Ecuador

Can you believe it?  We made it to Ecuador!!  Let the adventure continue…

7/19/2024 – Crossing Into Ecuador

Actually the easiest crossing we have done to date – took about 1.5 hours all in.

So we made the short trip to Otavalo to close out the day, enjoying AMAZING new roads and less crazy drivers and the normal up/downs the mountains here provide.

Otavalo is a town of some 50k and they have a “world famous” artisan and textile market each day.  We snagged a campsite at a combo hostel-apartment for rent and campground overlooking the city.  The owners had some stray dogs courtesy of the pandemic, but Fiona was a lil baller whose droopy eyes give her a Steven King look.

On the way up a steep hill to the campground this poor lady and her sheep/dogs/pig popped onto the street.  She was frustrated as her “sheep dogs” were running around, the sheep somehow took the lead and the pig was trying not to be left behind.

Wed and Sat are the biggest days for the market and as luck would have it we would be there on a Saturday.

7/20/2024  Otavalo Market and The Ride to Mitad Del Mundo

The market spilled out of the main plaza into the surrounding streets and was pretty cool to stroll through and people watch.  Lots of similar products but the hustle bustle and sounds-smells were cool.

Matt found a true Ecuadorian Panama hat, but alas couldn’t find an alpacan poncho.

We checked out of Otavalo after Matt grabbed his laundry and we stocked up on food.  It was a short, pleasant drive on those wonderful Ecuadorian roads to Mitad Del Mundo (the town where the equator runs through it and where the Spanish and French “marked the spot”.   We looked to camp at a German hostel but our rigs were too big to fit under the gated archway – so we camped on the street in front.  We met a few Mormon kids on their mission, one from Witchita and one from Utah. They seemed excited to see a few gringos and we chatted for a few and off they went brandishing new green wristbands of course!  Oh yeah -and Meet Otto – security for the hostel.

Edels sent the drone up at night and got some fun video

7/21/2024 – Mitad Del Mundo and Quito

The campground/hostel was only 5’ from Mitad Del Mundo and so a quick drive early Sunday AM.  The site tends towards touristy, but it does the job of capturing the work the Spanish did originally and then checked by the French later. Spaniards had it right the 1st time!

 

The drive to Quito was only about 25’ and we looked for a place to park but most places that we could fit in were closed on Sunday.  So we grabbed a few hotel rooms and set off for the Quito historic district.  Not sure I needed to see this sign in the lobby men’s room…really??

 

What we found was that Quito overall was pretty dead outside of the historic center.  The main square was pretty and there were lots of people and vendors mulling about.  When you read about Quito, it is dominated by churches from the Spanish, restaurants and museums – all facts based on our observations.  Not all museums were open on Sunday (odd), but we strolled around the historic center, checked out some churches and an open museum.

Churches do dominate the historic district, and some are fairly impressive.  These are from Iglesia De El Sagrario.

And there were lots more…

And last but not least we toured the St. Carmen facility – we believe she is the same Patron Saint for Drivers who kept on eye on us during our road issues – so we had to make the visit.

7/22/2024 – Cotopaxi

We are excited to drive to Cotopaxi, a 19k ft+ volcano south of Quito about an hour and half away.  Many folks never see it as it can be enveloped in clouds a good portion of the time – so we are curious to see how our luck will turn out.  The road generally follows the “Volcano Route” in Ecuador and the views along the drive were very cool.

Matt tried to capture some of the top of Cotopaxi on the drive, but only the very top was viewable.

When we pulled up to the ranger station, Edels made a comment about “rumor has it there is a volcano here” as it was very cloudy.  The ranger smiled and told him to drive to the backside…ahhh – local secrets.  We did drive to the backside and out of the clouds at 12k ft + in elevation and we were justly rewarded.  The 30-35+ mph winds were a bit of a downer during the day however.

The clouds, driven by the high winds, kept creating wild views of the volcano during the day.  The 1st pic is also very near where we camped – so in the shadow of the big fella.

