| 01/04/2007 - 12/05/2007 »» page 4/5 »»
| | ...continued from the previous page |
28. day - 28/04/2007 - , QuitoQuito (the capital of Ecuador) is a beautiful city with its cultural heritage, churches and cathedrals (part of the World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO). However, the mood of the town which was really impressed us.
We arrived at the bus stop of Quito around 6.30 in the morning after the less comfortable trip among the mountains in the night. We felt the humid, cold, and mountain air on our face. The city lies 2,850 meters high. We thought to buy some caps, scarves and gloves from a local seller, but that would not make much sense for the couple of days we wanted to spend here.
We found a cheap and comfortable hotel room and we went to visit the old town.
We saw organized and clean squares and people on the bench who were staring the church entrance. Some school children carried hot chocolate and fresh bred to poor people sitting on the stairs of the churches. We saw many street sellers selling everything such as food, clothes etc. Their children were playing around them. It was rain season so the heavy rain fall was broken by the beautiful and colorful ponchos that people were wearing on the streets. So the streets became colorful.
Sometimes we could see the mountains around the city among the thick clouds. One of the highlights of the mountains is the Virgin of Quito at the top of one mountain.
We saw indigenous people on the hilly streets who were carrying their heavy bags towards the market of the town. We heard flute and other music in the streets. We saw indigenous women in hard hat selling lottery etc. They pulled their necks under their warm poncho against the cold.
We also saw fun (clowns were playing, shops with colorful papers on it) and good infrastructure (such as trolley) in the streets.
Quito showed all these above to us only during one day.
|
29. day - 29/04/2007 - , Cotopaxi National ParkIn the Andean people live far away from the civilisation. It is interesting to see how they live here.
Every weekend a train leaves from Quito to the Cotopaxi National Park through the Andean. We got on this train.
The train went through hills and valleys and we could see the high mountains covered by clouds around. The local people usuaslly use the same way as the train when they came down from the mountains. This was the reason the train hit a van with locals on it which was coming down on the way just next to the rails. Nobody was hurt and the damage was not big either so we could continue the trip.
We saw beautiful fields, forests, mountains on our way. Kids were running after the train and waved hello for us with a big smile on their faces. We were staring out through the window, the cows were staring in.
Hoops, a cow was on the rails, but it had escaped before the train got to its original place. We stopped in a valley where we could buy tasty breads. The railway station was completely empty here. We met lamas and saw more pigs on the last part of the trip. We arrived to the Cotopaxi National Park.
We made a trip here in the forest with an Ecuadorian couple who introduced us the special flora and fauna in the forest. We could see the chemicalies (in yellow and orange colours) on the trees which shows the vulcanic activity around.
We could not see the snow caped Vulcano Cotopaxi as the clouds completely covered the sky. We were on our way to get back to the returning train to Quito when a heavy rain started. |
30. day - 30/04/2007 - , At the top of the world?After the two days of aclimatisation we decided to climb the mountains around Quito.
A lift was built, called Teleferiquo which goes up on a mountain up to 4,100 meter high. It is possible to take a climbing tour (around 4 hrs up on the mountain) from here to the Vulcano Pichincha upto 4,700 meter high.
Early morning this was the first time when we could see the Mountain Cotopaxi with its snow covered top from the lower stop of Teleferiquo in Quito. The sky was clear, however it started to be covered by white clouds. We climbed Pichincha and we reached our highest top record of our life until this time. It was amazing to see the town Quito below us. We could hardly bread on our way as the aclimatisation of two days probably was not enough for the elevation. Anyway we just climbed and climbed and the landscape was beautiful. It started to hail at the top. When we arrived back to the town we were entirely wet.
We heard in the news in the evening that Vulcano Revantador (not far from Quito) had errupted meanwhile we had climed Pichincha. Its last erruption was in 2002. |
31. day - 01/05/2007 - , At the Middle of the World?Have you ever thought about how was the equator (the middle of the world) measured earlier?
We went to see the La Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) 22 km north of Quito.
This is the place where the expedition of Charles-Marie de La Condamine made the measurements that showed that this was indeed the equator in 1736. At the centre of this place a complex was built with a monument globe on the top of it. This complex is a museum today, which shows the Indian tribes and their life in Ecuador.
The question is whether the equator runs here too according to the measurements today.
More than 300 meters north from here there is a museum called Solar Inti Nan, which shows a painted line of the equator calculated by GPS. They have a fascinating exhibition here about the culture of Andean Indians in an authentic house from 1875 and fun demonstrations of tasks that can only be performed at the equator.
