SO we returned from the Galapagos to Quito during the middle of Halloween celebrations. Our intention was to stay the night, leave for the Quilatoa loop the next day and then head to Southern Ecuador and on to Peru. However, as everyone knows, when travelling one must be flexible...
We did end up going to Quilatoa which is a tiny Andean town famous for the Quilatoa crater, a lake set in the middle of an extinct volcano. It was a bit of an adventure to get there as it involved being dropped off the bus on the side of the road with no idea where we were, finding the bus station in a rain storm and then trying to figure out where Quilatoa actually was. We arrived being the last people on the bus just as dark was setting in. At that altitude (somewhere above 4000m) it gets really cold!
We spent the night in the hostel, woke up to a fantastic breakfast and set off to hike down into the crater to see the lake. It was pretty fantastic although the hike back up was very steep and the sandy soil made it difficult to climb up. We almost caved and paid for the easy way up...by mule. After our hike while having coffee we made the decision to head south quickly and try to get to Peru by the weekend. We left to go back to Latacunga with a bunch of others from the hostel riding in the back of a truck. It was beautiful to experience traveling through the Andes looking at all the tiny villages and all the Alpacas. They are everywhere!
It was in Latacunga that things went wrong...
We had caught the bus to Ambato and were just pulling out of the bus station. We were laughing and chatting and did not really realize that the guy sitting behind us had got up and walked off the back with my backpack! I immediately had a bit of a panic as I was positive that my passport was in the stolen bag. We got off the bus to try and find the guy who took it but no luck.
Luckily there are better people in this world than the guy who stole our backpack. Some of the girls that we had just met were living in Quito and invited us back to their place until we figured out the whole passport thing. Very nice of them and ended up being very convenient as the Canadian embassy is only a few blocks from where they live.
To make a long story a bit shorter...I (Natalie) am an airhead. The passport was actually in my CAMERA bag the whole time! Unfortunately we had already reported it stolen by the time we relaized this so the saga continues with getting a new one.
While waiting for the passport we decided to continue on to Mindo and are now on the coast of Ecuador. Midno is a bird watchers paradise with tons of hummingbirds, tucans and butterflies. We finally got to go zip-trekking which was fun to zoom across wires looking down as the cloud forest canopy. Bryan was even brave enough to go upside down!
The costal town that we are currently in is a beautiful somewhat sleepy surf town. Yesterday was super busy being the weekend and the beach was packed with familes enjoying a day on the beach. It is not very sunny here but it is nice and warm.
Enough for now...time to go for 1$ Caprinias!
Next post...Hopefully from across the border in Peru!
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