Banos (Redux): Dec 28th - 30th

Executive Summary
- RELAX, RELAX, RELAX: After trying to climb Cotopaxi, we came back to Banos and got a massage (one hour for $15) and a steak dinner (excellent chateaubriand for $6.50).

- SPIT ROASTED GUINEA PIGS: Ew. Enough said.

Daily Account
- Dec 28th: We were completely and utterly exhausted after Cotopaxi. The ride back to Banos was mostly silent as we were all too tired to speak. About 2.5 hrs later, we got back to the Rain Forestur office... Dino recommended a pig-skin street food vendor for a little snack. Not sure how I felt about eating pig skin, but figured why not? It sure as hell beat the spit-roasted guinea pigs we saw being served on the way. Yeah, so disgusting! I could see it´s ears and teeth! EW. The pig skin turned out to be alright... it kind of grew on you, but I don´t think I´ll be ordering one of those again any time soon. Anyway, we picked up our bags from Plantos y Blancos (where we stored them while at Cotopaxi) and decided to switch over to Hostal Transylvania for $6 pp per night with free breakfast and unlimited Internet. Still can´t get over how cheap lodging is. After our massages, we relaxed a bit... and then went out for the steak dinner with Dino at Mamma Ines (great food) and a few beers at Jack Rock Cafe (a take on Hard Rock, but definitely not as cheesy)... followed by late-night shwarma and salchipapas (wieners & fries).

- Dec 29th: We had decided to spend the day relaxing and catching-up... email, blog, housekeeping, etc. We slept in until 8am (I know! Early, but that´s considered sleeping in after having woken up at midnight the night before to climb a volcano)... and watched The Dead Zone with Anthony Michael Hall. I´ve never watched that show and probably won´t ever again, but I felt it was the best thing I´ve watched in a month, which made me realize how much I miss my Gossip Girl, Grey´s Anatomy, House, etc. Sigh. Anyway, as I said, the day was about catching up... but later that evening, we decided to go on a 45 minute hike up the mountain overlooking Banos, to have dinner at a resort at the top. We expected a leisurely hike... oh, but no. It was just as steep as Cotopaxi, but thankfully, we didn´t have the altitude or the freezing cold snow to deal with. Still, we were pretty sweaty by the time we arrived at the Luna Runtun resort and I couldn´t wait for a cold beer. The views from the resort´s Cafe del Cielo were beautiful, which made the intense but short hike worth it. By the way, the resort itself is amazing! Over 70 immaculate rooms, 4 thermal jacuzzis/pools, great food and excellent views of the Tungu-something volcano (which you can hearing rumbling all day) and of Banos. If we weren´t unemployed, I would´ve wanted to stay there for $70 a night, per person. www.lunaruntun.com After dinner, we came back to the hostel and watched Stardust with Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes and Robert de Niro... I really liked the movie, which is an adult fairy tale. Mark thought it was okay... a bit chick-flikish.

- Dec 30th: Nothing really to report... we ate our yummy free breakfast and made our way to the bus terminal for the 8 hour journey to Cuenca.

Cotopaxi: Dec 26th - 28th

- The VERY steep hike from the parking lot to the Refuge











- Dino and I finally making it to the Refuge (Mark & Amy were about 20 minutes behind us)







- Me in all my gear!








- Views on the way back down








- View of Cotopaxi









I´d like to preface this entry by saying that this was Mark´s bright idea... not mine... :)

Executive Summary
- COTOPAXI: A snow-capped volcano that is 5,867 meters high, the second highest summit in Ecuador and the closest to the sun... and the highest active volvano in the world. To climb it, you need to hire a guide, who will take you to the top starting at midnight with an ice pick and cramp-ons (spikes for the shoes). The trip takes about 2-3 days... best to do it in 3, because you need to get there early and let your body get accustom to the altitude change - i.e. higher you are, the less oxygen you have, which can lead to altitude sickness (similar to motion sickness, so I hear). And the view from the top is supposed to be amazing, because you´re above the clouds.

- THE HIKE UP: Mark and I joined up with 2 others for the hike up (Dino from San Fran and Amy from England)... and as a result, we had 2 guides with us. We were supposed to start at midnight (something about the sun melting the snow, so must go at night???), but it was raining/sleeting. So we left at 1am instead. I knew within the first 30 minutes that this was NOT for me. I was extremely cold and the steep gradient disagreed with my out-of-shape muscles. But I perservered and didn´t complain... when hiking, I don´t like to talk (which Mark seems to like). Instead, I just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. And actually, I did better than Mark, as he kept asking for rest stops along the way. Anyway, we didn´t make it to the top unfortunately. Dino suffered from altitude sickness and we all took the opportunity/excuse to go back down with him... but we did well. We had made it almost to the top, with 300 meters to go, which doesn´t sound like a lot, but it´s another TWO HOURS! That´s how steep it was.

