Lessons from South America

I spent our last day in Mompiche contemplating what I had learned on this 6 week adventure and remembering the interesting and wonderful people I met.

1) I married the right guy. Not to be a sap, but every adventure (i.e., this trip) I really wished he were with me. Whenever you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

2) Often the things I fear are opportunities that become an amazing experience. I was a little apprehensive of traveling to South America because of others' stories and warnings, not because I had experienced it. I learned that there were good intentions in others' warnings, but that there was nothing to fear. I had so many amazing experiences and discoveries.

3) I learned the extent of my extroversion. It's less than I thought. Interacting with people so regularly was EXHAUSTING.

4) Spanish is exciting. I'm motivated to learn and have found it's relatively easy (compared to say, German, or Russian) to pick up

5) Every person I talked to felt like they did not have enough time - whether their trip was 2 weeks of 12 months. I tried to stay in the moment to experience and enjoy the time I had

6) Disconnecting was important for me. Not checking my email or chats every day, and not being in constant contact with the world was refreshing and rejuvenating. This also helped me stay in the moment (#5). Reminder to disconnect for periods of time helps to reset and reflect.

It's good to be home.

More adventures to come!

Banos and Mompiche...

As we are wrapping up our trip, I'm not sure if it was the feeling ready to go home, the temporal location of these towns in our itinerary, or the actual towns that made them less appealing to me. We spent 3 days in Banos. One day with mildly crappy weather where we got massages and manicures for $20, one day trip to the jungle, and one day catching up on post-cards, talking to my husband, dipping in the thermals, and organizing myself for the night bus trip (eek!)

Highlight of the time in Banos was the jungle tour. Cali and Daniel decided to do white water rafting and because I'm probably the opposite of an adrenaline junkie, Holly and I went our separate way to do the jungle. We left around 9am and it was a packed day! We started out at an animal rescue - mostly monkeys and birds being rehabed back to health.

Holly is skeptical of the steamed fish...

We had a traditional lunch of fish steamed in a banana leaf and then trekked through the jungle to the "Hidden Waterfall."

The Hidden Waterfall

It was huge!! We took the path less traveled, which was nice in some ways (no other tourists) and not so nice in others (more overgrown). I completely wiped out in a stream... because yes, part of the path was up said stream.







Next, we went to an indigenous village where 12 year old Shakira painted Achyote on my face and she was adorable. We conversed in my baby Spanish and she chased me down while we were leaving to give me a gift (a piece of jewelry she had made out of shells). Then, we got into a tree-canoe for a ride down the river at dusk. This was so tranquil and meditative. Even with the group of 5 or 6 of us, we were silent and just took in the amazing nature.

We ended our day at a cacao farm making (roasting and grinding) our own cacao! We drank the most amazing hot chocolate and ate some snacks made by the farmers.

There is a delicious milky sweetness around each of the beans. 

Grinding up cacao! 100%...

Our last day in Banos we all went for a dip in the thermals, and got ready for our trip on the night bus from Banos to Atacames - up on the coast west of Quito. We also had to say good bye to Dan and Monique, which was sad. I enjoyed speaking some German with Monique and I could almost understand everything Dan said by the end of the week with him (that Australian accent, holy cow! almost a foreign language). The bus left around 10pm and arrived in Atacames at 5:45 in the morning. We then hung out at the bus station until our bus to Mompiche arrived at 7:20 and we finally arrive in Mompiche at 9:30 in the morning. We slept literally all day, got up for dinner and then went back to bed.

town of Mompiche ends in the ocean

the main street through town

Mompiche was a strange place. Suffice to say that within a few hours of arriving, we were in on the town gossip - the names of the street dogs, who was sleeping with whom, and had all inhaled enough secondary pot smoke to be set for the day. And that was about it. We walked along the beach, Cali took surf lessons, we fed the street dogs (and itsy kitten), and spent 30 minutes with 2 brothers speaking only Spanish... kind of. There was a lot of nothing going on. For some people this could be very relaxing, but it was not my kind of relaxing (which I am capable of, promise). Also, it continued to be overcast and rainy, so that was an added downer. Time to go home.

