The Northern Highlands
From Columbia into Ecuador we had the nicest, most relaxed border crossing ever, with no costs at all, friendly officials, and we met lots of other travelers while our passports got stamped. Just a few kilometers uphill and into the country, a little van saying "Lavanderia Gabrielito" stopped on the side of the road a few meters in front of us. Doors were opened, and hands held out cups of drinking yogurt, some cookies, and dulce de leche to dip them in. So sweet - the gifts and the Rosero family with 4 of their 5 kids in the car! They invited us to pass by their laundry in San Gabriel, the little town 25km further where we had planned to stay for the night, to get our filthy stuff washed and have dinner with them. And so we did, and had a fabulous meal and lots of curiosity and loving, family attention on us for the night...
From San Gabriel we passed some scenery that reminded Kat very much of back home: the cactus, the dry valleys and barren slopes of Rocky Mountains, the brownness and striking beauty. By late afternoon we were going up a long hill to reach some hot springs far up a narrow mountain valley, and a police pick-up stopped and urged us to accept a lift to avoid the final 20km climb. We did and were happily soaking a little later in pools of thermal water coming down from the volcano nearby for hours and hours, lazing a bit in the mountain sun in between and falling asleep early in the tent at peace and relaxed. The coming morning we soaked some more till our skin started disintegrating and we left when the Sun cult members came with their weird ritual burns to share the pools with us got to be too much. We decided to pack and leave before falling apart in the pools and getting abducted and burned by fanatic religious people.... who knows what else would happen to us, maybe we would get thrown out of their house...
The ride out of the hotsprings was superb, through hills and past small mountain villages, into and out of river gorges - we were happy to be off the Panamericana and it's heavy traffic for a little while. But soon the road turned into a cobblestone nightmare and after a few kilometers of it we were happy to get a lift by a priest (oh, god, another uncomfortable religious conversation!) and his sister to the small village of Imantag, were the strange yet friendly and non-fanatical priest offered us juice and some sugarcane to chew on for the road. On the plaza of the village many indigenous people from the surrounding area were celebrating the solstice festivities, honoring Patchamama and especially Padre Sol with circular dances in llama-skin pants, accompanied by banging drums and whistling pipes, and the ever present in any Latin American celebration old men drinking home-brew alcohol from old coke bottles. Travelling further on, another larger town was celebrating the same holiday, but this time there were Ecuadorean riot police present with their big shields and helmets. We raced through that town rather quickly.
A few hours later we reached Otavalo, a mountain town at 2550m (7,500ft) that hosts one of the biggest artesania markets of South America every Saturday morning, with thousands of indigenous merchants and buyers coming into town from the hillside villages. As it was only Thursday when we got there, we used Friday to hitchhike to the Laguna de Mojanda, at 3700m (11,000ft) altitude on the foot of Volcan Fuya Fuya - which we started to climb, but clouds drifting among the peaks fogging up the view made us retreat after climbing two-thirds of the way up. Still, the views and the rough terrain up here were fantastic, and we enjoyed sitting on the greens and taking in the tranquility and calmness of the Andes, far from civilization.
Otavalo's artesania, animal and food markets were in full swing by the time we got out of bed and into town the next morning, and they were a total delight. Very large but not overcrowded, very friendly, colorful, exceptionally clean, most people in indigenous clothing, interesting and beautiful things on offer (it's a pity sometimes that we can't take anything on our bikes) - it was a really great place to stroll around for hours and watch the activity...
So it was midday when we left town on the bikes, climbing high up into the mountains, being lucky again to hang on to a truck for the last few kilometers up, then rolling back down into the valley on the other side of the pass. In Cayambe a bullfight festival was going on, but Kat wasn't too keen to see bloody dying animals so we continued on t
o the Equator, the "Mitad del Mundo", Middle of the Earth, where an interesting landmark, exhibition and giant sundial had been built by an NGO. A local guide gave us a tour of the premises, clearly explained the rotation of earth around sun and the effects it has, and demystified some of the non-truths commonly believed, encouraged and spread by some other shady equator museums in the country such as the physical effects experienced while on the equator. Balancing an egg on it's point or a person on one foot is NOT easier here than anywhere else on earth, and the Coriolis effect (water swirling clockwise or counterclockwise down a drain) CAN'T be demonstrated in a sink, you would need an ocean-sized basin to see this tiny force of earth's rotation.
