“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru
Its hard to believe we only spent 3 weeks in Ecuador as we saw, experienced and achieved so much in such a short time. From hiking in the Andean mountains to eating termites and lemon ants in the Amazon to repelling down waterfalls in Banos and seeing blue footed boobies and whales on the Pacific coast. After crossing one of the easiest border crossings from Colombia into Ecuador, we started our Ecuadorian adventure in the northern town of Otavalo, enjoying walking around one of the biggest markets in South America and haggling with the local indigenous people. After only a couple of days we jumped on another bus and headed for Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. From here we were able to visit the equator which was a pretty cool expereince to be standing in the middle of the earth!
With a great suggestion from my friend Sophie, we were next headed for Latacunga to complete a few day hike starting at the beautiful Quilotoa lake, a crater lake with the most beautiful water that changes to different shades of blue as the wind moves. After the lake the rest of the hike was through villages where we had fun playing with the local kids, marveling at the spectacular landscape and seeing how the locals live.
We were now ready for some adventure sports and set off for Banos. There is so much to do here from white water rafting to bungy jumping, zip lining and canyoning and all at a very cheap price. We spent a few days here and chose to try out the mountain biking, hiking then swinging on a giant swing and canyoning. Canyoning was definitely the highlight for me but it was scary to repel down waterfalls with water pounding on my face and body.
After humming and harring about which Amazon tour to do, we decided that in true Abbie and Jamie fashion we opted for the cheaper way to see the Amazon and set of for Misahualli, a jungle town overrun with monkeys. From here we booked a 2 day tour in to the Amazon which involved hiking, learning about the plants and their different uses and sampling some of the local insects – lemon ants do surprisingly taste like lemon and termites taste like wood! I also pushed myself and held a tarantula spider although the evidence is only on video and I spaz out a bit in it!
Last stop in Ecuador for us was the Pacific Coast to visit ‘Poor mans Galapagos’ and in particular some boobies (birds). We had been dicing up weather to make the trip to the real Galapagos but after doing some research we decided Isla de Plata would suffice for us. The birds on the island were really amazing (I am definitely becoming a bit of a birder on this trip) and on our boat trip back we were so lucky to see turtles and as its mating season, many giant humpback whales!! Such an amazing animal to see in the flesh but a little harder to capture on the camera.
Ecuador reminded me a lot of Nepal and as people may know, Nepal has been one of my favourite countries we have visited so far. It is an outdoors paradise with so much to see and do for very little, the people are very kind and always ready to help in any way they can and their indigenous population is still very thriving and prominent throughout the country.
Explore-ゆめ-Descubrir 