Ecuador - Equator!

Mar 6

8 min read

Woot!! I finally made it to the southern Hemisphere! I can’t explain why, but this was a BIG goal of mine - to finally step foot south of the equator. I’ve been close many times. In Senegal, in the Philippines, and in Colombia. But I just never quite made it south enough.

Once I arrived in Quito, I headed to my hostel to get settled in. The hostel had its own tour agency so I checked to see what they offered and went ahead and booked something for the next day. Well, unfortunately I made a big booboo and forgot to change my clock to Quito time…so at (what I thought was) 6am I got a text asking if I wasn’t coming and that I would lose my payment if I didn't show up in 5 minutes. Oooops 😅 I got myself ready in 5 minutes and headed out the door. I got some mean looks (rightfully) by the Germans in the group, but buddied up to them during the course of the day.

Our first stop was at a little bakery in Cayambe known for their bizcoches - a type of yeast cookie/ baked good, which is baked twice (hence the name).

Stop two was the Equator Museum where we learned about the actual meanings of north (left) and south (right), about how the equator was first measured, how the indigenous were way ahead of their time, and how life in Ecuador has been dictated by the sun for thousands of years. (There are no seasons. So, the sun always rises around 6am and sets around 6pm. No major changes). Also: only from the equator are you able to see the complete night sky, no matter what time of year!

Next up was the Poncho Market in Otovalo. Here we had time to meander and shop. There was everything from handmade ponchos and sweaters to jewelry, musical instruments, Panama hats (that are actually originally from Ecuador!), sweets, and snacks. Since I was expecting chillier weather, I was on the hunt for a cozy sweatshirt… and found a perfect fit!

Stop 4 was the Cuicocha crater lake. The name is quechua (the indigenous language) and stands for cui = guinea pig, and cocha = lagoon. The lagoon is considered a sacred place and visited for many of the local festivals and celebrations.

The next day I decided to switch hostels. The first place had super great ratings and was also listed as a party hostel…. Well… it was a super good party hostel lol. The second spot was much quieter and had an amazing view of the city from its restaurant. So, I enjoyed my breakfast overlooking the city before heading out for a free walking tour. We went to the cathedral where we saw the various animals in place of gargoyles, visited the university library with a great rooftop view, the main plaza, and finally a chocolate shop for a quick tasting.

The walking tour was followed by a bus tour to “The Middle of the Earth”, which lies about 40 minutes outside of Quito. I had fun taking my classic I’m-at-the-equator shots and hanging out with some other visitors from Brazil and Argentina. For dinner I hit up one of the restaurants my guide had suggested going to for one of the local specialties: Locro de Papa - a thick, hearty potato soup, usually served with some crunchy corn (think corn nuts) on the side.

Latacunga Life

Time for my volunteering stint! This time around I was going to be helping out at an English language school in the town of Latacunga. It’s about an hour drive south of Quito. Once I got there I met up with my host/ the owner of the school. She showed me the apartment (I had the whole place to myself for over a week!), walked me around town to see the most important spots in the historic district, and then took me out to lunch! It was a super sweet surprise and a wonderful way to have some time to get to know Vero. After lunch I had a little time to settle in before heading over to the school for my first volunteer shift. The job there was pretty easy going - talking to students, helping them out with their worksheets, and only speaking English :)

The first few days in Latacunga were super chill and chilly. I was so glad I had bought that sweatshirt at the market! I enjoyed wandering around town, checking out the local produce and meat market, and just seeing what kind of stores were close by. I also went by some of the suggested restaurants and ended up having dinner at one on bingo night. I joined a family that was celebrating a birthday and we had a great time playing for little trinkets. What I also couldn’t miss out on was trying ice cream with cheese. Yup, it’s a thing in Ecuador (and Peru too). And you know what, it’s not half bad! I also tried some traditional fish stew which was pretty good and some tasty Bolones (mashed potato stuffed with meat and/or cheese, rolled into a ball and fried). However, my absolute favorite was the empanadas. Think flaky puff pastry dough filled with melty cheese and fried to perfection…YUM!

