Cuenca-Danka Fo-Fanka

Cuenca, Cuenca, Cuenca.

Doubledecker bus tour of the city started off the morning. It was pretty cool to get our bearings and see some of the highlights of the city. All around town we went hearing the history of this place and that. Then, we were taken up to the old Incan holy ground where they would preform their sacred sun ceremony. It was up on a big hill over looking the town. Super gorgeous. I love looking over these cities. It is much more satisfying after climbing a 500 ft ladder or 800 stairs though. But, a bus will do just fine. Being the tall Gringo's that we are, we had to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and doge tree branches, powerlines, and bridges.
        That quote was a shout out to my main sister. Miss you!

Cuenca From The Hill

In the main square we went to "the old cathedral" and "the new cathedral." The old one had some really neat stuff that they were restoring and some crazy passageways that we wanted to explore, but were too chicken too. The new one was big and grand and reminded me of the cathedrals of Italy. Fun fact: when the new cathedral was being remodeled in 1880 it was planed to be the largest in South America. However, the dude who made up the plans made a slight miscalculation and the structure could not hold the weight of the planned domes.... Sssssssooooo, they had to "settle" for these small one. Still amazing, still beautiful!

The New Cathedral

Cuenca has a bomb flower market. On the weekends it is supposed to be huge, but on a Wednesday it was only a full court yard of wonderful, beautiful, fantastic flowers. It was absolutely spectacular!

Went to the open market. WOW! So many different fruits, veggies, taters, beans, and meat. Naturally we bought every fruit possible and had a fruit tasting!
     Bananas - Three different varieties
     Avacados - More of a nutty flavor than "American" avacado
     Mango - Didn't taste like mango, but still yummy
     Tangerene - Maxed out prior to this one
     Papaya - Maxed out prior to this one too
     Tree Tomato - Looks like a tomato when peeled. Tastes sweet, sour, and a little basil like
     Zapote (brown/green with dingle berry on top)- Not bad, not good. Just bland.
     Pepino (white with purple stretch marks) - Combo between a cucumber and a honeydew melon
     Pitanaya (yellow spikey dude) - Not much flavor but has the texture of kiwi flesh.
     Granadilla (yellow with dingle berry on top) - Citrusy, sweet flavor with crunchy seeds. Ssssooo GOOD!
     Chirimoya (goofy looking artichoke) - Pearish flavor, mango texture. Sweet like candy. Could eat this 
          every day!
     To add to our fruit feast we also had pastries and vino too. Delicious!

Our Personal Fruit Tasting

The panama hat museum was a quick visit but cool. They had hats ranging from $14 to $400.

Panama Hats

The medical museum was RAD! Both Alicia and I had such an awesome time nerding out! All kinds of cool things like 1840's autoclaves, hand crank centrifuges, antique medical equipment of all kinds, and drugs drugs drugs. Awesome! I think we spent a good two hours there. Side note: They had a few mummified children, fetuses, and a variety of skulls. No pictures to follow of the gross things.

Drugs Drugs Drugs

1910 Birthing Chair

Drugs Drugs Drugs

Bus Time Anyone???

All today was bus. We bussed to Riobamba (almost missed it), which was a quick 2hr ride. We met a group of Australians and a cute Irish couple. Then it was right onto the bus to Cuenca! I am pretty sure that the bus people thought that Alicia and I were the children of the Irish couple because they put us all on one ticket. The 6hr bus ride was killer.

I saw two doggies fighting over a chicken they had killed, giant hogs being cooked and skinned, scenery was beautiful, and we drove through some pretty cool little towns. Overall, it was very very long.

By the time we made it off the bus Alicia and I were so hungry we would have ate anything! The last time we had atten was breakfast :( We ran into the first restaurant we saw and pointed to a picture on the wall... did not even look at the menu. Whatever is was, it was delicious.And, it was gone in less than five minutes. The little girls sitting at a table near us were so wide eyed at how fast we put away that food!

Where The Rubber Meets The Rainforest

The adventure of the day was biking! We took at little 60k bike ride through the rainforests of Ecuador, along the avenue of waterfalls. It was amazing! We took a basket down a tractor powered line, crossed a couple of suspended bridges. Wild! 

