita for Puerto Lopez at 8:30am. I'm going with one of the tour agencies here but instead of returning in the evening I'll stay in a hostel in Puerto Lopez tomorrow night. Depending on how I like Puerto Lopez I may stay Tuesday night as well, the other option would be to head to Guayaquil on Tuesday and stay 2 nights there before I leave early in the morning Thursday. The problem is Guayaquil is expensive - US prices or close to it. There isn't a lot to see there - nobody really visits Guayquil, they usually just pass through it. It is Ecuador's biggest city. So likely I will stay Tuesday night in Puerto Lopez and take a bus (about 5 hours) to Guayaquil on Wednesday morning. Hannah leaves tomorrow, but don't worry I'm perfectly fine on my own. I know more than enough Spanish to manage around here and I'm not a stupid traveler - Hannah can back me up on that. Montanita has been nice but I'm happy to be leaving tomorrow. I am not going to become a hair-braiding - fake selling Africa clothing items - long term tourist - hippy.

Adios Montanita, its been real.

Montanita Continued (days 4 and 5)

Hannah and I have been in Montanita for 5 days now. I feel like we are part of the town now! We have become friends with a lot of people at the surf shop and elsewhere. I have been actually improving quite a bit on my Spanish so that has been good!

We surfed yesterday (August 26th) but the waves weren´t very good and it was cold. It started out warmer today but by the time we got in the water it got cold and windy! The surf was better though. Hannah and I only surfed for about an hour today we were both feeling a bit lazy. We returned to our hostel and tooks naps. Mine lasted about 4 hours! We both have had minor stomach issues, Hannah seems to be having it worse then I am. To be specific (not sure if this is blog appropriate/too much information) I´ve just had a bit of diarhea certainly nothing bad. However after my 4 hour nap I think whatever little bug I have might be the reason why I felt so tired today!

We looked at prices for tours for whale watching and seeing Isla de plata today and they weren´t too bad. Whale watching alone was about $25 a person and to see isla and do whale watching it was about $55. Hannah wants to whale watch but I want to see the island more. Hannah is under a time crunch now because she leaves Monday late morning for Guayaquil and flies to Chile to start her study abroad program. She has to write a 5 page paper before she leaves and hasn´t done it yet. Whale watching takes about 5 hours (including travel time to Puerto Lopez). To do both it takes most of the day. So unfortunately for Hannah it looks like whale watching might not be in her near future since tomorrow is Sunday. So I will likely do the whale watching/isla de plata after she leaves.

The plan for the rest of the trip is likely to spend one day going to Puerto Lopez and likely spending the rest of the time in Montanita. I think we came to Montanita a little bit earlier than we needed to because we were both very excited about going to the beach. We´ve had a lot of fun here but there isn´t really anywhere close by to travel to that is worth the trip so we probably could have visited somewhere else along the way here. It has been good though, traveling around was very stressful and I think relaxing and maybe getting a bit bored here is very good for me!

I am getting a bit itchy to come home. Mostly just because I have already had to borrow $500 from the parents! Yikes! Oh well you are only in Ecuador once right? I think in future travels I would like to go somewhere and work/volunteer/go to spanish school for a month and travel different places on the weekends or something like that. Traveling around has been fun but a bit stressful and very mentally tiring at points. I think we also tried to see too much in a little period of time, however I certainly have been having a great time.  The girls from San Diego we met are traveling throughout South America for 3 months, I´m not sure moving from place to place sounds that appealing to me, but I´m sure it will be an awesome trip for them.

Okay I think that is enough for now!

Montanita = surfing

Hannah and I have been getting pretty good at surfing! Today was day 3 and today we were actually standing up a lot it was a lot of fun. We both figured out to some extent how to get out farther so we could get some of the better waves - I think I´m learning the feel of the ocean/waves now, which helps a lot. I took Spanish lessons Wednesday and Thursday and I have decided not to take them Friday or anymore. They are good but too expensive here - $40 a day - in Guatemala I think it was a third of that.

Hannah and I are looking forward to surfing again tomorrow. I might not be getting a tan from the lack of sun around here but my arms are getting very strong! Saturday we are going to Puerto Lopez to whale watch and visit Isla de Platas (the poor man´s Galapagos) its supposed to be very pretty! Hannah might give me some Spanish lessons tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from Montanita.

Montanita from outside our hostel (ocean in the background).

Me catching some serious waves!

