The symbol of Banos, Cabellera de la Virgen, which is just situated in the northeast end of Banos.
After dancing Salsa with Wei(he is really a good dancer, with so many practice per day), he has left for Lima, Peru. Then on the next day, Yaseen arrived Banos.
Orginally, I didn't want to do cycling again, as Yaseen really wanted to do it, so we cycled again, but this time we chose another route. We cycled to the west to the zoo, along the way to the zoo, the view is also fantastic.
We could overlook a deep rocky canyon where underneath was the Rio Pastaza.
As my guide book recommends the zoo, so we paid 1.5USD for entrance. There were really lots of animals in the zoo, including puma, condor, spider monkey, bear and many tropical birds. When I was there, I really felt sorry for the animals, they should be in the jungle instead. Especially when I saw the puma keep walking around in the small area and he seemed so bored.
Puma in the cage.
The animals might feel the same, so when we bypassed the cage for the monkeys, they were ready to take a revenge. Some educatorians were too kind and they wanted to show their friendliness, so they wanted to shake their hands with the monkeys without realizing that it was a very dangerous move.
At first, when the women gave out their hands, the monkey seemed normal and really shaking their hands. But when the little girls wanted to do the same, the monkey just grab their hands and bited them. The first girl was lucky enough to escape without being hurted by the monkey. But the second girl still did the same, within a second, the monkey really bited a little piece out of her finger!
Though the girl bleed a lot and cried a lot, it was still lucky that she was able to pull out her finger out of the mouth of the monkey. I hope she would not get a rabies.
Later I found that I took a picture of how the 'crime' happened.
The angry monkey in the cage.
Other types of monkeys were permitted to jump around freely in the zoo.
After we left the zoo, orginally we wanted to climb the Las Antenas which could give a nice view of the Volcan Tungurahua. But then we bypassed the San Francisco bridge and found there was a group of people going to bungee jump. So we stopped and watch for that.
The bridge was really high, almost 130m down to the river, much more scary than the puenting I saw in the small bridge. So this one was also more expensive, 20-25USD for each jump, and the smaller bridge costed 15USD per jump. Though the people said it was much cheaper than in Australia or New Zealand (maybe costs at least 100USD), I still thought it was not worth for jumping and risking myself for the 'thin' ropes.
Looking down from Puente San Frabcisco.
But watching others do the bungee jumping was really exciting, some people took ages to jump, some girls screamed a lot even before they jump and boys said it hurted somewhere a lot when they jump.
The girl finally jumped with the push of the guide.
Many people were encouraging the boy to jump.
Then my friend, Yaseen was tempted to jump, but he could not decided to do it on the same day. Finally he did it after 2days. Glad that he is still alive now! As he said, he felt like he was going to suicide.
Yaseen was calling someone before he did the bungee jump!(Just like the advertisement, haha)The Austria boy, Martin is jumping!
After the Quilotoa Loop, Wei and I arrived Banos on last Sat. Banos is a little town situated at the bottom of the active volcano, Tungurahua(5016m). So one of the attractions here is volcano watching. If you are 'lucky' enough, you can watch the 'eruption' of the volcano.
Once we arrived here, after settling down in a hostel, we started our first activities here. That was cycling along the avenue of waterfalls($5 for around 6 to 7 hours).
Though it was raining, we still started our cycling. It was an easy route at first, because it was just going downhill and I didn't need to put into much effort. But when it went uphill, it was really a tough job, I would rather I sit on the bus instead of cycling.
However, cycling also had its advantage because we could stop by every waterfall, took our own pace, and didn't need to hurry back to the bus. We even met local people and chatted with them happily during our cycling. Besides that, we even became one of the attractions for the tourists on the Chivas(an open bus for the sight-seeing of tourists). Maybe because we looked a little bit funny with our helmets and bikes, so the tourists(local tourists from other parts of Ecuador) even took picutres of us.
The first waterfall we encountered, Chamana.
Besides, waterfalls, we also saw other activities going on along the road, like cable cart swinging between two mountains(Canopying), so the people can have a clear look of the waterfall.
Canopying, it costs only $1 for swinging across the river.
Another spectular waterfall, Salto de Agoyan.
