The morning we were leaving the project we got a ride to All Hands pre-fabric at San Vicente and got an early morning bus from there to Quito. People in San Vicente were already active, attending a Zumba class on a public plaza near the corner we were waiting for our more or less on time bus. (It's Ecuador, so everything is on Latin time) what a quick 7,5 hours it was, they were playing movies in the bus. First, "Untouchables" which is one of my favorite films ever. Secondly, a sweet family movie about a little boy who went to heaven and came back to tell about it.
Started Couchsurfing again in Quito. Stayed with David. Couchsurfing never disappoints, what a lovely couple of days. We met Davids whole family and tasted his moms great cooking. He took us to some nice salsa bars and live music joints, and also forced us to be proper tourists, as we visited the palace of the president and went to the indigenous markets in La Mariscal (were prepared, bought the loveliest llama sweaters, and didn't even pay the gringo price).
For the 360 degree view of Quito climbed a nearby hill to go see La virgen de el Panecillo (whole Quito, especially centro histórico, is only ups and downs, we lived on an especially high hill, good workout for the legs). To the virgen led 827 steps of stairs! We counted. BTW Quito is located in the Andes Mountains 2,850 meters above sea level and it is the highest capital in the world! Many people think it is La Paz in Bolivia but the official capital is Sucre and that is located in an altitude of “only” 2,808 meters.
The coolest little cafe next to the cathedral
What probably everybody does in Quito, is to go see the equator, to stand on the South Pole and North Pole at the same time, yes we did that too. Mitad el Mundo is actually an interesting town on its own. I'd recommend to get the full pass ($7,50) which includes all the attractions, like planetarium, different museums, the actual globe monument in which there's another museum to do some experiments, like test magnetic fields and make water flow backwards, on top of the monument the view is not bad either. One of the highlights also was the cocoa museum and the chocolate tasting in the end, amazing!
LOCRO!! this soup is simply amazing. Another favorites would be encebollado soup, mote con chicharron and canelazo and caipicaña cocktail!
The currency in Ecuador is US dollar, I wouldn't say Ecuador is an expensive country in general, but some aspects are expensive, like taxis. Especially in big cities. Taxis in Ecuador are decent Vs in Colombia where they were cheap-ish yet totally chaotic. I'll never forget the taxi we caught at night in Medellin to go home from Parque de Periodistas. First, when sat in, checked the seatbelt, there wasn't one. And then the taxi got its speed up from 0 to 100 in a split second, we fell against the back seat, all the windows were open, the wind blew us away, he was passing other cars like skiing slalom. A proper need for speed video game. From our shocked faces the driver casually asked if it's a bit too much and then slowed down a bit. In the end he was angry that we couldn't explain exactly where our hostel was, the exact address wasn't enough. Also, mostly when the taxis passed the right street or building, no problem, they just reversed back to the right spot, no matter how heavy traffic was around.
Anyways, I wouldn't bother taking a taxi in Quito, as the bus system is more or less understandable if you're up for a little adventure. It's quite easy to find a right bus as in every station you'll buy a ticket in a little kiosk before the station and can ask for the place you need to go, the ticket costs 25 cents. Inside the bus, it's a mercado, you can buy everything!! (I bought a cd for 1 $ that has 150 iconic songs on it.) Knew the songs as the salesman came on to the bus with a huge speaker that loudly played a short version of every song. The buses are always hurry too, there is guy on the bus yelling at people to move faster, stand up a station before their station and jump off from a still moving bus, hold on for dear life! If you're taking a bus outside of Quito be alert tho, getting to Mitad El Mundo was easy as the driver told us where to get off, coming back tho, we specifically asked if the bus goes to centre. Sure. When we were already in Quito, it seemed like a strange area. Thankfully we had our offline map, because when I checked it, discovered we're moving away from Quito again. Asked for a stop, the driver just said, why didn't you go off when I was in the center (if anything he was barely near the far end of the centro), the area where we were apparently now was dangerous and we should take a taxi. We didn't. Waited for a new bus and got home safely.
