Life Back in the States

Well, the last few days have been filled with random errands and adjusting to life back in the United States. Relatively speaking, it has been going fairly well. I have enjoyed getting to spend time with my family and the few friends who are in town. Today I had lunch with my favorite Tampa friend, David Diaz. It was great to reflect on my trip and also spend some quality time with a good friend.

I am doing my best to begin moving forward from my trip, while also retaining the memories and life lessons learned throughout it. With that said, this will be my last posting on my "Traveling Ecuador" blog. I have recieved many compliments about this blog and am very happy to hear that there were so many people enjoying it. When I mentioned to people that I was heading to Ecuador to live for three months, I got some reactions of concern and confusion. I hope that being able to read my stories and live my trip along with me has opened up some minds and allowed those of you that knew nothing about the country to see what wonderful things it has to offer.

If you are ever organizing a trip to Ecuador, or just have questions, please feel free to email me. Once again, thank you for following along with me through this blog, and thanks for all of the support throughout the trip. I will make sure to invite you all along on my next adventure, back to South America or wherever it might be!

Chao!

Leaving Third World in First Class

I made it to the airport 3 hours before the flight and got in line to check my luggage. The lady at the counter told me no problem about the third bag (my paddle bag), it’ll just cost me 100 dollars. Well, I definitely was not in the mood to pay 100 dollars for the bag. If I was going to do that I might has well brought my kayak home. So I told her that I would turn it into 2 bags, if there was no other way to make the price cheaper. She handed me my bags back and I proceeded to pull out my boat bag, and stuff my paddles and gear bag all into the same huge boat bag. It turned into one huge, awkward, bulky bag, with the keyword being one. She checked that and my other bag and I didn’t get charged at all!

As I am waiting at the gate to board the flight, I hear my name over the loudspeaker. My first thought was of Zoe Savage, and how that was probably how she heard her name before they arrested her. They didn't want to arrest me though, they just wanted to know if I would like a courtesy bump up to business class! I of course said yes, and that was definitely the right answer.

I had never ridden in first class before, but now that I have its going to be hard to go back. Immediately I got served a glass of champagne, followed by them taking my dinner order from the special “business class menu.” I was like a little kid playing with all my new toys. There were buttons that made your seat recline, adjust the lumbar support and even bring out a footrest. Then of course there was the private TV that swiveled out from between the seats that allowed you to choose from 7 or so different movies. They gave me all kinds of free little goodies, alcohol of course being one of them. All in all, if I was going to have to leave Ecuador, that was the best way to do it.

The man sitting next to my on the flight was an Ecuadorian mechanical engineer working for Volkswagen. We had a wonderful conversation (half of which was in English and the other half in Spanish) about job opportunities for American engineers in Ecuador. He gave me his card and told me to email him if I’m back in the country or after I graduate, whichever comes first. That of course got the ideas turning in my head…

Reagan was at the airport waiting for me as I arrived through the doors. I had to get a little cart to carry all of my stuff. With the bag and the paddles all stuffed together, I felt like I was pushing a cello through the airport!

(Photos courtesy of Reagan Jones)

Once Reagan gets back from class this morning, we'll head to lunch. My mom will then be here to pick me up and drive me the 4.5 hours back to Tampa. I will make my final post once I am back in Tampa. I feel that by then it will have truely hit me that my trip is over and I am home.

Te Faltaré Ecuador

Well, the day has finally arrived, and I am sad to say, but this will be my final blog from Ecuador. Throughout my time in this country, I have made some great memories and great friends. I am definitely sad to go. Over the past three months this has become my home, and it will be tough to leave it. I am however excited to see my friends and family back in the States, and plan on taking the next few weeks to do just that.

I spent most of the day yesterday packing up my things and making some final purchases. It rained pretty much the entire day, which kept me from seeing a few things that I had planned to. Oddly enough, I spent the evening with some girls fresh out of highschool going to bible school here in Ecuador for a year. They had moved into my hostel and invited me out for a drink (of coffee of course). All in all though it turned out to be a fun night with lots of interesting conversation.

This morning I woke up to a beautiful sunny sky, and was determined to get out and enjoy it. After an early breakfast, I headed over to the Old City. On Sunday mornings they close down the streets and there is live music and plays taking place throughout the plazas. I spent the morning enjoying the festivities and walking about. I also checked out a very interesting photography exhibit displaying photos that sculpted Ecuador's history.