- THE HIKE DOWN: Mark and I were harnessed in with one of the guides (Milton), while the other 2 in our group were with the other guide Diego. One assumes that going down is easier than going up. It was just as hard! We were using all of our leg muscles (and arms for the ice pick) to make sure we didn´t slip down the mountain side, which as mentioned, is ridiculously steep. About a third of the way down though, Mark´s cramp-ons broke... so Milton told us to slide down on our backsides, while he controled our pace using the rope, harness and his body weight. THAT was very fun! We slid down about 200-300 meters over untouched snow... Mark hated it though. His harness was wrapped around his legs and his male bits. So every time Milton would tug on the rope to slow us down, it would squeeze Mark´s male bits. ;)

Daily Account
- Dec 26th: We used the same tour agency as the one we used for white water rafting - Rain Forestur. (Don´t ever use these people! It´s recommened by Lonely Planet, but their horrible! The equipment was very poor quality.) Anyway, Mark, Dino and I left Banos in a truck, stopped in Lazo for ice cream (the town´s claim to fame???) and made our way to the Cotopaxi national park and our "hotel", which is the word Rain Forestur used. The proper description should´ve been a log cabin. It was absolutely fine, but it was hard to justify the $10 per night, per person rate, when we were staying in actual hotels for only $6. Anyway, the "hotel" was at 3,500 km, which was the first step towards acclimatization. We went on a 1.5 our hike, which definitely had me huffing and puffing for the first bit until I got used to the pressure. Afterwards, we had dinner that our guide cooked, talked a bit over candlelight in our cabin teaching Diego a few english words and called it a night at 8pm!!!

- Dec 27th: We took another hike to a lagoon, which was an oversized pond - nothing to write home about... and then met up with the 4th member of our climbing group Amy and the 2nd guide Milton. The next step towards acclimatization was spending time at the Refuge, which is at 4,800 meters... and that was another cabin, but oversized and ridiculously crowded, filled with other climbers. We were dropped off at the parking lot and then had to make our way up a very steep hill for 100 meters to the refuge with all of our gear. That was a wake up call, providing us a glimpse of what was to come. Guide Diego accidentally left our cramp-ons down in the parking lot, so he had to do the trip twice... ugh. Because our hike was supposed to start at midnight, along with everyone else, we all TRIED to go to bed by 6pm. I was one of the lucky ones and got about an hour´s sleep. When sleeping in a room with 50 other people in bunk beds, it´s never quiet.

Dec 28th: We woke up at 11pm for our midnight ascent. It was raining/sleeting, so we postponed to 1am. Although, there was a hard core German tour group, who apparently have been visiting all sorts of high altitude mountains in Ecuador, that started their climb in the less-than-ideal conditions. Bundled up, our group was the last set to start the journey. And being that it was dark, we had headlamps to light our paths... but the quality, as mentioned, was poor. I was thankful that it was pretty dark... having always suffered from a bit of vertigo, the steep drop offs along our path would definitely have freaked me out. The actual ascent was brutal... cold and steep, our plan was to go at a slow and steady pace. Our guide Milton had a different plan. It was as if he had placed a bet on which guide could get their group up the mountain the fastest. Since we were harnessed in together, I could constantly feel the tug of his rope almost pulling me up the mountain. After the first hour of tugging and me trying to catch up, I finally realized how silly it was... and that WE (Mark and I) needed to control the pace. So I tugged back and made him slow down, but it still wasn´t enough. We were exhausted. Sometimes, every step I took, I slid back down about 2 steps. Ugh. At about 5.5 km, Mark had had enough of the ridiculously quick pace of our guide... and his impatience for our need to rest every now and then. Mark and Milton yelled at each other for a bit, while the rest of us tried to just calm both sides down. No one really won the argument... we just continued on... well, until Dino came down with altitude sickness and we all gratefully turned back.

All in all, I was happy we turned back. I still got some great photos above the clouds (will post later)... and I didn´t have to climb another 2 hours in the freezing cold. :)

Christmas in Banos, Ecuador: Dec 23rd - 26th

Executive Summary

- BANOS: It´s a popular vacation spot for locals and tourists... known for its thermal baths, the town also offers loads of adventure tours.

