Vilcabamba, Ecuador Part 1

We left Black Sheep at 9:30 and got to Vilcabamba at 8:30. You can't really drink water on the bus since you never know if you will get the chance to get off and use the bathroom (let alone the one on the bus!) So it was a long, uncomfortable day. 

We take a cab to the lodge about 20 minutes out of town, since its unpaved, and our driver drops us off at the sign. We can see a bridge and a driveway but that is about it since it was pitch black out. We got out or flashlight and went to where the hostel should have been. In front of us was a restaurant with two walls, tables knocked over, an old truck that may or may not have still run, and another building all boarded up. Now they mentioned they were doing repairs but this looked abandoned and certainly they made no comment like "its kinda hard to find so what you wanna do is...". 

We tried some of the trails near by, but they all just seemed to be hiking trails. One had a sign for Cabinas 1, 2, and 3 but it was knocked over and provided no arrow. Stray dogs and bats flashed in front of our light.

We did this for about an hour, fearing the dog, before finding a house with a light on. They were able to radio the hostel and I guy came down to get us. He took us much farther down the now lit trail with the Cabinas sign to our hostel, not really getting what he put us through. "I'm sorry you couldn't find it, that's why we have lights up." Turn them on, idiot!!! I was all ready to yell this at him, but he was so dopey, I couldn't. His wife made us dinner though, which was nice, but didn't make up for it.

The next morning we discovered the area we had explored was beautiful. That meant more hiking. SO much hiking these days!

Gillian likes fruit, not so much the food they served us at the lodge. We did have our own cabin and at night mammals would crawl around on the roof.

The river was swarming with butterflies. Our pictures didn't really capture it though.

There were a lot of weird rock pillars like this.

Black Sheep Final Final

It was around here that I finally saw a soccer field with grass. Usually its dirt or more often concrete in Ecuador.

A chicken of poor stock.

We ate lunch at a huge cliff. These kids were playing and came over to watch us. We gave them cookies. I got the feeling they did this often. They were 11, 9, 5, and 1 or something but all looked about half that. They got a kick out of seeing their picture on the cameras. 

And then we went straight down the cliff! People of all ages passed us going up with goats and things with the shittiest shoes imaginable. Absolutely no grip. They went so fast it was crazy. There were all these even steeper short cuts they would all use. Crazy!

On our way out of town. Us to Vilcabamba in southern Ecuador (Quilotoa is in the middle), Mom and Rita to Quito then home. I must have my mom's stomach. She didn't get sick the whole time (until the airport in Dallas in the way home!) haha

Part 4: more of the hike from the lake to black sheep inn

Gillian and her hat.

Jack. I should promise to stop making this face.

Did I mention the hike was long? Also I should mention that after trying homemade potato chips down here, I am convinced we should all make our own. I want to buy one of those real thin slicers so we can try it. They end up being slightly thicker than normal which is just the way they should be.

While we were at the Inn, we met some people who teach middle school in Quito to English speaking kids. They love it. They kept encouraging Gillian to do it. Half as many kids... the nice half! The catch is you gotta do it for 2 years. Uugh. Maybe if we know people will come visit us, maybe. Oh man!

Still hiking. The landscape changed a lot.

Black Sheep and Quilotoa the 3rd

Inside the Inn with all the super friendly people and tasty food.

Lago Quilotoa. I'd add some info about the lake but after a few shocking answers to our questions, we realized our guide was full of pucky. He'd be like, ya this valley right here used to be a lake. How long ago, we'd ask. Oh, 3 years ago. And we'd be all like, as if!

We hiked for about 5 hours from the lake back to the Inn, down and up some crazy canyons. This the the second full day, btw.

Gillian's hat always flies away. They are really hard to travel with too. Their shapes continue to age poorly. I just lost my cool ribbon in fact!

My mom and Rita came for a bit but this was still only a few days after the 8 hour hike and Rita needed a break, so they took a car back and explored more around the Inn instead. There was a lot of insane down hill anyways. These are not casual hikes, lemme tell ya, ahhhh! (Note Gillian reaching up to catch her hat again.)