The police were there ready for action just in case something might happen!

After my visit to the Old City, I headed to the Teleferiqo, which is a cable car that takes you high above the city. I was expecting a little place, but turns out it’s a full on amusement park. There was a huge line, and after waiting for close to an hour, I decided that I did not want to spend my final hours in Ecuador waiting in line. Instead I walked around the place, bought a couple more things and enjoyed the view of the city.

My flight leaves here at 6:45pm, but because I have way too much luggage, I am going to get there early and try to sweet talk them into not charging me too much for my overweight bags! Reagan will be picking me up from the airport in Miami. I will spend one evening hanging out with her, and then my mom will be driving me to Tampa in the afternoon. I will post again sometime soon after landing in the states.

Signing out from South America… See you in the States…

Big City Life in Quito

The indigenous population here is upset over Ecuador's likely agreement with the United State's Free Trade Agreement, referred to as the TLC here. This is the main reason for the roadblocks and unstable state of the country. This political situation that has left Ecuador in a ¨state of emergency,¨ had also left my plans in the same state. I had arrived into Quito with the intention of heading north to a national park close by and then to spend tomorrow at the famous Saturday market of Otovalo. Due to road closures, it was impossible for me to make it to the national park, and even if I could make it to Otovalo, it is highly unlikely that there would be a market because all of the vendors are taking place in the protest. Because of this, I had to spend lots of time in Quito, and to my surprise I have enjoyed it!

Yesterday morning I headed out to the Pahuma Orchid Reserve and cloud forest. It was a little over an hour bus ride to the reserve, on one of the only roads left to travel on. The reserve consisted of a number of hiking trails, mostly shorter trails leading to waterfalls. I hiked on the first one for about 30 minutes before arriving at a beautiful waterfall set back in the forest.

After hanging out at the waterfall for a while, I started to hike back when I saw a sign for another trail, with the words ¨sendero de adventura¨ (adventure trail). I decided this was probably something I'd enjoy so I started to make my way up it. I hiked for about 45 minutes on a reasonably adventurous trail until I came to a bunch of trees piled in the middle of this very narrow trail. I made my way around by literally climbing up and over these trees, going from clean to very dirty. I was ok with this at the time, since I was excited to get to the top of the trail. About 10 seconds later the trail turned really sketchy, requiring some rock climbing to continue. At this point I decided since I was by myself it was probably in my best interest to admit defeat and turn around. So I climbed over those dang trees again, getting even more dirty and continued down back to the first trail. I eventually came to another trail which led to a smaller, but just as nice waterfall.

Finally I wandered through the orchid garden trail, which contained many interesting plants, with a concentration on orchids. There was a fly catcher plant which when poked closed up and lots of other cool looking flowers.

Last night I went to the Teatre Sucre in the old town of Quito to see a concert by an indigenous group called Yarina. This group won the Native American music awards in 2005 and is one of the most successful indigenous groups in the world. Not only was the music amazing, but there were dancers in traditional wear which was also wonderful. It was interesting to see the crowds reaction to the group. This was no tourist event, and the Ecuadorians that came to see the show were very enthusiastic about the whole thing. They would scream and dance when the band played a song they knew, and reach out to the lead singer whenever he walked up close to the crowd. I enjoyed the music so much that I went out and bought a CD this afternoon. I think that concert will remain one of my more memorable experiences in Ecuador.

Today I headed out in an effort to see more of the city. In the beginning I wrote Quito off as a big city that I'd rather not spend much time in, but after my experience with the concert, I decided to give it another shot. In the morning I found a bagel place on the other side of town that served up awesome bagels as well as the Miami Herald. After catching up on the news I walked over to the Parque Carolina. The park was much nicer than I expected, with lots of space for all kinds of activities. There was a garden, basketball and volleyball courts, running track and much more. I walked around a bit, watching some soccer games and doing some people watching. After which I lied in the grass and read and napped. There was a large mall close by that I decided to take a look at. The mall was nicer than most malls I have been to in the States, and I decided to make a quick exit before I did any damage to my already minimal bank account. From there I went across town to the Parque Ejido, which contains Quito's largest museum, El Museo Banco Central. I walked throughout the museum's archeological and art exhibits for a few hours. I am not that big of a museum person, but I enjoyed this one.

