MANCORA - FIRST STOP IN PERU

The first tourist town near the Ecuadorian border is Mancora. Peru's surfer town. Since I got there just a few days after New Years Eve it was difficult to find a hostel. After walking along the main street and asking four or five hostels, I finally found a hostel with a free bed for me off the main road. I spent two days there. Most of the time I spent at the hostel in front of the computer – writing mails, talking and chatting with family and friends and working on the blog. I really had to catch up on that since I didn't spend a lot of time in front of the computer while in Canoa. I also went for some walks on the beach.
But I missed Canoa and hanging out in another beach town wasn't the best idea. So I headed south to Trujillo.

CROSSING THE BORDER TO PERU BY LAND

After four great weeks in Canoa I left Ecuador and made my way to Peru. I wasn't allowed to stay in Ecuador any longer with my tourist visa – and it was time to continue traveling south as well. Since the direct night bus from Canoa to Guayaquil wasn't going anymore, I had to leave earlier and it wasn't as easy. Sunday afternoon I went by bus to San Vicente, the nearest town from Canoa, half an hour away. There I got on the bus to Guayaquil, where I arrived after a six hour bus ride around 9 pm. Unfortunately there were no tickets anymore to go directly to Peru. The advantage of a direct bus is, that it's much easier to cross the border. So, I decided not to wait for the bus to Peru on the next morning but took a bus at midnight to the border. At 3 am I got of the bus at the Ecuadorian migration office, 4 km north of the border. Since there was only one officer taking care of people from three buses, the line was rather long and I had to wait for about an hour. From there I shared a taxi with two girls from the Netherlands to the border. After we walked over the bridge we were in Peru. Again, the migration office was inconveniently three kilometer away from the border and we had to take another taxi. Finally at 5 am I was officially in Peru. The taxi drove us to the next town 20 km south where we were able to get buses further south. With a very uncomfortable minibus I went to Mancora where I arrived tired at 8am.

CANOA, Part 2

After a night in the bus I arrived in Canoa early in the morning. My plan was to stay here for a few days before moving on further south. Well, in the end, I stayed over four weeks, spent Christmas and New Years there and had an awesome time.

This time in Canoa, I stayed with Carlos (who I had met the first time in Canoa) and his family in there house near the beach. Everyone was very friendly and I always felt welcome.
Most of the days in Canoa I didn't do anything special. Just relaxing, hanging out and talking at the beach, eating, walking or running at the beach, relaxing some more, watching the sunset and enjoying a beer (or more) at night. But there were some things worth mentioning:

Camping in Cabo Pasado
For one night we went to a small beach near Canoa that is only accessible by boat or foot. I went there with Carlos, Leo (Carlos' brother), Manuel and four other friends. We were able to drive part of the way but than had to walk through the forest and papaya plantations. We could hear monkeys in the forest (unfortunately I wasn't able to see them) and picked up some fresh papayas to eat later at the beach. There were only two other people at the beach and it was very quiet and peaceful. We went for a nice walk along the beach before spending the evening with a bottle of Cana (the local alcohol made from sugar cane) + orange juice around a campfire. I slept very well in the tent with fresh air and the sound of the ocean. Camping is so nice. In the morning, we girls relaxed at the beach while the boys took care of the lunch. They walked for almost two hours along the rocks at the beach to collect mussels (at least that's what I think it was). We than had a very delicious - and as fresh as possible - ceviche for lunch. Mussels, two tomatoes, one onion, a few lemons = mmmh. After lunch it was time to head back to Canoa after an amazing time in Cabo Pasado.


Fishing

When Carlos and Manuel went fishing on the beach, I decided to join them. Fishing here is a little different than what I was used to. First, it's fish from the ocean and not from rivers. And there is no fishing rod but only a fishing line with two hooks attached to it, which is thrown into the water. As bait we used shrimps.
First we went fishing from a rock out in the water and within a fairly short time Carlos and Manuel had caught four fish (one fish bite into the hook while I held the line for a minute). After a while the water rose and the waves got to strong to catch anything. We had to swim back to the beach and went to another place to fish some more. I really didn't do any fishing myself but only watched the guys, handed them shrimps and took pictures. But Carlos and Manuel where quite successful. At the end we had 15 fish. Carlos also caught a small ray (that was thrown back to sea) and even caught two fish at once. At sunset we went back to the house, grilled the fish and had dinner with amazingly fresh fish.
C + M - GRACIAS por un muy bien dia!
We went fishing again a few days later with more people. Leo caught the first fish three minutes after we got there. But afterward there was not much success and the guys only caught four fish. No fish for dinner this time.


