So Many Boobies! Galapagos: Seymour Norte

5-13

Today I took a bit of a more expensive tour to Seymour Norte.  Elisha stayed back in Santa Cruz and visited Tortuga beach and some other sights.

My trip was absolutely amazing!  The galapagos experience that I expected.  From the port in north Santa Cruz, I boarded a super fancy yacht where we first headed to Bachas beach on Santa cruz.  At bachas beach, a beautiful white flour sand beach, we saw marine iguanas, marine turtle nesting sights, the famous sally lightfoot crabs, and pink flamingos.  I was with a family of 8 from New Jersey/New York who took a liking to me and couldn´t believe how long I was traveling nor how cheaply I was doing the galapagos.  They enjoyed my stories and kept buying me beers.  The captain also liked me and let me drive the yacht to Seymour Norte.

When we arrived, we boarded a little zodiac to take us to the rocky cliff landing on Seymour norte.  Here we did a loop trail through some amazing wildlife.  We saw countless numbers of the loveable and iconic Blue-Foote boobies and the magnificent and greater Frigate birds.  The boobies were watching eggs, doing their blue footed dance to attract mates or hanging out with their mate.  They were everywhere and all over.  We could get within 1 feet of them.  Same with the frigate birds.  The male frigate birds are famous for puffing up this huge red ballon type thing from their necks in order to attract a mate.  On the island we also saw lava lizards, marine iguanas, and the giant land iguanas as well as lots of other birds.  We also some some sea wolves (similar to sea lions, but a slightly different species).  In the distance we could see the isles of Daphne major and Daphne minor which are significant to me bc it is where a lot of the research on Darwin´s finches ocurred and in Population and Ecosystem Bio with Dr. Walser, we had read the book the beak of the finch that had the research take place there. 

The galapagos are cool bc of the lack of predators and  the relative lack of people and hunting (as well as just the type of animals), the animals show little fear of humans.  You can walk right up to them and they won´t run away.  In fact, they often come right up to you.  While we were waiting for the zodiac to return, a giant sea wolf just jumped right up towards us and we had to jump out of the way as it moved along to find a nice rock to nap on.

This galapagos experience today was just like the galapagos of my dreams.  All these iconic species.  Tons of them, and being able to get so close to them, even though they were nesting or going about their intricate mating rituals and mate attracting rituals.  I can still remember the national geographic pop out book that was about the Galapagos islands that mom used to read us and this was just like this.  I remember the tab you used to pull to make the blue feet of the boobies dance.  And now I got to actually watch it in real life!

Elisha and I met up when I arrived.  We went to the fish market which was a cool scene.  There was a whole bunch of pelicans begging for fish as well as a sea lion acting like a dog and begging for fish.  The sea lion was getting in the way of one of the guys cutting up the fish and he had to straddle the thing in order to continue his job!  In the evening we walked out onto the pier where we saw a sea lion snoring right on one of the pier benches!

Of course, with a name like the blue footed boobies, there are lots of funny plays on the name.  Shirts all around here are sold that say "I love boobies" and have two blue feet drawn.  Yesterday, when Elisha and I went to Floreana, there were some inhabitants of Floreana on the boat.  Floreana is tiny at about 100 people and is one of only 4 inhabited islands with Isabella, San Cristobol, and Santa Cruz being the others (Santa Cruz is the most populated).  There were 4 mothers on the boat (interestingly it was dia de las madres) and all 4 were breast feeding.  We both laughed bc before we had even made it to the island, we had seen lots of boobies.

Tomorrow we leave for a 6 day 5 night cruise around Isla Isabella, so if you don´t hear for us for a while, that is why.  Bon Voyage!

Galapagos!! Santa Cruz, and Floreana Isles

5-11

From Guayaquil, we flew to Baltra airport on Seymour South Island.  From Baltra we took a short ferry across the channel to Santa Cruz Island.  From there, we took the bus to Puerto Ayora.  We walked around town looking for a cheap place to stay.  We ended up finding a room (which sleeps 5) for 25 bucks total that is not really part of a hotel, but maybe a family´s extra room who owns an internet cafe/sewing shop below.  After dropping off our stuff, we walked around town a bit and ate a fresh fish lunch.

