Ecuador

Lisa and I had originally planned on staying only one night in Otavalo, but Dave convinced us to stay longer to do a walk with him. Our first full day there, we took it easy and stayed in town, getting used to Ecuador. First, we went to the market, which is huge on the weekends, but unfortunately we were there during the week. To our excitement, our lunch consisted of a plate piled high with typical Ecuadorian food for $1! It was rice, pasta, veggies, a fried egg, and what I later learned was blood sausage - very tasty (yes, even the blood sausage, although I was glad I didn't know what it was at the time)! Then we had some fresh jugo con agua (fruit juice with water) to wash it down. Then we decided to walk a bit out of town to the local waterfall, which was really pretty. While we were near the top of it, I wandered off on my own down a thin trail, with my camera out. A local guy was coming towards me with his two dogs, and one of them nipped my leg as he passed (no broken skin, thank goodness), and I was busy wondering how and why that had happened, when the man started speaking to me in Spanish and pointing at my camera. I told him I didn't understand, and then a security guard came by as well, and they were both speaking to me in Spanish. Thankfully, Lisa arrived then and was able to translate for me that they were telling me not to walk alone, especially with my camera out, and that a Chinese girl had just gotten robbed up there within the last hour or so. It seems that although I have been very lucky so far on my trip, danger is never very far away. Lisa had made friends with some teenagers at the waterfall (this is one of the many benefits of speaking the language), and as we were walking back to town, they offered us a lift in the back of their pickup truck, which was fun. The next day, we took a bus and then a taxi out of town to Laguna Cuicocha to do our hike. The walk took about four hours, and took us around the ridge of an extinct, eroded volcano with a lake and two islands in the center. It was a really beautiful hike, and a lovely day, and we were so glad Dave had convinced us to do it. Later that afternoon, we got on our bus to Quito, which took about 2 hours or so.
Our hostel in Quito was probably just about the best part of my time there. It was situated high on a steep hill, therefore offering spectacular views over the city. The kitchen overlooked the city as well, so we enjoyed cooking even more. Overall, Quito seemed to me to be yet another huge, dirty, polluted, and dangerous city. We walked around the center a bit on our first day there, with the goal to eventually head up to the mirador (lookout) which was topped by a huge statue of La Virgen de Quito. As we were heading toward the stairs that would take us there, Lisa asked some tourist police whether it was safe for us to climb up there (the miradors are notoriously unsafe everywhere - I guess the robbers know tourists will always be there so they hang out and wait) and they said absolutely not! So they gave us a free ride up in their car - it was fun when they put on their siren to go the wrong way down a one-way street. Once we got up there, the views were spectacular of the city and the surrounding volcanoes, just as promised. I especially loved watching the low clouds rolling in fast over the mountains, looking like they were racing to envelop the whole city. The tourist police had told us to take a taxi back down for $1, but it was hard for us to find one that would accept that low offer. Eventually, one did, but he dropped us off and we still had to walk a ways downhill, through what seemed to be a pretty shady neighborhood. Safety in numbers, at least! That evening, Dave wanted to watch an important Australian-rules football game at an expat bar, and Lisa and I accompanied him. Other people (basically all non-American travelers I have met) think that American football is strange - well, I must say that I think Australian football is very odd! It was an interesting experience anyway, but I can't say that I have the need to ever watch another game in my life (sorry Dave)! The next day, we headed north of Quito about 22 km to the Mitad del Mundo, or the Middle of the World (the equator). The funny thing is that the true 0'00' latitude lies about 300m north of the touristy monument, but it was still fun to stand on the yellow line that symbolized the equator and get some pictures.
The next morning, after traveling for three weeks (the longest I traveled with anyone on this trip) with Lisa, we finally had to part ways. Dave was heading south to climb Cotopaxi Volcano, and Lisa was going to go with him as far as the refuge. Lisa asked the guide who was driving them down if he would mind taking me to the bus station (which was going to take one hour in a probably very expensive taxi) since it was on his way anyway. He was more than happy to, and said that he would not drop me off at the bus station, but rather right along the Panamerican Highway! When I looked worried about that, he said not to worry - a lot of people wait for the buses along the highway, and that they would wait with me. When we got to the spot where the bus stop was, we waited for what seemed like a long time for a direct bus to where I was headed, the town of Baños. After watching about ten buses for the connecting town of Ambato go by, and not wanting to make them wait any longer for the supposed direct bus, I hopped on one to Ambato. Losing Lisa as my Spanish-speaking security blanket was tough, but I knew I had to figure things out on my own from then on. When I got to Ambato, I had to start using my Spanish, which is still pretty subpar. What I understood initially was that the bus had dropped me off at the wrong terminal, and that I might need to take a taxi to the right one. Thankfully, I found someone who was nice, who brought me to a porter, who then brought me to a bus, talked to the driver, and told me to get on. Again, I understood wrong in that I thought they were just going to drop me off at the other terminal on their way out of town. We started going, and eventually a nice lawyer got on the bus and sat next to me. I started getting concerned after we left town and I still wasn't dropped off, and so the lawyer and I had a funny conversation in broken English and Spanish, the result of which ended up being that the bus was indeed going to Baños! Needless to say, I missed Lisa but I was happy to learn that I could make it on my own again.
