Quilatoa-Ecuador

September 25, 2014

Quilatoa is a crater, or more specifically a cauldron-like formation resulting from a massive volcanic eruption. In this case, the eruption was 800 years ago. Once the volcano collapsed into the ground, the hole left behind filled with water. So now it is referred to as Lake Quilatoa. It's about 3 kilometers wide. Tourists can hike down, rent kayaks and even rent donkeys for the hike up if you're not feeling up to the 75-90 minute uphill, sandy climb.

Instead of taking the local bus to the crater, we hired a driver. He picked us up at 9:30 for our 25 minute drive. Less than ten minutes in, we hit a construction zone. The road was temporarily closed. The roads in this part of the mountains are unpaved and they are trying to fix that. We had to sit there and watch dirt being moved around for about 45 minutes. Buses and cars were lined up. It was incredibly dusty so we just stayed in the car. I think we arrived in Quilatoa about 11:15 annoyed, but ready to walk.

There is nothing to block any wind this high up at the crater's rim. It doesn't seem to matter on the day; the wind just cuts through you. We had everything on us to keep us warm. We wore our 'Buffs' to protect our faces from blowing dust and ears from the cold.

It might not look windy until you see my hair....yikes...

We easily walked down to the lake. It took us about 35 minutes. We dodged donkeys and everything they left behind. It was much warmer at the bottom and of course, there was no wind.

We found a nice place to eat our lunches. The alpacas got a little too close, but other tourists came around to snap photos, so they were easily distracted. We didn't rent any kayaks. As many boating experiences we've seen so far, they didn't look too safe.

We didn't stay at the bottom too long and had decided to walk and not take donkeys back up (even though we were approached many times to rent them).

Traditional Ecuadorian families wait at the bottom to rent donkeys. They climb up and down with them several times a day.

We had to take a break to breathe and to see how far we had come

It took us about 75 minutes to climb back up. The trail was very soft in spots making it difficult to gain traction and move forward. We were pretty winded and just wanted to head back to the Black Sheep Inn. Fortunately, there was no construction this time.

Cloud Forest

September 19, 2014

We went horseback riding in Costa Rica and we visited the cloud forest in Costa Rica. So now we decided to visit the cloud forest in Ecuador on horseback. Edmundo said it would be about a 4 maybe 5 hour tour. As we walked to the bottom of the BSI driveway we finally saw the advertised 'slide of death'. This was the BSI's own water slide that ends in a big pond. We never saw anyone use it, but this probably wasn't the season for it. That wouldn't have stopped Liam though. He would have been down that in a second.

We met our guide and our horses just down the road. We also met three other BSI patrons that would be joining us on this tour. There was a couple from Canada who had moved to Ecuador several years ago. Their daughter Pasquel was visiting them and they were all traveling around Ecuador together. Fortunately for us, Lise and George both spoke fluent Spanish and thus became our interpreters for this tour.

Liam has his Buff (orange cloth) on to protect him from all the sun, dust and wind.

I'd say we climbed uphill for about 90 minutes. I was getting used to the horse, but I wasn't too comfortable taking pictures. We watched the endless hills filled with farms. I was still amazed that Ecuadorians can harvest the land on such slopes.

It seemed so sunny that I couldn't imagine where the cloud forest was. Then we rounded a corner and you could see the clouds resting in the mountains.

Our guide, Umberto, was excellent. Well, it helped that we had translators. It was clear he was proud of his country and this land. He told stories about his parents and how hard they worked as he grew up. Umberto now owns some of this land and he is happy to protect it. We dismounted our horses and let them graze. Umberto took us to a different spot to enjoy the view and eat our packed lunches. When we finished, Umberto took us through the forest. He told us about the trees and birds. I didn't tell Michael and the kids about how there could also be snakes or tarantulas. Umberto mentioned that briefly, but made it sound inconsequential. We continued through the labrynth of forest and were led to a small waterfall.

We continued on horseback to the cloudforest. It got much colder. Umberto had fun egging the horses on to gallop more. I was not a big fan of that, but the kids loved it. They laughed and squealed.

All in all, our tour took a good 6 hours. I paused on several occasions to take this all in. We were riding horses through the cloud forest in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. We were learning about the land and the people who live there. We met new people from all over the world. The kids were having a blast. This is what it is all about.

Half selfie with the cloud forest in back

The Skywalk

September 18, 2014

I seriously have to wonder about how Ecuadorians interpret 'easy' hike. On our first day, we decided to take one of the hikes that Edmundo recommended. He called it the 'Skywalk'. This was a trail he discovered as a boy and he claimed it was a good hike to do on your first day. Edmundo is in great shape and he likes to run this trail about once a week. He said it takes about 2 hours to walk, but his best time running (climbing, jumping, etc.) is 35 minutes.

With that information we headed off the BSI property. Edmundo walked with us for this part to show us where we would be going. He pointed to the ravine and then told us we'd walk all through valley and climb up to the plateau. He gave directions as if we had asked where the grocery store was....'just go through there, turn here, go up here, and next thing you know, you're there' sort of thing. Then he made sure we had a stick to fight off the dogs. Uhhhh, say what?

Now I must say that we did have a hand written copy of a map. It had 16 steps. We would have never made it without that. We questioned the map's directions the very first part of the hike. At first, there was no real trail. We found ourselves sliding down several sandy hills. We were pushing bushes and branches out of our way and dodging plants with sharp leaves. Maeve and Michael were pricked by some bush that burned and irritated the skin, but wore off later in the day. Surely this could not be right. But we moved on because we knew we were going in the direction of the ravine. Eventually, we saw a landmark matching the map and we felt immediate, albeit temporary relief.