After lunch we looked into some tours and then hiked on a path to a beach with these crazy cactus trees.  The "leaves" look like prickly pear but the trunk looks like a pine, and they are 10 to 15 feet high.

After sunset we were walking on the pier when I dropped my sunglasses off the pier.  I was quite distressed and upset as the galapagos are no place to buy sunglasses, but being that we are on the equator with reflective water, good sunglasses are imperative.  So I walked into town and rented a mask and a dive light, stripped down to my skivvies (no time to go to my room to get my suit as I feared currents would take them away), and jumped off the pier to find them.  It took some time as the water was dark and murky, but luckily the water wa probably only 12 feet deep or so, so I was able to find them!!  I of course had an audience of locals watching me that night as they were probably wondering what that crazy gringo was doing.

Afterwards, we saw about 20 rays and 10 small black-tipped reef sharks, and 1 sea lion swimming in the water below the pier.

5-12

We took a boat to Floreana.  We visited a breeding area for the infamous giant galapagos tortoises, some caves used by pirates in days by-gone, and saw a cool old carved face in the rock.  At the port of floreana were lots of sea lions and marine iguanas.  We went for a snorkel from the boat and we got to swim with 11 marine turtles.  And one curious sea lion came up and swam by me a couple of times.  On the beach nearby were lots of sea lions that had some cute pups.  We arrived in the evening back to Santa Cruz where we went out for our cheap full meal of soup and rice, banana, salad, and fresh fish for 4 bucks.

Reaching the Summit of Cotopaxi!! 2nd highest active volcano in the world

5-9

We took a bus to Machachi where we waited for our guide at a charming country B&B called PapaGayo (hmm..that´s what I can call my dad).  While waiting, Elisha and I were asked to be in a short film that the filmakers were going to be using to promote tourism in Ecuador.  Sadly, we didn´t have any lines; however, we wore these crazy llama chaps and trotted around on horses through the farm making sure to have good posture and smile. 

When our guide Ignacio (Nacho) arrived, we drove by land cruiser into the high elevation Cotopaxi National Park.  It¨s a stark, treeless high altitude national park.  We drove up pretty high to the Cotopaxi trailhead and then hiked for just an hour to get to the Cotopaxi Refugio (hut) at about 16,000ft.  After lunch and a nap, we hiked up to the glacier to practice glacier travel techniques with crampons and ice axes.  I had been having some diarrhea throughout the day and during this training I started to feel quite bad.  When we got back to the refugio I vomited.  I didn´t think it was altitude sickness as we had acclimitized and we weren´t even that high up, so I figured it must be food poisoning.  I was definitely feeling quite bad and when I went to bed at 6pm sans dinner, I figured that my chances for even attempting the summit were low.  I was expecting Elisha and the guide to go up without me.

5-10

I slept pretty well throughout the night and remember having a dream where Lucas was climbing some mountain while puking.  I am not as touch as Lucas, but maybe the dream was telling me to give it a go.  When I woke up at 12am, my stomach was feeling better, and I decided to give it a go.  We departed at 1:30 am (supposed to leave at 1am, but Nacho was sleeping heavily and we had to wake him)

The first 1.5 hours was up a steep scree field until we reached the glacier from where we donned our crampons, took out our ice axes, and roped up to each and our guide as safety in case of a fall down a mountain or into a crevasse.  After putting on our gear, we crossed a large crevasse field where we meandered around crevasses and crossed some nerve wracking ice bridges over deep crevasses.  At one point we even had to jump across a 4 foot crevasse. 

After that we entered an area of a collapsed glacier which made from some difficult and fun ascents and descents of ice structures where full use of crampons and ice pick were necessary.  From there it was mainly steep up until we reached a knife point ridgeline at which point we witnessed a beautiful sunrise!  We continued up steeply from there with lots of difficulty due to fatigue and altitude (my lungs and stomach felt like how I feel right after running a 5k as fast as I can, but it felt like this even after some rest!) until we reached the summit (5897m/19,347ft) at 7:30am.  The summit had outstanding views down towards the valley below and out across lots of Ecuador´s huge glaciated volcanoes, including Chimboroso, Cayembe, Illinizi North and South, and Sangay.  We could also see the erupting and puffing Tungarahua volcano.  We of course could see into the crater of Cotopaxi which had fumeroles and was steaming.  Everynow and then we could get a whiff of sulfuric gas. 