Shrimp Farm
About every three months the water basin with the shrimps is fully emptied and all shrimps sold. The day and night before this happened it was raining very heavy. It still rained in the morning but the work had to be done. The whole family was at the basin all day and everyone got soaked. I went there with Carlos' mum, sister and nieces. To get to the basin we took a mototaxi to a small path a few kilometers away from town. We then walked on the very muddy path until we got to a river. There we were picked up by Carlos with a tiny raft and were shuttled to the other side one by one. Because I'm a woman, I'm not allowed to do any 'real' work (don't think I can get used to that) and spent most of the day with the women inside the little house - doing not more than eating, sitting in the hammock and entertaining the little girls, Irene and Elis. Of course after all the hard work (at least for the guys) we had a delicious dinner with shrimps and Cana.


Christmas

It is always weird to celebrate Christmas when it's warm. And it was also a little sad not to be with my family in Lissa. But it was good to spend Christmas with nice people and see how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world. Although it is warm and sunny, people do have Xmas trees (artificial ones of course). The whole family had dinner together on the evening of December 24th. And there were also a few presents for the kids. But not nearly as many presents as we are used to in the western world and the presents were not as important. I was very happy to get a few presents as well. Viola - Danke fuer die Kinderschokolade! Carlos - Gracias por anillo y collar preciosos!!
The 25th was very relaxed. Eating cake and having a few drinks with friends at the beach and family in front of the house.
Since it was Christmas, there were a lot of tourists in town and the beach was fairly busy. I definitely prefer the beach during a normal quiet weekday with only a few locals and tourist.


New Years Eve

When I started this trip I did not think I would spend New Years in Ecuador. But why rush?
As everywhere NYE mainly is about drinking and partying. One difference to Germany or New York is, that of course here the party is at the beach and there is no snow. And I was surprised that a lot of people partied all night through and continued drinking until the evening of 01/01. I didn't have that much energy.
In Ecuador New Years Eve is a lot about saying good bye to the old year as well. One tradition is the burning of the "Ano Viejo" (Old Year), a fully dressed dummy filled with newspapers and sometimes firecrackers. On New Years Eve the dummy is placed in front of the house and set on fire around midnight. Carlos' mum and sister also created a (more than lifesize) dummy and I was surprised how much time and effort they put in it. It took almost two days to form, sew clothing, dress and make-up the dummy.
There were even more tourists (mainly Ecuadorian tourists) than Christmas in town and the beach was packed. There were so many people that it was difficult to see any sand. Not my favorite time at the beach.

Food

I have never eaten that often shrimps and fish before. And definitely never that fresh. Most of the days I ate with Carlos at home. And his mum is a great cook. It was always delicious, especially the shrimp ceviche and the pasta de verduras. GRACIAS!
For breakfast we often made fruit salad with very fresh pineapple, banana, mango and apple. Mmmmh. Almost everyday I ate Mango - so yummy. And quite often enjoyed a fruit juice as well.


And more...

We also went for two days to Pedernales, a little bigger beach town, where we didn't do much else than relaxing at the beach, enjoying a few drinks and shopping. On the way back to Canoa we didn't wanted to wait for two hours for the bus to leave and just walked to the main road going south trying to catch a ride. I was really surprised that we found someone with a pick-up truck who gave all six of us plus surfboard a ride to Canoa. Luckily I get one of the two spots inside the car - the two hour ride in the back of the car probably wasn't very comfy.

One night we went to a Circus in San Vicente, the nearest, slightly bigger, town. It was quite entertaining. The ticket only cost 1$ and of course it was not a high quality show. ;-) But fun anyways. And we had front row seats. There was one artist (and I think, he was drunk), one magician (showing very simple tricks) and three clowns (a dad with his two sons). The show ended around 11pm and we had to get back to Canoa somehow. Buses only go until 7pm. Theoretically there are taxis but late at night we couldn't find any. And we were 10 people - so we needed more than one car. And while we waited for about one hour without any taxi insight, I missed New York and the easy transportation. In the end we were lucky to get a ride on a pick-up truck to Canoa.

It is a little embarrassing to confess that I spend four weeks in a surfers town without learning to surf. I tried twice but wasn't really successful. Well, next time...

All in all, I really had a great time, was happy and felt at home in Canoa.
Manuel, Alberto, Gustavo, Angie, Maryuri, Leo, Carlos' mum and dad, Irene + Elis - and everyone who is not mentioned by name - GRACIAS por un muy bien tiempo in Canoa.
Carlos - Muchiiiiiisimo Gracias por todo. Te extrano.
Hasta pronto in Canoa.

