Ecuador Contd...

Well, in the weekends I did some travelling around Ecuador. The third weekend I was there I went to the cloud forrest. Its sort of like the rain forrest but not in the Amazon & has its own ecosystem and climate and species specific to the area. Theres even specific species of hummingbirds for specific flowers that are about the size of a big bee, theyre amazing to see them in real life, and then theres butterflies that are the size of birds.... It rained the whole time we were there but it was great still. From the photos that I put up you can see that the place is pretty amazing. We stayed in a mariposaria (butterfly farm/sanctuary) which was really nice and we did lots of cool stuff there too. On Saturday, when we arrived, we hitched a ride on the back of a truck (that´s how people get around there...it was quite an adventure...extremely bumpy!) to our hostel, which was a few kilometers outside of the town. We went to this thing called¨el canopy¨....we really didn´t know what to expect, but the guy at the hotel recommended it. It turns out it is a series of 10 ziplines that go across very long and deep valleys (some are 500 meters across), the views were amazing from the middle of the lines but you had to use both your hands to break so you couldnt take any photos. On the last one though I got my harness clipped backwards so I got to do it upside down & it really felt like I wasnt been held on by anything....

After that we got some "chicos" to bring us "rafting". The chicos were really niños and the raft was actually the inside tubes of tires tied together with rope!! But it was really good fun and they seemed to know what they were doing. We managed to do all of this with two Ecudorian girls, who were really nice and gave us lifts into town which was about a 2.5k walk away, we didnt bring our cameras rafting so Im hoping theyre going to send us theirs soon...

The next day we did a "walk" up one of the mountains through the cloud forrest. This was one of the "I dotn like climbing up mountains" moments, but we wanted to get to these waterfalls & thought the muddy track through the forrest through lots of tree roots was the only way up. Of course being the optimist and the ever irish person who at the slightest glimpse of sunshine decides that its going to be a great day and gets ready in their beachiest clothes, decided because of about 1/2 hr of sunshine that flipflops were the best thing to go climbing up the mountain in. Of course when we actually reached the top after much sweating, and climbing and sore legs, (I have no idea about how Im going to manage the Inca trail....) where there was actually a road before you got to the waterfall and it had started raining. I didnt fall or anything, but for future reference its hard to climb mountains in flip flops, however I was the only one with clean dry runners for the trip home....

Well, the waterfall was amazing it was really big and I did a 12m jump into the extreamly narrow very fast moving pool below. It was really really scary and it took me about 30mins of 1,2,3 no, no I cant do it..... before I actually managed it. I knew I wanted to do it, but there was no chance that the others I was with were going to do it, so it was harder to get the courrage up alone, but they were really good and waited for ages while I did my thing of scardyness... The guide there was really nice and did the jump with me and there was these other two guys who got a great laugh out of me for a while. Of course they had to do it to show me how macho they were, but they were really nice and gave us a lift back to our hostel in the rain after.

It was a great weekend, but we were wrecked when we got back to Quito!



The next weekend we went to this place south of Quito called Baños. Its called this becuase of the hot baths in the town that are heated by the volcano thats just beside the town (Tangurahua). Its like the adventure sports capital of Ecuador and its ridiculiously touristy, we arrived late on a friday night and walked straight into crouds of drunk tourists on the streets and the equivalent of a gravy train except in a cartoon caterpilar shape...carrying lots of the drunk tourists...honestly they were mostly americans, but Im afraid to say they were all comming out of the "Leipreachan Bar". But the next day, in the sunshine, the place looked much nicer and we could actually see all the mountains around the vally that the town was in. We decided to have a relaxing day after our week of work in Quito, the weather was really nice and we actually hung out in the park for a few hours and ate some lychees and grenidias, but that lasted about 2 hours and then we went canyoning..... This involves climbing (again) up a mountain to get to the top of a series of waterfalls and then repelling down. This was absoutly amazing because Baños in on the edge of the Oriente, which is the name of the jungle where the amazon is. So we were in these waterfalls that you could only get to by clambering up over very very muddy tracks and through trees and it felt like the mioddle of the jungle to us! Each of the 5 waterfalls was 20-30m high and the force of the water in the main route was enough to knock your legs from under you, which happened to one of the others a few times and she was black and blue for weeks... but after the first drop over the side it was way easier to stick to the rock face to get down.
I didnt manage to take any photos, but when I get them off my friends Ill put them up.
The way home was interesting again because we were so wet and the transportation outside Quito or the big cities normally involves being thrown around in the back of a truck, we were all frozen going on these "roads" and when we got back it was great to get into the baños and get warmed up. One of the pools was 48-50 degrees, this was ridiculiously hot and extreamly hard to get into but was really nice to sit in at night, and I cant imagine what our muscles would have been like without it!
Well we went out for dinner and the other two girls were sensible and went to bed at a reasonable hour because we had booked a mountain bike tour for the next morning at 8. But of course I decided since I was in Ecuador and when would I be going out in Baños again that I could totally manage with out sleep. So I went out with another girl from Quito and needless to say we managed to meet lots of guys and went dancing. So after getting in at 5.30 and up at 7.30 we started off our super mountain biking adventure.... Luckily I actually remembered how to cycle, because besides being on the back of a bike in Holland a few times, I dont think I had actually cycled in about 10 years... the fact that I live up a big hill and bought my ladies style bike (I was to small to get a crossbar one) with my conformation money probably didnt help...
Luckily most of it was downhill or flat, just in case I didnt mention before I dont really like going up hills, this includes on bikes..... But the scenary was amazing and we got to see the volcano Tanguirahua smoking and with ash comming out of it.. which was really cool...

