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Continue reading “Mountains and mud – Day 281 (20,346 miles)”

Feels like we haven’t posted for ages so here is how our last week or so in Ecuador went.

Ingapirca is the biggest known Inca site in Ecuador and is sometimes billed as their Machu Picchu.  Perhaps not as dramatic and definitely not as well known but interesting and a whole lot emptier than MP!  The site is actually on the original Inca Royal Road which linked Cusco to Quito back in the day.  Although much of the road has been buried or built on there is still a 40km stretch of Inca Trail in Ecuador.

Clever mortarless Inca building technique.

The Inca Temple of the Sun.

There was a small car park with nice loo’s and security guards so at $3 dollars pp entrance fee including an English speaking guide and free camping it was a bargain excursion.

We were heading into Cuenca which is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador but on the way wanted to spend a couple of days in the Cajas National Park.  We only lasted one night, the weather was so cold, wet and gloomy.  The plan was to do some trout fishing in one of the many lakes but it really was miserable weather although still very pretty scenery.

 

Cuenca is pretty and after a day walking the city we found a really nice Indian restaurant, what a bonus!  Boy have we missed curry.

The main reason for our visit here was some van enhancements.  John had sketched some roof bars and a basket and we found a recommended workshop to make them for us.

Juan and his team (with some supervision from John ?) did a great job.  We are now ready to carry fuel for any shortages and long stretches without fuel stations that we may encounter, especially in Bolivia.

It turned out another modification was needed as John’s only pair of glasses snapped clean in two across the bridge. Glue didn’t work but we found an optician who managed to drill both sides and pin them back together.  A pretty sturdy fix, fingers crossed it lasts until we get home.

Negra was our campsite pet, very friendly and like most Labs constantly on the look out for food.  We camped under an advocado tree and she liked to eat the skin and fruit then crunch up the stones and leave them for us to step on!

 

We were heading towards the most easterly and smallest border crossing into Peru at La Chonta.

It was a Sunday so on the way we stopped at the small town of Saraguro, it was market day which is attended by local Kitchwa people.

John had been looking for a machete and managed to get the size and type he wanted at the market.  I really should have taken a photo of him with it then but forgot.  So this is him today unfortunately suffering from a bit of a tummy bug.  He doesn’t usually sleep with it next to him I just placed it there for effect!

 A simple, strighforward, no fuss, no queue and no Welcome to Peru signed border crossing.

We have loved Ecuador, the scenery, wildlife and great people we have met.  They will shortly be going through the 2nd round of a General Election as the 1st round didn’t give a conclusive result.  Elections here are notoriously corrupt but we hope for the sake of the people the current ruling party are not re-elected.  At the moment the citizens pay ridiculously high taxes on goods and property, areas that have been effected by natural disasters are not prioritised for regeneration and huge amounts of cash disappear from public funds.  We wish them luck.

Adios amigos.

After a few days back at the campsite where we had left Juanita while in the Galápagos we had sorted through the hundreds of photos, cleaned the van and caught up on admin.

We headed into Quito’s Historico Centro to take a look around, neither of us were in the mood for museums but wanted to get a feel for the city.  It was a 25km journey and involved a couple of buses, we enjoy it when we use public transport as it takes us out of our own little travel bubble and forces us to use our meagre Spanish/sign language to get around.

Local musicians, and people watching in the main square.

A day walking around the city was enough to make us realise we are ready to get on the road again.

We did however want to meet Carlos who had been introduced to us by Harry a fellow motorbike traveller who we met on the road in 2011.  John had met Carlos very briefly at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a couple of years ago when Carlos visited Harry in the UK.

Carlos and Paola were great company, we ate, took in the views over Quito from Cruz Loma and shopped in a huge craft market.  They did the bartering so we got much better prices than a couple of Gringos would have done on our own!

The view of Quito from Cruz Loma (4,100 metres).

The Teleferiqo took us up the 4,100 metres, just a bit of walking at the top luckily.

Carlos has raced motorbikes for many years and has been Ecuadorian national champion in several different classes,  the championships are held at the racetrack in Ibarra that I had fancied taking Juanita round a couple of blogs ago.

Hopefully we will all meet up again sometime, the Isle of Man races maybe?

