Canoa

Warm sandy beaches, cool blue water, and laid-back atmosphere, the surfing/fishing village of Canoa was one of our favorite destinations.  Located on the Pacific coast in Ecuador, we felt far removed from the hustle and bustle of Quito.  After an all-day bus ride through highlands, jungles, and simple Ecuadoran towns, we arrived just in time for a beautiful sunset on the beach with some much-deserved cold beers.  We stayed at the Hostel CocoLoco, a friendly hangout of hammocks, palm trees, and bamboo barstools a stone's throw from the ocean.  We spoiled ourselves with a private room overlooking the water and were lulled to sleep by the sound of crashing waves.  While the atmosphere was enough to make this stay unforgettable, we were also lucky to meet some really great people.  We spent our days laying on the beach, playing in the surf, drinking pina coladas and caiprinhas, and soaking up the good life.  We were inspired by our hostel's owners, who was from Portland!, and other ex-pats who traded in the typical American dream for one of sun, surf, and relaxation.  It definitely got us brain-storming about our future and examining different options.
One of the other highlights was being invited to the nearby town of San Vicente to partake in a parade celebrating the canonization of St. Vincent and the creation of the town.  Schools from all over Ecuador came to show off their marching bands, bringing locals out to socialize, eat street food, and enjoy the festivities.
We spent a day longer than we had planned in Canoa, but we could have easily spent much longer.  This sleepy little town will always have a place in our hearts.

The Coco Loco

Our hike to the top of the bluffs overlooking Canoa

 

Parade in San Vicente

Over 100 horses!

Quito

Ecuador's capital and largest city, Quito seems to be a place you either love or hate.  We fell somewhere in the middle.  To be fair, Quito and I got off to a rocky start.  The city is divided into the Old Town, a charming section of colonial buildings, sprawlings plazas, and beautiful churches, and the New Town, a modern metropolis of bars, restaurants, and businesses.  Our guidebook told us that the bus station was a mere two kilometers from our hostel in the Old Town but we decided to take a cab rather than walk through the city with all of our belongings on display.  However, having been overcharged by taxis before, I was determined not to let it happen again.  When our driver, who failed to turn on his meter, began zigzagging through New Town I had a feeling we were about to be taken for a different kind of "ride." After about 15 minutes we arrived at the Plaza San Blas where our hostel was located and the driver told me I owed him $7.  As our 3 hour bus ride from Otavalo only cost $4 for both of us, there was no way I was handing this joker almost double that.  So I summoned up all the Spanish I knew and what followed was a 10 minute shouting match on the streets of Quito.  My side of the argument went something like this: "$7 is too expensive.  Is that the gringo price? Yesterday it only cost $3.  Why didn't you use your meter? I only have $3.  You can call the police, I'm not paying." Since he wasn't budging and a crowd was starting to form, I grudgingly handed over the money.  It wasn't until later that I learned the Old Town bus station had been moved to northern New Town and it was, in fact, about $7 for a taxi ride.  Needless to say, I felt like a jerk.  So if anybody out there knows the driver of Taxi 679 in Quito, you can apologize from me for wasting his time.
After this great introduction to Quito, we checked into our hostel where Laura did her best to calm me down and convince me to enjoy the rest of our day.  Since it was Sunday, the Old Town was closed to car traffic and made for an inviting stroll back in time to colonial days.  We took in the sights, snapped pictures of gorgeous churches and street performers, and had a drink in one of the many beautiful plazas Quito has to offer.
The next day we took a couple local buses (I was still not over our taxi experience) to the Mitad del Mundo, a tourist trap marking the equatorial line of Earth.  Besides an interesting museum focusing on the different indigenous tribes of Ecuador, the only real fun here was snapping pictures of eachother straddling the equator.
We spent the rest of the day touring Old Town, eating chocolate donuts which tasted neither like chocolate nor donut, and enjoying the sunset from our hostel's rooftop terrace.
In the end, Quito was a nice place to visit but we've learned that the big cities aren't really for us.

Rooftop view

Drinks and people-watching on the Plaza San Francisco.