In the evening I went to a play of the Vagina Monologues, the only catch being that it was of course in spanish. This was so much of a non-tourist thing that the man next to me actually asked if I was Ecuadorian! I thought that was funny, but it was an Ecuadorian event, and I was the only foreigner there. I came across the small theater while I was walking around earlier in the day and decided it would be an interesting experience, which it definitely was. I probably understood about 50% of the words, however with the actions of the actors thrown in I figured out most of what was happening. It was definitely a humorous play to see in another language!

Prison Life

This afternoon I visited the women's prison in Quito with Clancy. It was definitely an experience! It is customary that you show up with some little gifts, so before entering we bought toilet paper, phone card, sodas, etc. In order to enter you have to have a name of someone who you'd like to visit. The names of many foreign prisoners are listed at the hostels. We chose to visit Zoe Savage, an Irish woman framed for drug trafficing. Before getting into her story, I must explain the social structure and environment in this prison. The place feels much more like a hostal than a prison, with different cells depending on how much money you are willing to pay for rent. There is a nice area, where Zoe lives, which has a locked gate at the front of the hall, and only has two or so people per ¨cell.¨ Her room has a striking resemblence to a college dorm room, with a bed and a loft and tiny closet, nicely decorated and very colorful. We visited the other two sections, which are much rougher. There, women are cramped 7-8 people to a room, allowing for 3 or so per bed. It was explained to us that these sections, referred to as ¨the back¨ are where the drug and alcohol use takes place. Another interesting aspect to the prison is the variety of goods being sold there. Its like a little market, including a mexican resturant, bakery, small goods store and much more. Kids run free throughout the place. These are kids of prisoners growing up in the prison. The majority of the women there were Ecuadorian, however there are a fair number of foreigners, mostly there for drug reasons, some of which are guilty and some of which, like Zoe, are innocent. Many of the prisoners , while not allowed to, have cell phones and even internet. Throughout our conversation Zoe recieved many phone calls from friends and family in Ireland. It seems to be all about how much money you have to bribe the guards. The other crazy thing about the place is that it is the highest secuirity prison in Ecuador, but prisoners run around pretty freely, with the drug users and murders mixed in together. However, it must be said that I never once felt unsafe, and it truley did not feel like a prison, and much more like a rundown housing development/market. Many foreign prisoners mention that with the option of being tranferred to a prison in their home country, they would prefer to stay in Ecuador, due to the life with no bars, and instead dorm style rooms and a relaxed environment, relatively speaking. I wish I could post some photos of the place, but there were no cameras allowed inside.

We sat in the kitchen of Zoe's hall and she told us her story. She was working for the BBC and doing some filming in Ecuador. She was traveling with two cameramen, who were trafficing cocaine by lacing it in all in the cameras. While at the airport, she heard her name, and that the authorities were looking for her, over the loadspeakers . She was expecting that maybe something was wrong with her ticket, or some other minor problem. They proceeded to arrest her, giving her no options to do anything, not even a phone call. Meanwhile the two men, knowing what the overhead announcement was about, fled the airport and have not yet been found. Zoe was forced into cells with men in other jails, and escaped rape from guards twice. Finally, after 3 and a half weeks, she was allowed a phone call. Her family had considered her lost and/or dead, since even the embassy was not able to find her. This was over three years ago. The Irish government has become involved and she mentioned that she thinks she may get out in 4 months, however her sentance is suppose to be 8 years. She even mentioned that Oprah Winfrey has caught wind of her story and is trying to do a piece on her. I say trying because when Oprah came to Ecuador to visit Zoe, neither she nor the cameras were allowed inside. Zoe will also be publishing a book on her story upon her release. She has two kids and a husband at home back in Ireland. It was a very enlighting experience, and if I had more time I would visit again. She spoke about how inside the prison you cannot trust anyone, and no one is really your friend, so it is nice when people like us visit, because she feels it is the only time she can truley be herself. I can tell you one thing for sure though, I will be checking my bags thoroughly before loading the plane this Sunday...

