Ecuador and beyond

Got onto the for Quito bus which was utterly shabby in comparison to its Colombian counterparts but on the plus side every transaction was honest and helpful which is surprising for what is a very touristy country. The bus rattled along to Quito , the scenery was nice but again nothing amazing compared to its northern neighbor.
Quito is the second Gringo capital of South America and it shows there are literally hostels on every corner. We booked into a hotel as all the “party hostels” were booked and then snuck into “the place” anyway. We got familiar with a couple of entertaining characters and proceeded to spend the next 5 days abysmally hammered. We did manage to climb the surrounding mountains one day. I can assure you scaling rock faces at altitude with a hangover is a bit more challenging than expected. Also made it out the” centre of the world”. In the 18th century some Frenchy figured out exactly where the equator was and marked it. Arrogant fools mock him as it is 100ft or so off (according to GPS), but I would like to see anyone do better without a GPS.
I had planned to spend 5 days in Quito, but this included getting a few vaccinations, camping gear etc in reality I did just manage to buy a camping pad but that was about it. It was with great relief that we made our way to Tena.
The journey into the start of the Amazon basin was spectacular if a little on the slow side. The scenery here was stunning, especially the vast numbers of large fast flowing rivers all heading to one point. Found our German run hostel, and like most things German run it was very well organized, yet very boring! This however was very welcome by me at least.
Tena is famous for being the gateway town to the Amazon and for its rafting. Now you can raft fairy grade 3 rapids all over the world, so why when you come to a place that has class 4+ to 5 would you take the fairy option. This was our problem , unfortunately for us it was a public holiday and the town was packed with Ecuadorians and not one out of the 60 people that had booked out one company were interested in the good stuff.
There was even a group of English students there who weren’t keen on it. They were doing a half volunteer half travelling deal. I have spoke to a many volunteers during my travels here and almost all say the same thing, it was fun but they didn’t really achieve anything. One Aussie girl said she spent 8 weeks in a village teaching English but was only allowed to teach colours and animals because the head master didn’t want the children to know more than her! This crowd was no different. They were here to paint the school; I asked them if they were artists or art students. No they weren’t! Call me a little cynical but I am sure the locals are perfectly capable of painting the school themselves given the materials, but I guess it looks on good on someone’s CV. Rant over.
So instead of sitting around with a bunch of really fun Germans (yeah right) all day Jas decided to make our own fun. We tracked down the local version of crocodile Dundee, Gabriel and managed to acquire a few inner tubes, a short taxi ride later and a stop off at the local beer shop and we had ourselves an afternoon planned. Gabriel had said it was “muy tranquilo” in reference to the rapids but after the first 300 metres and some severe bruising this was clearly not the case. Jas copped some pretty severe damage, fortunately for me my bag took the brunt of the impact but came off pretty bad when one of the glass beer bottles broke (they didn’t have cans alright!).
No sooner had we run out of beer and the dismal prospect of tubing down a river sober began to become apparent than we ran into some kind of random riverside drinking location. It was packed, mainly with police who weren’t shy at all about having a few beers. We decided it would be rude not to join in and soon replenished our diminishing alcohol levels.
Tubing was a lot more fun after that, the river mellowed and the sun kind of came out as we meandered our way down to Tena. Now if your a guy and you anything to do with the Amazon, one thing springs immediately to mind Candiru (thats the parasitic fish that swims up your pisshole if you urinate in the water). Well I can tell you, im not shy about pissing in rivers but not today! No sir, infact I spent most of the time on my back and even had a pair of underpants under my swim shorts for added defence when I needed to urinate, stopped walked several metres up the bank (incase the little buggers can jump) and relieved myself. Now that I have completely lowered the tone I shall continue.
We came across Gabriel “spear fishing” in the Amazon. Well he was pretty keen on getting us over to show us his catch, it was at this point I began to see how threatended this river is. Gabriel had found a hole and was busy stabbing away with a piece of sharpened re bar at fish that were no bigger than a small cell phone. Jason could not stop his laughter when he proudly pulled the first one out, then seeing the proud look vanish of his face I did the same, not helping the situation at all.
We finally managed to sort out the rafting the situation in the afternoon and with moderate rains throughout the night things were looking up. We were deposited on the Jondachi River at 9am and the guides informed us that the flow was perfect. After a long wait we finally got going. The river was fun but certainly at no point scary which seriously makes me question the class 4+ rating the river has, class 4 to me means that you are on the verge of crapping yourself; class 5 means mandatory dirty trousers. However the river and forest were beautiful, and untouched. The density of the forest is utterly boggling; I really find it pretty difficult to imagine anyone being able to get through it without a very large machete. It wasn’t exactly brimming with life, and I certainly am glad that I didn’t do any forest excursions as I’m pretty sure you see what you usually see in forests. Trees. Nothing much else. We did see a massive Tarantula web which was cool and a few birds but no Toucans, dam Toucans I will find you one day.
Jas managed to convince the guide to let him jump of an old rope bridge. By old I mean Indiana Jones style old, with rotten and missing planks, rusty cable it was definitely something you would want to jump off rather than walk across!
Made it back into town and managed to secure ourselves an afternoon bus to Banos. All information in books on this route describes the road as rough and bumpy. Not anymore, it’s sealed and rapid the whole way. Its here you can really see the destruction of the Amazon and to me it seems more or less inevitable. The cause, well ME and the others that come here. There are many “eco” villages etc along the way but in truth every dollar that comes into this area goes at least some way to destroying this forest. 20 years ago Tena may as well have been at the end of the world, now its connected via 2 sealed highways and so people push further into the jungle for the “authentic” Amazon experience and the cycle repeats. Enough of that.