Baños

Banos was a town I had been told to visit to go see the beautiful waterfalls - so I went! It was a few hours' bus ride away but I got there just in time for a late breakfast and to catch one of the local tour buses. Now, this town doesn’t have regular tour buses. No. Their buses are freakin’ open windows, look like trolleys, and have the music blasting. They are party central! There were a couple of planned stops including the option to zipline across a gorge, to go on a short cable car ride, and to buy candy. I skipped all of those since the waterfall was all I really wanted to see. It was so worth it and impressive to see! After the tour I grabbed lunch at a little local eatery. Soup, a glass of fruit juice, a whole fish with rice and salad for a whopping $2.50. Yep, that’s right! And it was soooo good too! After lunch I walked around and found this little garden and cave to visit. It was quiet, peaceful, and had some beautiful flowers. Bonus: all guests get to feed the donkey, so that was fun :)

Quilotoa

This was another spot recommended to me that I knew I wanted to visit. An old volcano crater with a beautiful lagoon and gorgeous views. However, since it’s pretty high up (3914m) and the weather changes quickly, I was told to get there as early as possible. So, I took the 7 am bus and got there by 9 am. The bus ride itself was super picturesque and offered a display of the gorgeous landscapes (as well as the various country odors…). Once I got to the quiet town, I grabbed a coca tea to help with the altitude, since I was really feeling it that day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite shake it so the planned hike around the crater didn’t happen. Instead, I walked about a quarter of the path, found a nice spot to sit, and did some painting. Not only was it super relaxing, but probably also the smart thing to do. Because sure enough by 11 am the clouds were rolling in, and they were rolling in QUICK. By the time I had packed up my things and headed back to the town to grab the next bus, the view of the crater was completely blocked by fog and it was getting chilly. So, home I went.

Cotopaxi

For the final part of my Ecuador experience I wanted to gift myself some me-time. So, I booked a few nights at a hotel in the Cotopaxi National Park. Wow, was it worth every penny! The views were stunning and the vibes so completely tranquil!

I started this part of my Ecuador adventure with a short hike up to the Refugio - the last manned spot on the Cotopaxi volcano at 4864 m. Nanci was an absolutely amazing guide! You can tell her heart belongs to the mountains. She grew up in the area and knew every little thing about the volcano and the national park. She also did an amazing job managing our group, which consisted of myself, another woman from the US a few decades older than me, and a young guy from the coast of Brazil who had never seen snow or been to a mountain. Although we didn’t quite make it to our original goal, we did make it to the Refugio, which was super cool. This is the place where people who end up climbing Cotopaxi stay, so they can leave for their mountaineering adventure around midnight, then summit by 6 am, just in time for the sunrise, before heading back down and getting into town by the afternoon. It was impressive to see people with their full mountaineering gear heading up there! A little scarier was seeing some police officers head up to the Refugio… one of the mountaneerers who had just gotten back to the Refugio after having submitted Cotopaxi had a heart attack and died on the mountain. It was those police officers’ job to transport the person down to the city and figure out the logistics with notifying family… It was pretty humbling to see!

Anyway, after our short hike up to the Refugio Nanci dropped me off at my lodging while the others headed back to Latacunga. Now, when I booked the hotel I saw that they offered a guided bike ride as well as horseback tours. I think we all know that I’m not a big horse girly. But, since Jael and I had had such a good time on the horses in Costa Rica I figured: why not?! I went ahead and booked both tours. So, after a wonderful nights sleep in my little cabin with a wood fire and view of the volcano, I enjoyed the wonderful breakfast and headed out to meet Gringo, the horse I was going to be riding. Gringo seemed nice enough, and we got off to a good start. I was having an incredible time enjoying the vast plains and breathing in the super fresh air.

Unfortunately, my blissful, quiet horseback ride came to an end pretty quickly… About 10 minutes into our ride I got chilly (the clouds move FAST out there!) and told the guide I wanted to stop to put on my jacket. We stopped, I grabbed my backpack, and WOAH! Gringo was NOT happy! He started bolting off, which of course startled me. I was able to think quick and knew I needed to use the reigns to slow him down. That worked for a sec, but something was still spooking him. Then it dawned on me. My backpack had some straps hanging off of it, which were touching Gringo’s neck. That must have been what spooked him. So, my first thought was to chuck the backpack. Get rid of what was bothering him. I tossed the pack. But somehow in that movement I lost balance and/or Gringo got spooked by seeing the backpack fly, and I got catapulted to the ground. Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet! I was super worried I had broken something, though. After I caught my breath and had a sip of water, I tried to get up - successfully. But I was in pain. The guide kept trying to encourage me to get back on the horse…umm... that would be a firm NO on my part. I was just worried about having some kind of injury. Luckily after some more rest I told the guide I felt good enough to walk back to the lodge. And so ended my dreamy horseback ride through the plains of the Cotopaxi National Park… I got back, grabbed a bag of ice, and chilled in my room for the rest of the day. I was also lucky to have made some friends the day before. And one of the cool peeps was a nurse! Since I was still pretty worried something could have happened, I asked him to check me out real quick. He gave me the all clear and said to keep icing and resting - and that I did. So, due to my dramatic episode with Gringo, I refrained from any other activities and simply enjoyed painting and reading at the lodge.