The super-friendly staff allowed us to camp on the grounds of the memorial, and so we set up tent just some 20 meters from the equator, having the chance to see the sunrise behind snowy Volcan Cayambe (5790m - 17,400ft), the only snowy peak in the world right on the Equator.
Quito
Riding into Quito from the equator took only a few hours, but the final kilometers we hitchhiked to avoid the dense traffic on the long, steep climb into town. When we reached the edge of town on the pick-up that had picked us up (that's what pick-ups are for, right?!), we saw that the main road into town was fenced off for traffic and lots of bikers were in the lanes - it was car-free Sunday today! So we signaled the driver to stop and enjoyed cycling among hundreds of other pedal-fanatics all the way into the city center. What a different world it would be if there would be no cars but just man-powered vehicles - the lack of noise, exhaust, traffic danger and crazy bus drivers would be a blessing...
Barely having arrived on the Plaza Grande of Old Town Quito a metropolitan police man started chatting with us and offered us the police garage to shelter our bikes for the day so we could enjoy walking around town without the worry of where to lock them, etc. Quito has a very functional, well restored colonial center, so we strolled around for a few hours before picking the bikes out of police custody and cycling to our Couchsurfing-Hosts's house a few kilometers from Old Town.
Fabian, our host, was very busy that night, coming back from a weekend motorbike trip and having lots of work to do, so after a half hour chat he left us the keys to his nice apartment and we didn't see him again for the next 2 days. We enjoyed the internet in the house, doing lots of research and planning for the months to come, and visiting occasionally a museum or strolling around Old Town for a few hours. Three days passed by very quickly, and we are on the brink of leaving the city tomorrow morning, continuing south on the Panamericana.
"La Capilla del Hombre" - "Chapel of Man"
A few words about one of the most impressive museums we have visited on our trip so far: indigenous artist/painter/sculptor/activist/poet Oswaldo Guayasamin created a memorial-museum for the suffering of poor and indigenous people around the world. There are so many churches and temples built for gods but this one is an amazing, beautiful, powerful, solemn temple built for honoring humankind.
Oswaldo Guayasamin painted and created art his whole life in remembrance of and respect for the suffering and challenges people face in the whole world due to capitalism, profit-thinking and colonialism.
From Columbia into Ecuador we had the nicest, most relaxed border crossing ever, with no costs at all, friendly officials, and we met lots of other travelers while our passports got stamped. Just a few kilometers uphill and into the country, a little van saying "Lavanderia Gabrielito" stopped on the side of the road a few meters in front of us. Doors were opened, and hands held out cups of drinking yogurt, some cookies, and dulce de leche to dip them in. So sweet - the gifts and the Rosero family with 4 of their 5 kids in the car! They invited us to pass by their laundry in San Gabriel, the little town 25km further where we had planned to stay for the night, to get our filthy stuff washed and have dinner with them. And so we did, and had a fabulous meal and lots of curiosity and loving, family attention on us for the night...
From San Gabriel we passed some scenery that reminded Kat very much of back home: the cactus, the dry valleys and barren slopes of Rocky Mountains, the brownness and striking beauty. By late afternoon we were going up a long hill to reach some hot springs far up a narrow mountain valley, and a police pick-up stopped and urged us to accept a lift to avoid the final 20km climb. We did and were happily soaking a little later in pools of thermal water coming down from the volcano nearby for hours and hours, lazing a bit in the mountain sun in between and falling asleep early in the tent at peace and relaxed. The coming morning we soaked some more till our skin started disintegrating and we left when the Sun cult members came with their weird ritual burns to share the pools with us got to be too much. We decided to pack and leave before falling apart in the pools and getting abducted and burned by fanatic religious people.... who knows what else would happen to us, maybe we would get thrown out of their house...
