Kirsty Goes To Ecuador

It´s been a very long time since I updated my blog, but now as I am all packed up and more or less ready to catch my flight home I figured I would try to sum up the last few weeks of my travels.

After returning to Ecuador from my trip to Peru, I headed to the coast to volunteer on an organic farm just north of a beach town called Canoa. It was definitely very different from anything I have ever done before. The farm was in the middle of nowhere; no phone signal, no internet. Occacionally there would be power cuts, and since the water pumps were connected to the power, it meant no water (not much fun not being able to shower after a long day of cleaning out pens and working in the garden). However it was a good experience, and interesting to see all the different environmental project the farm works on, such as permaculture, organic farming, reforestation and running an environmental school.

Every weekend, I would go to Canoa with the other volunteers to relax on the beach and enjoy the nightlife. One of the weekends a Danish girl I met in Quito came down with some friends and also came to visit the farm.

After completing my four weeks at the farm my friend Anna, who I also met in Quito, came to meet me in Canoa. We spent a few days on the beach, went horseback riding and played a lot of Cuarenta and Extreme Jenga at Surf Shak. Tuesday morning we decided to make our way back to Quito. We spent a couple of days hanging out at Coffee Tree, dancing to raggeton music at Bungalow and catching up with the Quiteños, before we Thursday night headed to the jungle.

The journey was pretty long. First we took a night bus for 9 hours to get to Lago Agrio. From there we went on a smaller bus for 2 hours and then on a motorized canoe for another 2,5 hours to arrive at the Cuyabena reserve. Even before getting into the canoe we realized why the Amazon is called a rainforest; it rains A LOT!! Even though we were wearing massive ponchos, we arrived at the lodge soaked.
The rainforest was very interesting though, we went for many walks and canoe rides and were able to see parrots, stinky turkeys, tucans, sloths, anacondas, boas, poisonous frogs, tarantulas, lizards, pink river dolpins, caimans, a lot of monkeys and we also went pirañha fishing.

Last night we returned to Quito again, as my flight back home leaves today. It will be strange leaving, as I have really come to love Ecuador. Three months passed by far too quickly, but hopefully there will be other chances to come back to South America.

After spending some time in Cusco, Marta and I bought overnight bus tickets for Puno by Lake Titicaca, but just as we were about to leave, the hostel owner told us not to go. We could not understand why. He was rambling on in Spanish and all I understood was that roads were closed and that people were loco... We later found out that there were demonstrations in the villages due to disputes concerning the natural resources in the Amazon jungle and that roads had been blocked, bridges burnt and people killed in the riots. We realized we had to change our itinerary slightly...

The next morning we then decided to buy tickets for Nazca, which is in the Western parts of Peru. The twelve hour bus trip turned out to last 15,5 hours and with no toilets omboard, nothing but peruvian folk music videos playing on the tv, and being served a rather uncooked piece of chicken for lunch on our 20 minutes break (the only thing we consumed that day besides a packet of ritz crackers...) it was safe to say that we were not happy campers by the time we arrived in Nazca. Luckily we found a decent place to live and a place to go for dinner, and could head to bed shortly after we arrived.

The next day we went to see the Nazca Lines. We got on a small airplane that took us over a series of geometric lines and shapes that had been engraved in the desert. It was really cool!

Moving up the west of Peru, our next stop was Huacachina, an oasis is the desert close to the town of Ica. According to Marta's rough guide this is the only place in Peru that is guaranteed good weather. When we came it was overcast and we even had drizzles of rain... That lead us to the vineyards... We were certain that the weather would clear, so we started our visits to the vineyards early, something we would regret when we realized it involved doing shots of Pisco (Peruvian spirit) at three vineyards at 10-11 in the morning...
In the afternoon the weather cleared and we went sandboarding in the desert. A buggy car came to pick us up at the hotel, and drove us around the desert to different stops where we could sandboard and watch the sunset. Amazing!!!

Our last stop before returning to Lima was Paracas. From El Chaco we got a boat out to Ballestas Island to view the animals. Sea lions, pelicans, penguins, dolphins and A LOT of birds.

I have now returned to Ecuador and getting ready for four weeks of volunteering on the coast.

I arrived in Lima on Tuesday and since Marta´s travel company had changed her flight tickets, leaving her stranded at Madrid airport for 14 hours, I had a day to kill in Lima by myself. I dragged a Swiss girl, that I met at my hostel, with me to see the changing of the guards outside the government, and walked around town for a bit, though the highlight of my day was the Dunkin´Donut that was served to me by a guy called Jesus.
In the evening I went out to the airport to meet Marta. Our taxi drive back to the hostel was a bit of an adventure, as the car broke down about 20 times, and in the end, not having a clue where we were, we had to get out and find a new one.

The next day we decided to move on. We headed straight for Cusco. The bus ride took about 21 hours, but the buses in Peru are by far the best buses I have ever been on. We had big, comfy chairs that we could lean baack really far, dinner and breakfast included and loads of films. We were a bit disappointed that the promised game of bingo never took place, but otherwise a pretty good bus ride!
Cusco is a beatiful city and the day we arrived there was a huge childrens parade with dancing and national costumes.

