Becky and Jen´s Amazing Adventures!

Jen had a whirlwind tour of Ecuador for sure. Most days we were on a bus for at least a few hours. Thankfully, the scenary is nice and varied on the bus routes. Jen left yesterday morning and my mom arrived at 7pm last night. It´s about time to start another round of bus trips, but before I accumulate more stories, a blog update is necessary. So, here it goes. Just the highlights from each day...

May 10th: Jen arrived!

May 11th: Still feeling ill from eating bad food (see previous entry), so Jen toured Old Town Quito with a hostal-mate, Stacy.

May 12th: Ready or not, the show had to go on...off to Baños. If you read the blog often, it seems like every chance I have, I go to Baños. Guess what, mom and I are heading there tomorrow as well. In the afternoon, we were pampered at a spa. Jen had a pedicure for $10 and I had a reflexology foot massage for $12. It is so easy to get addicted to this type of relaxation!

May 13th: We woke up with the sun and headed to the heated mineral baths. At that time of the day, the baths were mostly populated by elderly Ecuadorians. They believe bathing in the water from the volcano is cleansing and provides healing. I´m not so sure about that, but I do know waking up early to the sight of a waterfall and mountains somehow makes me feel more alive and free.

May 14th: Now in Puyo, Jen and I visited Parque Omaere. It was founded 15 years ago by Chris, an ornithologist from the United States and his wife, a Shuar from Ecuador. At the time the region was mainly cow farms, but today the park is lush and filled with ethnobotanical plants. We got to see the vanilla orchid, the cinnamon tree, plants used for dyes, hallucinigenic flowers, the palm used for Panama hats, the sangre de drago tree and many more. When you slice the trunk of the sangre de drago, a red sap trickles out. It looks exactly like blood. However, when you rub the sap between your fingers it turns to a white foam-like substance that can be used on bug bites, scars or cuts. It definitely stopped my itchy mosquito bite from bothering me.

May 15th: Rafting capital of Ecuador-Tena! The first hightlight I must mention is the hotel-Casa del Abuelo. For $12 a night we had super comfortable beds, cable tv, hot water, Internet and air conditioning. It was like heaven.

The second and more important highlight is the rafting trip we took with Rios Ecuador. Our guide, Gino, is part of Ecuador´s national rafting team, so we felt really safe. Plus, he was personable, funny and professional. We had two other women in our raft who were visiting from Washington state. The river is a 3+ on the rafting scale, perfect for my first rafting experience. Everyone fell out at least once in the rapids and we played silly games when the water only had a small current. The scenary was breathtaking too.

May 16th: In the morning, we went to Parque Amazonico, an island in Tena that has some small foot paths and animals. After seeing the poor conditions the animals live in at the park, I was so grateful for the hardwork we put forth to make the habitats entertaining for the animals at Santa Martha. I think Jen´s favorite part of the park was seeing a marmoset in the wild.

We also walked through Tena´s first ever chocolate festival. The aim of the festival was to educate the local people about the production and cultivation of quality chocolate. The sun was sooo hot that we didn´t stay long.

We took the bus 5 hours back to Quito that afternoon

May 17th: Another bus, this time from Quito to Otavalo. Time for shopping, and that´s all I´ll say about this day.

May 18th: Visited the colorful produce market, more shopping at the tourist market and then another bus ride to Laguna Cuicocha. The lake was formed by the Volcano Cotacachi, which last errupted 3,000 years ago. It has sparkling blue water and two islands that are separated by a small channel. It´s possible to walk around the lake in 5 hours going high over the surrounding mountains, but Jen and I opted instead to take a boat trip around the lake. Got to see the same scene by being lazy. Plus I love boat rides!


May 19th: Jen´s last day, which meant we were forced to head back to Quito. Walk-a-thon is the word of the day, and I stupidly wore flip flops. Don´t ask me why, but Jen had a craving for cheese (not queso fresco!) and McDonald´s french fries. This was coming from a girl who eats like me, meaning no fast food. Oh well, we walked to a mall to cure Jen´s craving, then about 45 minutes straight up hill to Capilla del Hombre (a Guayasamin art museum), back to the Mariscal district to our hostal, then to the tourist market and finally to dinner. The museum was obviously the best part of the day. I visited it in 2004 when I studied abroad, but I think I appreciated it more this time around. There´s a great quote in the museum that says: ¨ I cried because I didn´t have shoes until I saw a boy who didn´t have feet.¨ Upon first glance, Guayasamin´s art can seem morbid, but the majority of his work was designed to portray the plight of indigenous people in various areas of the world.

May 20th: Jen dragged herself from bed at 4am to catch her flight back home.

Alright, I suppose my mom is tired of waiting for me to finish with the computer. Off to tour some more of Quito.

Hasta Luego amigos!

Becky