Black Sheep 2nd part

Still our first of 2 full days wondering the Quilotoa area. Gillian and I spaced sun tan lotion for some reason (up until that point we'd been very good about avoiding burns). Gillian came away with a modest burn. I however looked purple I am told. Here's to hoping our kids get her skin!

I got to the top before everyone and jumped out of this cool hiding spot. Gillian was scared, LITERALLY! 

I think this was as high as we've been. I think it was over 14,250 feet. We decided to sit and eat lunch from up here, but two dogs we're not having it. One of them wasn't having any more kids, either - her uterus was half way hanging out! Gillian's gotten quite good at this point at scaring away scary dogs, so we survived, eating as we hiked.

The hike back down was ridiculously steep.

Then these local kids showed up and danced to that same damn song that everyone dances to here. They insisted on us joining in. It was fun. This is the Yoga room btw.

Black Sheep Inn and Lake Quilotoa Part 1

We took a million pictures and I'm gonna try and post a lot of them. It was just so cool. So many mountains that fell into valleys that then became plateaus... and all of it was being farmed. Sideways farms are all over Ecuador but here you could see them for miles.

Gillian took so many pictures of farm animals. This one sheep however has a story to tell. They tied him up away from his mom and he cried all day and then all night and then all the next morning until they moved him. The screams sounded more and more human as time went on. It made Gillian quite sad.

Farm house on a plateau made entirely of grass and things.

Cool canyon also made entirely of grass and things.

View from the pot. They had the most exquisite composting toilets at the Black Sheep Inn. I think the little garden made a big difference with the smell. Apart from cool toilets they had a sauna, hot tub, 9 holes of frisbee golf, a ZIP LINE, water slide, yoga room, enough equipment for a whole rock band to jam, and all the other cool things that come with a good hostel like internet and book exchanges. Oh ya and the cooking was vegetarianly amazing. Thanks for the recommendation Erin!

That video is too small...

Here are a couple cool pictures that seem too small to really see in the video. They are both from the 8 hour hike in the cloud forest.

Yunguilla and Santa Lucia to the Tune of the Cock of the Rock

After the rain forest, we flew back to Quito, only to be wisked away once again to the cloud forest. A cloud forest is different for many reasons, different plants and animals and suck, but also because most of the time, it is literally in a cloud.

They dropped us off in the small community of Yunguilla and gave us a tour. It´s a cooperative of something like 40 families making jam and shitty cheese (not that I tried it, but all cheese here lacks any flavor whatsoever) and doing all sorts of farming. No one´s in charge and they share the profits. We stayed with host families and had a grand ol time, kinda. Gillian and I stayed with a familly where the mom worked all day every day in Quito, and didn´t get home until after we had gone to sleep. My mom and Rita had a grand ol time trying to have a conversation (and succeeding) with their host family, learning all sorts of things about their opinions on Obama and breast feeding (my moms two favorite things to ask about on the trip).

Then the next morning, a hike. 8 hours through the Andes, up and down, mud and rain, no boots, totally insane. It was fun, but a bit much I must say. There was much falling and getting muddy, which took a long time to dry since we were living in a cloud. Oh, I swung on a vine!

The hike took us to Santa Lucia where we stayed for 3 nights. It was another ecolodge (like in the rain forest), built entirely out of stuff carried up the mountain. (They somehow got a fridge up there and yet, no curtains!) We toured the area and saw their reforestation efforts, their orchid garden with over a hundred different kinds I think, muchos birds, and these cameras that took pictures to identify how many of certain animals their were in the area. (They work with well known organization from England whose name I forget doing all this.) Gillian and I also woke up at 3:45 to go see the Cock of the Rock. It´s what is making all that noise in the video. Their was no rock, but much noise and weird dancing as the males tried to dominate one another. Search for a picture of it because none of ours turned out. (It looks so odd.)