We headed south east to Misahualli a small place in the Oriente region, jungly, hot and humid.  We camped in this beautiful spot in a little eco resort run by a group of local ladies.

We headed off in 30c+ temperatures on foot to explore, this is another way of saying “not spend money”.  A lot of the activities here revolve around guided river trips and jungle walks and they are pretty pricey.  After Galápagos we need to be making our own entertainment for a while.

After a few sweaty miles we found the giant Ceiba tree, it is approximately 1500 years old and very tall (not quite sure how tall!) there were no signs, no real path and in fact considering it is one of the things “to do” locally it is pretty hard to find!

Very cheeky Capuchin monkey.  A lady who was enticing it with food so her companion could get a good photo was rewarded by it peeing on her arm!

We carried on heading south but more centrally through the highland areas and camped overlooking the peak below just outside the town of Banos.

Chimborazo is the highest peak in Ecuador at 6310m and due to the earth’s equatorial bulge it’s peak is the furthest point in the world from the centre of the earth.  Unfortunately it was rather cloud but spectacular anyway.

These are Vicuña, a smaller, daintier version of llamas.

We drove above the snow line and up to a refugio where we planned to camp for the night, it was going to be a chance to test out Juanita’s insulation and the clothes and bedding we currently have.  If we were freezing we would need to go shopping well before Patagonia.

As you can see we weren’t suitably dressed to start with!

As the GPS above shows we were going to be camping at close to 16,000ft.  We have been up to 14,000ft fairly regularly and apart from maybe the odd slight headache and the need to take it slow when climbing hills we’d been OK.

So we snuggled up in the van watching some downloaded BBC TV!  John had taken some pills to get rid of a slight headache earlier and by 7pm it was already down to 3c outside so we thought it was likely to be a pretty cold night.  A little bit later I asked John how he felt, his headache was back and quite frankly I felt pretty awful with a headache and was finding it hard to breath deeply.  We decided it was probably not a good idea to fall asleep feeling as we did so packed up the van quickly and set off to a lower altitude.  Not sure if it was the exertion of packing up the van quickly but within a few minutes of setting off both my arms were going numb and breathing was a real effort!  Poor John he was trying to drive down a rutted muddy track in the dark and keep talking to me in case I passed out!

Anyhow we got down to about 14,000ft and the numbness started to wear off and breathing got easier.      We carried on descending and slept at about 11,000ft which was fine.  Big lesson learnt, we need to take longer to acclimatise to altitudes above 14,000ft.

The next day we went back to Chimborazo, only to 14,000ft I hasten to add!  Unfortunately it was shrouded in thick mist that didn’t look likely to clear.  Still, we visited these ladies and bought nice hand made woolly hats and gloves for the next time we’re in such low temperatures.

We stopped at the very small village of Salinas, there  were milk churns everywhere as the village is famous for making cheese and chocolate.  After our experience  the day before we treated ourselves to a good supply of both products (any excuse!)

Rather gruesome!  The rest of the pig was being butchered round the corner.

The last weekend of February is Carnival all over Ecuador, it’s a huge party that seemed to go on from Friday to the following Tuesday.

This young lad and his friend were having a foam fight in a fuel station, his parents didn’t seem at all concerned about the amount getting into their truck.  Within a couple of days we would realise how messy carnival can get.

On Saturday there were small parades along the way as we were travelling to the town of Alausi.  We had picked this town basically because it was in the direction we wanted to go, it’s in a pretty valley and a campsite just outside the town had been recommended to us.

Sunday started with a colourful parade but……..

then the fun started.

We were “encouraged” to join in by some local ladies, they were great fun and very friendly.

Alcohol, a horse and a machete, could be an interesting mix!

We headed back to the campsite, the foam, paint and raw egg made for some cleaning challenges especially on camera lenses!

A fun time and great memories. Continue reading “Quito and Carnival – Day 260 (17940 miles)”

We decided to book one way flights to Baltra, and organise a last minute cruise in Puerto Ayora the main town on Santa Cruz island to give us a better chance of getting a deal.  The tour agents showed us details of some nice fancy boats with availability that were at least double what we wanted to pay.