Puenting, or bridge jump. Originally, I think this was scary enough, but when the next day my friend did the real bungee jump on a much higher bridge, this became not scary at all.
Another small waterfall along the road.
As we took too long time to stay beside the waterfall and chatting a lot, so when we finally arrived the last waterfall, Pailon del Diablo, it was already getting dark.
Orginally this route can go to Puyo, another city in the east of Banos, as it was too late and there was still 48km to go, so we started to hitch back to Banos. For the first 30mins, we couldn't find a pick up, so we just cycled along the dark road and I thought maybe we needed to cycled the 20km again until we get back to Banos!
Luckily, at last we were able to hitch a truck and stayed at the back. Though there was no cover at the back of the truck and it was so windy, we stayed with the local people and chated for a while. The feeling was much better than joining a local tour and stayed comfortably in the big tourist bus. It seems I like 'torture' myself, but by this way, I can also feel what the locals feel, but not just bypassing the country like the other tourists do.
As the road along the Quilotoa village was so beautiful, we decided to trek back Zumbahua from Quilotoa village, where we could also take a bus from Zumbahua back to Latacunga.
The road is 12km long, we used almost 4 hours to trek, but it was a good trek, as we could stop anywhere to take good pictures and meet the local people. The only bad things was we met some crazy dogs. Based on my last experience in San Pablo, this time we took a stick with us and also a big stone in case we needed to fight with the dog.
The trekking was fantastic, I will not forget all the nice people who said Hola to us, cute kids and the speical mountains and canyons. I cannot describe the beautiful scenery in words, please see my pictures below.
The landscape of Quilotoa is very different from others in Ecuador.
Are they lavender?
The local indigenous people in the wheat field.
A beautiful girl with a little sheep.
The curious kids looking out of the window.
The harding local people.
Just like a perfect yellow snowstorm.
A lovely and hardworking kid.
The canyon along the road, with local people burning grass deep down there.
After leaving Quito, I and Wei headed for south, and our first stop was Latacunga, where we would catch our bus to Quilotoa loop.
Quilotoa loop is a circle of area where situates many small indigenous villages. And there is the famous Quilotoa Crater Lake, with its emerald blue and green colours, it attracts quite a lot tourists. But the loop it siturated in a high altitude, which is usally above 3000m, so the weather is freezing here.
Orginally, I wanted to do biking around the loop, but after considering my physical strength and the possibility of renting a bike, I finally chose to take a bus instead.
We slept in Latacunga for a night, and then we headed off to Quilotoa village on last Thursday morning. After about 2hours on the bus, with the splendid view, we arrived the village in the early afternoon. And immediately treked down the beautiful lake.
The path going down the lake.
Going down was not a tough job, the only problem was the road was not paved and sometimes it was just like on the beach, so it was very slippery. I was really afraid that I would slide downhill.
The emerald blue Quilotoa lake and a donkey.
But the view of the Quilotoa lake was really breath-taking. It was so quiet and shining with green and blue colours. And it also had different kinds of beauty throughout the day. During the afternoon, it shined to its fullest with all its colours. When it came to the late afternoon, when all the mists were coming, the lake was just like a shy girl who covered herself with a white veil. So I really could not help staring at her for all the moments. It was so beautiful.
After about 45mins of trekking down, we reached a small peninsula where we picniced with a spectacular view of the lake
Two kayaks on the quiet Quilotoa lake.
Then we continued our path until down to the beach of the lake, where we found that we could kayak by $2 per person. The experiences of kayaking over the Quilotoa was incredible (although I was so afraid of the kayak would flip, as I could not swim), and we use about 45mins to kayak from the beach to another side of the lake. As there were no other tourists at that moment, and we could not see any other kayaks or boats on the lake, it just seemed like the whole beautiful lake belonged to us.
Kayaking on Quilotoa lake.
Although kayaking made my pants wet and my ass was just like sitting in the middle of water, I still recommended kayaking in Quilotoa.
Then we needed to hike back to the village, with the altitude(3850m), going back was a really tough job. I almost stoped to rest for every 10seconds! As it was getting dark and foggy, I just hoped we were able to get back to the village before dark.
