Hola, chicos!
This is my last day in Ecuador and I want to use it to fill you in on the "latest activities"!
The last week was absolute action-week! It started with a tour of Quitos old-town, which is pretty nice; nothing special, though. Lots of old cathedrals and stuff!
The next day we took a trip to "Mitad del Mundo", where we actually walked on the equator line and performed highly scientific experiments like flushing the toilet on the northern and southern hemisphere :-) That evening I went dancing with our homestay family's daughter. We danced salsa all night (I tried!!) to live music with guys from Ecuador, Cuba and Columbia. Apparently I provoked a fight between to men who both wanted to dance with me, although I can't remember, since I underestimated the Ecuadorian drinks which are mixed half and half...
The next day we took a bus to "Mindo", where we were able to look at and even touch some huge butterflies. It was nice, but there wasn't much else to do, so it kind of wasn't worth the 4 hour trip (both ways)... after that I decided, I need excercise and decided to head for Baños the next day, while Andi and Alice wanted to soak in the hot springs of Papallacta and to buy cheap leather jackets near Otavalo.
Before getting on the bus to Baños, I tried to get my chinese visa- and failed! Apperently, the Chinese have changed their international immigration laws again and now it is only possible to get the visa in your home country... This means, I'll have to change my flight to go straight to India, which will cost me approximately 500 Dollars that I DON'T HAVE after Galapagos!! Haven't decided, what I will do yet, I'll keep you posted!!
Anyway, I arrived in Baños in the pouring rain but quickly found a great hostel, where it didn't take me long to meet an english guy and to swiss girls.
The next day, I went horseback riding up to a volcano, which sadly wasn't that great, since it was raining again and we weren't even able to SEE the volcano through all the clouds! But we had fun anyway...
On my second day in Baños we went for a hike to see some of the waterfalls, including one very big one, that you could actually climb behind! We got soaking wet and had a great time walking through the almost jungle-like forest! In the evening we went to a Swiss restaurant where I had a "Brotzeit"! Afterwards we drowned the upcoming homesickness with Caipirinha and Cuba Libre in a bar and played pool against the locals.
After two days it was time to leave Baños again, in order to meet Andi and Alice in Tena, which wasn't so bad, as it was still raining!
In Tena we booked a whitewater rafting trip (class IV rapids!) for the next day and went for a delicious fish dinner.
Unfortunately, Alice was sick the next morning (probably due to Malaria prophylaxis) and so Andi and I had to go on the rafting trip by ourselves. It was amazing!!! So far in South America, the tours had usually been less great than they promised to be, but this one was better!
First, we had to hike down into a canyon barefoot, since the mud went up to our knees, which was an adventure by itself. Then we went for a swim at a beautiful waterfall and Andi even jumped the 8 meters into the water! I didn't join him in that, since I had slipped and fallen on the wet rocks, which gave me a pretty bad bruise to my elbow and -worst of all- made me drop my underwater camera with the Galapagos pictures on it into the water, where of course it was immediately carried away by the strong current! The rafting afterwards was so great though, that I didn't even have a chance to think about my camera anymore!
It was 38 km on the most beautiful river I've ever seen- deep down in the canyon with jungle on all sides, not accessible by any other way than the water! The rapids were huge, and I fell into the water three times, which was kind of scary, since you don't really have a chance to breathe in the white water... but thanks to lifevests and helmets and the help of our great instructor, I (and everybody else that fell into the water) was fine. We had a delicious lunch at a lonely beach, where I got DEVOURED by sandflies- more than 100 bites on both legs!! After 5 hours, the journey was finished and so were we! We went for a huge steak-dinner and afterwards for drinks and dancing, and at 2:00 a.m. I slept like a stone!
The next day it was time to leave for our jungle-trip. Due to the massive amount of insect bites, I was barely able to move my legs, and my arms were sore from paddling, so it wasn't a lot of fun, carrying the backpack that day... I managed, though, and in the evening we arrived at beautiful "Liana-Lodge" in the middle of nowhere. After dinner, we went straight to bed (it was only 9 pm, but there was no electricity...) and fell asleep to the amazing jungle-insect-concert...
When we woke up the next morning, it was litteraly raining cats and dogs, but we were brave and went on our hike, anyway, where we learned lots of things about the use of medicinal plants. In the afternoon we tried ourselves (unsuccessfully) at washing gold and fishing and floated back to our lodge with tubes on the river.
Next day it was time for "the big hike" through the jungle, and luckily my legs were cooperating again! We visited an animal sanctuary for injured animals and saw lots of monkeys and other jungle animals. Coming back to the lodge, we were in for a surprise: Andi and Alice had read their flight plan wrong and found out, that their flight was leaving the next morning at 9 a.m.!
We packed our bags and ran to the busstation in less than half an hour, where we caught the last bus to Tena. There we had three hours time before the 10pm bus to Quito, which we used for a rediculously fancy good-bye-dinner. We got on our bus, but half an hour later we had to stop again, because the bus had broken down on one side! We soon figured out, that this was due to an old woman, who had loaded 2000kg (!) of oranges on it!! So we had to help unload the oranges (and the old woman, too!) and continued our journey to Quito with 2000kg less and a lot more slowly (we had fixed the bus only with a rope...). At 3:30 a.m. we finally got there and started packing. After only one and a half hours of sleep it was then "time to say goodbye"... Andi and Alice left for the airport and I spent the rest of the day sleeping!
So much for the exciting last week in Ecuador! Tomorrow I will be leavin for Columbia and hopefully more excitement- I'll keep you posted!!