We were the last group to leave (by 1/2 an hour) bu the 2nd to arrive at the summit.  Only 3 of the 4 groups that left that morning reached the summit.  We spent a little time on the summit to rest (but nearly impossible to catch our breaths) eat, drink, and take photos.  We then headed back down the difficult descent, especially since the snow was softening up and sticking to our crampon.  But going through the glacier, especially the collapsed portion and the crevasse fields were breathtaking!  We arrived back at the refugio where we rested a bit before heading back down to the Land Cruiser and back to Machachi.  From there Nacho drove us in his car to Quito.

This was my 5th peak in the 6000m range (Mera Peak in Nepal, Amphulapcha in Nepal, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Huayna Potosi in Bolivia), but definitely the toughest.  In part bc it was definitely the most technical.  But also in part bc apart from Kili it was the one that I was least acclimated for and also likely bc I had had food poisoning less than 6 hours before the summit attempt.  I am very proud of Elisha for making it up!  She said it was maybe the toughest thing she has ever done and she has run an untrained for Marathon in 10 degrees Fahrenheit in Antarctica.

Back in Quito, we finalized our Galapagos plans.  I tooke Elisha out for a "fancy" (for us) birthday dinner (we had been traveling on her birthday before and Quito had some variety of restaurants other than purely Ecuadorian set meals) at an Indian restaurant run by a nice Pakistani guy.  We then had summit celebration cocktails at our hostel´s bar. 

5-11

We took a taxi to the airport in order to fly to the Galapagos.  From the airport, we had our best distant view of the perfectly shaped cone of Cotopaxi as the sun rose and turned it orange and pink.  We went through all the rigamarole of flying to the galapagos: paying the fees and having your bags checked for any potential invasive species.  We then boarded the plane to Guayaquil.  From the plane we had sweet views of lots of the volcanoes including cotopaxi which we had been on the summit of a mere 24 hours earlier.

Quilitoa Loop--Highland Villages and a Crater in the Mist

5-5  Feliz Cinco de Mayo

We spent Elisha's 27th birthday mostly on bus, but we did end up with a fiesta to cap it off

We took a bus from Otavalo passed Quito and the avenida de volcanoes to Latacunga where we caught another bus up into the highlands to Zumbahua.  The volcanoes were behind clouds but the steep winding road up to Zumbahua  was stunning with the mountains and green fields.  You may be wondering why we are yo yo-ing back and forth through ecuador instead of making a more common sense north to south progression.  The answer is two-fold.  One is bc we had to schedule around being in Otavalo on Saturday for the market.  2nd is we are trying to acclimitize for an attempt of a 19,000ft volcano and baños is the lowest elevation being at 1800 meters and Quilitoa the highest at nearly 4000m

We arrived into Zumbahua which sits at just over 12,000 feet after going over a pretty pass.  There are no trees up at this elevation but plenty of agriculture.  When we arrived into town, there was a huge dance party going on in the main square with presumably most people from this tiny town.  They were all dressed up in their typical bright Andean clothes with their ponchos, braids, hats, and skirts.  There was a brass and percussion band and everyone was dancing quite crazy.  Also most of the people were quite intoxicated to the point of having trouble standing.  One guy was even passed out on the ground.  We danced a bit, but only shared one beer considering the altitude and all.  To me it was very interesting to see the indigenous Andean people dancing so crazy, especially t he girls, bc they are always so quiet and shy the rest of the time.  The music was so loud that we decided to walk a bit around town before heading back to watch some more.  The town is a cute and cold little town with a definite high andean culture vibe.  There was only one other pair of gringos in the whole town that night.