The beauty of Quilotoa lake with a white veil.
Luckily, we finally arrived the village safely and were able to find a lovely family run lodge, Hostal Chosita. The 19 years old girl Blanca is very beautiful and cooked excellent. Although the night at Quilotoa was freezing, we had an excellent time here.
After today, I will be studying for spanish for 142 hours. Although my listening is still not good, but I am already able to communicate with the local people. And after learning so many grammers, I really need to go practising my spanish with the people.
Therefore, after today, I will start travelling. First I will go south of Ecuador, and continue to Peru.
Concluding my studying, I feel really comfortable to studying in Ecuador. As it is quite cheap compared with HK and there are so many opportunities for me to practise the things I learnt.
For the 142hours I study, I only paid about 5000HKD/640USD, and it is one to one lesson. It sounds really incredible to get so many hours of studying and with such a good quality in HK, but it is true in Ecuador.
I remember when I was studying in University, I could only get 3hours of lesson each WEEK, so for the hours I study here is just equal to a few year of studying in HK.
I have 3 teachers in total, each of them have different style, for my first teacher in Beraca(Quito), she is very funny and experienced and knows how to ask me questions or talk so I can use the things I learnt. But she really gave me lots of homework(but that's good for my spanish) and her accent is quite strong for me.
The second teacher I had was in Otavalo, she can't speak English at all, but she is really good in explaining vocabs in her own way, and I have no problem in understanding her normally. But she is not too organized in teaching and is ofter late for school.
The third teach I had was when I came back to Quito. She is excellent, I love her most because she explained everything very clearly and very patient. She is also very well educated, experienced, so she can ansewer all my questions. But her teaching style is quite slow for me, maybe because I am going to leave and I want to learn more and faster, so I think she is a little bit slow, but it's good for absorbing the new things.
So learning in Ecuador is very good if you really serious in learning spanish, the one to one lesson is great for all level of learner and you can adjust the pace of learning as you like. I can request how long I want to learn in a day or a week, I even requested to learn in Sat and Sun, as I am really in the mood of studying and the school of Beraca can provide such flexibility for me. That's great!
And normally, when I study 4 hours per day, that is from 9am to 1pm, we ususally have a break of 20mins at 11am. By this break, I can meet other students and we could practise our spanish. And sometimes, the teachers will arrange some games, so we can learn spanish during the games.
But as the fee of my school is very cheap(around 5USD), so it doesn't provide any trips of excursions or the students. Actually I don't mind, because I care about studying more. But if you want to have fun, I heard from the backpackers that some other school will provide many excursions, cooking lessons or Salsa dance for the students. But it is more expensive. I heard one student pay 10USD per hours for all these additional things.
So if you want to learn spanish here, it really depends on what you want and your budget.
In Otavalo, I was so lucky to be able to live in the family of Marco. They treated me so well, just like I was their daughter. Although they talked so fast during the meals and I hardly understand what they were talking about.
But if they were speaking to me, they were always very patient and speaking slower, which made me feel very good.
So on the last day I stayed in their house, I decided to cook a dinner for them as to show my thanks.
For my friends whom know me well, should also know that I didn't cook in my home, the best I can cook should be instant noodle! So deciding to cook for the whole family (including me, there are 6 people), it was really a challenge for me.
So I went for the internet to search for some Chinese recipes. Originally, I found some good and easy recipes, but when I went to the supermarket, I couldn't figure out the espanol names of the ingredients, so I failed to buy the ingredients recommended by those recipes!
Finally I used all my limited knowledge about cooking and finished cooking the fried rice in omelette. Luckily, the meal was not awful and even I could eat them. Though the family said they love the food, I really hope they were not just said that in courtesy!
Before I came, I have thought about to learn cooking because I knew I would have one day like this. But I didn't have enough time to do that. Now I think I should learn how to cook south american food instead so as to cook for my friends when I come back.
After going to Cayambe, we went to Imbarra in the following day. Imbarra is in the northeast of Otavalo and it is also the provincial capital of Imbabura, so you may know it is quite a big city.