Hasta Luego Banos

(A regular scene in Banos, playing ¨foochie¨ outside of Kokopelli's)

Yesterday was a sad day for me. It was my official exit from the town of Banos, and my home for the past 5 weeks. It was very difficult for me to say goodbye to all of the wonderful friends that I had met there, as well as say goobye to a town that I have grown to love. My original intent for this blog was to have a way to show my friends and family my trip, but it has transformed into a journal for me as well, and a way to document and remember my trip. For this reason I would like to speak about the friends I have met in Banos, people I wish to never forget.

I will always remember....

¨Popo¨ (I don´t actually know his real name) for forcing me to speak spanish even when he could speak english and Oscar for showing me my first Carnival parade in Ecuador

Danny for teaching, or at least attempting to teach, me how to salsa dance

Jose for being such a shy guy until after he's had 5 shots of tequilla and Andres for his quite nature, but great friendship

Alex will no doubt always be remembered for his music, and his many private concerts for Keta and I

Javier, aka ¨Chami¨ for being an all around great friend, always willing to help and Tanja, (a Swiss woman who, like Keta and I, fell into the Banos spell) for putting some ideas into my head which led to you know what (which in actuality, you probably dont know...)

Manuella and Carlos at Kokopelli´s for always serving me up a good coffee and conversation

Enrique for being crazy and hyper at all hours of the day and Jaime for his marriage proposal that I unfortunately had to decline

Luis for teaching me to make a mad Caipirinha at his bar, Quillas

The stray dog with one brown and one blue eye for always following me around town

Last but not least Keta, my traveling companion, who decided to stay in South America longer and head to Peru. I wish her the best of luck and thank her for all the wonderful memories with her which I will never forget.

On Monday, my last full day in Banos, I went on a hike with Gail, who I met in Puerto Lopez and saw again in Banos. We hiked from the town up into the hills across from Tungurahua with the hopes of catching a climpse of the volcano. It was a nice relaxed hike in which we took our time and admired the scenery and view of the town.

While the clouds never did leave long enough for us to get to see too much of the volcano, we were able to watch a small explosion take place! Above the clouds emerged a dark cloud of smoke, arising from the volcano. It was a pretty cool sight to watch

My original plan was to leave Banos much earlier in the week, but due to the road block situation, I was unable to leave until yesterday morning and had to take the 10 hour route to Quito, through Tena, rather than the 3.5 hour one. In Tena I had to jump off the bus in order to leave my kayak with someone who it is being sold to. The bus waited for me, and upon my return we were on our way to Quito. It was a long ride, but with a pretty fun group, making it not too miserable. We watched a movie that had spanish subtitles along with spanish dialouge, and I was amazed at how capable I was at understanding the movie. I watched the entire thing and understood most of it. It made me realize just how much my spanish has improved over the past 3 months. We arrived into Quito around 10:30 and by 11:30 I was out at the bar with Cecily.

Cecily is heading back to the united states this evening so we celebrated her final Ecuadorian breakfast at the Magic Bean, a slightly expensive but very delicious restuarant across from our hostel. This afternoon I am heading out with my friend Clancy (who I met in Tena) to check out the Quito Women's prison. He has been before and his stories intrigued me so I would like to see it for myself! Should be interesting...

19 Hours, 5 Buses and 3 Roadblocks Later...

(Hanging out in the hammocks on the roof top terrace in Puerto Lopez)

I arrived back into Banos this morning after a pretty crazy, exciting and long bus ride. I rode 5 different buses, for a total of 19 hours, and crossed through 3 tire burning road blockades. All the excitement took place on the third leg of my trip, from Guayaquil to Ambato. Apparently there are some very angry indigenous people who decided to build walls of burning tires to block the roads and make their point. Usually when I am traveling alone I make an effort to meet someone on the bus, just incase I might need some help. This trip he was young man named Richard, who works as a police officer in Guayaquil but was going to visit his family in Riobamba. It turned out to be very good that I met him, because he helped me a lot along this bus ride to understand what was going on, and also to get me through some of the roadblocks.