We finally got to a clearing with some resemblance of a trail. There were sheep grazing. I wanted to enjoy that, but I thought that there would be dogs nearby protecting the sheep. We snapped some quick pictures and moved on.

Our next instructions said to follow the fence to the right. We saw what we thought was a fence, but that just led us to a large pasture of cows. This direction was away from the ravine, and the rest of the directions didn't make sense. After a few minutes of dodging cow patties, we turned around. We found the right fence and continued on. This time the cows were directly on the trail. We had to walk around them hoping they remained as calm and carefree as they looked.

A nice clearing just past the cows....perfect for a photo (Michael has the stick for the dogs)

The next bit of the trail was winding through the ravine. It wasn't bad and we found the identified markers on the map. Then we had to start climbing. At times it was like scaling a sand dune, we were climbing on all fours. We had to stop to catch our breath and several parts were quite scary with big drops if you slipped. I was in front. There was a trail you could make out and right in our path was another flock of sheep. We couldn't go around them this time. We only had one path and they were on it. Neither of us were happy. I made some noise; they made some noise. Begrudgingly, they scurried off the trail. Then the owner of the sheep appeared. An Ecuadorian woman in her traditional skirt and non hiking shoes desceded the plateau as if she were returning from the market. No big deal. I have no idea where she came from. I was panting and climbing and trying to grab on to plants for traction. I would have loved to know what she was thinking at that moment. Probably something like...stupid gringos.

Well, we made it to the plateau. I need to come up with new adjectives to describe our views, but this was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed. It seemed more magical because we had to really work to get here. The plateau was a very thin strip of land-serious drops on either side. We decided this was a good place to stop, rest and eat our lunch.

The sheep in our way. It doesn't look like it from this shot, but it was on a steep hill. They just found a nicer flat part to graze...probably why they didn't want to move.

The path widened out and we more comfortably walked around the length of the plateau. From this vantage point we could see where we had been and where we needed to go. It didn't look too bad or too much further. Wrong.

We didn't walk in the direction of the inn. The map instructed us to walk past the cornfield, and turn left on the 'road' just after the hut.

The hut on the trail. The owner was there tending to his property.

From this point on, I didn't take any more photos. I'm not sure if I was tired, uninspired or just anxious to get back. I did, however, feel a little confident since I could see the next landmark in the distance. This is where we encountered the dogs. They were on someone's property. The owners were there and I guess I would have assummed they would have called the dogs off from charging us, but that didn't happen. A fellow BSI patron previously advised us to hiss at the dogs. I began hissing furiously as I was ahead of Michael - the man with the stick. I was trying to get Maeve to pass me and move on. I looked back at Michael to see if he was fighting any dogs off with the stick, but he was waving it in the air like some sort of warrior protecting his ground. I was fairly sure that wasn't what Edmundo had in mind when he advised us to take the stick. I guess between the hissing and Michael's tribal instincts, the dogs backed off and allowed us to pass. The locals must be accustomed to BSI visitors walking this trail. Perhaps they enjoy the reactions as I imagine not much else in the way of entertainment is out in that field.

By this point I seriously thought we were done with the uphill climbing. I just about passed out at the next trek up to find the 'wooden gate' to pass through. We never saw any gate. We got to the top and only saw donkeys and a field behind someone's house. I went to reference the map again. We still couldn't find any wooden gate. So Maeve and I went to see if there was something closer to this house. We carefully walked through the vegetable garden, when I heard quite the commotion from Liam and Michael. I never knew donkeys could charge, but apparently that was case. The two of them rounded the corner in a full sprint screaming. They joined us in the field and the donkeys did not.

We could see some trails in front of the house. We assumed this must be the way back and wanted to conirm with the map except there was no map. My theory is that I went to put it in my jacket pocket, but put it in the zipper part that allows for airflow under your armpits and it just fell through. There was no sign of it anywhere. We were on step 15 of 16. It couldn't be that bad. The kids were exhausted and by no means pleased that there was no longer any map. The obvious trail continued to go up and down requiring more stamina than we had left. Now we could see the town Chugchilan and knew we were close. Michael wanted to go toward town, but I knew we needed to find the cemetary where we started. Fortunately, we could spot that without hiking too far, and we gloriously found our way back (after passing the BSI entrance and unnecessarily hiking uphil again...grrr).

So this was our saga for the day. Edmundo's 35 minute workout was our 3 hour hike (with lunch). We were beyond tired and the thought of climbing up to our room was a bit much. We decided to relax in the lounge and enjoy a cup of tea. We saw Bapu and Doug, other BSI friends and they were getting ready to head out for the Skywalk trek in the afternoon. They had on jeans and tee shirts and carried a bottle of water. After I showered and changed, I came out of our room and ran into Doug. It was about an hour and half since I'd seen them. They were organizing a game of Frisbee golf. I had assumed by the look of him and his energy level that he hadn't done the hike. Nope. They were back already. What??? I was completely bitter. He chuckled and told me that they ran part of it and didn't really have anything to carry but their water, as if that helped me feel better. I rattled off all the parts of the trail that I felt were particular challenges to make sure we were talking about the same hike. He nodded and I just got more bitter. They also had no problem fiding the 'wooden gate.'

Guess I was feeling my age. On the positive end, we finished the trail. There were no injuries except a bruised ego. We didn't need to plan dinner because a lovely meal was being prepared for us. And to top it off, we get to enjoy that meal with lovely travelers from all over the world- a great opportunity to share our story and tell about the cows, sheep, charging dogs and donkeys.