You can watch the Koriolis centrifugal forces on a sink where the water fall strait down on the equator (north from the equator it goes counter clockwise, south from the equator clockwise). Here you can stand an egg to a head of a nail. Here you can show that the resistance of the people is lost on the equator.
We were confirmed that we were really standing on the equator here.
|
32. day - 02/05/2007 - , Travelling to BanosWe went to see the Museum of Guayasamin near Bella Vista in Quito. Oswaldo Guayasamin was born in Quito on July 6, 1919 in an indigenous family. He was a talented painter who impressed the world with his works. His main paintings were people and their faces, however he painted also about the Spanish Civil War, Nazi concentration camps, the Vietnam War, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki etc.
In the afternoon we took a bus towards Banos. They played a movie Rocky V. on the bus meanwhile sellers were offering their sweets and drinks on it.
. |
33. day - 03/05/2007 - , BanosBanos is an idyllically set town rounded with huge mountains. Due to the 1999 erruption of Tungurahua (name means little hell in Quechua language, with an elevation of around 5,016 meter) the town had to be left by the people. From 2003 the volcanic activity had decreased so the town was on its way back to life and tourism. It is however still an unpredictable area we have to keep a possible danger in our mind. The word Banos means bath which is what the town is famous for. It has thermal springs and beautiful waterfalls.
Banos has an interesting basilica called Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Agua Santa. The streets are very friendly with small chocolate and other sweet makers on it. You can even taste their sweets. There are many tourist agencies offering their mountain bikes, tours in the mountains or in the basin of the Amazon.
We made a night tour in the evening to see the lava flow of Tungurahua, however due to the rainy season and clouds and mist we could not see much of it. Instead of it we saw the local´s fire attractions in the mountain.
|
34. day - 04/05/2007 - , Again At the TopAfter the mountain climbing in Quito we decided to climb also the mountains of Banos. We chose the mountain that was next to the Vulcano Tungurahua and we hoped to see the vulcano at the top. The chance was so low as we were in the rainy season surrounded by clouds. We climbed this time from 1,800 meter(Banos) to 2,800 meter then descended to the village of Runtun.
The climbing started with only stairs until we reached the Virgin of the mountain. Then the climbing turned very hard, because of the heavy and slippy slope and there was not any sign on it. We missed our way once and instead of getting to the top we arrived to a house with a cow. We had to descended from here to find our real way to the top. The rain started to fall and we listened to the canon of the frogs. Finally we arrived at the top but the sky was so grey that we could not see anything. We were dissatisfied about what we could see but we were satisfied about our performance of climbing.
We found a small village in the mountain where people showed our way towards Runtun.
We looked back again and the view was fantastic. We saw the Tungurahua with some clouds around. The vulcano was still puffing its smoke and ash. we saw the grey smoke behind the white clouds. |
35. day - 05/05/2007 - , Trip to the Devil WaterfallAs we mentioned Banos is famous for its thermal baths, rivers and waterfalls.
We planned this trip for the day before, however due to the landslides and
heavy rains we could not get to the Devil Waterfall that day. So we retried to do the the trip.
The bus took us out from the town along the way of a canyon. Among the amazing view from the top of the bus we were transfered from one side of the canyon to the other side to have a close look to the waterfall of the canyon.
From a bridge on our way we saw a water dam too. It was also possible to do bungy jumping above the canyon.
It was fun travelling on the top of the bus as the waterfalls sometimes hit our shoulders so they were body close.
We arrived at the River Verde where we found the Devils Waterfall in a valley with a half an hour walk. This waterfall is the biggest in Ecuador.
We needed some imagination to see the devils face in the rock.
In the evening we had a good dinner in a restaurant where we met some local musicians. |
36. day - 06/05/2007 - , Last Birds Eyes View to BanosWe can see clearly from the bridge of San Francisco that Banos was settled between the canyon and the vulcano. This is the bridge where the town would be evacuated in case of an erruption.
Early every morning the sugar cane transfer arrives at the town which is one of the basic material of the sweetness industry. Women wash in the waterfall in the town. The tourist offices start their rafting and bicycle tour in the early sunlit.
Our bus goes again among the Andean mountains and we leave this idillyc environment behind...
The grey river of the canyon followed our way from the town. We could see the ruins of the landslide that happened two days ago. Some houses were covered by foils and rocks and others just avoided it.
From far away the mountains looked like a chess table with their organised fields.
This time we were heading towards Latacunga. |
Continues on the next page... |
| | |
|