Then a shorter hike back down and back to Quito for a night before going to the awful bus station and the best ecolodge in the world (or at least in the top 10).

Birds of Clay - By James Paterson

So these are the birds we waited to see that morning in the jungle that I mentioned. It was wild. I'm also amazed at all Serious bird watchers in Ecuador. What a thing. I do kinda enjoy it.

I hope I didn't forget too much about the jungle! Oh I did forget about the caimans, these alligator type things that you can find at night in the laguna. We canoed all stealthy, looking for the glow of their eyes in our flashlight, then when we were right up close, bam, all the flashlights at once. No pictures turned out though.

Rain Forest Sin Lluvea

A pomegranate with a cold... very tasty stuff. (dangit, we can't remember the name.)

So we flew from Quito out into the jungle and then took a 3 hour boat ride to this cool lodge. We spent 3 nights there and saw all kinds of cool stuff. Let me tell ya all about it...

That's the (eco)lodge on first approach. Mom's apparently not wearing her life jacket. Tom and Dad, notice the regular hat!

We went on a short hike the first night to an observation tower. We could look out over the jungle, seeing all sorts of birds, and listen to the far off growl of the howler monkeys. You had to be careful where you set your hand because the tower was crawling with these atomically painful ants. PS That's Rita in the foreground. 

Oh and up on the tower we saw this guy mating. I guess it's rare to catch them doing this cool throat thing to attract the female. I guess just not quite as rare as someone as awesome as us!

Day 2: We woke to the growl of the howler monkeys along with 57 birds and my alarm clock. We canoed over to a cool trail which lead to other cool monkeys, but this time visible, and a million other things which posses forgotten names.

This tree has taken over the other tree which is now totally encapsulated. Oh there are all these small ecosystems everywhere usually involving some weird type of ant. 

I just wanted a picture of me in the jungle looking tough, like I am.

This weird guy flies like Bobafet (I have no idea about the spelling) from Star Wars, straight up and down and he appeared to spin those head things to do it. We also saw him mating.

Day two took us farther down river which as you can see is their highway. We waited for hours to see 100s of parakeets and other I think parrots swarm this clay lick. I have a video I'll post. They do this because the clay has the antidote to this poison that is in the seeds they eat.

Then our 2 guides, one a college grad from Quito, the other from the community that helps run the lodge, took us to families house who has these monkeys as semi pets. 

So what you do is suck on the seeds, getting all the sweet sweet goodness off them and then you send them into nestle and they make chocolate. Like a reverse cereal box prize. 

They then took us to the house where the local guide lives. His soon to be wife cooked us some traditional food that I'll elaborate on soon. On all the poles were empty dvd boxes on movies like Rambo and Techno Babes. 

So of all the things we ate, the best was the worms! What they do is cut a hole in the palm trees, wait a few weeks, and then come back to a tree full of worms. They roast them over the fire and it ends up tasting like a ham smoothie only with crispy eyes. 

Their poor kitten was starving. As we were leaving, our guide gave him the rest of an avocado he had picked up off the ground for us. Everyone owns lots of machetes too. I really want 2. It makes hiking cool!

We left the next morning for the cloud forest... Oh and the guy who started the lodge and one of the guides there both went to U of O. I actually recognized one from the dorms, Ganoe, and he had travelled to Ecuador with Erin.

Ecuamontage

Here are some clips from video we've taken. The swing was at the santa lucia cloud forest. the dead beetle was the rain forest. but isn't that dancing awesome. that elbow to the side thing is totally my move.

The Triumphant Return to Quito!

We waited in line for hours to go up to the top of one of the mountains to look out over the "valley" of Quito. For 3 bucks more we could have gone in the express line. I'm not sure what our thinking was there. 

Making out at 14,000 feet. (Yes, that is how we make out.)

This was the first thing we did with my mom and Rita. We've spent a few days in and out of Quito with them showing them our favorite spots. 

I dress this way.

They are always offering horseback riding and we never do it. Well not always but sometimes and I dunno I guess I want to I just keep assuming I don't.