Around 1am we reached the first block. The bus stopped and we all got out to check out the scene. There were a few hundred indigenous people standing around a blockade of burning tires. Eventually we walked back to the bus and everyone discussed what to do now. The bus driver decided to take the bus through Santa Domingo, a 6 hour detour. Half of the bus was for that, and the other half decided just to walk across the blockade and try to find a ride on the other side. Richard and I decided to walk. As we were walking towards the blockade, I asked him what the people were so mad about. I did not understand much of what he said, except for the words ¨estados unidos,¨ i.e. the United States. After which he told me to put my hood on, not talk and hold onto his arm, which I did. We walked across the line, then just as we were about to continue out, another bus came through and was going to drive through the blockade. The bus had pooled together a little money and convinced the people to let the bus through. We hopped onto this bus as it was about to go through. The problem then was that while some of the people said it was ok for the bus to drive through, others did not, and some were angry. They had cleared a way through the tires, so that there was 7 foot or so opening. I wish I had a picture of this scene. Fire on both sides of the bus, angry indigenous people on the other side and here we were driving through it! Eventually we made it through and were on our way… well, for about 30 min. until we hit the next blockade. There were police at this one and it was simply a matter of waiting and we eventually got through. We hit one more blockade before finally arriving in Ambato!

From Ambato I simply had to ride one more hour back into Banos. I arrived around 8am this morning, 19 hours after I left Puerto Lopez!

Yesterday morning before I left, I visited the Los Frailes beaches, which were by far the most beautiful beaches I have seen in Ecuador. These beaches exist where the jungle meets the coast, allowing for some amazing scenery. I did a 5 kilometer nature walk that took me through the forest and onto the beaches. I walked along multiple deserted beaches, and hiked up to a look out tower where I was able to see for miles.

Puerto Lopez Continued

(View from the Isla de la Plata) As mentioned previously, yesterday I checked out the Isla de a Plata. While I believe it is far from the experience of the Galapagos, I still had a great time there. It’s an hour and a half boat ride out to the island, after which you head out on a few hour walk around. That island is probably the hottest place I have experienced yet in Ecuador, and it involved a decent amount of uphill hiking, making it a fairly tiring day. On our walk we were able to see a wide assortment of birds, including the frigate, red-footed booby, blue-footed booby and some others which I cannot recall the names. Below is a picture of a frigate (I think). After walking for a few hours, we loaded back onto the boat and headed for the snorkeling spot. It was very nice snorkeling, allowing for close up views of some very interesting and colorful fish. On the boat ride home we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a tropical whale surfacing. Along the way I met a wonderful woman, Gail, with whom I spent the evening hanging out and conversing with. This morning I woke up early to register for my classes for school in the fall. That’s right, I’m going back to school! After a fairly frustrating hour of getting circled around in the system, I gave up and headed for the San Sebastian cloud forest, located in the national park. I think this is probably my favorite of all the jungles/forests I have seen here in Ecuador. It was very dense and very unpopulated, allowing for viewing lots of wildlife, more specifically birds. My guide was very knowledgeable and very good at hearing the birds then finding them in the trees. The most exciting find for the day was watching a large red-headed woodpecker. We probably followed this bird for about an hour, and seeing the excitement it aroused from my guide alone made the trip worthwhile. It was amazing how well my guide knew this jungle. All of the sudden he would just take off into the trees, off the trail. Right as I was about to question whether we were lost, we would intersect a path and continue walking along it. With the forest being as it was, a lot of times the trail would just disappear into the trees. Eventually, however, my guide proved he knew what he was doing and we made out it. After emerging from the jungle we had an hour long hike down to the main road where we would catch our bus. Along the walk down we had some great scenic views of Puerto Lopez and the coast, from high up in the hills above. Upon arriving back in Puerto Lopez, I was able to enjoy my last sunset over the little fishing town, as well as my last sunset on the Ecuadorian coast. Tomorrow morning I will visit the beach in the national park, then catch an overnight bus back to Banos, hopefully finding Keta somewhere along the way…

Exploring the Pacific

The last couple days have been spent here in Puerto Lopez, exploring the surrounding scenery. Yesterday I headed out on a boat to Isla Salango. It was just me and an older woman, Bo, from Canada. The day was spent snorkeling, kayaking, fishing and overall just relaxing. We were also able to catch some glimpses of unusual bird life, including the Blue-Footed Booby, found below.