Plaza San Blas and Dog

Straddling the World

Otavalo

With a not so quick trip to the border and farewells to Colombia, we were off to start our Ecuadoran adventure. Our first stop would be the highland market town of Otavalo.  After many changes of collectivos (shared taxis that leave when they´re full) and a long-distance bus ride, we arrived in Otavalo after the sunset.  While most buses we´ve rode have dropped us off at a bus station, this one dropped us off on the side of the Pan-Americana. Walking through a strange town with a rough map and a compass had served us well in the past, but since we had no point of reference and it was dark, panic was just around the corner. Luckily, a friendly indigenous Otavalan named Patricio showed up instead. He offered to show us to our hostel, chatting away about the native people of the region as we zigzagged through the city. Since we had been walking in the opposite direction that he led us, we were quite glad to have his assistance and to know that the hospitality we had been shown on our trip was not specific to Colombia. The next day was Saturday, and in Otavalo that means market day.  While the main square of town has an everyday market where the indigenous people sell their hand-crafted goods, on Saturday they come from all over the region to sell their wares, socialize, and fill the city with a wide variety of crafts, textiles, and food.  The result is a colorful spectacle where there is always something to see, smell, or haggle over.  After the craziness of the market, we were happy to relax on the rooftop terrace of our hostel which, in addition to great views, also had two hammocks and a pool table.  We spent the rest of the day reading/napping in hammocks and teaching Laura how to play pool. Otavalo was a great introduction to Ecuador.

Popayan/Pasto/Ipiales

The White City

White-washed walls, cobble-stone streets, and tree-lined plazas, Popayan was colonial Colombia at its best. The former capital, also known as ¨The White City,¨ Popayan was our home for two days before saying goodbye to Colombia.  While we enjoyed walking the streets and grabbing drinks with new friends, the highlight of our stay was the nearby thermal springs in Coconuco.  These ´healing´ sulphuric baths tucked away in the mountains were a perfect way to relax after many long bus rides.  We forgot our camera so you´ll have to take our word for how beautiful it was.
Refreshed, we hopped a bus to the Colombian/Ecuador border.  This stretch of the PanAmerican sees the most violence and robberies at night so we broke up our trip by staying the night in Pasto. Besides being stopped by the military for routine searches, we only saw beautiful mountains and valleys.  Pasto was a typical hectic city and we only stayed long enough to sleep and eat a delicious breakfast of pancakes and fruit.
Our last stop before crossing the border was Ipiales, an interesting city of steep streets and a stunning church perched atop a gorge. We gave ourselves an hour to explore and soak up the last bits of Colombia before heading to the border.

View from El Morro in Popayan



Little puppy sitting next to Oliver on our 6 hour bus ride from Popayan to Pasto



Break for Jugos Naturales con Papaya, a delicious frozen drink served all over the country.

View from the bus. We´d have more but it´s super bumpy

Iglesia las Lajas in Ipiales

Waterfall at las Lajas

Overall we really enjoyed our stay in Colombia.  The people were extremely friendly and helpful and though we felt like gringos, we always felt welcome.

Salento

Valle de Cocora

Salento. Even the name exudes relaxation.  Nestled in the mountains of the Zona Cafetera, Colombia´s main coffee region, Salento was the perfect place to decompress. Gorgeous scenery, afternoon thunderstorms, and friendly locals beckoned us to stay a couple days longer than planned.  Whether hiking in the Valle de Cocora, playing cards over beers, or touring a local coffee farm, the magic of Salento was everywhere. 

Salento


Our first day we hopped a jeep to the Valle de Cocora, a stunning valley of wax palm trees set against lush mountains. The hike took us from the valley floor to jungle terrain and while the pictures don´t do the area justice, words convey even less. While waiting for the jeep in the main square, we met a nice couple from Latvia, Ines and Cristina, who seemed more surprised by the lack of English speakers than we were.  While our Spanish is slowly improving, it is surprisingly better than most travelers we´ve met.  We make a good team since Oliver speaks better than he understands and Laura understands better than she speaks. We´ve been trying new foods, even if we are unsure of what they are, to mixed results.  Some like the trucha, or trout, turn out to be tasty while others, such as the aguapanela con queso, a sweet hot medicinal broth served with a loaf of bland cheese for dipping, not so much.  We´ve met loads of friendly travelers almost everyday from the Baltic to Australia to Singapore.  We´ve especially enjoyed swapping travel tips, perspectives, idioms for bodily functions, etc. over local beers.  Though not normally coffee drinkers, when in Colombia, do as the Colombians.  One of the highlights of our stay was a tour of the organic coffee farm, La Finca Don Eduardo, where we were introduced to the surprisingly delicious cafe con limon, coffee with fresh-squeezed lime(also good for colds!) While Salento is a place where you can stay longer than you planned, you never feel like you´ve overstayed your welcome.