In general, going long distances in Ecuador can prove to be difficult. The roads are pretty good, but there are no time-tables anywhere. Always go to the bus terminal and ask. If planning connections, plan ahead, read travel forums and take a risk. There mostly are night buses as well. Camino de Reina is one of the good bus companies.
From Ecuador we took a bus to Baños de Agua Santa from the southern bus terminal. In 3,5 hours And 1,5 movies later we were in the cutest little town ever. Touristic but magnificent! A highlight for sure. Situated in between the mountains and on the foothills of Tungurahua volcano.
Arte Café and Tè was our favorite spot in town that we just had to visit every day. Exquisite cafe from different regions of Ecuador and Colombia! And the interior is just a cherry on top.
Whatever you do, do not trust the weather forecast for Baños! It said max 12 minimum 4 degrees for daytime and around 0 for nights. We were preparing for the worst yet it turned out to be lovely. Yes you needed a jacket but that's about it, it was warm!
Casa del Árbol, a treehouse with a swing at the end of the world is something one can't miss. Don't bother taking a tour or such, just take the local bus (takes about an hour up and 30 minutes down, costs 1 dollar each way). Mornings are chiller to go and the second swing has a shorter que.
Right next to the beautiful Virgen waterfall are the thermal baths (Las Piscinas de la Virgen). This is where we got our first culture shock. The most random thermal baths there could be. One of the baths was ice-cold, another boiling hot, and the third one with good temperature was filled, no, overpacked with people! It's not easy to relax at a spa if there are children learning to swim, toddlers practicing water jumps and grownups doing underwater yoga.
Baños is unofficially called an adventure capital of Ecuador. You can do all kinds of activities - zip lining, rafting, paragliding, bungee from a bridge etc. We are planning on doing most of these in some place already, so we skipped them there, but rented bikes for a day to see waterfalls at ruta de cascadas. Were told it's a touristic chill route that would take about two hours. Wellll no. Thankfully we had time. It took around two hours to figure out which way to go, ride to the beginning of ruta de cascadas and go see the first waterfall that was a km uphill away from the road and not even on the map. It is basically downhill biking most of the way on a busy road of cars, trucks and buses, there are a couple km-s of only-bike routes on the edge of the cliffs when the cars are touted through a tunnel, one tunnel is where bikes have to go through tho. There you can find out how fast you are able to ride a bike as the tunnel is quite narrow and when you hear a large truck honking its horn somewhere behind you, it's ride for dear life kind of time! We rode around 20 km that day and in the end walked around 3 as the most impressive waterfall Pailon del Diablo is hidden in the jungle. It's possible to go behind the cascada as well, which will make you soaking wet but is hella fun! To conclude, Baños and its surroundings have some of the most beautiful scenery and views I have seen. On the route we wanted to stop every after 5 meters as every new corner was incredibly beautiful and picture-worthy.
We left Baños on a evening-bus to Ambato not knowing exactly if there will be another bus to Cuenca at night but having fingers crossed. There was one at midnight, we spent the remaining couple hours at a karaoke bar as this was the only thing open. This was the first bus that was really packed and very uncomfortable. Arrived to Cuenca at 7am, basically an hour before it was supposed to although the bus was half an hour late last night. We bought our bus tickets to Mancora, Peru and talked the guy on the ticket office into keeping our backpacks in his office. Cuenca is a lovely town with many churches and parks and a beautiful centro historico. We walked around the town a bit, visited a Pumapungo cultural museum and an art gallery of a local artist, but other than that chilled in cafeterias trying local food and enjoying good coffee.
Our bus to Mancora went at 10 in the evening, the boarder crossing was very easy although took around two hours (at daytime could take 4 times as long), we got to Mancora, a small party town/fishing village at 6 am, took a tuk tuk to our hostel The Point, were let in into our dorm immediately altho the check in would have been 2pm and went to sleep. Little did we know this small town would become our favorite spot so far and definitely an unforgettable highlight of the whole trip.
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