Baños was a pleasantly small town, surrounded by green peaks, adorned by it´s own waterfall, and watched over by the active volcano, Tungurahua. I got to my hostel and was happy to find that I had a view of the waterfall (and could hear it when it was quiet) from my dorm. The next day, I took what was supposed to be a two-hour hike up into the mountains. Apparently I missed the sign that told me to head back to town, and I kept heading up and up, until eventually I came to a barbed-wire fence that wouldn't let me go further. By that point, I was a lot higher than I realized, and had been walking for about 3 hours. The best part of the uphill hike by far was that the volcano had started peaking out of the clouds around the time I was probably supposed to start heading back to town, and by the time I got to the fence, it was fully visable! Like most high peaks (16,552.8 feet, to be exact), it was often surrounded by clouds, and I felt really lucky to be able to see the whole thing in all of it´s snow-capped glory! Then I had to backtrack the way I had come for what seemed a long ways, and got back to town when it was getting dark. This meant that I missed some of the people from the hostel jumping from a VERY high bridge over the river. I had wanted to watch, but standing on top of the San Francisco Bridge looking down at the end of my hike, I know I would have been so scared watching them that I was actually happy that I had missed it. Bungee jumping, or just jumping with a rope (which is what they did) is still something that no one could pay me to do! I saw the video, and it looked horrifying! That evening, I soothed my very sore muscles in the famous thermal baths at the base of the waterfall. While I was in the baths, I met three people from Colorado - what a small world! Baños was just the type of place to stay awhile, so I relaxed and stayed 3 nights. On the final morning, I walked to the bus station with a girl from my dorm, Susan from New Zealand. As we were walking, she managed to easily convince me to change my plans and head to the very small town of Alausí, where she was planning on taking a world-famous train ride. People used to be able to ride on the top of the train as it descended down the Nariz del Diablo (the Devil's Nose), but since a few tourists have died doing it, it is no longer allowed. We paid the inflated tourist price of $20, and got on the train early the next morning. It took us down the valley, back and forth via several switchbacks, during which the train changed from going forwards to backwards a few times. It was a picturesque journey, and at the bottom, we were able to get out for a view of the big rock called The Devil´s Nose - most of us had to use our imaginations to actually see the nose. Then we stopped again to enjoy some local people dancing, a snack, and a visit to the tiny museum which talked about how many men died while making the railroad, as well as about the culture of the dancing people. That afternoon, we caught the bus to Cuenca, which I had heard great things about. It really was a beautiful city, unlike any others that I had seen in Ecuador, and so far in South America. It had so many churches within a few blocks of each other, including the massive 'new cathedral' (1885), which looked more like it belonged in Europe than in South America. We also had some really good food there, including the best grilled-cheese sandwich I have had since leaving home! It really is the simple things that I miss.
After two nights in Cuenca, I headed south to my last town in Ecuador, Loja. While waiting to board the bus, I met a German couple who were planning on taking buses straight through to Lima, which was a long ways away, but since I had nothing to do along the way other than break up the journey (and I didn't want to travel so long alone), I decided to do the same with them. When we got to Loja, however, we learned that there were no seats available for the border-crossing journey to Piura, Peru. We bought tickets for the next morning, and found a place to stay, and wandered around Loja until it got dark. The next morning, we made the nine-hour journey to Piura (the border crossing went smoothly, but again I was happy to not be doing it solo), only to find once again that the buses were all booked that were heading to Lima that evening. Once again, we found a hostal and spent the night in the very unexciting town, and the next afternoon we boarded our bus to Lima, which was supposed to take 15 hours. I had heard that the buses in Peru were nice, but I wasn't expecting them to be practically luxury buses! We had second-class seats, but they were really comfortable, and we watched several movies, played bingo, and got served dinner! They even provided a pillow and blanket, which had previously on my trip only happened one other time (on a VERY cold bus in Colombia). I knew that I should enjoy these buses while I could, since the next country I was heading to was Bolivia, the poorest country in South America.