Today I headed out into the Pacific to do some Scuba Diving. It had been three years since my first and last diving experience, so I was a bit nervous starting out. It turned out to be fine, and the dive master was great and very helpful, even without speaking English. I did two dives lasting about 45 minutes each. On both dives I saw an array of animals and fish, including octopi, manta rays, eels and sea turtles. There was also a great variety of extremely colorful starfish as well as sea urchins.

Tomorrow I am heading out to check out the Isla de la Plata, known as ¨the poor man’s Galapagos.¨ Since I will not have time to see the Galapagos this trip, this other smaller island will have to suffice. From what I have heard from others, it is still a pretty neat place, and I am looking forward to seeing a few more of those Blue-Footed Boobies and other similarly exotic birds.

Surfs Up

(The view from my room in Mantanita)

The last few days have been spent lounging on the beach and doing some surfing. On Friday I spent most of the afternoon surf kayaking. It was even more fun than I had anticipated. The waves were pretty decently sized, and after a few tries I felt like I was really getting the hang of it. After having been out for about an hour, my friend Andres started to yell at me from his kayak. I paddled over to him and watched a pod of about 12 dolphins swim by, about 25 feet away!

(Keta riding one of the waves back into shore)

Yesterday I decided it was time to try out board surfing. Cecily and I decided to take lessons to try and learn. We spent the first 30 minutes practicing on the beach, on an imaginary surfboard drawn in the sand. Finally, we were ready to take it to the water. It was about as I expected and was pretty difficult to get standing up on the board. After falling down a lot, I managed to figure out how to stand up on the thing and had a good number of decent rides.

(That picture is not of me, but you can imagine that’s exactly what I looked like…)

Last night a few more friends from Banos came into town and we all hung out and had some drinks. It was great to be out in Mantanita with all of my good friends from Banos. I know that my time left with them is short, and it was great to see them some more.

This morning I woke up, had breakfast then headed to the beach. I decided to rent a board for a few more hours and try to get a little better at the surfing thing. I got a few more good rides in, as well as a few more beat downs. After I was worn out I did some laying out on the beach and officially got burnt.

A few hours ago I arrived in the town of Puerto Lopez. I decided it was time to move on from the Mantanita life, and explore somewhere else. The town of Puerto Lopez itself is nothing too exciting, but it is the basing point for exploring Ecuador’s only coastal national park, Machalilla. I traveled here on my own, but Keta, as well as Val, Kyle and Lydia should be joining me tomorrow evening. I plan on spending the day tomorrow visiting the park and checking out all is has to offer.

Chilling at the Beach

Yesterday Cecily, Pria and I all headed out for an afternoon of canyoning in some local waterfalls. It was a beautiful and exciting day! We repelled down three waterfalls, ranging from 15 to 100 feet! After canyoning we rushed home to change and catch the 7pm night bus to the coast. It was a long and hot 12 hour ride from Banos to Mantanita. We arrived into town around 7:30am this morning. Being sleep deprived from the bus ride, I spent most of the day relaxing and sleeping in a hammock. Mantanita is your typical hip surf town, very beautiful and very happening. I think I am going to enjoy spending some time just hanging out here and surfing, both in a kayak and on a board!

Tungurahua Refugio

After arriving back in Banos from my trip to El Altar, I ran into some friends I met in Quito, Pria and Cecily, who invited me to join them on a hike to the Tungurahua Volcano Refuge. It was something that I had been wanting to do for a while, so even though I was dead tired I decided to go along. I was under the impression that it was a fairly easy hike, but I was pretty wrong.

The hike was straight uphill on a very muddy trail for about 3 hours. The weather was ok, but very cloudy leaving us with no real view of the volcano once we reached the refuge. The wonderful thing about the hike was the cloud forest that you were hiking through. It was a very lush forest with lots of beautiful flowers along the way.

After finally reaching the top, we decided to make the hike a full on event and instead of taking a cab from the start of the trail, which is how we arrived, we decided to walk all the way home to Banos. This turned out to be a pretty long walk, taking us over 8 hours in total. The weather cleared up on the way down, allowing for some nice views of the surrounding mountains and the city. It definitely felt like a great accomplishment when we finally arrived back into town, and we were all very proud to have done it.

I am going to join Pria and Cecily on another adventure today going canyoning. After canyoning, Pria, Cecily, Keta and a bunch of my Ecuadorian friends from Banos are hopping on a night bus and heading to coast. We are going to bring along a few kayaks and do some surf kayaking in Mantanita. Time to get out of the altitude and onto the beach!