5-6

Lots of rain in the morning, so we just chilled in the morning in Zumbahua.  We then took a bus to the Pueblito of Quilitoa.  Quilitoa sits right on the huge crater rim of Quilitoa volcano which contains a large crater lake far below.  It¨s altitude is 3980m (13,050ft)  After getting to the town, we went to the crater rim overlook and then we did the steep hike down to the sulphuric lake.  It rained on the hike back up and the rest of the day.  We were lucky because were were in a really sweet guesthouse that had a warm fire gathering area as well as a fireplace in the rooms, so we spent the afternoon drinking hot drinks and reading by the fire as it was quite chilly at that high altitude.  Right as the sun was about to set, the sky cleared up a bit and we were witness to a beautiful full rainbow arcing across the crater and lake through the mist and red glow of the sunset.  There were two other guys (French Canadians) in the guesthouse and we had a fun dinner with them as Philippe and Antoine were really cool.

5-7

Today we did an absolutely gorgeous hike with the two enthusiastic Canadians.  We hiked to the village of Chugchilan via the pueblito of Guayama.  The trail was really amazing.  First it went 1/2 way around the crater with stunning views down to the shimmering emerald lake.  The sun was out at first, the the lake really glowed a beautiful green color.  We then descended down the volcano to the town of Guayama, a small traditional village where we had chicken neck for lunch (and also peanut butter shared by the Canadians!!) and then continued on.  The trail dropped steeply and dramatically into a deep gorge.  From the rim of the gorge was a beautiful view of the agricultural studded mountains.  Once at the bottom of the gorge, we ascended up into the village of chugchilan.  We reached the village just after it started to pur.  From Chugchilan, we took a truck back on an amazingly scenic (and narrow cliff dropping) road back to Quilotoa.  The two Canucks and I sat in the bed of the truck under a plastic tarp to stay out of the rain.  But we got soaked anyways.  We spent the rest of the afternoon tucked up by the fire reading and drinking hot tea as it poured outside

5-8

Woke up early and saw the sunrise over Quilitoa.  We could see two snow covered volcanoes (Illiniza North and South).  We then took a school pick up truck (we sat in the bed) to Zumbahua.  From there a bus to Latacunca and then a bus to Quito and a taxi to the Mariscal area.  We spent the afternoon looking for last minute Galapagos cruise deals and looking for a replacement camera for me.  Mine is on the fritz and starting to break and with the galapagos and the gorgeous high Andes of Peru coming up, I did not want be without one.  Prices for canons are increased here, but I bought a decent one for US$265 (not including tax) which was listed on Canon´s US website as $200.

Shop til you drop

5-3

We took the bus from Baños to Otavalo.  Along the way we got to see some sweet views of Volcan Tungarahua as well as some other high glaciated volcanoes on the part of the Panamericana Highway known as the avenue of volcanoes.  The really high volcanoes were covered in clouds, so hopefully the next time we go that way, it will be clear.

5-4 (saturday)

The hostel we are staying at is really cool.  It's located 3km outside of and above Otavalo.  It has sweet views of 3 large volcanoes (one heavily glaciated).  It has a tennis court, lots of cool swings, a zip line, ping pong, and pretty grounds.

Otavalo is famous as being the largest market in all of South America.  And on Saturdays it is at its biggest and also has the animal market  So after breakfast, we took the hostel transport down to the Animal Market.  Here you could buy anything from cows to pigs to cuy (guinea pigs) to kittens to puppies to chicks to ducks.  I asked the prices for a milking holstein cow ($500), a holstein calf ($120), a 2 month pig ($40), a chick (5 cents).  These were prices without bartering.  In the textile market, Elisha found that she could usually get half off the intial price.

We had some fresh pulled pork (from the market no doubt) and watched all the local indigenous people in their colorful outfits, braids, and cool hats barter away as well as listened to the poor pigs screaming and all the other commotion.