Our hiking buddies, Cristina and Ines.

We had to cross many a rickety bridge on our hike through the jungle.

Rear view of our room

In addition to coffee, the finca, or farm, also grows pineapples, bananas, plantains, strawberries, tobacco, bamboo, oranges, lemons, limes, blackberries, etc. all interspersed together.








Cafe con limon



Bogota/Zipaquira



Bolivar Square.  What you don´t see is thousands of pigeons.


Blending the old and the new in colorful latin fashion, Bogota is a city where you better pay attention or you´ll get run over..literally.  We stayed in the oldest hostel in the old part of the city, La Candelaria, a charming bright neighborhood with cobblestone streets where you are just as likely to see a man in a suit as in a poncho.  Our first day was spent wandering the city, getting lost, trying to find a bank, sampling the food and generally getting acquainted with our temporary home. We toured the Museo del Oro, one of the most important gold museums in the world. Besides viewing exquisite pre-Columbian pieces, we also got to meet some children on a field trip who were more interested in the gringos than the actual gold.  Our second day we were more adventurous and took the local transportation to Zipaquira, a sleepy little town north of Bogota, and home of the famous Catedral del Sal, an underground cathedral built from an ancient salt mine. Though the entire tour was in Spanish, the beauty of the cathedral spoke for itself. However, we paid a bit extra for the miner´s tour, where we donned hard hats and headlamps and descended into the dark depths of the mine.  This tour was also in Spanish, a fact that made us a little worried when during the introduction the only words we could pick out were ´very important´and ´dont do this.´ Luckily, a couple people in our group translated for us.  During this part, we were forced to dig for salt and Laura even got to light some ´dynamite.´ One of our translators, Rodrigo, took the bus home with us, which turned out to be a huge help because all the buses were shut down due to a massive student protest.

The next day we boarded a bus to Salento where we learned 10 things about Colombian buses:

1. ´Direct non-stop´buses does not include stops for locals, driver lunch stops, and food vendors(though the latter can come in handy, see #7)
2. Sometimes they break down.  Ours died after a few hours.  Fortunately, they will try to squeeze you in on the next one.  We got to sit on the floor.
3. Expect delays.  Traffic jams, accidents, and landslides are common.  We watched a crew use dynamite to clear boulders off the highway from a mere 5 bus lengths away.
4. Don´t watch the road.  Unless, of course, you enjoy giving yourself panic attacks as you watch the driver narrowly miss everything in sight, including on-coming traffic.
5. The views are absolutely spectacular.  Lush valleys, steep peeks, cloud forests, coffee farms, men pushing donkeys, the list goes on.
6. The views are absolutely terrifying.  Often the only thing between you, your crazy driver, and plummeting to your death is barbed wire.
7. Bring food.  Problems seem much worse when you haven´t eaten in 6 hours and your blood sugar is nada.
8. Bring headphones or earplugs.  Unless you enjoy Colombian music blaring for hours on end.
9. Distances are relative.  It took us an hour to go 15 km.
10. Go with the flow and enjoy yourself.  You´ll look pretty stupid if you huff and puff over delays while the 5 year old sits on quietly on his mother´s lap.  Besides, we never would have enjoyed that beautiful Andean sunset if our bus had actually been on time.  Remember, you´ll get there...eventually.

More on beautiful Salento in the next day or two.  In the meantime enjoy these pictures of Bogota and Zipaquira.



Our very first hostel in South America, Platypus Hostel in Bogota.



One of the most important gold pieces ever discovered, it describes the ancient practice of a chief sacrificing gold, emeralds, and silver by throwing them into a lake.

Graffiti like this is everywhere in Bogota and Colombia, a testament to the ongoing struggle between the FARC and the para-military.

Friendly, and seemingly owner-less, dogs are everywhere in Colombia.  This one showed us the way to the salt cathedral.

One of many vaulted rooms in the salt cathedral, which stretches over 2 km.

Preparing to head into the mine.

Laura hard at work.  We had to mine 1 kilo of salt before they let us out.