The Motor Getting Us Across A HUGE Canyon.... No Stress

Hiked down to a large waterfall. Then, it started raining. The rain did not stop for three hours.  Between the waterfall and the rain we were soaked to the core! Now I finally know what Scott was talking about in his book "Squeaky Wheel." Riding with wet feet is the worst!

 Most of the trip was on the road. Have I mentioned that road rule in Ecuador are guidelines? And, have I mentioned that the roads are too small for two lanes? And, have I mentioned that there is absolutely no bike lanes. Alicia will make me brave yet!

By the time we dropped off the bikes, ate, and made it home we were dying! Half hour in the spa was so primo!

Alicia Eating A Fish (Yesterday)

Zip Zip Zip

ZIP LINE!!! We were picked up at our hotel with the one other person zipping with us. Daniel turned out to be an awesome guy to spend the morning with. He took our pictures and was patient with my nervousness.  There were six lines that ranged from 150- 550km. We were able to zip in all different positions too. Regular, upside down, superman, double superman, and butterfly. 

After we zipped for a few hours they cooked the fish that Alicia and I had caught. I do have proof that Alicia ate fish. Yea doggie!!!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around town. Baňos is known for its taffy made from locally grown sugar cane.  It is super fun to watch them make it. We were both told not to eat it… but we are rebels and had a whole bunch anyways. Nom nom nom!

We also went to an “animal Prison,” aka a zoo. We saw some neat creatures like the national bird, the condor. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to hold a monkey.

Rode a basket across a nice wide canyon, poked around the other side, then rode it back.

Decided to walk home. The walk was just fine except for the dead dog on the side of the road and the massive blood splatter that went with it. I can’t believe neither of us lost our lunch!!!

Spent some time in our hotels spa right before we had private massages in our room. Glorious!!!

It was a wonderful day!!!

All of the Excitement In the A.M.

The main goal of today was to get to Baňos. We had another lovely night at our hotel followed by a wonderful breakfast. We had our hotel call us a taxi, thinking they would get us a good one. Considering all of the walking we did yesterday, I thought I would have been sore. I wasn’t too bad… until after that taxi ride. So, the ride to the bus station was to take about an hour. Well, with our driver it too about 15 minutes. Enough said. Zipping in and out of traffic, stopping half way under a cement truck. Driving 60 mph (100 kph). No seatbelts. Not to mention, there were no “Oh S&*% handles)! I’m sure he found our gasps and facial expressions amusing.

Other than that our day was very uneventful. Took a 5hr bus ride to Baňos. Our hotel was not at all where Google maps said it was at, but it turned out ok. Our hotel is amazing!!! There have a sauna, hot boxes, and hot tubs. The family that runs it is so sweet. They don’t speak a lick of English, but somehow we communicate just fine! Baňos is very unique because almost everyone has dogs as pets. It is so nice to see dogs that are not starving to death and that are not afraid of people. Our hotel owners have three dogs, all of which  are super cute/friendly!

The super nice man that helped us find our hotel and called us a taxi set us up with a bomb trip tomorrow zip lining through the canopy. On Monday, we will be taking a bike tour to a plethora of different waterfalls!

Old Town Quito

Had an amazing night sleep and a great breakfast at our hotel. Jaunito met up with us to be our tour guide for the day. We are so lucky that he would spend one of his two days off hauling us all over town, telling us all of the stories of Quito. We are also super lucky because he is very interested in history, so, he knows everything!

View From The Spire

The hotel is right off of the Piaza de San Francisco. Naturally we started there. A fun story: a man by the name of Cantuna was commissioned to build the Monasterio de San Fransico and had a set amount of time to finish it or he would be thrown in prison. The time was drawing near for the church to be finished and Cantuna realized there was no way it was going to be done. He made a deal with the devil; if the devil could complete the church in time then he could have Cantuna's soul. The day came to present the church to the commissioners. The church was complete except for one block... Technically, the church was not complete. The commissioners were not concerned, so, he was not thrown into jail, and the devil did not get Cantuna's soul, The church was amazingly gorgeous.

Plaza de la Independencia. Our awesome tour guide told us that all of the main squares in Ecuador would be set up like this one. A church on one side, a monestary across the square from it, the presidential palace (or the local leaders home), and the city hall across from that. There is a mondo statue in the center representing Ecuadors independence from Spain. We had the oppertunity to tour the Presidential Palace. It was grand, flashy, and beautiful.

La Basilica!