From the animal market we walked to the huge regular market.  It took up a huge square and then spilled out into all the surrounding streets.  There was fruit, household goods, but mostly textiles.  Elisha and I walked around looking at the pretty Andean type items until lunch, at which point I had reached my shopping max and dropped (after buying one pair of underoos to replace a holy pair I had).  I got an icecream and then headed to an internet cafe where I caught up on my blog, looked at booking volcano climbs and galapagos stuff while Elisha shopped away

Several hours later, Elisha met up with me, hands full of shopping bags and with an empty wallet I am assuming.  She bought a beuatiful Incan wool sweater, but the rest was gifts for her friends and family

 

VOLCANO ERUPTION!!! oh yea, and canyoneering, zipflying, cycling, and hot springs

5-1  May Day

The hostel that we are staying at in Banños is really cool.  It has a rooftop terrace where you can chill out.  We had a very delicious breakfast up there with homemade bread and amazing fresh fruit juice.  The terrace has good views of the town, the mountains that surround Baños, and even a waterfall.

After breakfast, we rented bikes and biked down the Ruta de Cascadas (waterfall route) which goes mostly downhill along a deep canyon for 60km to Puyo which is at the start of the Amazon basin.  The bike path is mainly on the old road which avoids the tunnels and has the best views of the canyon and all of the waterfalls crashing from the canyon rim down to the river below. 

Along the way, they have a bunch of cables running across to the various waterfalls.  You can take a cable car type thing across or where a harness and hook up to it in a flying position and zip line across.  We figured it would be expensive, but we were able to score a zip fly across and a cable back for 5 dollars, so we did it.  It was really fun!!  Close to the feeling of flying.  As we flew, we were way above the river at the bottom of the canyon.  We gained speed as flew right towards the double waterfall.  Then you fly right over the waterfall before finishing on the other side.  I really loved flying right over the waterfall.  It´s a vantage point that you never get to see of a waterfall (unless you are watching an IMAX movie, which is one of their favorite types of scenes).

We continued down further until we came to the hike to Pailon de Diablo (Devil´s Cauldron).  We hiked down on each side of the waterfall for different perspectives.  This waterfall puts all the other waterfalls we have seen on this trip to shame!  It drops several hundred meters and has a huge volume of water, so it´s power is breathtaking and exihillerating.  They have built different stairs and viewpoints that give you great close views of the waterfall from below, above, at the middle, and even under it.  At one point you have to crawl through a little tunnel to get behind the waterfall.  The little lagoon at the bottom of the waterfall is rightly named is it definitely appears to be brewing and bubbling with all that force.  The force of water never ceases to amaze me!

After we got back from the waterfall, Elisha´s derailer snapped.  Luckily, the company we rented from was cool.  While we had a fresh trout lunch, they delivered us a new bike.  After lunch we continued biking until sunset.  We got to within about 15km of Puyo before we stopped and caught a bus back to Baños.

For some reason, I am super intrigued by active volcanoes and lava, and I have been trying to go to a place where I can see it.  I went to Hawaii Volcano NP to see where the lava runs into the sea, but at the time the lava had switched directions and was headed toward a residential area, so they wouldn´t allow us to go see it.  I went to Mt. Merapi on Java which is a place you can volcano watch, but the volcano had stopped erupting, and I was actually able to climb it.  I climbed to the top of Indonesia´s highest mountain, Kerinci volcano as it has a lava lake.   But it rained so much the night before the summit day that the view down to the crater where the lava lake is, was all steam, so I couldn´t see anything (of course I am always seeing pictures of it erupting from my guide on the facebook).  I hiked to the top of Volcan Villarica in Pucon, Chile as it usually has a small eruption and you can see lava in the crater, but when I went up, it was only spewing noxious sulfur gas, and I couldn´t see anything in the crater.  And of course Abe and I had been unable to convince any scientists to take us up to Erebus volcano in Antarctica to see it´s permanent lava lake (Abe did make it to Vanuatu after Antarctica to see the lava lake there).  So a big reason I wanted to go to Baños was because it has an active volcano.  But I didn´t have my hopes high, especially since the lady who rented us the bike said there was no lava flowing right now from it.