Yesterday we headed for Machu Picchu. We really wanted to do the Inka trail, but seeing as it is sold out until the end of September, it proved to be difficult. We therefore just went for the day. The day got off to a bit of an expensive start, as what we thought would be a ten minute 10 soles taxi ride to the station, turned out to be a two hour 100 soles taxi ride (i definitely should have revised the spanish numbers...though i totally blame the uninformative tourist information for that one...) The train ride was gorgeous; an hour and a half of mountains, rivers and jungle.
From train station in Agua Caliente we decided to hike up to Macchu Picchu. It was quite hard, partly due to altitude, partly due to humidity, partly due to steep incline and partly due to the fact that I have not been to the gym in about a month and a half...

Machu Picchu was pretty spectacular. Luckily not as packed with tourists as we expected and we definitely got some good photos. The views and the inka citadel were gorgeous.

The plan now is to head towards Lake Titicaca and then work our way up the coast to return to Lima in roughly a week.

This weekend I, once again, eloped from the bustling city life to explore the area around Quito. Accompanied by two other Scandinavian girls, Karina and Frederikke, I travelled to a town called Baños, 3-4 hours south of Quito.
Baños in Spanish means bathrooms (weird name for a town, i know..), and I think the last thing I told my host family before l left Saturday morning was: "I´m going to the bathrooms, I´ll be back tomorrow night..."

We arrived in Baños around lunchtime, and after finding a hostel and eating a rather unimpressive lunch, we decided to go horseback riding. We rode up to a waterfall and along a river where we could view eruptions from the Tungurahua volcano in the distance. The scenery was amazing and we got to trot and gallop a lot.

Saturday night we retired early, because we needed to be up by 5:30AM the next morning for a day trip to the Amazon jungle. Driving out of Baños we stopped at a couple of waterfalls. Then we stopped at a monkey reservoir. At first I felt a little intimidated by the monkeys, basically because the first monkey that approached me attacked me from behind, and the second started biting my leg, but after awhile I felt more relaxed around them and I could probably have stayed there playing with them for ages and ages. At one point I had two monkeys sitting on my head and shoulders! I soon realized it was definitely not the day to be wearing a white t-shirt though...
Afterwards we went canoing. Fortunately we were pretty much just floating downstream and did not have to do any of the hard work. It was really calm and peaceful, but very, very hot, so it was nice to be able to cool down with a swim in the waterfall that we approached after a little trek through the jungle. After lunch we visited an indigenous community. I must admit I was a little disappointed they were wearing regular clothing as I guess I was expecting something a little more tribal and exotic... But all in all it was a very good day!

The thing I love the most about Quito is that there are endless things to do in and around the city, and the variation is immense. Yesterday I went hiking to the foot of the glacier on the Cotopaxi volcano (the world´s highest active volcano), the day before I was canopying through the humid Mindo cloud forest, last weekend I was bathing in the hot thermal baths of Papallacta, and during the week I have been enjoying all that Quito has to offer of cafees, restaurants, art galleries, cinemas, bars, clubs and chocolate fondues!!

My hike yesterday was definitely an adventure. We left Quito at 7:30 AM (certainly not my preferred departure time on a Sunday morning...) and after roughly 2 hours on bumpy roads in a bus that was not designed for long-legged Europeans, we arrived at the starting point of the hike. The first part of the hike was quite tough. The lava was so loose it felt as if for every step you took, you would slide back half a step again. It was so windy I thought I would go flying off the mountain. And the hail was so sore against my skin I though my face would start bleeding. However, after a food break at the 4800 meter point and having a good laugh about Jerome setting his wollen hat on fire, we felt motivated to make it to the foot of the glacier at an altitude of 5000 meters. Just as we arrived at the glacier, the sky cleared for about fifteen minutes, and we had amazing views of the Cotopaxi national park, so in the end it was definitely worth the hard work.

Today I stood on the equatorial line (which, for your information, is orange....), fed a llama, visited a volcanic crater and got quite sun burnt. The middle of the world was really interesting. The guide at the museum did an experiment to show that when waters drains it spins in different directions depending on what hemisphere you are on. Directly on the equator the water ran straight through the drain. Just a meter over on the northern hemisphere the water span anti-clockwise and a meter to the south it span clockwise.

Earlier in the week I took a salsa class and an Ecuadorian cooking class (and the meal for once did not include bananas..) to get a taste of Ecuadorian culture. The salsa lesson was really good fun, although my teacher was a woman and about half my size. I was definitely struggling with some of the steps, especially when she was trying to spin me under her super-short arms, but I really enjoyed it

My time in Quito so far has been eventful. The first couple of days were quite hard as I didn´t know much Spanish and didn´t know people here either, but now that I´ve made friends I am having a really good time. It definately feels like I´ve been here much longer than 10 days.