HIKING THE QUILOTOA LOOP

In Latacunga we met up with Wouter to hike to the Laguna de Quilotoa. And Katharina also joined our hiking group spontaneously. Early in the morning we took a taxi (which we bargained from 60 to 20$) to a small village were we started the hike. The first day we hiked for almost seven hours and the trail took us over 17 km to an elevation of almost 4000 m in Quilotoa. Up there it was really cold and it wasn't easy to breathe. None of us slept well that night - probably because the air was quite thin and it wasn't easy to breath. The next morning Miha also joined us on our hike and we were a great hiking group. We started to hike partly around the beautiful lake with great views before continuing the hike to the next village. The color of the water was an impressive color. All four days of the hike the landscape was amazing – deep canyons, green hills and small villages. We lost the trail that was described in our guide book a few times and had to find a new trail. That usually was no problem since there are many paths in this area that are used by the people living there to walk to there fields or the next village.

Unfortunately I had problems with the altitude and my stomach and didn't feel well most of the time. Therefore I couldn't really enjoy the hike nor the landscape. See Micha's blog for a more detailed description of the hike.

Back at the hostel in Latacunga we had to stay inside the whole day on Sunday since there was a census in Ecuador and people were not allowed to leave their houses. It was very weird and quite boring.

Wie kommt der Trabi nach Ecuador?

Since I still didn't feel well after doing nothing for a few days in Latacunga, I decided to go back to Quito to see a doctor. He gave me some pills and I spent another week hanging around at the hostel in Quito. Not a lot of fun. After the cold days in the mountains I needed some sun and more and decided to go back to Canoa for a few days, while Micha was going to climb Cotopaxi.

HIKING, BIKING AND SOAKING IN BANOS

After only a few hours in Quito - where I met up with Micha again - we headed south to Banos. After arriving in Banos and finding a hostel we went on a short tour through the small town. There were a lot of bars, restaurants and especially tour operators. For dinner we enjoyed a Doener which was a nice change of the usual menu.
The next morning we went for a short hike up the hills south of Banos. The trail was pretty steep and for me it was quite exhausting. The view of Banos and the surrounding hills was very nice but unfortunately we were not able to see the volcano Tungurahua since it was hiding behind clouds (as usual after 10 am). At night we enjoyed a nice bath in the hot springs while it was raining. It was really great. Sitting in the hot water, relaxing and listening to the sound of the nearby waterfall.
As everyone else visting Banos, we rented bikes to bike the road from Banos in the mountains to Puyo in the jungle. From Banos it's 60 km to Puyo and mostly it is downhill. Although there are quite a few hills and the bike ride was not as easy as I thought it would be. There are quite a few waterfalls to see. And at the first waterfalls we saw we took a cable car to get a closer view. It was interesting to be almost over the waterfalls. We also went on a short hike to the Devils Fall. Very nice waterfall. The best thing was, that it was possible to go behind the waterfall. It was very noisy and wet behind the waterfall. Further along the way the water also fell from the sky. We got into a thunderstorm and got totally soaked. But I liked biking in the rain. The road always followed the river and it was fascinating to see how the river changed from a narrow gorge to a wide delta and the landscape changed from mountains to palm trees. Back in Banos we enjoyed a relaxing bath in the thermal bath. Awesome.

The next day we took it fairly easy and only went on a short hike to be fresh for our trip the following day. We decided to get a closer look at the volcano and wanted to hike to the old refugios. Since the volcano is active quite often it is not allowed to hike all the way up. We started our hike at the old administration center a few kilometer away from Banos. The hike was nice through a tunnel like trail with a lot of trees and other vegetation. Higher up the vegetation changed to colorful shrubs. Hiking to the refugio was quite exhausting since the trail always went uphill. There was not a single meter that was flat and I had to stop quite often to take a breath, relax and than walk on. After a lunch break at the refugio we hiked the volcano a little higher up to about 4000 m elevation. Micha hiked even higher than me.
The way down was kind of exhausting as well. To walk downhill for two hours requires some concentration. When it stared raining I somehow was happy about it and almost started raining down the trail. Micha was surprised that I had that much energy since I was extremely slow on the way up. It was still raining when we got back to the administration center but we decided to start our walk back to Banos anyways (we really didn't have any other options). After we walked for a while some friendly people with a pick-up gave us a ride in the back of there car. The car stopped a few minutes later to pick up an old Ecuadorian couple as well. So for the half hour ride to Banos we shared the back of the pick up with this very old Ecuadorian couple and although it was raining very hard everyone was smiling and in a good mood.

All in all it was a great hike and I nice day. I was surprised when I read in the newspaper a few days later that the volcano errupted three days later. Kind of scary.
The last day in Banos we got up very early to be in the thermal bath at sunrise. We decided to go to the thermal bath which is a little further away from the hostel and is supposed to have a nice view of the volcano. Unfortunately the bath was closed for constructions (besides that, we took the wrong way anyways). That we found out after walking half an hour through the whole town before sunrise. At least we had a good clear view of the volcano Tungurahua. I decided to go to the usual bath for a nice warm morning bath since I got up early anyways. It was a good decision and I felt good and relaxed afterward. In the afternoon we made our way to Latacunga, two hours north of Banos, to hike the Quilotoa Loop.