In the evening, we took a party Chiva (a type of public transportation in Colombia and Ecuador) up to the Bellavista Cross viewpoint.  The Chiva was all decked out with lights and of course had loud music playing.  When we reached the viewpoint, we were served a hot juice type beverage to which aguadiente (the local firewater aka jetfuel) was added.  We had a nice view down towards the city.  As we sat and watched the city, all of a sudden the fog cleared from Volcan Tungurahua, a towering volcano at over 5,000m (16,500ft) and we could see lava spurting out of it.  I was extremely excited.  I asked the guy in charge of the Chiva if there was anyway to get up higher for a closer look and he told me where to go...the tree house hotel lookout.

So when we arrived back down to Baños, we flagged a taxi.  I asked him how much it would cost to take us up to Casa de Arbol (the tree house).  Elisha and I later laughed at this bc it was about midnight and the tree house is way the heck up there, and why a tourist would want to go up there at that time of night was probably quite a question for the driver.  From Baños you can´t see the volcano, so he wouldn´t have known that it was erupting.  He drove us the long way up the steep and winding road to the tree house where we walked just a bit to reach the ridgeline.  At one point on the road, you could see it erupting and even the driver got excited!

From there we had an amazing and unobstructed view of the erupting Tungurahua.  We could see the lava and lava bombs flying out and running down the side of the mountain.  We could also hear the loud booms of each eruption.  AMAZING!  Nature´s firework show.  We were all alone way up there watching the fire and light show, hearing the mountain boom amidst the quiet chorus of frogs.  We stayed up there for about 45 minutes before waking the taxi driver up to take us down.

5-2

I woke up at 4:45am to hike up to the Virgen viewpoint as I wanted to see the Volcano in the daytime.  The whole way up the steep hike to the statue of Mary and baby Jesus, I could hear the booming of eruptions.  They were louder than the night before and sometimes even the ground shook a bit.  But when I got to the viewpoint, it was mostly misty and cloudy.  I did get a couple of glimpses of the volcano and its big ash eruptions, but never a fully clear view.  I continued up to the top of this ridge, but the clouds only increased, so I headed back down to meet Elisha at the terrace of the hostel for breakfast.

After breakfast, we decided to do one of the loop trails that gives good views of Baños and of the volcano if it`s a clear day.  FIrst we hiked back up to the Virgen, then across a steep mountain to Bellavista.  From here we could see the top of the dark gray ash cloud, but not the mtn itself.  We then did the steep descent back to Baños. 

In the afternoon we relaxed.  Did a bit of walking around Baños and trying their famous taffy.  Before sunset, I hiked back up to the Virgen with the hope of seeing the volcano clear.  I could see part of it, but still not completely clear.

In the evening we went to one of the hotsprings for which Baños is named.  It was a funny site as they made you wear shower caps in the water.  After a soak and some dinner, we headed back for some cheap drink deals.  This time with Mojitos

5-3

We woke up at 4 am so that we could walk up to the Virgen again and watch the lava show in the dark again.  We were lucky because it was clear, so we got to watch the eruption from a different angle than the tree house.  Again, just AWESOME!  Once the sun was up, it stayed clear so we could see the mountain in its entirety and the huge ash eruptions.  We continued up the ridge for even better views of the whole volcano from the top down to the base in the valley.  Wow!

We started heading down by 7:30, and the clouds had come in and covered it up.  We made it back for the delicious hostel breakfast by 8 and were then at a meeting place for a canyoneering trip by 9.

I have done a fair amount of canyoneering (in the philippines and nepal, but mostly with my brother on the Colorado Plateau in Utah), but it was Elisha´s first time, and I really wanted her to try it, and I think she had a good time.  We donned our wetsuits and helmets and hiked up a bit before entering a narrow ravine where we started descending a stream, which had 6 large waterfalls that we repelled down.  It also had some natural waterslides.  One of the repels, was actually set up as a zipline, which I had never done before while canyoneering, so that was cool.  The waterfalls were beautiful and as always it`s fun to repel down them.

