Ciudades, Artistas, Restaurantes

Hola amigos!   Lo siento for our tardiness.  I am catching up with two posts – this one detailing our second half adventure in Ecuador, followed by thought process as it stands for our ongoing adventures.

A week after our last post we decided we had had an awesome experience living five weeks in Cuenca and needed to venture beyond Cuenca to explore more of the highlands, the amazonian oriente and the pacific coast.  And did we traverse the last five weeks from south to starting edge of Amazonia, to central highlands, and finally to the central coasts – initially day trips from Cuenca, then to Macas in the Oriente, Banos the vacation spot favored by Ecuadorians, Riobamba – amongst the volcanoes, and then Salinas to Puerto Lopez on the coast. We traveled by bus, an experience in itself, traversed the various little Ciudades to Pueblos and all the nature, artistas, and the restaurantes the region had to offer.

The beauty of Ecuador is its variety packed into a country the size of the state of Colorado.  Imagine Colorado having ocean front coast on the west, tropical jungle on the east, and lush green vegetation all in between – bingo thats Ecuador!  What follows in this post is a photographic journey as we experienced it.

Our San Diegan friends Curt and Pam joined us for a portion of our journey, and did we rock and roll those few days.  Our friends allowed us to voice our experience and we got insightful and valuable feedback related to San Diego vs Ecuador.

Ingaprica – the most preserved Inca and Canari ruins in Ecuador – about an hour north of Cuenca. The Incas only ruled Ecuador for around 150 years, at the end of which Spanish took over. But for thousands of years Cañari’s lived in southern Ecuador. When the Inca’s tried to conquer the Cañari they found it was easier to live peacefully together. The ruins have both architectures living side by side – with the Cañari using river stones and the Inca’s using volcanic stones.

 

Museo’s in Cuenca – from Museo de las Culturas Aborigenes – thousands of years old artifacts from various regions of Ecuador, to De Las Madres Conceptas – a nunnery with Catholic religious art, to Todas Santos – Inca/ Cañari ruins in Cuenca, and more

    

Each town, even though just a few miles apart, have their own unique character especially their own distinct clothing – including yours truly.

   

One weekend heavy rains in El Cajas caused the river Yunancay outside our condo to crest – can certainly relate to the power of flash floods.

Decided to head to volcanic mud baths on the outskirts of Cuenca, as though we needed more color to our skin

Giron – our adventurous hike to a waterfall in Giron 45 mins south west from Cuenca. Absolutely gorgeous scenery with a zip line that took you a mile and a half from the waterfall to the mountain across, an excruciating hike up that mountain and zip line back to the waterfall – awesome experience.

We followed up with a second trip down that area to Yungilla valley – exploring potential places to live an hour away from Cuenca.  Our Airbnb host Craig graciously accommodated us at his house with a fabulous view.  By the end of the weekend we became good friends along with Derrylyn whom we met through him.

Another day trip to El Cajas National park – hiked around a lake through a beautiful forest.

Ventured to Deportivo Cuenca soccer stadium, part of the Ecuadorian soccer league.  Vendors selling local jerseys and caps for $5.  Curt got the largest size XXXL Ecuadorian size that barely fit – hilarious.  Exhilarating soccer match – pure south American style.

Oriente – Macas at the edge of Amazon rain forest.  At the foot of active volcano Sangay, Macas is at the starting edge of the Amazon rain forest at 3,500 feet elevation looking up at the snow peak volcano at 17,300 feet.  Through the recommendation of a local ex-pat living in Macas we went on a rain forest medicinal plant tour with a Shaur Indian Shaman.  Reeta reluctantly agreed to go on the tour, ended up having the most amazing experience.  She even dug her hand into a termite mound and had thousands of termite ride up her arm.  Really proud of her!!!

Added to my bucket list to experience an Ayahuasca ceremony – drinking the hallucinatory plant/vine tea blend under the guidance of our Shaman, for a long night spent in deep connection to a higher intelligence and an understanding of one’s true self

 

 

Banos – Vacation retreat for the Ecuadorians.  To make our trek from the east to the coast we had to go over the central highlands, making our way through Banos and Riobamba.  Banos is a beautiful tourist town with spectacular waterfalls.  Made our way up to the tree house – swing to the end of the world.

 

   

Puerto Lopez, Isla del la Plata, Playa de Los Frailes – Finally made it down to the pacific coast to the small fishing town of Puerto Lopez.  Isla del la Plata a small island 45 min boat ride is called the poor man’s Galapagos – as you do not have to fly 400 miles to experience many of the same species – blue footed boobies, frigate birds, turtles, and whales.

 

Back to Cuenca – we hosted a lunch to all the wonderful friends we made over the 2 months we were in Ecuador.  All truly just wonderful people – made our journey so exciting for us.

We had mixed feelings leaving such joy, camaraderie, tranquility, and peace.  We were excited to head home and work on sorting out our priorities.  We will definitely go to Cuenca again – just when is being worked out in our minds