Montanita + Cuenca (Oct 3-8)

Oct 3- Left Puerto Lopez this morning. Learned a lesson, bus people try really hard to rip off white people. So we got on a bus to Montanita and gave the man our $5 bill, expecting change. Nope. We waited a bit, thinking he was short on change or something...nope. So he says it;s $2.50 each but the locals on the bus tell us it's $2.00....Robbie arugued with the guy for 10 min trying to get our change but gave up because of frustration. It's such a defeating feeling, knowing you got ripped off, but now we know better. When we got to Montanita we found an ok hostel and went for a really nice swim in the ocean. The beach was sooooo nice and empty, and the water was warm. While walking around town later we went in a store and met a girl from Calgary, I thought i recognised her and asked if she went to Western Canada High School, yes! and then I asked if she went to Elboya Jr. High, yes! TRIPPYY! Meeting someone who i had met when i was 12 in South America. Montanita is pretty much the coolest place ever, so many dreadlocks, bear feet and chill vibes. There are stinky hippies with their beautiful hand-made jewelry stands everywhere, we couldn't resist buying a few things. Robbie and I were missing our hookah from home, so we decided to have a hookah session at this great restaurant with amaaaazing paintings on the walls. Then after our smoke we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we had seen in Ecuador. The sun was red and we watched it sink into the ocean.
Oct4- We were itching for some exercise after lazing around on the beach for the past 4 days, so we walked around and followed a horseback-riding trail. It was intense, biiiig hill, then down the hill, then another huge hill, then down. After 4 or 5 of these hills we were getting pretty tired, and it had only been an hour since we started our hike. We followed another trail into a bushy-er zone, but it got too dense so we had to go back. the hills didn't look so inviting on our way back, so we followed the highway back to Montanita. Mhmm, soon after we got back to our hostel we were already turning pink, by the evening we were beet red and burning hot. Stupid natural sunscreen had to be applied every hour..didn't read that till after the burn set in.
Oct 5- Long bus journeying day to Cuenca. Got to Cuenca around 8pm and found a really great hostel run by 2 sisters. We stayed in our first dorm-style room, with 4 beds. All of our other rooms had been private. It was good because we met a girl from Califronia who was planning on going to a national park the next day for a hike and we decided to join her.
Oct 6- Went on a hike in the Cajas National Park. Mystical! Lots of fog. There are 8 different hikes to choose from, from easy to difficult. We chose the easiest, and the sign said it would take 5 hours..but we did it in an hour and a half. After seeing a field with Al Pacas and trying to follow the trail we got back to the starting point feeling dissappointed becuase we were sure we made a wrong turn. Turns out we did. We were eating a snack when people who went on the same hike as us said they did it in 3 hours..we obviously missed a turn. They told us of the crazy forest section of the hike that was the best part. We went back on the trail and found the forest, which blew our minds. It felt like we were in a fairy tale forest, with trees winding around each other and little caves everywhere. After waiting for a bus to hail for an hour on the highway, we  went to a restaurant that Jen had eaten at the day before. We found out that at night, the vegetarian cafe turned into a space for the Ecuadorian Jazz Society to hold functions. The menu was extremely expensive, but the live Cuban-jazz guitarist we got to see was soooo good!
oct 7- We went to the market, which is such a nice place to spend an hour. Checking out all the interesting tropical fruit, buying cheeeeaaappp fruit and veggies and fresh freeesh cheese (droool). Robbie and I walked along the river in Cuenca and saw some beautiful street art, the best we had seen in South America yet. We had seen these women sellng what looked like ice cream, but not refrigerated, everywhere we had been in SA and wondered was it was all about. So we tried it..EW. It was disgusting whipped topping with colour, and the cone was like plastic too. Waste of money. It's so weird how people here eat such shitty snacks and instant coffee when they live in a country so close to Colombia (with the best coffee evaaa). The night was topped off with a hookah session at a cool little place with fabric draped from the ceiling and Indian music playing.
Oct 8- On our bus ride from Cuenca to Vilcabamba, this cool-looking hippie family got on and we were intruiged with their intense hippie-ness. The father had beautiful long dreadlocks, mama was thin and elegant looking and their children looked like girls with their long blonde hair but were boys. They got off at this town just before Vilcabamba and invited us to stay at their farm! YES PLEASE! They were so welcoming. We took a taxi to their home and WHOA. They lived under tarps...a makeshift house made of tarps and sticks. They had a "toilet" for solid waste where the waste went into a composter; they used the compost to fertilize their garden! Such a wonderfully ecologically sound family. After a dinner of beans and veggies, the father and mother did some Sanskrit chanting with him playing the tablas (Indian drums) and the mother playing an acordian-like piano thing (can't remember the name). It was beauuty-full. Robbie and I slept in a tent on a little foamie they let us use. Such a great experience!!