- CHRISTMAS DINNER: No restaurants in Banos seems to serve a typical Christmas dinner, despite there being a plethora of non-Ecuadorean establishments... well, except for one - Le Petit Auberge. It was a bit on the expensive side, but hey... it´s Christmas! The only downside is that the Christmas Dinner was only offered on Christmas Eve. Anyway, great food and we got turkey! Yay! Mark was a bit bummed that he couldn´t get gravy though. But that was made up for by the present I gave him... a cool backpacker-ish leather watch. :) Mark´s present to me? A slave for a day on Christmas Day... hehe.

- CHRISTMAS DAY WHITEWATER RAFTING: It was a 3 hour rafting trip down Level 3 and 4 rapids. It was Mark´s first time and now he´s hooked. So much fun... probably because we fell out twice - both times he faults me for. ;) The second time, actually, the boat flipped over... that was a bit scary as everyone fell underneath the boat, but still exhilirating.



Daily Account

- Hostel: Plantas y Blancos for $8.50 pp. Very cute and very well run hostel. According to Frommers though, they have a No-Ecuadorean policy, which is a bit disturbing. Our room has a great view of a waterfall as well... and the bathroom is so nice and clean! AND, we get a dresser! I don´t have to feel like I´m living out of my bag... :)



- Dec 23rd: After checking into the hostel around 5 or 6pm... and just relaxing for a bit, we ventured out and got dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hostel. Very good food at a cozy and homey place... meat was very yummy. Then we walked around for a bit. Everything looked a bit dead, probably because of the holidays and apparently being during the week. Supposedly, this place gets hopping on the weekends.



- Dec 24th: Took a steam bath offered by the hostel. Basically, you sit in a steam box with just your head poking out for a few minutes... and then you wash down with cold water and get back into the steam box. This process is repeated 5-6 times. I loved it. Mark hated it. Eh, to each his own. We did some odds and ends around the city... then went for a bike ride through the hills/mountains, along a route where you follow the river and see about a dozen waterfalls. Muy bonito! Most of it was downhill, thank goodness... and at the end, we jumped on a bus back to Banos for $1 pp. Then, we had our Christmas Dinner, where we had about 3 glasses of wine each... grew very tired and passed out in our room by 9pm!



- Dec 25th: Whitewater rafting! Our guide was an Ecuadorean named Bladimir Lennon - anyone else see the humor in this? We went down Level 3 & 4 rapids... Mark and I were the first ones to fall in from our raft, but we quickly recovered. Unfortunately, because we weren´t quite the rafting experts, we couldn´t go down the Level 5 rapids which looked amazing... but I could definitely see why we walked those portions. Towards the end of the trip was when our raft flipped over and everyone fell out... I again was lucky and found myself next to the raft... and was thankful that I wasn´t one of the other ´passengers´who found herself stuck underneath the raft and a rock! Mark panicked a bit when he started floating down river and thought he was going to die... ummm, yeah. Anyway, we both loved the experience and will look for other rafting opps in maybe Peru or Chile.

Dec 26th: Made our way to Cotopaxi... check out the next blog entry.

Quito, Ecuador: Dec 21st - 23rd

Executive Summary
- TRIP TO THE EQUATOR: Very cool... witnessed a test to show how water drains clockwise and counter clockwise, pending on which hemisphere you´re in. Not sure how factual that is, but my eyes were convinced! And because of the gravitational pull (again, not really sure how scientific it is), you can balance an egg on the head of a nail... which I did (was the only one in our group) and won an official certificate for my visit. :) We also learned about the indigenous people of Ecuador and how the men´s normal dress was nothing but a piece of string wrapped around their waist... with the hoo-ha pulled up and strapped underneath the string!














- TELEFERIQO: Took a cable car up to 4,000km, which is ridiculously high up... so much so that you can feel it when breathing... the pressure makes it a bit uncomfortable, which is a bit worrying since we´re going to climb Cotopaxi (2nd highest summit in Ecuador) and that´s almost 6,000km! Anyway, great views of the city, which I´ll post later.










- CITY: The main areas are the New City and Old City, which is pretty self-explaining... The Old City is quite beautiful, in that all the old buildings are untouched (by law).

Detailed Account
- Hostel: Le Galeria for $8pp - not bad, basic, but had hot water and free internet. The hot water was amazing, especially after having little to no shower on the Galapagos boat.

- Two nights in Quito... First night, we met up with Holger, Gerda and the Kimberleys for an all you can eat Mongolian BBQ buffet for only $6! YUMMY! Second night, Holger & Gerda left... so it was just us and the Kimberleys for dinner at the Fox Cave for seafood and ceviche, which was alright... nothing special. After dinner, we had dessert at this placed called the Coffeetree and I ordered an Irish Whiskey for $5.50, which is quite expensive in South American terms. Mark gave me a disapproving look for that. Oh well.