Karl who we met in Mindo had already tipped us off about a 16 berth catamaran called Solitario Jorge which although basic was clean, relatively new and the food was good.  So we got an 8 day cruise on that boat leaving within a couple of days.  In addition to the cruise we spent 4 nights on Santa Cruz and 2 nights on Isabela which gave us time to see a good selection of land and sea wildlife and the varied landscapes throughout the islands.

Whimbrel

Lava Lizard

Marine Iguana

Galápagos Sea Lion

Greater Flamingo

Galápagos Dove

Is it just me or at a quick glance does it look like John has his hand on his neighbour’s knee??

Stingray

Blue-Footed Booby

Magnificent Frigate Bird

Swallow-tailed Gull

Galápagos Penguin

Bryde’s Whale

John thought better of sitting next to this sea lion after it let out a roar/snarl of disapproval when he got a bit too close.

Galápagos Land Iguana

Blue-footed Booby and chick

Galápagos Sea Lion

Juvenile Sally Lightfoot Crab

Grown up Sally Lightfoot Crab

The only underwater photos we took are below and are stills from video footage on an old GoPro.  Not the best quality but gives an idea of some species we saw.

Pacific Green Sea Turtle

Blue-Chin Parrot Fish

Razor Surgeon Fish

Eagle Ray

Sea Lion

Humans?

Galápagos shark (have been known to bite!)

Bad pic but that is a real Hammerhead Shark!

Us!

That’s our boat on the right.

Our fellow passengers, 8 nationalities and a fun group.

How excited was I to see the Giant Tortoises!

Above and below is the Sierra Negra volcano crater, the 2nd largest in the world at 10km wide.

We did a hot sweaty 16km hike into this amazing landscape.

 

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The following images are ones that didn’t make the Editors cut (Because she’s bossy).

I have been given permission to add them so everyone can hopefully get the feeling we did. It’s bloody amazing in the Galapagos!!

Regards, down trodden photographer….

So, a new country, our first impressions after crossing the border were, wow these roads are good and…

double wow look at the scenery.

We headed for the town of Ibarra to do a few errands then on to a campsite at the nearby Laguna Yahuarcocha.  On Saturday nights the campsite owners organise a BBQ for anyone who wants to socialise, it was a nice opportunity to chat to others who had already “done” the more southerly SA countries and pick up some tips.  In fact a Swiss couple made a very valid point when we expressed some concern that we’d be hitting Patagonia in early winter if we carried on at our current rate of progress. We had intended to just head south and see everything we wanted on the way.  Instead, if we stick to our     plan until we have finished Bolivia but then travel down to Patagonia without stopping for extended periods, we can make it there in the Autumn then afterwards head north again to explore Argentina and Chile.  Quite obvious really but we needed someone else to point it out to us!

The is also a motor sport track at Yahuarcocha, it is used for occasional competitions and individuals can pay $25 for some time on the track, I was keen to get Juanita out there, just for the photo opportunity really.  John was not so keen, oh well.

We headed southwest to Mindo a small town in the foothills of the Andes.  It is popular for birdwatching and exploring the cloud forest, quite jungly but cool due to the altitude of 1300m.

We went on an early morning bird watching walk and spotted toucans, parrots, kites, woodpeckers and many smaller colourful birds.  Unfortunately we didn’t capture photos of any wildlife apart from…..

A small flock of twitchers.

The plants and butterflies were easier to photograph.

We had some great times with Karl a Cornishman who has fallen in love with Ecuador but not enough to leave Corwall behind permanently.  We look forward to meeting up again sometime in the future.

On our way to Quito we stopped off in the area of Mitad del Mundo which is a tourist attraction based around the Equator.  However, it was a Sunday and looked very busy, there was an entry fee and the actual Equator is a few hundred metres in a different direction so we decided not to go in.  Instead we took the GPS for a walk.

Here is John in a not very scenic but authentic spot on the true Equator.  Not sure if there was some weird atmospheric thing going on but John’s hair was doing some strange stuff!

Next stop Galápagos???x

Not sure why it has taken so long to post a pic of a Renault 4, they are everywhere in Colombia and some are in brilliant condition.  For me this model comes in at 2nd place to the Citroen 2CV in the Most Stylish Car Ever category, just saying.

So, we are only a few hundred kilometres from the Colombia/Ecuador border, there were still a couple of places we fancied visiting before crossing the border but our thoughts were definitely turning to the border crossing, timings, money changing and the other practical stuff.