The ride out of the hotsprings was superb, through hills and past small mountain villages, into and out of river gorges - we were happy to be off the Panamericana and it's heavy traffic for a little while. But soon the road turned into a cobblestone nightmare and after a few kilometers of it we were happy to get a lift by a priest (oh, god, another uncomfortable religious conversation!) and his sister to the small village of Imantag, were the strange yet friendly and non-fanatical priest offered us juice and some sugarcane to chew on for the road. On the plaza of the village many indigenous people from the surrounding area were celebrating the solstice festivities, honoring Patchamama and especially Padre Sol with circular dances in llama-skin pants, accompanied by banging drums and whistling pipes, and the ever present in any Latin American celebration old men drinking home-brew alcohol from old coke bottles. Travelling further on, another larger town was celebrating the same holiday, but this time there were Ecuadorean riot police present with their big shields and helmets. We raced through that town rather quickly.A few hours later we reached Otavalo, a mountain town at 2550m (7,500ft) that hosts one of the biggest artesania markets of South America every Saturday morning, with thousands of indigenous merchants and buyers coming into town from the hillside villages. As it was only Thursday when we got there, we used Friday to hitchhike to the Laguna de Mojanda, at 3700m (11,000ft) altitude on the foot of Volcan Fuya Fuya - which we started to climb, but clouds drifting among the peaks fogging up the view made us retreat after climbing two-thirds of the way up. Still, the views and the rough terrain up here were fantastic, and we enjoyed sitting on the greens and taking in the tranquility and calmness of the Andes, far from civilization.
Otavalo's artesania, animal and food markets were in full swing by the time we got out of bed and into town the next morning, and they were a total delight. Very large but not overcrowded, very friendly, colorful, exceptionally clean, most people in indigenous clothing, interesting and beautiful things on offer (it's a pity sometimes that we can't take anything on our bikes) - it was a really great place to stroll around for hours and watch the activity...
So it was midday when we left town on the bikes, climbing high up into the mountains, being lucky again to hang on to a truck for the last few kilometers up, then rolling back down into the valley on the other side of the pass. In Cayambe a bullfight festival was going on, but Kat wasn't too keen to see bloody dying animals so we continued on t
o the Equator, the "Mitad del Mundo", Middle of the Earth, where an interesting landmark, exhibition and giant sundial had been built by an NGO. A local guide gave us a tour of the premises, clearly explained the rotation of earth around sun and the effects it has, and demystified some of the non-truths commonly believed, encouraged and spread by some other shady equator museums in the country such as the physical effects experienced while on the equator. Balancing an egg on it's point or a person on one foot is NOT easier here than anywhere else on earth, and the Coriolis effect (water swirling clockwise or counterclockwise down a drain) CAN'T be demonstrated in a sink, you would need an ocean-sized basin to see this tiny force of earth's rotation.The super-friendly staff allowed us to camp on the grounds of the memorial, and so we set up tent just some 20 meters from the equator, having the chance to see the sunrise behind snowy Volcan Cayambe (5790m - 17,400ft), the only snowy peak in the world right on the Equator.
Quito
Riding into Quito from the equator took only a few hours, but the final kilometers we hitchhiked to avoid the dense traffic on the long, steep climb into town. When we reached the edge of town on the pick-up that had picked us up (that's what pick-ups are for, right?!), we saw that the main road into town was fenced off for traffic and lots of bikers were in the lanes - it was car-free Sunday today! So we signaled the driver to stop and enjoyed cycling among hundreds of other pedal-fanatics all the way into the city center. What a different world it would be if there would be no cars but just man-powered vehicles - the lack of noise, exhaust, traffic danger and crazy bus drivers would be a blessing...
Barely having arrived on the Plaza Grande of Old Town Quito a metropolitan police man started chatting with us and offered us the police garage to shelter our bikes for the day so we could enjoy walking around town without the worry of where to lock them, etc. Quito has a very functional, well restored colonial center, so we strolled around for a few hours before picking the bikes out of police custody and cycling to our Couchsurfing-Hosts's house a few kilometers from Old Town.Fabian, our host, was very busy that night, coming back from a weekend motorbike trip and having lots of work to do, so after a half hour chat he left us the keys to his nice apartment and we didn't see him again for the next 2 days. We enjoyed the internet in the house, doing lots of research and planning for the months to come, and visiting occasionally a museum or strolling around Old Town for a few hours. Three days passed by very quickly, and we are on the brink of leaving the city tomorrow morning, continuing south on the Panamericana.
"La Capilla del Hombre" - "Chapel of Man"A few words about one of the most impressive museums we have visited on our trip so far: indigenous artist/painter/sculptor/activist/poet Oswaldo Guayasamin created a memorial-museum for the suffering of poor and indigenous people around the world. There are so many churches and temples built for gods but this one is an amazing, beautiful, powerful, solemn temple
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