More waves + Me.

Montanita

August 23rd
Today was our first full day in Montanita. Montanita is a surf town. Lots of "hippys" around. We took a bus from Cuenca to Guayaquil then Guayaquil to Montanita, it took about 7 hours. Today Hannah and I took surfing lessons. Our instructors name is Jorge. He´s funny. Surfing was really fun. It was really exhausting! It requires strong arms! My arms felt like they were limp by the time we were done. They had us use the larger boards ... I think they are sort of the training boards ... So they are easy to surf on when you catch a wave, but they are harder to turn and harder to get out to catch the waves, so I´m going to try a slightly smaller board tomorrow. I´m going to have some strong arms by the time I get home! We are excited to get better and do more surfing.

I signed up for Spanish lessons this week. I´m going to do 4 hours (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon) on wednesday, thursday and friday this week. In between time Hannah and I will likely spend the time surfing! On Saturday we are going to stay overnight in Puerto Lopez which is about an hour and a half north of Montanita. There is good whale watching there and there is an island near by, isla de la plata, which they call the poor man´s galapagos. It is supposed to have very similar species only it is much cheaper to visit than the galapagos islands. Ivan is coming to visit us here in a couple of days. So he will hang out with Hannah. Hannah leaves for Chile this coming Monday so Ivan and I will hang out for a few days after she leaves until I leave the morning of the 1st.

Its 830pm right now and Hannah and I are exhausted from surfing and going to bed shortly! The internet is very unreliable in our hostal so I had to pay and go to an internet cafe here. Doing well, its very nice to stay in one place for a long time. Hannah is getting a bit stir crazy from time to time - she is like you mom!

I´ll upload some pictures, the internet is a bit slow though.

Oh also there is a dog, named Negra in our hostel. She follows me and lays outside of my room sometimes. She is a border collie mix. She has one puppie that is probably 6 weeks. I´ll include some pictures soon. Lots of dogs here that just roam around town, most of which have owners.

Our hostel´s dog whose name was Negra.

Me and one of Negra´s puppies. She had two, we didn´t get a picture of the second one.

Adorable puppy!

Negra and her puppy.

Me on the first day of surfing!

Cuenca

August 20th

We got into Cuenca last night, long bus ride from banos. We went from Banos to Riobamba which was an hour and 45 minutes, then 6 hours to Cuenca. I was tired and a bit cranky when we got to our hostel that was highly recommended by our guide book and other people ... We were quite disappointed to find our room placed directly next to their restaurant that was playing loud musics until midnight! Ear plugs work well though. Its not bad here once you get past the blasting music - well they have a blacklab here that is very playful ... that helps! We were going to move hostels but we decided to stay. I got up this morning and explored the city a bit. It is really beautiful here. It is a colonial city, it has a lot of character yet is modern. Looks European. We toured one of their cathedrals today, they called it the old cathedral. It was interesting they had pictures from the 18th century. The church itself, like many of the old churches here had many rooms filled with sculptures and beautiful paintings. It amazes me how much they put into these churches - they are beautifully crafted. We also visited a cathedral called the "immaculate cathedral" it was gorgeous. They had a small mass going on while we were there - it sounded very familiar - only in spanish. "The word of the lord," and the hymn "glory hallelujah".

The "immaculate cathedral"

Outside one of the cathedral doors

Picture break on some stairs in Cuenca.

To finish where I left off of Cuenca. Cuenca was pretty but not as safe as other places so we didn´t do much at night except for go for dinner. In our hostel two new girls showed up in our room. Also I forgot to include before that another Hannah joined Hannah and I on the bus ride to Cuenca. She stayed in the hostel with us as well. So the new girls, Yvette and Salina as well as the new Hannah, old Hannah and I all spent the weekend together. The 5 of us had a lot of fun. Yvette and Salina were from San Diego, both spoke Spanish fluently. We didn´t do a whole lot in Cuenca but we had a lot of fun with the new girls, we sort of spent the weekend having a "slumber party" I guess you could say. It was good to relax and not do much.

The 4 girls - I´m taking the picture.

Banos

August 17th-19th

Well I can't exactly, or nearly, say that I was in love with banos.