This is the St Agustin pre-Hispanic archaeological park, a nice walk from our camping spot which gave us the chance to get some walking kilometres in the bank ready for a couple of days sitting on our bums in the van.

There was a good hill up to a view point that we climbed after viewing the tombs and statues.  It is definitely raining season now, we were soaked to the skin when we arrived at the top which was so shrouded in cloud we didn’t even bother with a photo.

Nice views on the road.

A very chilled hitchhiker, hope he had sunscreen on, it was blinking hot out there.

It is now the 18th January and there are plenty of Christmas decs still around, the Colombians are definitely not worried about the 12th night bad luck thing.  Possible this old tyre tree is just too heavy for anyone to bother taking it down.

**WARNING**This section contains images of a church, you may wish to skip it.  Yes that’s for you WW?.

Las Lajas Sanctuary is just outside the town of Ipiales our last night stop before crossing the border.  Some people liken the architecture to Disneyland and we could see why.  But the setting across a narrow canyon is very pretty especially against the blue skies which we are seeing less of now the seasons are changing.

Does this vessel to dispense holy water look like a cheap electric kettle to you too?

We managed to change our money at a decent rate without being scammed by the moneychangers with the rigged calculators.  Get the free 90 day visas that some fail to secure (even though we don’t have time to stay that long) and be in Ecuador by 8.30am.

See you down the road.x

We stayed in the grounds of a very nice hostel with lovely hot showers (very important) close to the small town of Salento.

It’s part of the coffee growing region in Colombia so said beverage is very much in evidence.  Mobile Barista, is this still your retirement plan Neil Mc?

The taxi jeeps aren’t full unless there’s at least 3 passengers hanging off the back.

A bit of Colombian street food, fried plantain with cheese and jam.  I wasn’t keen.

Arepas, corn pancakes filled with cheese, much nicer.

We did a great 15 mile walk around the Valle de Cocora, we were followed by this little fella for a few miles.  He was much more sure footed than I was.

The Valle is famous for these strangely tall and spindly palm trees.  Beautiful views in between the patches of mist.

Salenta by night was lively, by chance we happened to be there for the 175th anniversary of the town.  Mucho eating, drinking and salsa dancing.

Our next stop was the Tatacoa Desert which in itself was stunning and the scenery on the way was pretty good too.

Being a desert this area is known for spectacular starry skies, unfortunately not this night, it was pretty cloudy.

But the scenery just keeps getting better.

Lots of landslides.

And water.

After a long, slow but very pretty journey we arrived in Tierradentro, a humid jungly environment where you can visit tombs that date back between 600 and 900 AD.

We visited the town’s 2 small museums together, quite interesting but the hilight was meeting a group of about 10 Colombian ladies and children who wanted their photos taken with us.   Afterwards John went back to the van as he had hurt his foot on our 15 miles walk a couple of days ago and needed to rest.  I wanted to see some of the tombs so headed up a hill to find them.

It was a bit desolate and used to be guerilla country a few years ago.  So I strode forth purposely and tried not to get spooked by every noise in the bushes.

Now, the font of all knowledge (the Lonely Planet) states that you descend to the tombs via a spiral staircase.  That is true, except I expected to descend once and wander through multiple tombs.  The reality is you descend into a tomb (not very big) and come up again, then repeat 15 or so times.  It felt a bit like a step class!  The tombs were interesting but rather samey so just 1 pic below.

I caught up with some of the kids we had met in the museum for another photo.

It was a shame we hadn’t got photos of more of the family we had met.  Later that afternoon we met some Brits, who said they had just been shown photos of us!?!  It turned out the Colombian family were in a bar down the only road in town so we decided we would catch up with them.

A nice group photo turned into a couple of hours of salsa dancing and shots of Aguar Diente!  We had such fun, we held the babies, kissed the Great Granny and tried to learn salsa.

Chao for now.

We headed slowly towards Bogota, we could have avoided it completely as we had done Mexico City and as mentioned before van + big city = Unhappy husband.   However, after finding a cheapish hotel with underground car park we intended to spend a couple of days seeing the main museums and a bit of the city.  Enroute we took a couple of days to visit other places, firstly the salt cathedral at Zipaquira.  As this part of Colombia was under the sea before the Andes were formed there is a lot of mining of halite rock from which salt is extracted.