Ambato + Puerto Lopez, Ec. (Sept 28-Oct 2)

28- this morning we left for Ambato to visit a friend we had met at the Mame Negra Fiesta in Latacunga a few days before. When we got there, we  went to a hostel that our guide book (Lonely Planet`s ``South America on a Shoestring``) had said was clean and comfortable...LIES! I guess the ``on a shoestring" part means staying in dumps sometimes..because that's what the place was. It smelled kinda funky too. We decided to stay there anyways because we thought we had been spending too much money. We dropped off our bags and found the nearest internet cafe to get in touch with our friend Vanessita. She said she wasn't off work till 5, so we had some serious time to kill. We looked up some things to do in Ambato and decided to check out this big garden. It took longer than expected to get there but was nice. There were different sections with plants from all around the world, and a nice path that led down to the river. We sat by the river for a bit then went to meet up with Vani. When we met up with her, she took us to this museum with stuffed animals, birds, reptiles, and historic pottery and clothes from the indigenous people of the land. There was also a disply of "freak"animals, including two-headed calves, six-legged lambs, three-eyed bulls and some weeeiiirdd stuff. After the museum Robbie and I joined Vani for her english class at the University. Her teacher was cool with us staying, it was a movie day. The class was watching "The Great Debate" which was about racism in the 30's in the southern states. It was really good, but we didn't have enough time to finish it. The class was composed of kids ranging from ages 15-26. Some people were passing notes and talking on their phones, and it seemed like the teacher was frustrated. I talked to her after and she said she wasn't used to teaching people who knew so little english; she had taught people who were a level above this class before. 
When the class was over Robbie, Vani and I decided to grab some beers. It's ok to drink anywhere in public aslong as it's before 2am, So we sat down on a street bench and went at 'er. this guy kept driving by with his music pumping and we were all enjoying, he could see that. So after the 5th time of driving by he stopped and asked us if we wanted to hop in, he didn't seem like a creep and were getting good vibes so we said yes. He then suggested we drive to Banos to party, (Robbie and i had just come from banos that morning, but ok!). The street that was empty the night before was now packed with partiers, Ecuadorians and foreigners. The drinks at the bar were ridiculously priced (10$ for a shot of jaggermeister, 6$ for a shot of tequila). That's expensive compared to the $1.25 giant beers you can buy in any convenience store. So we got some giant beers and pounded em back. Then we went to the Leprechaun Bar, which was the coolet bar I've ever been in. It was painted up all elf and fairy-like, with sexy fairy paintings everywhere. There was a firepit in the back zone too! The bar was full of Aussies and guys trying way too hard to grind with the tourists. This one guy kept trying to get too close to me and so I went to chill at te fire. After a bit we went back to Banos with and extra person in the car. When Robbie and i got back to the hostel we really wanted to find another one, because I swear, there were boogers on the walll, but we had already paid, so we just went to sleep in our sleep-sacks (a sheet that has been sewn on 3 sides). 
29-In the morning we found a new hostel that was actually clean and comfortable and one 2$ more a night. We met up with Vani and she came to our hostel so that Robbie could hypnotise her. It took an hour and a half so I fell asleep and when it was done Vani went home to help prepare for her cousin's 15th birthday party that evening, which we were invited to. She suggested a few things for us to do, including a free cultural museum. We took too long to get there and it was clsoed when we got there, so we went back to the hostel to grab our books and went to a nice park to read for a few hours. then we went to the party, which was really fun :). Vanessita's cousin was dressed up in this prom dress, sitting at the door greeting people. Everyone was dancing, not on their own but in pairs. It was really nice to go to a party where the hosts were grabbing boys and girls and pairing them up to dance. The music was reggaton, salsa, merengue and top 40. There were shots being poured and popcorn and jello being served. A few hours into the party my lips and hands started to swell up, then i looked at my stomach and it was COVERED in hives. I dont know what set off the reaction, maybe the one shot of wine cooler i had had, but i felt like crap and was hot and itchy. We left the party and I took 4 Benadrils when we got back to the hostel. They helped alot and knocked me out. Robbie went back to the party because he had a thing for Vani (oo la laaa). He got back at 2:30 am. The next days plan was to get up early and take the bus to Puerto Lopez, a town on the Pacific Coast.      
30- We were planning on getting up early to take the bus, but we decided to sleep in a bit instead, since the party went late the night before. For breakfast we went to see if the restaurant we had gone to the day before was open but it wasn't, so we went to the place across the street. It was a chicken restaurant and Robbie and I chose to get 1/4 chicken each with rice and salad. I swear the chickens are bigger here than in Canada because it looked like we each got 1/2 chicken. I didnt even finish half of my chicken, but Robbie, being a guy, finished his. We then got on a bus to Santo Domingo (N.W of Quito, which is North of where we were..) on the recommendation of the ticket sellers. We later found out it would've been cheaper and a shorter trip to take another route. It took 3.5 hrs to get to Santo Domingo and when we went to buy our tickets to get to Puerto Lopez (our destination), we discovered the next bus didn't come for another 6 hours. We bought our tickets and went to wait in the park across the street. While waiting, we met some funny kids to play with. The bus finally came, half an hour late. Throughout the entire bus ride, the bus driver played music REALLY loud, even though it was 12am. We got to Puerto Lopez at 6am and met some nice German girls who also needed to find a hostel. All 4 of us walked to the hostel I had looked at on the internet the day before to find extremely tiny rooms (for the price) and bugs crawling everywhere. The Germans left to a hotel that was in their guide book, while Robbie and I debated staying. We chose to look for another hostel and walked along the beach. We found a realllyyyy cute clean one a block from the beach called Hostal Fragata. It had hammocks everywhere and was loaded with color. We crashed hard and slept until the afternoon.
Oct 1- With half the day behind us in sleep, we found a nice restaurant on the beach to eat lunch and then went to a beach-front juice stand. The lady making the juice was a total babe and Robbie was infatuated ;). Then we met a nice dog and named him Snickers. For the rest of the day we just explored Puerto Lopez,went to the local market, made dinner and chilled in the hammocks at the hostal. Oh yea, the best advice I got for this trip was to bring toilet paper with me EVERYWHERE. That means taking a roll in my purse. I dont know how people do it here, but there isn't toilet paper anywhere except hostels, where we steal the roll when we leave (hehe). 
Oct 2- Another lazy day in the beach town. Went to see the sexy juice lady again, lounged in the hammocks on the beach and had fresh banana milkshakes (the juices here are so feakin delicious!!!). We saw the German ladies again and chatted with them about their extensive world travels. Then we spent some time looking at handmade jewelry made by this aaaawesome hippie mama and talked to the people chilling around her stand. Then we walked along the beach and watched the waves crash.  