Things I didn't like about banos:
-super touristy
-obnoxious "party buses" that would cruise around town blasting annoying music with strobe lights on at all hours of the day

-very touristy
-A cafe who charged Hannah $4.50 for "nachos" which were really just doritos
-touristy
-the bus ride back from the waterfalls (we had to take one of the infamous party buses)
-The "thermal baths" which banos was known for ... a beautiful natural bath? Or a community sess-pool (see picture below)

-the starving limping dog sitting outside of a bar
-Did I mention that banos was touristy?

Things I liked about banos:
-The bike ride to the waterfalls (which made all of the bad things about banos better!)

-The main church in the city at night

-buying the starving dog a hamburger and watching her eat it
-leaving Banos for Cuenca!

Oh don't worry ... Banos was fine - it was just not my favorite place of the trip. The bike to the waterfalls that we went on today (18th) was really beautiful and fun. I can't say besides that that I will miss Banos!

Chugchilan - Black Sheep Inn

August 14th-17th

We arrived in Chugchilan around 4pm on the 14th. We are staying at a world renowned hostal called the Black Sheep In. It is very lovely. It is very "American" as Hannah described it. The owners are from the US. So its very easy in that way, they help you figure out hikes, horseback riding or whatever activity you are interested in. It is $35 dollars a night for the bunk house where we are staying. We are staying on the 3rd floor which is really nice because it is the top floor and just two beds so Hannah and I basically have a room to ourselves. The $35 includes 3 vegetarian meals a day. There is a yoga studio and a deck outside the studio which overlooks the town and mountains. Its a stunning view. It is absolutely amazing at night. The clouds come in over the mountains and you can see the stars and the moon. I've tried very hard to take pictures of it but my camera is just not that great for night time photos.

August 15th
We woke up, had breakfast, and headed off on a truck for an hour long ride up the mountains to the Quilotoa Lake. The truck ride was amazing, the view was stunning I took many pictures. Then we hiked around the ridge of the lake, down through an indigenous town and back to our hostel. We left at 9 and got back around 4. We had a guide. The total cost of the hike with the truck was $10. We hiked with 3 other people from the hostel, one was from Quito but had lived in the US for 20 years and had just returned to his "roots". The other two were americans, both professors. One of the professors moved to Quito 6 months ago to teach here because there was not many opportunities for a job in the US. The woman that came with was a friend of the other American guy and had come to visit them. So it was nice to hike with them. Our guide was born in Chugchilan, he was 19, one of 8 children, had never been to Quito, he didn't speak English but that was fine. He said that most people in the town were married at age 17 and then he didnt want to get married yet. He wanted to go to college in Latacunga.

The hike has been one of the highlights of the trip so far. The lake and scenery were beautiful.

Lake Quilotoa

Hannah and I at the top of Lake Quilotoa

Another picture of the Lake

Me looking stylish with my sunglasses and scarf to keep the dust out of my eyes and nose!

One of the houses in the indigenous village.

Mama horse and baby horse, in the village we passed through on our hike.

Me and some of the fellow hikers taking a break.

After our hike we got back to our hostel and showered. We were covered in dust/dirt. Up high in the mountains there is a fair amount of wind which blows dust around everywhere. Much of the time I wore my sunglasses and wrapped a scarf around my face so I didnt get dust in my eyes and nose. I imagine people who live here all their lives probably have respiratory problems, I remember an older woman on the bus who I could tell had problems breathing, she would weeze everytime she took a breath. We get our dinners, family style, every night at 7pm. We always end up socializing with the people at dinner for an hour or two after. This day we met a family, an middle aged couple with two teenage boys. They were very interesting, the couple had done a lot of traveling. We also met a young couple from South Africa, both doctors, who were leaving South Africa for awhile, traveling for a bit in Ecuador and then the UK and then they hoped to get employed in Sweden. The husband, Simon, spoke fluent Sweedish and he had family in Sweden, and the wife - Anika I think was her name - was hoping to learn to speak Swedish. They were both very nice.

August 16th
Hannah went horse back riding with the family we met at dinner the previous night, and I decided to save $15 and take the day off. I had lots on my agenda for my day off but only accomplished a few things! I started the day off after eating breakfast, doing laundry. It was .90 cents a pound but they also had a place where you could hand wash laundry. The place to handwash laundry had a beautiful view over Chugchilan and the mountains. So I got to work on Hannah and my laundry (I thought I would be nice and do hers as well) looking back I think it would have been a better idea to pay .90 cents a pound for a machine wash! It took me about 2 hours to do laundry! I suppose it was fine "back to the basics", but from now on I think Ill just pay to have our laundry done! So for the rest of the day I did some trip planning and worked on my Spanish a bit with a book I bought in Quito. Later in the afternoon after Hannah and others had returned from their day time activities, a group of girls, I think ages 6-12 did a traditional dance for us (and then made us dance with them). I got a few pictures before my camera died. You could tell this was probably one of the highlights of the girls week. They took donations at the end and I was happy to give them a few dollars.