When we arrived Imbarra in the morning, it started to rain. Originally, we wanted to go to the Bosque Guayabillas in the East first, but as the western side of the city was totally covered by dark cloud, so we decided to head to Yahuarcocha, which was a lake in the North.
The peaceful aspect of Lake Yahuarcocha.
Yahuarcocha is a popular place for the Ecuadoreans to enjoy their weekends. When we arrived, we found there were so many stalls selling food of handicrafts, there was also an old ferris wheel and other machine games for the children.
At first, I thought this lake was not so interesting to me, but when we have a 45 mins work around the lake, I found this lake was really beautiful. When we bypassed all the shops and loud music played by the restaurant, I found the peaceful aspect of the lake.
As the sky above the lake was so clear, I could see the reflection of the sky clearly in the lake, with the beautiful trees in front of the lake, it was really a nice picture.
Sometimes, there were couples sitting down beside the lake, talking secretly, laughing happily and kissing openly. When I closed my eyes walking beside the lake, I could hear the music from the nature, singing birds, blowing breeze and talking of the grass with my shoes touching on them.
As my friend was so eager to row a boat, so we rent a boat ($2 per 30mins) and went to the middle of the lake. The view was really very nice, but my hands was really tired after half an hour of rowing.
In the middle of the Lake Yahuarcocha.
Imbarra is also famous for its Helados de paila(home-made sorbets), so after the rowing, we headed for lunch and desserts. The lunch disappointed me again, as the rice was too hard, just like not yet boiled. So once again, I couldn't finish my lunch, it was the second worse lunch I ever had in Ecuador. But the helados saved me after that. It was just so wonderful and I couldn't use any words to describe the taste. But it really satisfied me a lot after the bad lunch.
As we needed some more exercises and the weather started to turn good, we went to the Bosque Guayabillas, which was a natural park in the top of the hill. But it really took us a long time to find out where it was. Since the book didn't mention it clearly and we didn't know where exactly the location was.
We bypassed a beautiful cemetery when we were searching for the Bosque Guayabillas.
So after searching for an hour and half, asking many local people, we finally found the road leading to the park. Since my friend was tired at that time and the road was really steep, so he gave up climbing and I climbed alone.
Luckily I insisted climbing up to the hill, as it only took about half an hour and the view on the top of the hill was really fantastic. I could have a panoramic of the city of Imbarra. As the view was really beautiful, then I went down to the bottom of the hill and persuaded my friend to climb up with me again.
Overview of Imbarra.
After such a hard climbing(though Imbarra is not as high as Quito, it is also 2225m above sea level), we praised ourselves by one more Helados de pailor again! While seating in the bench of the central plaza, enjoying the blue sky and sunshine and tasting the helado, I really demand no more.
The taste of the helado lingers in this beautiful moment.
Cayambe is the name of the city southeast of Otavalo and also the name of the snow-capped volcano(5790meters, Ecuador third highest peak).
Last Saturday, we went to explore the area abound this city. We used about 45mins to get there, then took 10 more mins on another bus to Tabacundo. From where, we wanted to find a bus or pickup to Tolas de Cochasqui, which is an archaeological area of the 15 pre-Inca clay pyramids.
But we were told by local people there was no bus going there, and as written by the book, there was only pickup in the morning by the local workers. So we tried to check what was the price of the taxi.
Then I did one thing really stupid, which was taking the taxi though the price I thought was very expensive. We checked some and found the price going (it took about 25mins), returning and waiting for us for one hour was 25 dollars. As we only have 2 people, so each of us had to pay 12.5 dollars. Though later my teacher told me the price was reasonable, I still thought the taxi drivers here really earn a lot! Because with the same price, I can go to the airport or go to Tin Shui Wai from city center. But here is Ecuador, but not HK.
As our bargaining was not successful, we could only get 30mins for waiting.
Anyway, we went by taxi and I really didn't regret for going there as the site was really splendid. The only thing I would regret was I should go there in the morning or I should go there with more people, so we could share the fees.
Orginally, I thought the 'Pyramids' here was similar to those in Egypt, which should be triangles. To my surprise, they were totally different. These pre-Inca pyramids were covered with grass, so they were just looked like small hills.