The current cathedral is the 3rd to be build since 1932 as the mine has evolved, it was initially for miners to worship, now it is also open to the public and from the amount of people there the same day as us it is a lucrative tourist attraction.  Quite a spectacular space.

Laguna Guatavita, an important sacred site for the Muisca people since pre Colombian times.  It was thought the lake may have been created by a meteor strike but it has now been proved it is a sinkhole caused by the salt in the rock underneath dissolving.

First time the waterproofs have been out for a while.

We never found out why this nativity scene had been created from gun shells!

New Year’s Eve was a quiet affair, if there were parties going on we didn’t find them.  At least we had a cosy fire in our room to warm us and the wine!

We headed into Bogota on New Year’s Day which proved to be one of the best days of the year to drive there.  Based on the experience of others we had expected gridlocked traffic and a long journey but it was fine.

Juanita seemed pretty happy next to this cool dude.

We were staying in Candelaria the historical district, which also had some  “colourful” streets and characters.

This guy is not only standing on glass but eating it as well!  Check out the expressions of some of the onlookers.

Guinea pig racing?!?! About 5 metres away were little numbered boxes and the audience bet which number a particular GP would head for.  Maybe not the best animal husbandry but perhaps a longer life than their cousins on the menu in Equador and Peru.

We were having dinner with Andres, who we had met on our flight to Cartagena and his wife Clara.  John’s footwear wardrobe consists of flip flops, Crocs and walking boots, the weather was cool so John’s walking boots were required and got the full shoeshine treatment so we didn’t look too shabby for our hosts.

With Andres and Clara looking at the bright lights of Bogota viewed from the surrounding mountains.  Clara disappeared and came back with cups of a tradition Colombian version of a hot toddy/mulled wine called Canelazo.  It is a mix of water, panela (sugar cane), cinnamon, lime, cloves and the hit comes from aguardiente a clear spirit that you see absolutely everywhere here.  The evening continued with a few shots of aguardiente (tastes of aniseed), a good dinner, nice wine and wonderful company, in fact Clara it was ASTONISHING!

The next day we headed to the Museo del Oro, a huge collection of ancient gold artefacts (the ones that the Spanish didn’t find).  It is beautifully displayed.

It’s all very nice but I’m just looking for some small silver earrings!

Our last shot of culture was the Fernando Botero gallery, certainly Colombia’s and some say South America’s favourite painter and sculptor.

Well rounded was definitely his style.

The local chess club.

The shop attached to our hotel.  Not your usual souvenirs to take home!

A couple of people we had met in Cartagena asked us where we were going when we left there. “Mompos” we said, “why?” They answered, “go to the Santa Marta.”  The Caribbean coast is undoubtably beautiful and to visit Punta Gallinas which is the most northerly point in South America was tempting.  For a couple of days we mulled it over but to get to the most northerly point and back again would take an additional 2 weeks and we know we are going to get to Patagonia later than we originally planned without adding in more miles.

So, we stuck to our original plan to head south through the lush wetlands to Mompos.  It’s a small town on the Magdalena river and was built by the Spanish in the 16th century.  Beautiful town and lovely countryside to drive through.

We hadn’t really made a plan for where to spend Christmas it was just going to be wherever we ended up around the 23rd December.

We headed through the Chichamocha canyon it was a rather misty day but beautiful scenery.

We had found a campsite in a quiet spot between the small towns of San Gil and Barichara, it was run by a Brit and his Colombian wife.  We had a great Christmas Eve get together with Justin, Andrea and their family along with other campers.  Such a good night that John came to bed around 4am!

Empanadas cooked on the fire.

Danny guts a chicken much to the interest of the resident ginger puss.

A Christmas blind wine tasting!

Pics of the beautiful town of Barichara.

A nice camping spot, and a good place for John to sleep off his late night.

This little photo doesn’t do justice to the amazing Plaza Mayor in Villa de Leyva.  It’s huge!

This Gaudiesque place is the Casa Barra, built by a local artist from terracotta and wrought iron.  Looked great against the blue sky.