We drove around the park to see what else is up there  – really – someone took a taxi up that remote?  Love it! Car ownership is not as common in Ecuador – so ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get out there.

How about a quick run through of the a part of the park??

We hoped to get a rare crystal clear morning shot as the sun came up of the volcano.  The winds had died down as we went to bed and so were excited to see what the morning would bring…

7-23-2024 – Rude Awakening and Quilotoa Lake

Well – not crystal clear view of anything.  It was a cold night, 38 was the temp coming down the mountain so colder during the night.   Lots of fog and drizzle greeted us so we packed up and headed to Quilotoa Lake.

Quilotoa Lake is a volcanic crater filled with beautiful water – created 800 years ago when the volcano collapsed onto itself.  It is a really pretty sight, but again we were hounded by 30-35 mph+ steady winds.  Camping in that kind of weather is not a ton of fun so we checked out the view and town and headed to our next stop – Banos.

As always – driving from one location to another is always interesting – just never know what will pop up as you drive by

Everywhere you drive you can see men and women wearing more traditional outfits – very cool to see and let’s face it – the hats make the outfit.

We found a very comfortable campground called Abbys Hideaway on the outskirts of Banos right along a river.  Banos and the surrounding area are blessed with thermal springs, gorgeous canyon scenery and lots of waterfalls.  The town is growing up around tourist activities like paragliding, bungee jumping, zip lining and taking in the scenery.

7-24/25 – 2024

There is a sort of “Ruta de La Cascada” (route of the waterfalls) as you wind your way north out of town towards a town called Puyo.  You are supposed to be able to drive by and/or hike to 7 – we saw 4 as the directions were a little wonky and one was closed??  Only open Fri-Sun??

The road out of town had seen lots of landslides and in fact 15 people died in Feb from a landslide- and so lots of remnants and road work still going on.

The waterfalls varied in the cool factor when you saw them…there was Cascada Kilo

And Cascada El Rocio Machay – 500meters down a steep hill and of course – 500 meters back up.  We got our leg work in today.

And Cascada Manto de La Novia..

And we saw some others that were not as grand- but the big dog was Pailon Del Diablo.  This was a 2 tiered powerful waterfall that the town put some effort in to make it accessible.  It was impressive.  Stage 1 was only a teaser..

It was the second stage of the waterfall that was a hoot..

We captured this pic of Edels and a small dog walking down the bridge as you descended the 2nd stage of the waterfall.  Little did we know this little pooch (Gus Gus) and his owner Nick, would be joining us for a portion of the trip going forward.

As you descended the falls along the walkway the falls were within reach…and of course we took pics close to it and Matt wanted to get his hand in the full waterfall.  Yeah, cold, powerful and of course…wet.

After a full day of waterfall hiking-driving-seeking, we headed back to camp. We told Nick about the place and he said he would meet us there.  Nick is a good guy with quite the story:  ballet dancer/handyman who at 37 needed to figure out the next path for his life and career.  He bought his ‘87 Toyota van, fixed it up himself and is on the road like we are.  He’ll spend more time in South America before heading back to the states with hopefully his “plan” in place.  On the way back to camp, Edels saw a VERY old Rover and couldn’t resist the photo op…

We are all heading in the same direction and so for the next week or so Nick and Gus will join us.  It’s great to have new players join us and makes the ride that much better.

7/25/2024 – Off to the Inca Ruins Of Ingapirca

We can’t make the whole trip to Cuenca in one day and so targeted the Inca ruins of Ingapirca as a camp spot.  The ruins are about 1.5 hours from Cuenca and they allow you to camp in the parking lot.  As always, the drive is always interesting.

 

The ruins are nothing like Machu Pichu or other large ruins.  Ingapirca was a smaller settlement tucked towards the top of a gorgeous valley where the Incas had access to water, land for growing crops/raising llamas and living a pretty chill existence.

We hiked over to the “Cara de Inca” (Face of the Inca) – it is a face the Incas carved into a rock face 1-2k years ago – I’d say holding up pretty well over time!