Banos, Ec. Sept 25-27

     Sept 25- Today was our first day in Banos, and WOW is it ever stunning. It is in the middle of this huge lush valley and is home to over 53 waterfalls! we can see a big waterfall from the balcony of our hostel. We explored Banos and found out that our guide book didn`t emphasize the point of ``tourist town`` enough...I think there are more tourists than locals. Every second biulding is an adventure tour business offering bridge jumping, white-water rafting, Amazon tours, and canopy (zipline) tours. It`s touristy for a reason though, the INCREDIBLE beauty of the place is pretty magical. There are also lots of candy stores, selling hand-made taffy that you can see being made in the store, they stretch it out over a wooden peg in the doorframe. A big church can be seen from everywhere in town and it was only a few blocks away from our hostel so we decided to go check it out. It was impressive, with lots of big paintings of the Virgin Mary saving people from bad happenings, including a volcano eruption. The church is dedicated to the Virgin, who the people say is the reason the volcano hasn`t erupted in the past 13 years. 
After walking around for a few hours we went to the grocery store, and by this time is was dark out and we had forgot to write down the cross-streets of our hostel. Robbie and I walked around trying to find our hostel for an hour, laughing our asses off because we had walked by the same park 4 times. We decided to get a nice cup of coffee to help get our poop in a group. It was reeealllyy good real coffee, not instant Nescafe (thank god). We finally found the hostel after figuring out where we were. 

