Year 2000 South American Adventures

Travels in Ecuador

March 30th, We are on our way.
At Toronto' Lester Pearson airport we board flight #1561 for Miami Florida, the first step on our way to Quito, Ecuador. We left Toronto at 1224 hr and arrived in Miami at 1530 hr. When we arrive in Miami we are told the gate for our flight to Quito has been changed. We go to the new gate and line up for boarding. The attendants inform us that the plane needs some repair and it will be late leaving Miami. Then it is announced that we are to go to another gate where we finally are put on a different airplane. We are about an hour late. We arrive safely in Quito and Ralph is there to meet us. He had come to the airport earlier but when he learned the flight was going to be late he went back home. From his house situated up the side of the mountain above the airport he could see the plane coming in and had enough time to get to the airport before we had claimed our luggage. All is well.

House in Quito

March 31st Friday
To-day is a take it easy day and get used to the altitude. 2850 meters. This is very high for us who live about 250 feet above sea level.

Ellen and Ralph relaxing at home

This morning we get a ride down to the Marascal with Rachael, the young woman who with her husband Andy, baby Ruby and Jasper the dog, share a house with Ralph. They are all teachers, not the baby or the dog.

Our first stop was at Angermeyers travel agency to arrange some flights for the coming week. We will take the train and the bus to Cuenca and then fly back from Cuenca to Lima.

Cuenca to Quito.

Quito to Lima

Lima to Cuzco.

The flight to Lima includes a two night stay at the Sheraton Hotel in Lima Centro. We also arranged to be picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel and to be taken back to the airport the day we fly on to Cuszo.The Sheraton is in the old part of Lima.

We then walked around the Mariscal a bit and had lunch at the Magic Bean. It felt nice to be back here and be familiar with the place.

We were soon tired and flagged a taxi to go home. After driving around in the heavy traffic for awhile we realized the driver did not know where we wanted him to take us. Finally in Spanish he told us to get out and take a bus. We thought this was pretty funny. The traffic seemed heavier then last year. Some of the reason was they were working on the Av. Seis De Diciembre making a new route for buses etc. We soon found another cab driver that did know the address and off we went.

The view looking out over Quito from living room
The ski slope church roof to the left

Behind that mountain is Gua Gua Pichincha, the volcano that has been erupting all winter and spewing ash on the city.

Photo taken by Ralph of Gua Gua Pichincha erupting.

That evening Ralph took us to Oscar's for dinner, a new place he had found to eat. I had a huge pepper steak. It was very good but too much food especially when you first arrive at a high altitude. We took the left overs home with us. We would have them for lunch the next day. Back at the house we packed our small backpacks as we were going to Mindo, north of Quito the next day.

April fools day. A Trip to Mindo

April 1st Saturday
Bright and early we started for Mindo in a taxi. Ralph had arranged this mode of transportation for $30.00 return for the three of us. On the way we stopped to see the volcanic crater Pululahua. The crater measures about four km across and the bottom is all cultivated into beautiful green farmland. It is said to be inactive for 4000 years.

On to Mindo. The road is winding between steep mountains. About 40 minutes from Mindo we come upon a long line of cars stopped on the highway. We get out of the taxi and can see a huge mud slide across the road. This is a very dangerous area as you can see where there have been slides before in this same spot.

Huge mud slide on the road to Mindo.

This is a busy road as it goes all the way to the coast. There are long lines of cars and buses on both sides of the slide. Some people walking over the slide to catch a ride on the other side.

We walk up to the slide and climb up on it.

Ellen Ralph and Jeannette standing on top of the huge mud slide.

We realize this slide will not be cleared anytime soon and decide to go back to Quito. Very disappointing. The driver had said "este camino tiene muy peligroso". He also told us more people were killed standing around looking at slides then in the slides themselves. Sometimes a second slide will come down on top of the spectators. We didn't stay long in that situation.

We were there.