7/26/2024 – Into Cuenca

The 3 of us headed into Cuenca and settled in at a campground called Cabanas Y Camping Yanuncay.  We tackled laundry and getting cars cleaned again before looking for some lunch – man we never tire of good street food.

We also tried seeing if we could catch the opening of Deadpool and Wolverine in english.  Go figure – all sold out so we may try again this weekend.

7/27/2024 – Car Repairs and Cuenca and a Show??

The morning is dedicated to some repair work – Matt needed new brakes as the Sequoia is heavy and the trailer isn’t helping on the steep downhill mountain passes – and John needs some welding done on his rear step.

The brake work was complicated for the rear brakes as there are zero Sequoia rear brake parts in Ecuador- but the Toyota guys got creative with a grinder to make things work.

Humberto, who runs the campground, has all kinds of contacts locally for any work you may need and he hooked Edels up with a welding buddy who did excellent work on the Rover.

Well – Nick went out and snagged the Deadpool movie tickets and so the 3 of us headed off to the show after a tour and dinner in the Cuenca historic district.  Cuenca is a cool town with a very good feel when you are out walking around.  With the ultra low cost of living here, it is no wonder so many US and Canadian citizens retire here.

Ok – so at the movie what do we run into for your popcorn???  Yes – a self serve butter machine – priceless!

7/28/2024 – Lake Camping and Nick Heads to the Peruvian Coast

Sunday and Matt and John headed to camp at a lake Humberto said was worth seeing and was only 30’ out of town.  Nick joined, but when he couldn’t enter because dogs were not allowed, he and gus gus headed to a house where some guys who run a brewery were staying about an hour outside of town towards the coast.  We had just met these guys in the grocery store parking lot 20’ earlier – that’s how it works!  Anyway, Nick wanted to check out a surf beach in Peru before heading into the Peruvian mountains where we hope our paths cross again.  Humberto was right, the lake was worth it and when the park closed – we had the parking lot all too ourselves.

7/29/2024 – We Head to the Peruvian Border – Kind Of…

We packed up and headed back to Cuenca to hit a camping store for propane but on the way Edels’ brake lights went out.  Not a great idea to keep going not having this lights (as we almost hit others at times who feel it is ok!).  We reached back out to Humberto for a mechanic and sure enough- he drops what he was doing (turns out not much today) and hops in Edels’ rig for a trip to the mechanic while Matt went to the camp store.

The issue was the brake light switch on the master cylinder was bad – and no there aren’t any of those for a 1984 Defender anywhere near.  As has been our experience time and again, a mechanic was made available immediately to start working the issue.  Amazing really.   The mechanic tried a few things, including augmenting a similar switch from a Ford – but he couldn’t make it work.  Humberto is in the green hoodie.

The owner decided to have his tech engineer rebuild the Defender switch- a project that took about 2 hours.  Humberto was rewarded with a big lunch at one of his favorite restaurants since he really enabled the fix and priority for Edels at the mechanic.  Much to our delight when we returned to the mechanic – he popped in the rebuilt switch and the brake lights worked perfectly – another example of a mechanic being creative to get the Rover back on the road.  And Humberto caring enough to  spend 6 hours of his day on the project – just a good dude…and a little gabby…but hey!

With the Defender ready to roll we tried to make some ground towards the Peru border and ended up at a hotel in the town of Saraguro.  A long push for border tomorrow with 6-7 hours to hit border and another 2-3 to cross and get to a town to stay.

7-30-2024 – To Peru – For Real This Time

We hit the road early and enjoyed a ride with continued great scenery.  One pass at 10k ft+ gave us some fog to navigate and of course more examples of landslide road damage.  The nice roads we have enjoyed disappeared ~35 miles from the border and it was slow, bumpy, rocky and dusty.

We made it to the border about 4:30 and Peru closes at 6, so we hoped all the reports of a fast crossing were true…and they were.  We made pretty quick work on Ecuador side once the customs soldier took some interest in processing us through – and Peru side was straightforward enough that we crossed with just a little time to spare.

This closes a most enjoyable chapter visiting Ecuador – We’ll see you over in the Peru section!  Vaminos!