El Altar Trek

I arrived back in Banos a few hours ago from my wonderful, but exhausting trip to El Altar. I feel like I say this everytime I get back from something new, but this was definitely the most amazing place I have been able to see since arriving in Ecuador.The beauty of El Altar came at a cost though, and that cost was an extremely tiring 7 hour trek.

Last Thursday afternoon I left Banos and headed for the small town of Urbina, where I would spend two nights acclimating and preparing for my trek. I stayed at a hostel owned and run by Rodrigo, the guide that invited me on the trip. I spent those two days walking around the nearby hills and admiring the views of Chimborazo (top photo) and Carihuairazo (bottom photo).

Saturday morning we woke up early, had breakfast and headed for Riobamba. In Riobamba we picked up the last of our group, bought some food, and grabbed some needed gear from Rodrigo's office. Our group would consist of Rodrigo, Albaro, Marcos, Segundo, Fabian and myself. Of the six of us, Marcos and I would be the only ones not attempting to summit the mountain. Once we were all set to go, we took off for an hour and a half car ride to the starting point.

After a spectacular drive, we arrived at the beginning of our trek. We had horses carrying in all of the needed gear to set up the base camp for the guys attempting the summit. Because of this, we all only needed to carry on us what we needed for the day. The picture below is of me at the start of the hike, wearing my borrowed army rain pants and rubber boots (the picture was taken before I realized just how much work I was about to put my body through!).

The hike started off fairly easy, with a few hours of slightly sloping, and, like always in Ecuador, muddy trail. There was a beautiful view of a mountain ridge along with a waterfall coming down from it.

I was admiring this view when Rodrigo pointed out to me that our goal for the day would be to make it to the top of the ridge and behind the waterfall. Are you kidding me?! After about two hours of steep uphill trekking, exhausted, I finally made it to the top. The view made the climb so worthwhile. On one side there was a view of the valley that I had just trekked through and up out of (top photo with Marcos, Albaro and Rodrigo). On the other side there were views of multiple mountain ridges, along with a breathtaking view of the Sangay volcano (bottom photo).

We continued to walk this ridgeline for the next couple hours before finally arriving at camp just at sunset. The last hour of the hike for me was the hardest, and the altitude was definitely starting to get to me. It felt good to put my body through a physically demanding experience, but it felt even better to lay down for the night.

The next morning, Rodrigo, Albaro, Segundo and Fabian woke up at 4am to start their push for the summit. It must be noted that they were attempting to climb the tallest of the peaks in the El Altar range, referred to as the Bishop. This is known as Ecuador’s most difficult and technical climb. Marcos and I woke up with a clear view of the mountain and we were even able to find our friends traversing the glacier.

The clouds eventually rolled in, followed by rain and finally snow. Because of this we were unable to watch the rest of their summit attempt. Instead we spent the better part of the day inside the tent, awaiting their arrival. 11 hours after leaving camp, they finally made it home! All four of them had a successful summit! They were all extremely happy and it seemed like this had been a goal for each of them for a while. Below is a picture of Fabian, who apparently led the group to the summit, just after arriving back at camp.

While the day could have been better weather, the sunset made up for it. From the hill on which our campsite sat, we were able to catch some amazing sunset views. We were granted views of Sangay, Chimborazo, Carihuairazo as well as El Altar. Alongside the mountains was a sea of clouds floating in an orange sky.

This morning I arose from my tent to find yet another breathtaking view. It was Chimborazo peaking out of a clear sky.

We left camp around 9:30am with the intent of taking a nice and easy decent, allowing for lots more photos to be taken. While the clouds did roll in a little, there were still many moments of clarity allowing for some more great views.

Below the glacier of the Bishop peak lays a beautiful green crater lake. The clouds never did let up long enough for me to snatch a photo of the lake and the glacier, but I was able to still capture the beauty of the lake itself. The El Altar Mountains are filled with lakes similar to this one.

Off of the ridge we took some little side hikes. Below is a picture of Rodrigo climbing out from a hike down to another lake.

After a wonderful day of great weather and great views, we finally arrived back at the car, horses and all.

On the drive home we were granted one last parting view of El Altar.