The areas around Cartegena and down towards Bogota  contain a huge amount of fossils as this area was covered by sea until approximately 100 million years ago.  65 million years ago an asteroid hit the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico which caused geological changes effecting Central and South America as well.

This Pliosaurus was over 9 metres long and they built this museum around the site it was originally found.  Very impressive.

Even the walls in town were full of ammonites.

We found a great Korean restaurant, lots of lovely fresh veg, raw, cooked and pickled.

Bye for now.x

So nice to arrive in Colombia.  It took us a few hours to catch up with our sleep after staying awake all the previous night in Bogota airport.  As we have travelled approximately 1500 miles closer to the Equator we are back to more tropical weather and monsoon rains.  Not a problem, it gives a bit of relief from the heat and humidity.

Our hotel was chosen to be in walking distance to the port, Customs and our shipping agent.  As is usually the case this is never going to be the most glamorous part of town!  We wanted to stay local our first night so asked the hotel to recommend a restaurant as there weren’t actually any in the immediate area that we had seen.  The staff were very definite, NO we should not walk anywhere!  It didn’t seem to stack up, the hotel doors were wide open all the time, our street appeared to be full of families, the houses were nice and not a burnt out car in sight!  Anyhow we took their advice and ordered a takeaway, perhaps it was a bit dodgy at night?

The next day we set off to the nearest supermarket which was about 30 mins away.  We had asked one of the hotel staff if we would be able to buy a pay as you go SIM card at the same store.  Yet again they looked worried and one lady told us that there is a problem with guys on motorbikes pointing a gun at you, and even if you hand over all your stuff and don’t resist they shoot you anyway!  Her teenage sons who were there suggested she may have been exaggerating and it didn’t happen that often but they offered to walk with us anyway!  So sweet but we didn’t want them to come and at worse something happen to one of them or at best their Mum worry like mad until they returned!

Well, over the course of the 10 days that we were there we walked to the supermarket about 5 times and several other places and guess what we didn’t get robbed or shot or see anyone else that did!  I did get a bit panicky a couple of times as there are tons of bikes and mopeds and if I found myself surrounded by them when crossing roads I can’t say I was completely relaxed.

There are armed robberies for sure and we were advised to always note the unique number displayed on the side of each taxi as sometimes the drivers work with gangs.  As usual though if you are sensible, sober and not travelling really late at night there is a lot less chance of getting in trouble.

A nice touch but much too warm for the animal print fleecy blankets!

On Sunday we headed into the historical centre of Cartagena.   So friendly, colourful and with a truly Caribbean feel.

These ladies were part of a wedding party, we moved on but apparently when the bride and groom emerge from the church they parade through the streets with these dancers and a band.

In complete contrast to the historical area is Bocagrande seen above in the distance, very much a modern resort full of apartments and restaurants and popular with European expats.

We only ventured over there once for dinner at a very good Creole restaurant with Andres who we met on our flight into Cartagena.  We had 2 really enjoyable nights together and hopefully will get to meet up again in Andres’ home city of Bogota.

Feeling a bit festive in the 30C evening temperature?

These dancers where incredible, Andres told us that even amongst Colombians who all like to dance these particular dancers are the best, they seemed to be able to shake every inch of their bodies independently.

John had been tracking our container ship (we feel like we own it after all this time!) and as expected it docked on the evening of Wednesday 14/12.  We had already met with Siacomex our Agent and been told that we, along with them could start the process to have the  van released on Thursday 15/12 which was great news.   Based on the experience of others shipping into this port we really didn’t expect it to take less than 48 hours minimum and had mentally prepared ourselves for a longer wait.

There’s our blue box.

And there she is freed from her shackles!

This was our fantastic agent Elvis (yes really!)  He knew how to get to all the right people and avoid their long lunch breaks.  Basically the process took 10 hours start to finish and we drove back to the hotel that night.  Amazing!

The good news continued, the office staff at the Shipping Agent asked us to go back the next day to collect a refund, although at that point they weren’t sure how much.  We sat waiting the next morning and I joked to John it would be a shame if we’d come back for a few pesos when we could have been working on the van.  As it was it was well worth it and we left with $200 USD which goes part way to cover our hellish overspend in Veracruz.  We went crazy, had lunch and John had yet another haircut?.

Let the travelling recommence!