26- At night, you can see a this huge glowing cross is the sky (not actually in the sky, it`s on a mountain, but you can`t see the mountain at night). Robbie and I decided to hike up to the cross and get a nice view of the town. It was a pretty sweet hike, kinda rainforest-y. When we got to the cross after half an hour, we had a snack then decided to hike further to the tiny village of Runtun. We had to follow a paved road for a bit, then more forst paths. We walked past tomato greenhouse after tomato greenhouse, with cows everywhere. We both thought we were lost because it seemed to take foreer to get to the village, but we finally got there and had a coffee (which was instant unfortunately)at this little family-run cafe. There were 2 kittens and one excited dog to join us for coffee. Our legs were kinda pooched so we decided to try and bum a ride back down to town. All we had to do was walk down the paved road and 2 trucks later, one hoked his horn and asked ``Banos?", "Si senor!" we replied and jumped in his little truck. The driver was playing traditional Ecuadorian folk music which was a nice change from all the reggaton we had been hearing. When we got to town, Robbie and i decided to look for a reliable company for a canopy tour the next day. After checking out a few, I looked up reviews for each company on the net and decided on a good one. we went back and booked a tour for the next morning.    
27-CANOPY TOUR WAS EPIIICCCC!!! There were 6 different ziplines, each longer than the previous, measuring out to 2000m in total. Holy jesus I can't believe we ziplined over the freakin rainforest! If anyone ever comes to Ecuador, they must do a canopy tour. There were a few different positions you could choose from on each line, ex. normal, superman (having your legs strapped in so you lie on your stomach and go headfirst), bat (being upside-down with legs in a V), and butterfly (the guide goes with you and holds your legs upside down while you hold your arms out). Superman was our favorite because you got a great view of the forest below. When the canopy tour was over we were wet and muddy, but we didn't care! We got to zipline over the forest! When it we got back to town it was jst past noon, so we decided to walk to the other side of Banos after lunch. We saw a guy bridge-jump, which was cool. the view from the other side was great! we could see 5 waterfalls! Then it started to rain so we walked back to the hostel. After dinner we decided to check out the nightlife in Banos (though Thursday night isn`t the best tim to go FYI..). There was an awesome-looking bar called jack Rock that had Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones lips painted on the outside so that was our bar of choice. There were some other tourists inside playing pool. We bought the cheapest beers we could and sat on the upper-level of the bar, getting a good view of all the classic rock posters that were all over the walls. When we had finished our beers we walked down the street to see if there were any clubs/bars that had people in them..no luck. Bedtime. 

Latacunga, Ec. (Sept 22-25)

