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Hello Hello! I am curently sitting in a nice (and cheap) hostal in Banos (del aguas santa) pretty much right in the middle of Ecuador. I left Quito last Monday to head in this direction, wanting to stop at La Laguna Quilotoa, high in the Andes along the way. My handy dandy Lonely Plant on a Shoestring describes a possible loop on unpaved roads that can be done through the tiny cities of Sigchos, Chugchilán, and finially to the Quilotoa crater lake. I haden´t actually taken my bike on any dirt roads untill then, so I really wanted to see how it would do, and also because I had heard that this was such a beautiful area of the andes. Here is what I discovered: My bike can handle anything, but I WILL NOT and CAN NOT do any more cobblestones if I can help it. After going through the paved town of Palleverde (I think that is the name, but I can´t be sure; I lost my good map.) I stopped and slept in this tiny little grove of trees in the middle of the valley. I was planning on biking up close to the Volcano Cotapaxi today, but it was so smoggy that it didn´t seem worth it. A lot of this andean valley that I will be traveling in (where the main roads and cities are) seems to fill with smog very easily, or that might just be because of the season, who knows. Anyways, went to bed in my trees and woke up to this HUGE snowcapped mountain staring at me from across the valley. I don´t know the name, again because my good map is somewhere on the road from Quito, but what it did is definately a pattern here: smog, clouds, rain, GOOD GRAVY A VOLCANO! Its pretty funny. Today I trudged up some more cobblestoned hills untill finally it turned to beautiful, soft dirt. Went through the "city" of Sigchos, and then through some more beautiful countryside untill I saw two gringos on the dirt path in front of me. Seb and Kim, both from London, talked up the Back Sheep Inn, owned by an American couple. The price was high, even with my biking discount, but once I saw the place I ended up staying. The couple who own it strive to have a completely sustainable lodge, with mostly all of vegetarian meals grown right there at the lodge, they help the local community, they have a sauna... and they also have a volunteer position needed. For about an hour I really considered changing my trip for two months and staying there (learning about sustainability and ecotourism, reading, and eating AMAZING food) but it turns out that they have someone coming in he next week for the voulnteer position, and don´t need anyone right at this moment. BUT the idea of working there is very interesting, and I might shoot them an email in a couple of months. Their web address is www.blacksheepinn.com/index.htm if you want to check it out. Anyways, hada beautiful night there and headed out after the included breakfast of Muesli and yogurt to get to the Laguna.
ALL uphill from the village of Chugchilan, the Laguna Quilotoa is a crater lake formed high up in the andes by a meteor. Its very surreal to be in the middle of the Andes and see this greenish blue lake at the bottom of this huge crater; I´ll try and upload some pictures in the next album or something. Got to the entrance of the park, where I paid two dollars to enter and keep my bike safe while I explored. Along the way I met a girl named Yuca from Spain, and we talked (in Spanish!) while we walked halfway down to the crater. she only had to pay one dollar to enter the park, which is just another example of many of the people here thinking that english-speaking gringos have money to burn. I supposed I would have paid a dollar to keep my bike safe, so its not a big deal. We got a little lost on the way back up, but said our goodbyes around 2:30 while I headed down the now-paved road to the village of Zumbahua. From there it supposedly is about 67 kilometers to Latacunga, so I stopped and rested for the night on this beautiful mountainside off the road with an awesome view of the whole village. I didn´t even used my tent that night, because we were high enough mosquitos weren´t a problem, and i was worht it to see all the stars. I don´t think I have ever seen the Milky Way in such a fashion, here at the ecuator it is pretty much right above you, complete with shooting stars about one every 10 minutes. Pretty much perfect. One thing that is a little odd is not being able to see the Big Dipper or the North Star (Both of which are on Alaska´s State Flag) which is a little corny, I know, but I do miss them.
In the morning I cleaned some of the grime off my bike and started heading up the hill to Latacunga. Well, up for a little while. After hill climbing for about two hours, maybe going around 15 kilometers, I had an hour long downhill, switching steeply back and forth past volcanos and mountians into the valley where the city of Latagunga was. The brakes on ym bike are not amazing, which is not always a good thing when you are biking in a mountain range, but they were fine untill the last hill into the city, where I walked my bike down to calls of "gringito" from local schoolboys. Most everyone is nice, and when they call "gringo" it is in a friendly way. I had one boy high in the andes throw a hat at me, but I gave him as much of a talking to as I could in Spanish. And then proceeded to bike away quickly. Anyways, from Latacunga it was an easy ride through the city of Ambato, and after I went over the Rio Ambato I followed a dirt road down through some farmlands to see if I could sleep next to the river. The woman whose farm I slept on offered me a spot near the houses, but I wanted to be closer to the river, in the trees, where less people would see me. I talked with her, her son who had lived in the US, and her husband untill it got dark, and then went into my tent. The family was more worried about my lack of light and the spirits that lived in that part of the forest, but I told them that it would be OK. In the night somebody cal and scared the bejeezus out of me, but they were only checking to see that I was SURE I didn´t want to sleep near the houses? After my heartrate went down, I told them I was fine and went to bed.
Up this morning around 6:30, down the mountainside into the town of Banos by 11, and after wandering the streets a bit I am confortable in the hostal and ready to jump in the thermal pools in a couple of hours when all of the little kids have gone. I think toorrow a group of us might go canyoning (jumping down waterfalls with ropes attached) which I have heard is really fun. I will stay Saturday night here too, and will either head back up the huge mountain to the town of Ambato Sunday or Monday. I want to catch a train that I have heard in good in Riobamba, but I think it only runs on Saundays anf Wednesdays, so I´ll have to wait untill then.
Allrighty, hope everyone is well. I think that even if I wait in Riobamba for that train on Wednesday, that I can be in Cuence (southern Ecuador) by around the 11th, and then can get to Peru by around the 15th, which would give me a bit more time in Peru and Bolivia. Adios.
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