So, we arrived at these 2 bridges where you can jump off one while attached to the other, so its just like a really big swing. Its not like a bungee jump because the rope isnt really elastic, but it was enough for me anyway. I decided not to have a repeat performance of the waterfall wait, and just jumped when they said go! It wasnt half as bad because of the harness, the first second or two of freefall was brilliant, I ended up doing it twice more with the others, it was cool hanging out of a bridge in the middle of a river vally....
After the three jumps and the harness and the very tiny tiny saddle of the bike for about 4 hours the next 24-48 hours of sitting and walking and generally everything was absoute agony and I think that next time I go cycling Im going to get one of those big granny saddles...
We also went to these huge fameous waterfall called the Pilon del Diablo, more climbing was involved, but standing at the ledge at the side and getting soaked by the spray was definatly worth it.Needless to say after my very unrelaxing weekend in Baños I was wrecked and not ready to face into my last week of work and more nights out in Quito.

My family had a going away party for me, where Estella, my Ecuadoruian mother spent all day cooking a huge dinner for 13 of us, all friends and family & I recieved beautiful presents from them and then we all went out and did some salsa dancing... Well, I managed some "slasa"...
But my family in Ecuador was like my family and I hope that some or all of them can visit Ireland some day amd I can get to show them around my country too.....

So, Iv spent the last few days on the cloudy beach and on various busses writing this.... Its difficult to write it for everyone because theres obviously a lot more that happened in 3 weeks and I know Iv been bad for keeping people updated, but sure Im sure I{ll bore everyone with my stories when I get back!
Well, I was on my way to Puerto Lopez when I was writing this, a costal fishing village in Ecuador, with the "Poor mans Galapagos" nearby... Isla de la Plata, so called because Pirates used to use it to store all their treasures...

So after nearly 5 weeks in Ecuador I can definatly say I would love to go back.... Its a country of everything and I hardly got to see any of it.... Its not crazy, the people are laid back, but theyre really friendly and always ready to help. Iv never been stuck and the taximen always make sure you get in ok and get on the right bus! So far its definatly been a trip of seeing the kindness of people.... I cant believe that Im 1/4 of the way through my trip already and I just hope that the rest of it is as good as Ecuador!!

Cosas que me voy a estreñar de Ecuador:
deseyunar con Estella
estudiar con Diego Y Javier
Juegos de Uno y los errors de Cristobal!
los niños de la escuela, todos
musica muy chistoso en el bus
cocher el bus en el redondel!
el ajijon!
el rum!
ceviche
caminar a mi casa y mirando a todo en la via
encontrar amigos en la mariscal

Quero recordar todos mis momentos en Ecuador y todo la gente, no puedo olvidar ellos....

Encontrai gente marivilosa en Ecuador y espero que vamos a encontrar outra vez talvez alli, talvez in outra lugar in el mundo....


Random things:
Everyone in Ecuador is tiny, I was the tallest of my family & I was even tall in Quito, weird....but great for me!
my hair has reached new levels of curliness/frizzyness, I now have an afro and could give Sponge back in the day a run for his money

Hugs and kisses to everyone and next novel to follow soon....
Hope you´re well and please write and tell me your news....
and please, other people as well as my mother leave comments....

xx