(EN) Ecuador, first country

I’m finally going to give you some news about our adventures in South America, after a week spent in Ecuador.

So, what happened since we left Europe on that Thursday 17th of Jan? Well, yes, we flew over to South America, 6 flights in total, a bit long but we arrived safely in Quito. First flight was Paris-Milan on Thursday morning, then Milan-Caracas (11h), Caracas-Bogota, Bogota-Quito, Quito-Bogota, Bogota-Quito again on Friday morning ;-) What happened is that, Quito being situated between a range of mountains, there's fog quite often during the night. We couldn't land in Quito on Thursday night. So, we flew back to Bogota, spent the night there, then flew again to a sunny Quito the morning after :-)

Quito (2800m) is a nice place, when you know where to go and where NOT to go hehe! Ah well, it's just like any capitals, you just have to be careful in some areas, at night etc.
The hostel we stayed in for 3 days was lovely, an Ecuadorian/Japanese place where they serve you ecuadorian or japanese food for breakfast and dinner. We loved it, people were very welcoming and peaceful, we felt at home.
That's funny, here, Ecuadorians seem to take things as they go, walking slowly, taking their time, smiling. So, we decided to do the same and try our best to take things as they go, not always easy, especially for me with my short temper ;-)

Anyway. So, what did we do in Quito? we visited the "old town", went on a cable-car to view the city from above, surrounded by mountains, then went to the "Mitad del Mundo" as they call it, where the equator line is. Actually, there're 2 lines, the fake one and the real one. Yes, first they thought the line was at a certain place in the country, so they created a fake town with shops, music, dances, events etc. to welcome all tourists happy to put one foot on each side of the line.
Then one day, thanks to the GPS, they realized the line was actually 200m further down... Obviously, they couldn't destroy that ugly fake town, so they left it but created a small museum 200m down where you can learn all the differences between northern and southern hemisphere, as well as the life of one of the Indigenous peoples, not related to the equator line but we learnt interesting things such as the technic to reduce heads and one of their favorite meal: the guinea pig on bbq (from that moment on, I decided to become vegetarian for good ;-) ). Anyway, it was all very interesting... and that's where we caught our first sun-burn ;-)

After 3 days in Quito, we went south to Latacunga (2800m), a small town from where we went trekking for 3 days. It was tiring but rewarding. The 2 trekking tours we did are called: Quilotoa (name of a sleeping volcanoe whose top has become a laguna) and Cotopaxi (name of another sleeping volcanoe whose snowcapped peak rises at 5800m).

We did the Quilotoa tour in 2 days, walking through forests, rivers and mountains. We slept over at an old-fashioned wooden-made hostel where they serve you traditional food and gives you blanklets made of lamas' hairs.

The Cotopaxi tour took us 1 day. We drove in jeep up to 4000m high. Then we climbed up to 4810m to a refuge where we felt for the first time some of the effects of the high altitude: vertigo and headache. From there, we managed to see the snowcapped peak of the Cotopaxi. Splendid! :-)During those 3 days, we had the opportunity to speak with local people and above all with Indigenous peoples who were staring at us the same way we were staring at them hehe! ;-)

After 3 days trekking, we went east to Baños, a spa town situated at the bottom of a volcanoe. It's still in eruption but is not too dangerous as the town is on one side of the volcanoe, while the lava only falls on the other side. However, from a certain point of the town, you can see the dark smoke escaping from the top.
We arrived on Friday 25th, just a week after our arrival in Ecuador. Today, Sat 26th, we spent our time discovering the town, walking slowly ;-) and shopping. Tomorrow, the plan is to go on a tour and discover the different waterfalls around town.

So far, days have been great, sunny and warm from 10am to 5pm, chilly and a bit windy during the night (Irish people would still find the nights warm hehe ;-) )

You can find pics of Quito, Latacunga and Baños by clicking on the 2 below links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittypic/sets/72157603791823117/

http://picasaweb.google.com/cath.blanchard/Ecuador?authkey=Dv-RE3_hM20

Enjoy!

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