Banos, spot the Ecuadorian! This town has built itself up as the adventure capital of Ecuador and it is a job it does poorly. It’s great if you’re a pussy, but in reality most things here are heavily on the lame side of adrenalin. We did hire Mt bikes and complete 40km of the downhill section to Puyo which passes some nice waterfalls but bad weather and a lack of anything interesting cut the trip short.
By this stage I was pretty over Ecuador, it’s a nice place don’t get me wrong, but it’s like a more boring/duller version of Colombia so decided it was time to leave. I was semi keen on the scenic train ride where you can ride on the roof but looking at the amounts on tourists in Banos talking about it, decided to avoid it and when we passed it on the way south, the decision certainly appeared to be a sound one. Jason had decided to head to the coast for a spot of surfing and kite boarding, so we said our goodbyes and I picked up a new Irish sidekick Sarah.
Stopped off in the lovely town of Cuenca for a few days. This was a welcome relief, actual indigenous people WOW; it was almost like being in South America for a minute. The town has loads of beautiful buildings and is very laid back. It’s also the centre of the Panama hat business (they are actually Ecuadorian, but Ecuadorians working on the canal wore them, Roosevelt was photographed wearing one and ever since they have been known as Panama hats). Sarah bought one and promptly sat on it two days later much to my amusement.
I am about as much a fan of night buses as I am of Jungles, but the Peruvian border on the coast is one of the more infamous in South America and I wasn’t carrying my tent etc all this way to have it nicked a few hundred kilometers from its intended use so we opted for the alternative route. The main attraction was the rd that is apparently one of the more stunning in Ecuador, well it was average, the apparently friendly town of Loja wasn’t that friendly but we did make it into Peru with all our stuff!
A quick change of bus and then a taxi and we pulled into the small fishing village of Pimentel. We had a fair deal of trouble finding the accommodation, and to be honest a pristine beach with sunny weather it was not! It was however strangely cool, the hostel is a kind of hippy retreat with pyramids set in the middle of nowhere. It is utterly deserted as for most the year the mix of the cold current and warm air causes clouds till late in the afternoon.
Managed to acquire a bottle of rum then decided it was a good idea to light a fire in the fire pit. Unfortunately the drift wood was a little damp so decided to give it a little assistance with some gasoline from my camp stove bottle. Unfortunately it needed a little more, I remember thinking to myself as I poured the contents out of the bottle “this is a stupid idea!” not surprisingly flame leapt into the bottle , setting my hand on fire and the bottle. I managed to hold some composure and was able to get it into the fire pit, before it went up in flames. I quickly put out the spot fires around the dry bamboo housing (that could have been real exciting otherwise) and then put my badly burned hand under water for the next few hours. IDIOT.
Never mind, set out early in the morning for what was one of my most anticipated moments in travel, the tomb of the Senor de Sipan. On the way into town came across a group of local fishermen launching their Caballitos de Totara (reed boats that look like they have been cut in half). Most have only a piece of bamboo for a paddle and they handle the boats like a wave ski as the battled the surf for 10 minutes or so to break into the open ocean.
Headed out to the museum then realized it was closed on Mondays! Jackass. However the market nearby was open, and spent a few hours tasting delicious Cerviche (raw fish) olives, cheese and other things I haven’t had for months. Amazingly this entire area is relatively untouristy as 99% of tourists go to see some” lost city” in the south you may have heard off and miss this area out completely. A very pleasant surprise and as a result of this the people here are very friendly, helpful and interested in gringos.
After thoroughly stuffing myself headed out to the site where the tombs were initially uncovered. The tombs were uncovered by grave robbers but were quickly stopped by police when people began reporting amazing objects appearing on the black market. Sipan once the religious centre of the Moche people is truly stunning, although the mud pyramids are heavily eroded you can get a very good sense of the scale and the new site museum has some incredible pieces.
Headed back to the Museum in the morning via the market for more Cerviche of course. Now expectations were high here and I can’t put into words how far they were beaten. No cameras are allowed in but you just have to trust me, after the Tutankhamen treasure this has to be one of the most spectacular in existence. It’s almost too much, gold, gold, gold and more gold spectacularly crafted and unique. Even stranger is the complete lack of tourists, Sarah inspected the guest book and the visitors were 90% Peruvian, I’m starting to think this “lost city” isn’t so bad after all.
Took the bus down to Trujillo and headed to another small fishing village Huanchaco. This place is a little touristier but being out of season there was nobody around. The waves looked good, but the water quality certainly didn’t so opt for some more spectacular sites. The first is Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the world. It covers a vast area, but has been extensively damaged by El Nino floods and not much remains of the original structures but it’s easy to appreciate what it once must have been. In the afternoon headed on to the Huaca Del Sol and Luna pyramids. These were the centre of the Moche world, the same culture as Sipan. Unfortunately the Spanish decided there was gold under the pyramid of the sun, once the largest structure in the western hemisphere and managed to destroy over 2 thirds of it. The pyramid of the moon remained untouched until 1990 when some artwork was discovered. Full investigation revealed that every 100 years a new level was added and the entire interior as bricked up to makes way for the next level. The result is an incredible display of murals and artwork that is truly breath taking. Like the other sites I was more or less the only person there.
I was by this stage sick and tired of the cloud so decided it was time to head to the mountains. Someone else however had other ideas, after waiting over 2 hours for my bus to finally leave, the police decided to do a thorough search of the entire bus on route and found some contraband so that I missed all chance of connections and had to stay in the middle of nowhere. I did get the 2nd cheapest hotel room of my travels at $2.15 US a bargain, it certainly was no Ritz but the absence of bed bugs was a pleasant surprise.
In the morning managed to muster a few locals together waiting for the next bus (nobody knew when) and took a taxi to Huaraz. The scenery was stunning the entire way, really incredible and even better continuous open blue sky, YASS.