So far since leaving Quito my legs have been surprisingly active.  Mountain climbing, trekking, biking, and rafting all in the past week.  The trips have taken me around the villages of the Quilotoa loop, through the towns of Banos, Puyo, and Tena, and down the mighty Jondachi and Napo rivers.  Don’t worry, this bit of energy wont last and I’ll soon be heading for the beach, but its amazing to see what can actually be accomplished when you set some goals and follow through instead of finding excuses to turn around and take it easy.

I had heard stories from other travelers in Quito of an impressive lake and quaint Quetuan villages in the mountains a few hours south of the city.  The Quilotoa Loop as it is known is set in the high grasslands at about 3000m among the farms and sheep grazing fields.  I decided to give it a go and made the trip with Zalika who also starred with me in my last post on Cotopaxi.  Again not being one to allow myself look bad in front of a girl I agreed to all of the 3am bus rides, 7hr hikes, and extra layers required to see what turned out to be a pretty impressive sight.   

The crater lake was formed buy a now extinct volcano, and walking around the rim as the sun rose in the sky made for an amazing hike.  We each took about 1000 pictures, stopping every five minutes or so to catch the lake from a new angle or with just a little more sunlight.  For all our efforts and from every angle the entire lake would never fit into our lenses.  With all of our pictures though I have no doubt though that we could put together a full 360 tour around the rim.  The area was magical though and we both stopped to laugh at how disgustingly beautiful it was.  A crystal clear emerald lake surrounded by mountain peaks with yellow and purple flowers brightening the grasslands.  Horses we saw looked like they should have unicorn horns, and we expected fairies or leprechauns to jump out at any moment.  Not a bad place to spend a few hours.              

Banos, a friendly city with plenty of comfort in the form of good food, nice rooms and cheap internet access, was my next destination after catching the 4am bus out of the mountains and saying so-long to Zalika.  The setting was again impressive; hemmed in by green mountains on all sides and the giant, active, Tungurahua volcano towering over everything.  La Ruta de las Cascadas, as the 63km road between Banos and Puyo is known, made an amazing mountain bike ride.  Starting in the highland of Banos and finishing at the start of the amazon basin in Puyo you pass dozens of waterfalls along the way.  Some of these are small trickles falling over the road and others, like the Devil’s Couldran, are massive angry flows of water that make your jaw hang open even though its got to be the 10,000^th waterfall you’ve seen this trip.

After  a couple more days in Banos, spent mainly hiding form the rain and chill next to fireplaces and under a good book, I made my way further down into the lowlands to the town of Tena.  Tena is the gateway to Ecuador’s jungles, with two large rivers running through the town and the never ending green reaching to the banks.  The weather is warm and humid in the way that makes t-shirts hang low around your neck and puts a sticky greasy film on your face.  The mosquitoes are light though and the breeze from the river just cool enough to pull this border town out of the sleepy jungle and give it a breath of life.  A footbridge connects the two halves of the town and in the evening couples and families stroll back and forth over the waters chatting and catching up.  The thing to do here is take a white water rafting trip down one of the world class rivers in the area, and then return to relax with a beer and loud Ecuadorian music next to the water.   

I signed up with of the rafting outfits for a class IV trip on the Jondachi river and the next day met with the other 10 or so people that would be joining me in the boats.  Most of the other travelers where part of a larger group tour, almost all of them students on break from University.  The scenery for the trip was amazing, large vine covered trees and cliff faces lining the water and beautiful yellow and blue butterflies in the air around us.  During slow points in the rapids we would paddle near the shore and,  count the spiders perched there on the mossy rocks, all of them bigger than my hand.  The trip down the river was fun and exciting, and we all ended up in the water at some point.   

I had hoped to spend the next couple days with a guide learning to kayak, but a bad landing from a jump into the water seems to have affected my back a bit so it looks like I’ll need to postpone that idea for awhile.  Instead its time to head west for beaches, surfing and whale watching. A little sand and hammock time is probably just what I need.           

Categories: rafting, biking, Ecuador, Photos, Travel