We arrived back in Baños just in time to grab a quick bite, grab our laundry and gear, and catch the direct bus to Otavalo

A Fairy Tale Church and crossing the border to Ecuador

4-29

We had an early (5am) tuck from San Augustin to Popayan over an Andes pass that went through the Paramo (above tree line).  We then took a bus from Popayan to Pasto and then another bus to from Pasto (I feel like this is the abbreviated name for Pesto Pasta) to the border town of Ipiales.  The views on this last leg were gorgeous as we drove along a step canyon with a big river below.  Once in Ipiales, we took a taxi to Lajas.  We checked into a place that is meant for the pilgrims visiting the church at Lajas.  It used to be run by nuns.  We were the only ones there as it was a weekday; thus, no local pilgrims were there.  It was an interesting little place since it was for Catholic pilgrims and also because it was empty.  It had a cool little courtyard and a chapel in it.  When we arrived into the town, the power was out in the whole town, so it was completely dark.  Curiously, however, our place was the only place with light or electricity.  A modern miracle? or does a place where the higher ups of the Catholic church visit have better electrical systems.  Who knows, though we saw the next day that the famous church is powered by hydro electricity by the river that flows under it, which we thought was pretty cool.

4-30

We woke up early and visited the impressive and fairytale like church of our lady of Laja.  It is a dramatic church built in a deep gorge.  Part of the church and its bridge span the gorge and is built over the rushing river below.  Waterfalls fall around the church as well. 

The church was built because the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared here to some farmers.  Just like at other famous places where the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared (i.e Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Guadaloupe), the water here is supposed to have miraculous healing powers.  As you take the stone steps and path down to the church, there are thousands of plaques put up by people thanking the Virgen of Laja for their miracles.

Just before noon, we took a taxi to the border with Ecuador.  From there we changed our remaining pesos to dollars (Ecuador uses the US dollar as their currency and their doller coin, for which there are tons is the Sacajawea Dollar, which happens to work well bc Sacajawea looks a lot like the indigenous mountain people of Ecuador) and then walked across the bridge into Ecuador.  We took a collectivo to the Ecuador border down of Tuclan and then a very long ride from Tulcan to Banos via Quito and changing buses in Ambato.  It was a long, but very scenic ride with mountain vies, including some volcanoes and one especially large glaciated volcano.

We arrived into Banos late at night after a long and taxing bus ride.  We went out for food and walked past the main nightlife strip.  They had very good deals.  4 for $1 of this drink similar to a margarita, so we relaxed and wound down there and watched the people salsa dance before heading back to our hostel.

Ecuador is much cheaper than Colombia so that will be nice.  But I do already miss Colombia bc they have the friendliest people.  And life is so tranquillo there.  It is also the country that I have felt the most safe (For both me and my belongings) of anywhere in South America.  Ecuador, bc of what happened to my brother there and bc of warnings in the guide books about thefts and being out at night and bus rides and such is a bit more stressful while traveling in terms of keeping your guard up, being prepared, being watchful, etc.  It's not more dangerous that places like Peru and Brazil, it's just that you have to exercise a lot of caution.  But little towns like Banos are very nice and feel very safe and in places like that it is perfectly fine to be outside at night and such.

horse racing past ancient statues

4-28

We arrived into Pitalito bright and early in the morning and took a short truck ride to San Augustin.  We picked a place to stay based on our guide book, a small farm run by a swiss-colombian couple.  It was a bit out of town and up a steep hill, but when we arrived, the dorm was full.  So they offered us to stay in the Tipi (maybe translated to teepee) which was a round traditional cabana with a thatched roof and a firepit in the center.  The firepit was surrounded by 3 beds with mosquito nets.  There was an outside attached bathroom where you could shower with hot water under the stars (or sun).  It was a pretty cool place to stay!

After checking in, we quickly rented a couple of horses and a guide to visit 4 of the archaeological sites: El Tablon, La Chaquira, La Pelota, and Purutal as well as to get to a nice viewpoint of the canyon of the rio magdalena and a couple of waterfalls.

San Augustin is famous for its large stone statues dating back from well before Christ to 900AD whn the civilization vanished.  The statues range from 3ft to 15ft and depict anthropomorphic animals as well as people, warriors, and gods.  The statues are quite cool looking and are definitely located in beautiful locales.