This is my last day in Ecuador and I want to use it to fill you in on the "latest activities"!
The last week was absolute action-week! It started with a tour of Quitos old-town, which is pretty nice; nothing special, though. Lots of old cathedrals and stuff!
The next day we took a trip to "Mitad del Mundo", where we actually walked on the equator line and performed highly scientific experiments like flushing the toilet on the northern and southern hemisphere :-) That evening I went dancing with our homestay family's daughter. We danced salsa all night (I tried!!) to live music with guys from Ecuador, Cuba and Columbia. Apparently I provoked a fight between to men who both wanted to dance with me, although I can't remember, since I underestimated the Ecuadorian drinks which are mixed half and half...
The next day we took a bus to "Mindo", where we were able to look at and even touch some huge butterflies. It was nice, but there wasn't much else to do, so it kind of wasn't worth the 4 hour trip (both ways)... after that I decided, I need excercise and decided to head for Baños the next day, while Andi and Alice wanted to soak in the hot springs of Papallacta and to buy cheap leather jackets near Otavalo.
Before getting on the bus to Baños, I tried to get my chinese visa- and failed! Apperently, the Chinese have changed their international immigration laws again and now it is only possible to get the visa in your home country... This means, I'll have to change my flight to go straight to India, which will cost me approximately 500 Dollars that I DON'T HAVE after Galapagos!! Haven't decided, what I will do yet, I'll keep you posted!!
Anyway, I arrived in Baños in the pouring rain but quickly found a great hostel, where it didn't take me long to meet an english guy and to swiss girls.
The next day, I went horseback riding up to a volcano, which sadly wasn't that great, since it was raining again and we weren't even able to SEE the volcano through all the clouds! But we had fun anyway...
On my second day in Baños we went for a hike to see some of the waterfalls, including one very big one, that you could actually climb behind! We got soaking wet and had a great time walking through the almost jungle-like forest! In the evening we went to a Swiss restaurant where I had a "Brotzeit"! Afterwards we drowned the upcoming homesickness with Caipirinha and Cuba Libre in a bar and played pool against the locals.
After two days it was time to leave Baños again, in order to meet Andi and Alice in Tena, which wasn't so bad, as it was still raining!
In Tena we booked a whitewater rafting trip (class IV rapids!) for the next day and went for a delicious fish dinner.
Unfortunately, Alice was sick the next morning (probably due to Malaria prophylaxis) and so Andi and I had to go on the rafting trip by ourselves. It was amazing!!! So far in South America, the tours had usually been less great than they promised to be, but this one was better!
First, we had to hike down into a canyon barefoot, since the mud went up to our knees, which was an adventure by itself. Then we went for a swim at a beautiful waterfall and Andi even jumped the 8 meters into the water! I didn't join him in that, since I had slipped and fallen on the wet rocks, which gave me a pretty bad bruise to my elbow and -worst of all- made me drop my underwater camera with the Galapagos pictures on it into the water, where of course it was immediately carried away by the strong current! The rafting afterwards was so great though, that I didn't even have a chance to think about my camera anymore!
It was 38 km on the most beautiful river I've ever seen- deep down in the canyon with jungle on all sides, not accessible by any other way than the water! The rapids were huge, and I fell into the water three times, which was kind of scary, since you don't really have a chance to breathe in the white water... but thanks to lifevests and helmets and the help of our great instructor, I (and everybody else that fell into the water) was fine. We had a delicious lunch at a lonely beach, where I got DEVOURED by sandflies- more than 100 bites on both legs!! After 5 hours, the journey was finished and so were we! We went for a huge steak-dinner and afterwards for drinks and dancing, and at 2:00 a.m. I slept like a stone!
The next day it was time to leave for our jungle-trip. Due to the massive amount of insect bites, I was barely able to move my legs, and my arms were sore from paddling, so it wasn't a lot of fun, carrying the backpack that day... I managed, though, and in the evening we arrived at beautiful "Liana-Lodge" in the middle of nowhere. After dinner, we went straight to bed (it was only 9 pm, but there was no electricity...) and fell asleep to the amazing jungle-insect-concert...
When we woke up the next morning, it was litteraly raining cats and dogs, but we were brave and went on our hike, anyway, where we learned lots of things about the use of medicinal plants. In the afternoon we tried ourselves (unsuccessfully) at washing gold and fishing and floated back to our lodge with tubes on the river.
Next day it was time for "the big hike" through the jungle, and luckily my legs were cooperating again! We visited an animal sanctuary for injured animals and saw lots of monkeys and other jungle animals. Coming back to the lodge, we were in for a surprise: Andi and Alice had read their flight plan wrong and found out, that their flight was leaving the next morning at 9 a.m.!
We packed our bags and ran to the busstation in less than half an hour, where we caught the last bus to Tena. There we had three hours time before the 10pm bus to Quito, which we used for a rediculously fancy good-bye-dinner. We got on our bus, but half an hour later we had to stop again, because the bus had broken down on one side! We soon figured out, that this was due to an old woman, who had loaded 2000kg (!) of oranges on it!! So we had to help unload the oranges (and the old woman, too!) and continued our journey to Quito with 2000kg less and a lot more slowly (we had fixed the bus only with a rope...). At 3:30 a.m. we finally got there and started packing. After only one and a half hours of sleep it was then "time to say goodbye"... Andi and Alice left for the airport and I spent the rest of the day sleeping!
So much for the exciting last week in Ecuador! Tomorrow I will be leavin for Columbia and hopefully more excitement- I'll keep you posted!!