We came to Latacunga for the Mama Negra Fiesta, and my did it ever deliver. We switched hostels, found a nice cheap one with a really sweet lady owner. Our first day in Latacunga (sept 22) we just walked around and went to a few shops. Discovered a great little cafe where we ate 2 meals that day. There was a little girl who came over to us when we were eating and played peek-a-boo and made silly faces at us, she was the reason we came back to eat a second time. 
The second day there was when the Fiesta started (sept 23). My goodness it was crazy. There is one reeeeeaaaalllyyy looonnnnggg parade that goes around town all day and late into the night with 20 or so different sets of dancers in different outfits, live bands, people in crazy costumes & masks doing 'blessings'(explained below), men cross-dressing, children giving everyone shots from the bottles of liquor they held, "Mama Negra" riding a horse (which is really a man in a dress with a mask of a black lady on), princesses on horses, kids dressed up as captains on horses, and men carrying these huge baskets filled with various skinned, salted animals (ex, pig, guinea pig, rabbit, chicken, turkey) that had bottles of expensive liquor and packs of cigarettes attached to them. The blessings were done by running the sticks these masked men held up and down your body, having another man run a bunch of herbs up and down your body and having another man take a gulp of tequila and spitting it all over you..and  then you give them a dollar hahaha.
Everyone was drinking big beers and pouring shots of beer/liquor into plastic cups and handing them out everyone around them. It was really easy to get drunk, and drunk I (amanda) did get.
 When Robbie and i were watching the parade, a woman started to talking to me in english, asking me where i was from. Her group of friends, robbie and i really hit it off, so they asked us if we wanted to go to where the party was. We followed them through town to this plaza where people were selling beers for $1 and food. We hung around the plaza for awhile drinking and talking. We met this great hippie couple who were selling their hand-made jewelry. (Might meet up with them later in our journey so the lady can wrap our quartz stones into necklaces.) We also met a group of students from Germany and Denmark who tagged along for a few hours. They left us when we (robbie, me, ecuadorians we met earlier) went to watch the fireworks at the end of the night. At the fireworks, there were people giving us shots of hot tequila, so hot you had to blow on them to cool em down, but they go down sooo smooth (you should really try it). 
The next day robbie and I watched the parade for a bit and then met up with 2 different students we had met the night before, from France and North Carolina. It was pouring rain so we all went for a coffee. We learned that in Ecuador most people drink instant coffee, and you have to pay a pretty penny for real drip coffee. We watched the parade with our new friends then went for dinner at the cute cafe robbie and i discovered 2 days prior. After eating we all went to watch and follow the parade. We decided to get a little more involved and were dancing with the costumed people. Rachel (from north carolina) ran into some of her friends so we drank a bit and danced with them. 
The next day Robbie and I met up with Joss (from France) and the family he is living with. We all went to the market and bought delicious fresh tropical fruit. There are some weird fruits that grow here, like red bananas, and these things called `grenadilles`` which are kind of like pomegranates, but not red, or sour. It`s hard to describe them. They have a hard exterior, but when you break them open, there are lots of seeds with jelly-like stuff around them. You just suck it out and eat it. so tasty! 
Joss` host family dropped us off at a restaurant so we could try Latacunga`s signature dish- pork, corn (cooked 3 different ways), empanadas (sweet dough filled with cheese) and fried bananas. It was verrrry good! Although the pork was too salty. They don`t refrigerate their meat here..unsanitary, so they must salt it alot to preserve it. 
We then caught a bus to Banos. 

Quito, Ecuador (Sept 18-21)

Welcome to our blog! 
The big adventure awaits us!! And it started off below-par when we missed our flight on Sept 17...we thought it was at 7:30am when it was really at 6:55. Lesson learned, do not take one persons word for important times, ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK. But atleast I (amanda) got time to un and re-pack my bag, take out extra stuff. 
Our flights were also not what we expected..The flight from Calgary to Dallas, Tx was on time and good, although the flight attendants had a hard time telling the other passengers not to eat nuts (because of Robbies severe allergy). They said it was against their policy to  make an announcement to not allow all the other passengers to eat a certain thing. So it`s against their policy to keep their passengers safe?? The flight attendant said "If you can't eat nuts, then you should get off this plane right now". Thanks American Airlines, you just lost a customer. Our flight from Dallas to Quito was delayed 4 hours, and then they made us wait on the plane for another hour while they fixed a mechanical issue. 
We finally got to our hostel in Quito at 5:30 am. The next day (sept 19) we explored the Old Town of Quito, which is full of colonial buildings from the 17th century. It's sooooo beauty-full!! The homes are brightly painted, with lots of nice balconies and doors. Food is extremely cheap here, $2.00 for a decent meal of rice, beans and pork/chicken, more for beef. 
Saw a huuuge statue of the Virgin Mary with a dog on a chain on Sept 20. Got a great view of Quito from the top of the hill it was on. The city is extremely narrow (no wider than 20 blocks) but super long. There also aren't many tall buildings. The cities here apparently expand and take up alot of land, compared to other places where people build up. 
Robbie and I went on a great hike on the 21st. We took a gondola mid-way up this mountain, and then hiked to the top. It took 3 hours to get up, with some scrambling (on all 4's) at the peak. So worth it! The view from the peak was AMAAAZING! we ate a can of peaches and damn, canned fruit never tasted so good. We got to the top just as the clouds were coming in, we could see the wind pushing them closer together and watched them engulf the surrounding mountains. It only took an hour to get down the mountain, and when we got on the gondola, halfway through they had to stop it for 25 min because of hail! yes, hail. We happened to come to Ecuador at the beginning of the rainy season (wooppee!) We took the bus to Latacunga that evening and realised that the hotel we booked was $14 a person, not for both, oops. Definitely moving.