Took a nice long walk up to La Basilica, This is the largest Gothic basilica in Latin America and took over 100 years to build. Truly jaw dropping. There is an option to climb the spire and the two towers. Of course we did that. the towers were an easy climb and had fantastic views. The spire on the other hand was a little stressful. I am quite confident that all three of us needed to change our pants after that climb. Literally, it was a 400ft climb straight up an down. Totally worth it!

The Climb

A Tower Of The Basilica Seen From The Adjacent Tower

Jaunito Climbing

Our next towering adventure was to Cerro Pancillo (the cupcake mountin) which over looks Old Town. Incan sun ceremonies used to take place at this hill top.The statue of "The Virgin of the Americas is situated up there now. She was made to be the protector of Quito, but has been refered to as facing the rich and having her back to the poor (rich Quito is situated to the north/front of the statue and poor Quito is situated on the south/back of the statue). Only being able to climb to the base of the globe that she stands on, we were still able to get a higher vantage point even from  the Basilica!

Looking Up At The Virgin Of The Americas

I cannot remember if I have shared this yet or not, but Quito is a very lllllloooooonnnnngggggg city. Karry said that it takes approximately 3.5 hours to drive from the far north to the far south. However, it takes less than a half hour to drive from the far east to the far west. As you can imagine the pictures do not do justice to the view.

A Picture That Does Not Do The View Justice

After our tour guide was nearly hit by a bus we headed to La Ronda. That is about how nochalant he was about being grazed by the bus, while I was freaking out. Any ways, La Ronda is a very romanticly ornate colonial district of Quito. It is know for being a spot there men would serenade women to their balconeys in hopes to make them fall in love.

I left my toiletries bag at  Katty's house. That really, really made me mad at myself. I'm still not sure how I managed to do that. I have one prescription in particular that I need to prevent the week of the dragon (enough said). It was crazy to me that I could walk right into a pharmacy, show them the name of the medication I needed, and they gave it to me. No questions asked, no hair pulling, no prescription from a doctor. Blew my mind and made my day.

Juanito was the best tour guide that we could have ever hoped for! Thank you so much for letting us drag you around town on one of your very few days off. You are THE BEST!!!

On Our Own

Last day as a team...

Started with leather town. Beautiful and expensive. Juanito must not have been too sick of us from yesterday because he came along with us again today. What a great guy! He put up with our shinanigans all day long. Leather town and wood town were not as successful as the Otavalo market for us. I suppose it was that way for everyone because multiple people asked to go back to Otavalo (more details to follow).

NEXT!!! Cuicocha. I distinctively remember before the trip started that we were told we would be going on a boat tour on a lake in an extinct volcano crater. Well, fun fact, Cuicocha is active! Even though it has not exploded for 3,000 years I felt it was a little risky tempting it like that. Boy o boy. The whole lake is filled by rain water. That is totally amazing considering the size of that honker! No fish live in the lake due to the sulfur and other gasses let off by the volcano. We got to see some of the gas emissions near the middle of the lake.

Front Of The Boat Was A Bad Choice Kalli

Back to Otavalo!!! Alicia stocked up on gifts and greatly improved her bargining skills. Our entire shopping crew was impressed. Lindsey, Alicia, and I all got Jaunito a gift for putting up with us all week. Then he discovered Alicia and I were staying longer. That sweetheart is going to spend the next day (maybe two), hanging out with us, being our tour guide. AMAZING! What a guy! He deserves something so much better than the hat.

Market

Made a pit stop on the way back to Quito and the equator. Took some rad pictures super quick, then loaded back up!

On Both Hemispheres At The Same Time

As soon as we got back to Kattys it was work, work, work. Getting all of the bags that the shoes and meds in consolidated. All of peoples things crammed into the bagged bags. Amy and Ross brought us dinner and came to bid our team farewell. It was a tearful goodbye for me (who is suprised???).

Katty, Alicia, and I had a big group snuggle after everyone left. Very comforting. Then, Juan's PaPa picked us up and took us to our Hotel Botique. Apparently in these things, anything and everything in them is for sale. Neat! It is beauiftul and fun!

Our Room From My Bed :)

Tomorrow we will be exploring the historic district of Quito with our professional tour guide Mr. Juan!!!

Side note - Jaunito is an aspiring reg-atone artist. He preformed for us last night. Awesome!