Galapagos Cruise: Dec 14th-21st

Executive Summary
- 8-day cruise on a 10 passenger boat called Rumba.
- ROOMS: Ridiculously tiny! But knew that going in...
- BATHROOMS: Very little water flow. It took me about 20 minutes just to wash my hair! Mark only showered once, because of little water... ew. And the SMELL!!! We had to switch rooms, as soon as one came available, because the stench was so bad in our original room, which we learned was because the sewage line ran underneath my bed!
- FOOD: We were fed 3 times a day, with a mid-afternoon snack. And actually it really wasn´t bad. Although, I found the meat to be too salty so I gave my portions to Mark, who´s now complaining that I´m the reason he´s started putting on weight. TMI - Not sure if it was the salt water, hot sauce or what, but I had some serious stomach issues! I think I´ve lost a few pounds as a result.
- SIGHTS: Loads of sea lions and not scared to come up close. We actually swam/played with one while snorkeling! There were also ugly looking land and marine lizards, red and blue-footed boobies (made Mark promise not to get a t-shirt saying "I love boobies"), giant tortoises, fur seals... AND a pod of dolphins that swam along side our boat for about 15 minutes. That was truly amazing!

Detailed Account (more for my benefit)
PASSENGERS:
- There were two sets of passengers... 6 who did the southern islands with us then left after 4 days and a different 6 who did the northern islands. Holger & Gerda were an older but very fun Danish couple who were with us the entire time
- Southern Islands: VERY FUN group... we all got along so well! Chris/Caitlin (Alaska), Chris/Debbie (Manchester), Kimberley 1 (Scotland) and Kimberley 2 (Sydney)
- Northern Islands: Eclectic group, to say the least. Hugo/Inge Lisa (Denmark - celebrated 25th anniversary on the boat), Mike/Marguerite (U.S.), Anna (Sweden - 21 yr old truck driver with high pitched voice, going to Sao Paolo to meet her birth mom) and Helena (Sweden - 21 yr old security guard at a book shop??)

BOAT CREW
- Franklin: So-so english. Probably memorized what he had to say on each island, because every time we asked him a question, he just laughed and ignored it! And every island was "very interessen", where we were said we could go "to the snorkeling" or "to the walking" or "to the swimming". ;)
- Augustine: Spoke no english... but was a darn good chef that we definitely tipped separately
- Captain: Didn´t see him much, but he definitely drove us through some rough seas during the middle of the night. Holger, fellow passenger, fell out of bed once!
- What´s his face: Spoke the best english... kept to himself
- Daniel: The Cassanova, who hooked up with a passenger from both sets of groups! His MO - walking around in nothing but his towel and walking into girls´cabins at night looking to "close their windows"

ISLANDS VISITED
- Bachos Beach
- Mosquera: TONS of sea lions
- Santa Fe
- Espanola: BEAUTIFUL beach... very picturesque and where the sea lion swam with us
- Floreana: aka Post Office Bay where you put post cards into a bag in a barrel and wait for someone else visiting to look through who´s going to the same destination city as the post card... and will deliver it for you! I picked up one for Seoul, South Korea.
- Santa Cruz: Disappointed that we came back to the island that we originally started from... but it offered us a chance to have a night out drinking at Bongo and The Rock, where we closed down the bar! The next day, the first group departed and we got the new batch in.
- Sombrero Chino: Chinese hat in spanish
- Bartolome: Red beach with loads of mosquitoes... and saw more of Holger than I wanted to see! Also saw a few small penguins.
- Santiago
- Rabido: Youngest of all the Galapagos Islands

Quito to Galapagos - Dec 12th & 13th

We got into Quito at 1am... and decided to stay the night at the airport, since our flight to the Galapagos was so early in the morning. VERY uncomfortable... slept on seats pushed together, lots of people conversing next to us even in the middle of the night and finally the loud speaker going off with some kind of announcement. Needless to say, we didn´t get much shut eye.

The flight from Quito to the Galapagos was a complete mess... we were delayed by 45 min... and then rerouted... and finally didn´t arrive until 4 hours later. I, fortunately, didn´t really feel the frustration, since I took an antihistamine that knocked me out (I got bit on the eye by a bug and took Benadryl to reduce the swelling!)

Finally arrived in Galapagos - yay warm weather! Amazing... love it! We´re staying with my friend Teresa, who I know from my first advertising agency job and who I played soccer with.

TODAY (14th) - Mark, Teresa and I went diving with an company called Macarron. Fantastic! We saw hammerheads, white and black tip sharks, all sorts of rays, turtles, sea lions, etc... AMAZING!!!