Cali practicing the stance

the beach in Mompiche

A random band of internationals hikes the Quilotoa Loop

I have about 2-3 more posts to wrap up my South American adventures and need to be clear for upcoming travels! Where was I? Ah yes, in Ecuador, embarking on a self-guided trek to a volcano crater...

I think I've mentioned how one of my favorite and simultaneously least favorite things about traveling is meeting new people. It is really difficult to constantly be in small talk mode, but it's also fascinating hearing peoples' stories, sharing advice and tales. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed the Quilotoa Loop so much. We started a group of 3 women and ended a group of 10 people and 1 puppy, we all got past the small talk, and it kind of felt like a mini-family.

Holly and I left Quito headed for Latacunga via the main bus station. While walking through the station, we picked up an Aussie, Daniel, or Dan the Man, Damn Daniel = Damniel, and any other name variations you can think of. The three of us (Holly, me and Daniel) met Cali in Latacunga before the trek, wandered around town a bit, had dinner, were interviewed on tape by local high school kids who are taking a class in tourism and had a project to make an add for visiting Latacunga.

Squadanas! (Squad of Bandanas) Holly, Daniel, Cali, Jess

The next morning the four of us (me, Holly, Daniel, Cali) met a woman from Munich, Germany (Heidi) and man from Basel, Switzerland (Stefan) on the bus that dropped us off at the starting point of the trek, a town called Sigchos.

Day 1:

Cali the pig whisperer

The (now) 6 of us (me, Holly, Cali, Daniel, Heidi and Stefan) hiked the first day from Sigchos to Isinlivi. It felt like a pretty short trek - only 14k, but the last 5k or so was in the pouring rain, which was a real downer. But the views of the Ecuadorean Andes were paralleled only by the views of the Peruvian Andes from the month prior and our hike to Machu Pichu.  We stayed at an adorable hostel that owned a llama (?!?!) called LluLlu Llama, with delicious food, a composting toilet, and hot showers. They literally greeted us at the door with towels, free hot tea and coffee, which was a life saver after the rain hike. Also at the hostel, we picked up our next 4 group members - Tina and Ian a middle aged couple from Ontario, and their college aged son Gordon, as well as Monique, another woman from Berlin, Germany.

Dan taking a short rest on Day 1 - before the rain started!

Day 2:

Hiked by this mountain stream for a bit on Day 2

Consisted of another 15k from Isinlivi to Chigchulan. The scenery was even better, which is mind blowing. AND the weather was beautiful today. Unfortunately, Cali came down with Montezuma's Revenge, so we left her in the capable hands of the LluLlu Llama staff and essentially traded her for Paul - another U.S. citizen (Nashville). This was my favorite day of hiking, probably because the weather was so fabulous. I mostly just want to share photos from today because I think the views were unparalleled by anything else I saw in South America.  

One of the amazing views on Day 2

Amazing view number 2 from Day 2

Had to cross this bridge - terrifying! No rails!

Heidi bonds with a baby pig towards the end of Day 2

Gordon and Stefan relax after our Day 2 - we beat the rain! 

Day 3: Chigchulan to Quilotoa. Today, we picked up a puppy from another group of hikers who are going the reverse route from us and say she followed them from Quilotoa to Chigchulan. She followed us the whole way back to Quilotoa AND she was reunited with her family just inside the city limits. Today was our longest day of trekking. It was really exhausting, we've been arriving just after lunch time each of the other days and today we didn't arrive until almost dinner. With the high altitude and mountain hiking, I was spent!!! Cali arrived safely by taxi in Quilotoa and rejoined us at the hostel.

Gordon bonds with our new puppy

Some of the trails we hiked looked like this! 

Made it to the Quilotoa Crater Lake!

Our entire group took a van/bus back to Latacunga on the morning of Day 4 and then Daniel, Monique, Holly, Cali, and myself are continuing on to Banos. Heidi, the Canadians, and Paul are headed to Cotopaxi Volcano and Stefan is heading home. Holly and I have to figure out how to spend our next week before we leave. WOW, feels so soon and so ready to see Tim!

The town of Quilotoa with the mountains in the background