On the way back to Quito the driver stopped at a huge outdoor market where we bought some bananas. He drove us through some different parts of the city we had not seen before.

Back in Quito, Ellen and I decided to go down town but when it started to rain we turned around and went back home. Well it was April fools day. We wondered if our trip had been jinked. We had supper at the spaghetti place. Very good and cheap food in Quito

April 2nd Sunday
Ralph, Ellen and I went to Mass at the ski sloop church just down the street. After mass we went down town to have breakfast at the Cafe Cultura. I had some wonderful museli and yogurt. After breakfast we strolled around Parque El Ejido where every weekend there is a huge market for all kinds of crafts. In the park we met up with some friends of Ralph's. Ralph went back home and Ellen and I went up to the Old Town with them. We walked around there for awhile and then took the Trole back to the Marascal. I went to an Internet cafe to e-mail home. Ellen and I walked back to Eduardo Salazar Gomez. We are acclimatizing more easily then last year. Ralph cooked dinner. Had 10 people in all including Terrance and his new wife. Fun meeting and talking to all these nice young people. All gringos, most from the US.

Riobamba and the Devil's Nose

April 3rd Monday
Angermeyers had the plane tickets from Cuenca back to Quito ready for us so we took a taxi down to the Marascal, picked them up at the travel agency and then took a taxi to the station to catch the bus to Riobamba. The taxi driver took us right to the bus as he said the bus station was a dangerous place to be. The taxi cost us 10,000 sucres, bus ticket was 30,000 sucres each. Remember one American dollar buys 25,000 sucres.

Arriving in Riobamba we took a cab into the city and booked into the Riobamba Inn on Carabobo Street 23-20, where we had stayed the year before. 135,000 sucres per day for a double room with private bath. The main reason for coming here was to take the train around the Devil,s Nose as we had missed doing that last year due to the strike. The train only runs three times a week and we will have to wait until Wednesday to go. It takes us near Alausi and from there we will go on to Cuenca by bus.

We ate dinner at El Delirio restaurant. $11.00 US for two. Ok, but expensive for Ecuador. It was not busy and has a nice atmosphere with a fireplace. We made arrangements with the hotel keeper at the Riobamba Inn to hire a taxi to take us to the Mirador up on the mountain in hopes of seeing the Volcán Tungurahua which has been erupting for some time now. Baños had been evacuated but about 80% of the people have now returned to their homes. The ride up the mountain was pleasant as we could see all the light as we climbed higher. We were disappointed however because as we got close to the look out point we drove into the clouds, which hid the volcano from our view.

April 4th Tuesday.
We had breakfast at the Nuca Huasi, buns and coffee. Sent e-mail home and then decided to take a bus up to Guano and Santa Terisita. We had gone up that way last night hoping to see the volcano. In Santa Teresita we decided to walk up the road a little farther. We met some local people who pointed out the direction of Volcán Altar and Volcán Tungurahua. As we walked back to Guano we could hear this loud noise coming behind us and we were passed by an army tank and two other vehicles with soldiers. They waved and smiled at us. We had lunch in Guano and then caught the bus back to Riobamba.

At six o'clock we went to the train station to buy tickets for the train to the Devils Nose which was to go the next day. The ticket seller was not in his office. A young shoe shine boy went to find the ticket seller for us. The ticket person was playing soccer or something. It must have been his supper break.

While we were waiting we talked to a French couple who are on an extended bicycle trip. They had been in the United States and had bicycled through Central America. They had started cycling through Colombia but decided it was too dangerous to bike and rented a car to finish that part of their trip. They had been traveling for 13 months. They had also rented a car in parts of the US because of the distances to travel.

Another traveler waiting for tickets told us there had been a mud slide or lava flow across the road coming from Baños. The bus had to go around by Ambato. We went for supper at the Nuca Huasi again. It is just around the corner from our hotel. We have not found a really good place to eat in Riobamba.

To check out some of my other adventures follow these links.
El Camino de Santiago, Spain
Bicycling in France
Trekking in Nepal