Tonight, we´re going to enjoy a few beers at the Bongo, THE bar to go to on Santa Cruz (Puerto Ayora) Island. And tomorrow morning, Mark and I are going on an 8-day boat cruise around all of Galapagos. The boat is called Rumba, in case anyone wants to do a quick Google search. Anyway, no Internet on board... so it´s radio silence until after the cruise...

PHOTOS!!! Sorry there aren´t more... slow internet connection. More soon, I promise!

Back in Bogota - Dec 11th

Mark and I needed to come back to Bogota to catch the 9:30pm plane to Quito... and from there we´ll need to take a 7:30am flight to the Galapagos.

We had about 4-5 hours to kill in Bogota... so here are the highlights:
- Juan Valdez chain coffee - just likes Starbucks, but not as bitter
- The Gold Museum - as you can suspect, lots of gold (picture of Mark at museum)

- Shopping for sweaters, because it´s COLD... where´s the warm weather? I didn´t sign up for this!
- Big festival in the main Plaza Bolivar with beautiful Christmas decorations

So we decided to get a taxi at 6:15pm for the airport... we should´ve left much earlier. CRAZY traffic! There was some kind of bicycle festival, where they closed down half the lanes for cyclists. It took us 1.5 hours, when it´s supposed to take 20 minutes! Mark was stressed out... I, surprisingly, was pretty calm about it. But in the end, we made it on time. Yay!

More Villa de Leyva

Last night, we cooked dinner (sausage, broccoli, mashed potatoes)... AND I made a birthday cake for myself. ;) Unfortunately, there was no oven, so I had to make do with a double-boiler over the stove. Let´s just say that the cake didn´t turn out very nice, but it sure was tasty.

Today, Mark and I did a 6 hour hike to Iguaque to see a lake, which was highly disappointing (small and brown water). But the view was beautiful and we got some exercise, much needed after the large dinner.

A proper birthday dinner is in store for tonight... and a shower... FINALLY! I know... disgusting... haven´t had a shower since Saturday!

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

So after finally landing in Bogota, I checked into a place called Platypus, which is considered a backpacker´s haven. Determined to try and enter the backpacker community, I put on a happy-go-lucky face (even though I had been traveling for 31 hours) and started being social.

And as it turned out, it wasn´t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I thought I would come across as some lame stalker. My Best Asian reputation obviously preceded me... :)

Anyway, I met some people from Quebec, Texas (a Longhorn!), France, Stoke, London, San Fran... and learned to play Shithead (card game) and some version of Spoof, but with dice. Next thing you know, it was 1am... and I realized how easy it´s been for Mark to get caught up in all the fun.

This morning, Sarah (a girl I met who´s from Sydney) and I took the 4+ hour journey to meet Mark in Villa de Leyva - a very cute and tranquil colonial town. Apparently, we had missed a huge, week long, debaucherous festival by a couple of days, which Mark thoroughly enjoyed... well, not THAT much.

We´re currently staying in this B&B called El Solar. The owner Martha is very sweet and very motherly. So I feel quite safe. Actually, I haven´t felt unsafe at all so far... everyone has been really nice and very helpful, even with my horrible Spanish. Next time, I must try and learn the language prior to traveling, instead of picking up Spanish for Dummies and thinking I could learn by osmosis on the plane.

Alright... I´m off to cook dinner and make my own birthday cake... I miss everyone!

Main Square in Villa de Leyva:











My Birthday Celebration (left to right: my b-day cake, with Sarah, with Host Martha and friendly kid whose name I forget)

31 hours to Bogota

31 hours after getting on the plane at JFK, I have FINALLY landed in Bogota! Stupid Orbitz gave me only an hour to connect in Aruba - 1 hour to get off the plane, pick up bags, go through customs and check-in for another international flight for Bogota. Ugh.

Anyway, I had to stay overnight in Aruba, which isn´t all that bad if you really think about it. But then I had to get up at the crack off dawn to get an 8:30am flight to Miami and THEN catch another flight to Bogota. Blah!

But I´m finally here... yay! Joining Mark tomorrow at Villa de Leyva, which is a 3.5 hr bus ride away. More traveling for me...

Bon Voyage!

In less than 11 hours, I'll be on a plane to Bogota, Colombia... woohoo! I'm looking forward to this adventure, but there are two things I'll definitely miss - my friends and Levain Bakery (home of the best chocolate chip cookies ever!).

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to my "Bon Voyage" party on Friday night... here are a few photos for your enjoyment. I'm going to try and upload the rest of them onto Facebook.

Travel Route

View Larger Map