I spend most of my time in La Mariscal, a part of Quito that is also known as "Gringolandia" (touristland). This is were my Spanish school is and there are also loads of cafees and bars, salsa clubs and discotecas. However on Sunday I ventured over to el centro historico. The old town is gorgeous. There are loads of churches, cathedrals and other spectacular buildings. The down-side is that it is renowned for pick-pockets and attacks. I had two male friends with me and my bag at sight at all times, so I luckily returned safely with all my belongings still in hand.
Yesterday morning before my Spanish lesson Anna (a girl from Germany) and I went on the teleferiqo, which brings you up the Pichincha volcano. At 4270 meters the view of the city was breathtaking. And so was the altitude... It was difficult to walk more than 20 steps at the time without having to stop to catch your breath again. Anna also experienced that Coca Cola feels more bubbly at high altitudes...

Last week we had a barbecue at school where we prepared an ecuadorian speciality; Cuy (guinea pig on spit). It was definately not the most apetising sight, but served with salsa, potatoes and peanut sauce it wasn´t too bad.

My Spanish is improving poco a poco. The other day I went to the cinema to watch a film called El llanto de la Mariposa. We knew the film had Spanish subtitles and we assumed the spoken language would be English. Turned out the film was in French, so I spent 2 hours reading Spanish subtitles....but astonishingly I was able to follow the plot.

This is my first entry since arriving in Ecuador, and even before I start to write, I predict this will be a long one...

The flight over was incredibly long (roughly thirty hours), but that was mainly due to plentiful stop-overs.
My itinerary was: Oslo-London-Madrid-Guayaquil-Quito.
I had five and a half hours in London, but decided to escape Heathrow for a few hours to see some of my university friends in Egham. Definitely a good idea to spend time soaking up the sun outside Crosslands and Monkey´s in good company rather than spending it by myself in a dull airport.

I arrived in Quito at 7.20AM on Sunday. I was picked from the airport and brought to the family that I will be staying with for the next 4 weeks. I don´t think I could have asked for a better family. They have been very welcoming and friendly. The three boys, Juan, Sebastian and Emilio are adorable. The house is simple; no washing machine, dish washer nor heating (my fleece jumper is becoming my best friend), but they have a maid that does all cleaning... There are also two German girls staying in the house, so it feels a bit like living in a hostel.
So far I have only encountered two problems:
1) Noone speaks much English
2) The food is *thinking of a good word to use*....different...

When I first arrived it was breakfast time and I was served something I thought was hot chocolate. Turned out it was neither hot nor "chocolaty", it was more like a creamy banana flavoured juice...very unexpected. Bananas are pretty much served with every meal. For dinner my first day I had fried cheese and bananas...

Yesterday I had a tour of the town and my first Spanish lesson. Quito is an interesting city. It´s located 24 km south of the equatorial line, but at an altitude of 2800 m, it is not as hot as one would expect, and the city is sorrounded by snow-covered volcanoes.
My Spanish teacher, Cristobal, is really cool. He seems to be a very experienced teacher. Although there are loads of new words and grammar to learn right now, the classes are great fun. I am already looking forward to my next lesson, mainly because I have realized I really need to learn this language quickly. Have definately been feeling a bit lost in translations these first few days, but I know it will only get better.

Hasta luego
xoxo

23 years old and a mere day away from achieving my long time goal of travelling to every continent of the world, as I set off to conquer South America. 27 hours of plane and airport fun-time and the adventures can finally begin...woop woop!!

I definately surpassed my own expectations when it came to planning and organising this trip. Anyone who knows me would know that I tend to leave things to the last minute, but this time around I definately feel like everything is under control.

· Vaccinations. Check.
· Update iPod. Check.
· Charge camera. Check
· Turn brunette (again...). Check.
· Order travel insurance and cancel the 5000 kr bill for “Search and Rescue insurance, Location of coverage: Svalbard”, that the insurance company for some peculiar reason sent me. Double check.

I am also well prepared for the journey. For starters I have read my flight ticket. Definately aiming to avoid a new incidence similar to the one of last summer when Courtney and I realised at London airport that we had tickets for Bangkok instead of Singapore...woops! And my seat on the plane has been carefully selected to minimize chances of getting stuck next to a family of five, with children that kick you while they sleep or next to drunken Scottish men that, whilst crawling over you trying to get to the loo, spills red wine all over your white t-shirt...Ahh, how I love those long distance flights...!

Feeling fairly excited at the moment, and a tad bit nervous as well... My main goal is to return to Europe knowing at least a little bit more Spanish than I do now. However, I believe it would be inevitable not to considering my Spanish volcabulary is fairly limited. I don’t think “Hola! Como esta? Quanta costa cerveza?” can even be regarded as “some knowledge” of Spanish.... Three months of Spanish lessons, volunteering and (hopefully) a little travelling should definately be an experience for life time.

I will use this blog to share all my travelling adventures, so keep checking for updates. Hasta luego! xoxo