Ecuador

One of the smallest countries in South America, yet with so much to explore. It has the Amazon Jungle, the Andes, countless volcanoes, the coast along with the Galapogas Islands and a pretty cool capital city as well. My first stop in Ecaudor, was the city of Cuenca...if you like churches, then this is the place to go. There must be at least 2 dozen of them. The main plaza, which is pretty cool, has got two Cathedrals!!! I spent a day wandering the city and getting a taste for Ecuadorian life, which to be honest is a lot like Peruvian, which is a lot like Bolivian. There is a small Inca site in the city, which needless to say was closed the day I arrived, along with all the museums. The next day, I ventured for three hours on a bus to Ingapirca, the most important Inca site in Ecuador. It was fine but when you have travelled Peru, visiting some of the hundreds of Inca sites, it really doesnt hold a candle to any of them. The tour only lasted an hour or so, so it was a bit disheartening that I had travelled 3 to get there and now had to travel three to get back but hey, such is life. From Cuenca it was on to Baños, or bathrooms in English. It very nearly didnt happen as I was asleep when we reached the city of Ambato and the place where I was to change buses. After the conductor telling me that he had shouted Ambato a number of times, I was thrown off the bus and told to wait for a bus going the other way. Luckily it wasnt long in coming and even better, it was going straight to Baños. Its a pretty cool little place, very touristy with mostly cafes, restaurants, hotels and travel agencies lining the streets, but theres lots to do in the surrounding area and the restaurants I tried were all very good. In the area surrounding the town, there is the possibility to mountaineering, white water rafting, canopy zip lining (which doesnt look that great), horse riding, trekking and other stuff. In the town itself, there is the thermal baths which although the water looks like it could do with a good clean, are very nice and relaxing. You can also hire little dune buggies and rally them round the town. I did a bit of trekking round the mountains surrounding the town, visiting a 6m statue of the Virgen de Agua Santa. I also took a ride on a Chiva bus, or party bus, to visit 8 waterfalls around the town. They were not all that great until the last one, but the tunes were blaring and the Ecuadorians seemed to be having a good time. After Baños it was on to the capital and the closest city to the equator, Quito. Again, I had heard bad things about Quito like its unsafe and theres not much to do there. How people can be so wrong sometimes. Quito is like a mix of Lima and La Paz, built in the valley between two sets of mountains, it doesnt quite have the punishing climbs up the side streets like La Paz but you know your high up and the centro is very similar to Lima´s with a lot of nice colonial buildings and churches yet small enough to wander in an afternoon. The basillica is impressive, styled in a very gothic mould, whilst the cathedral is very impressive inside (there is a painting of the Last Supper where they are enjoying a guinea pig and some typical Andean Chicha). The most impressive of all the churches (I feel Im writing too much about churches here) is La Compaña de Jesus. Its stunning from the outside and the inside is covered in imagry, symbolism and wonderful artwork. To top it all off the entire interior is covered in gold leaf and the walls painted a vibrant shade of red. The mountains around the city are pretty cool as well, with a cable car running up Pichincha giving great views of the city below and the volcano Cotopaxi behind. I did a couple of day trips from Quito, first to Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. This is pretty cool, I mean being able to jump between summer in winter in one step, you could really feel the temperature change. The monument, though not on the true line is pretty impressive and considering the measurements were taken in the 18th Century, they did not bad. The museum near the site is pretty cool as well and claims the real equator line. Its got stuff on other forms of Ecuadorian culture including shrunken heads from the amazonian people. The most interesting stuff is the tricks that can only be performed on the equator. I think some of them are just tricks, no more but a couple puzzled me so maybe there is some truth in it. The next day trip was to the world famous Saturday markets in Otavalo, the number two thing to do in South America according to Lonely Planet. Well its not, not even close. Sure its remarkable as the enitre town becomes a market but it is no more impressive than any other market in South America really. Just little ladies trying to sell you their goods and chancers trying to sell you their crap. Anyway now I can tell everybody Ive been and bought something from Otavalo. I really enjoyed Ecuador and wish I had more days, I think I will need to go backe there but Colombia beckons and its meant to be awesome!!!