I think one of things I really enjoy about traveling in Latin American is to see the interactions and lifestyles of the children. The children are so much more independent than they are in the US and help take care of themselves their families. Watching the girls dance and looking at the different faces made me wonder what their life stories were. What these girls would grow up to do. Would they stay in Chugchilan their whole lives, get married at 17 and have children shortly there after? What were their families like, how many brothers and sisters did they have?

Girls from Chugchilan putting on a traditional dance for the hostel.

Girls dancing again.

Latacunga - August 13th

We left Quito on the 13th and headed to Latacunga. There is not much in Latacunga but we needed to stay there so we could take the bus to Chugchilan the next morning. We stayed at a really cute little hostel, called hostal cafe Tiana, in Latacunga for $8 including breakfast and internet. Here are some pictures from that stay.

Hannah and I in the court yard of our Hostel

This was a special ecuadorian dish called chugchucaras. Hannah and I were not quite sure how to eat it.

One of the churches in Latacunga. Its hard to see in the photo but there was an indigenous first communion (or batism) going on.

Hannah standing on the roof top of our hostel looking over  Latacunga

Me, also on the roof top of our hostel looking over Latacunga

Part of our hostel, looking down from the upstairs.

Another view of the city of Latacunga

Mindo

August 12th,

Hannah, Ivan and I spent last night in Mindo. It is known as the "cloud forest" I believe they call it a rainforest. It was beautiful there! We decided to go waterfall repelling with some guides. The waterfalls were not that high but it was a lot of fun! Then we went for a quick swim in the river but it was a bit cold. The waterfall repelling only cost $15, it was just the 3 of us with 2 guides and we got to walk through the rainforest - it was really beautiful! 

Quito - In summary

Sorry that I haven't been able to update this sooner - we have been busy and haven't had good access to internet.

August 10th,

So our 3rd full day in Ecuador, still in Quito, Ivan took us to the "center of the earth". This is where the latitude is 00 00 00. It was interesting we got to learn about some of the indigenous tribes of Ecuador, some of which still exist. We did little experiments like walking in a straight line (which is supposed to be harder walking on the 00 line), flushed things down the drain on each side of the line showing the they flushed in different directions and a few other things.

After going to the center of the earth we picked up a girl that was also visiting who was a nurse from England. She was very nice and fun. She is the one with the long brown hair. We went to "old town" of Quito, which has lots of colonial archictecture. We walked around, went on a tour of a church called Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus. The tour was in spanish so Ivan translated for us. The church itself was layered in gold. This was just one example of how much of Latin American is focused around christianity. It was really pretty but we couldn't take any pictures so we took one outside of the church.

Melanie, Hannah and I outside the church.

When we were in Old Town we saw a monk outside that had a bible in one hand and a cell phone in the other texting someone! So I snapped a picture of it!

Later that evening we went to this group of girls from the US's apartment. Many of them were teaching in a school in Quito and they all went to the same church that Ivan did (Ivan is very religious). So they made us food. After that, even though I was quite tired, we went out for salsa dancing. It was very fun! Hannah and I are determined to become good salsa dancers by the end of this trip.

Eating dinner at the girl's apartment.

Me, Hannah and Ivan at salsa.

August 11th,
We were able to catch up on sleep this day, it was quite nice! Hannah and I took the Teleferico (a cable car) up to the "top" of a volcano/mountain. Apparently all the mountains in Quito are from volcanoes, or at least that is what I think they told me. We walked around and took some pretty pictures. It was interesting, when we got up to the top we found it much easier to breathe. The polution is pretty bad in the city it was amazing to feel the difference up on the mountain. Later that evening Ivan took us and the girls from the church to a restaurant called Ananke. It had a beautiful view of the city. We headed to bed and prepared to go on our one night stay in Mindo.

Hannah up on top of the mountain.

Hannah and I with Quito in the background.

Cable car (teleferico)

Close up of some of the buildings in Quito.

Hannah, me, and Ivan at Ananke (looks over the city of Quito)