This half day horseride that we did was no boring trail ride that one would find for tourists in Estes.  No, it was quite the opposite.  I had told the guide I didn't want to pay money for a boring trail ride, and apparently he really listened.  I should have gotten some clue as to the nature of the ride, when he asked me if I had insurance because if I did not, I could buy some through his company as hospital bills in San Augustin can be expensive.  For some reason, Elisha's (Lucas) and my (Reyne) horses were quite competitive.  Elisha's horse wanted to always be at the front and usually was.  It would keep its ears peeled back to sense any movements my horse would make as well as often keep an eye on my horse.  My horse was constantly trying to pass, so Elisha's horse spent a whole lot of time weaving and cutting me and my horse off.  Because of this competition and my horse's desire to take the lead, we spent most of the time at a gallup between sights and often at a pretty good sprint.  For some reason, they loved to race up the hills (and also on the flats).  As soon as we would round a corner and there would be a hill, the horses would take off at full gallup.  It was actually quite physical (and scary) to hold onto the horses as they ran at full steep up hills.  It also was scary with how they passed each other as there were trees, branches, ditches, potholes, and barbed wire fences all around.  But the truth is, we had tons of fun.  Elisha and I would be laughing pretty uncontrollably as our horses would race through the countryside.  Even the guide was laughing.  The funny thing is what we had thought would be a mellow and perhaps even boring trail ride actually turned into an adrenaline filled activity.  Elisha and I laughed and joked a lot about our competitive horses, especially hers, which I told her was appropriately named as Pocatello Lucas when running through forests with his hotshot crew is also often comparatively competitive. 

The scenery on the tour was quite nice and it was cool to race past all the agricultural fields of coffee, bananas, tomaotes, lulo, avacados, oranges, maize, and sugar cane.  I also felt very good on the tour bc the guide, who spoke no english, spoke a very clear spanish, so I was able to understand about 95% of what he told us, and I think Elisha was impressed at how well I was translating back to her.

After the fun-filled horse ride, we walked around the Parque Archaeological site by ourselves.  There were 3 main mesas filled with lots of statues as well as the tombs that the statues guarded or watched over. There was a cool walk through the forests where statues from other locations had been placed.  And there was also one area where they had carved figures into rocks that a stream ran over.  We had a good time walking amidst the statues and wondering about the people who had carved them and disappeared.  The statues were cool and often almost looked cartoonish/videogame esque.  We wondered how they got the inspiration and ideas for the design.

That evening, we ate icecream, tried some beverages from Colombia that we had yet to try as this would be one of our last nights in Colombia (if you go to Colombia, you can skip the Pony drink...ugh gross!), and then attended night mass before heading back up the steep hill to our tipi.

In Search of the Lorax in the Valled de Cocora

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Today we took a short jeep ride to Cocora where we began a hike through the famous valle de cocora.  The first part was pretty uphill through beautiful cloud forest.  Along the way, we crossed a river several times by way of very rickety suspension bridges.  We eventually reached acaime nature preserve where they gave us a cup of chocolate con queso (hot coco with cheese) as part of the entrance fee.  There were loads of hummingbirds up there!  6 different species including my new favorite species of hummingbird that has a very long tail.  From Acaime, we hiked a bit down, then back up to a small farm called La Montana.  After taking a quick break up there, we hiked down. 

As we descended below the cloud forest, the valley became incredibly green and was covered with these giant wax palms that grow hundreds of feet tall.  It was a unique and surreal scene for sure.  The trees reminded us of the trees from the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax, and we were sure we would bump into the Lorax at some point.  If you do not know what book I am talking about, I suggest you read it!  It is one of the best environmental kids books around (along with Bill Pete's, Wump World).  Mom, I forgive you if you do not remember the Lorax, you read me so many books back in the day.

The palms, the verdant green valley sitting below, and the densely forested mountains above, made you feel a bit like you were in Jurassic Park.

When we arrived back to the trailhead, we tossed the frisbee around amongst the palms until it was time to go via jeep.  When we got back to Salento, we had a bit of time before taking a bus to Armenia and then a night bus to Pitalito.