Entrance of the pyramid
Later I know how clever the people at that time were. Because these pyramids were not only the tombs of people, but also accomondating the living people and for military purposes. As they just looked like hills, so the enenmies would not discover where they were.
Moreover, this site is located 3100 meters above sea level, so the people at that time were able to know if there were any attacks coming. And nowadays, the site offers us a wonderful view of the surrounding areas, including as far as Quito (which is about one hour away by bus). We could even see the shape of the El Panecillo(which I mentioned before).
The wonderful view of the site.
The site is really quiet and beautiful, there are even many Ilamas hoping around. The guide also introduced us lots of interesting plants in the area, including Lemon leaves, lavenders and other 'unknown' plants which can be eaten and function as hand cream.
The typical animal in South America, Llamas
I would also love to work here.
After visiting Cochasqui, we went back to Cayambe and had my most awful set lunch that I ever had in Ecuador. Normally, I finish all the food in my plate and nothing is left. But this restaurant gave me an unforgettable memory as I barely ate.
We went to a coffee shop after that, so as to try the famous snacks here. They were Bizcochos (a typical biscuits here) and Queso de Hoja (string cheese).
With dips of Bizcochos into the hot chocolate, the taste was wonderful. Maybe it was also because I ate an awful lunch before, so the taste of Bizcochos and Queso really drive me into heaven.
Thanks for the awful lunch, Bizcochos and Queso for giving me a happy ending.
In the past weekend, I explored a lot in the northern highlands.
Way to the Parque Condor.
On Friday, after my class, we wanted to walk to the Parque Condor, a natural park near Otavalo. On contrary to the sunny weather in the morning, as we started walking, the weather started to turn bad. Besides no more blue sky, it started to rain.
An abandaned railway in Otavalo.
As we had our jackets, and the rain was not so big, we were still able to walk up to the hill. Unless sometimes the rain was really big, we had to wait under the roof of the house in the village.
But before it rained, the view of the village and the forest was really fantastic. The cattles scattered on the green and yellow farmland, with the volcano behind, it reminded me some kind of scenic view in rural area of China. And the people in this village are even much more friendly than in Otavalo. Whenever they saw us, the children, the women or the men would always say 'Hola' and smiled to us.
Nice view of the surrounding mountain.
After 2 hours of trekking, we finally arrived the Parque Condor, but it was going to close! So had to leave without entering the park. Although it was a pity, but we were already satisfied with the wonderful view we had before our arrival.
A quiet life.
Then we went to search for the El Lechero which was mentioned in the book. El Lechero was mentioned as a very special tree and the path to the tree is very scenic and recommended. Although we didn't know how the tree look like and where was it(the book didn't mention), as we had time, so we started searching it.
After going into the wrong path and asking the local people, we started to get into the right path. But then one horrible thing happened.
When we were heading to the tree, we bypassed a village. Then there were 2 little dogs bumping out from the house, at first we think they were just welcoming us, as the dogs in Ecuador were always so nice and friendly. But then we found the dogs were barking and running towards us crazily. Within a second, they were already at the feet of us.
Suddenly, my friend jumped backwards, I thought he was going to run away. And there was a shouting from the woman who was the owner of the dogs, then the dogs went back to their home. I thought we were finally safe, but my friend showed me he was bitten by the dog!
Luckily, he was wearing jeans, so the wound was not so big. But it really scared me a lot and hope he wouldn't have any health problem later.
Finally, in the middle of the mist, we were able to find El Lechero. Though I don't know what power the tree had, it really looked so special and the textile of it was very soft. The clouds behind even made it more mysterious.
El Lechero - thanks for the cloudy weather, which makes it more mysterious.
After making a wish (though don't know if it is useful...), as it was quite late, we decided not going to the Lake of San Pablo and started to return to the city center .
To my surprise, though it was dark, and we couldn't know where was waiting in front of us (especially crazy dogs again!), we encounted the beauty of this little village. At first, I saw something twinkling, I thought it was my illusion or something unknown. Then my friend said he also saw that, so I know they were insects but not ghosts.
Though it was totally dark in our path, there were hundreds of twinkling 'stars' surrounding us! What an amazing view! I hope this beauty can last forever.
The Austria boy, Martin is jumping!
