It was exciting slipping back into Ecuador – a country that I have a great affinity for. I had arrived in Bogotá Colombia a few days earlier and had arranged to meet Justin, my friend from the old days in Ecuador, Quito in a day from now. Geny from Medellin would also be joining me for the adventure.

The Aerogal plane landed at the international airport and I passed immigration with ease and took a taxi to the Adventure hostel where I had stayed last time. The girl remembered me and informed me, tragically, that my old room was taken. So I was ushered up to another on the top floor, which, to my joy was better. It was designed for 4 people, had private facilities: and to boot had internet wireless, which I could steal from some business nearby – OMG I am now a thief!!

Not feeling the cleanest, I had a shower before realising that the adjoining window had no curtain, and, it was all viewing pleasure from the balcony outside. Luckily for me there were no damsels in distress, to become really distressed, by the sight of me showering and I managed to escape, with my dignity intact, until I fixed a sheet over the offending window.

I had a night by myself so I organised a quick Spanish lesson and then hit the town; same places I had been before, but it was fun and intoxicating to be back. Ecuador is a great place to party and soak up the latin atmosphere in a western type way(does that even make sense?).

Justin arrived about 8 pm the next night. It had been five years since we had seen each other; ironically during our first south American adventure. He had been on a year’s sabbatical, in which he had learnt to kite surf in the Dominican Republic and teach English in Spain.

We caught up as only Australians who have not seen each other for ages can – straight to the bar, reminiscing old war stories! Not that any one would be interested in ours, or write books about them; however we found them very interesting and entertaining. Being good Australians we managed to fend off all offers to dance via a unique combination of Justin not speaking any Spanish and myself plausibly denying any knowledge of the idioma – and of course the very real fact that we can’t dance!!

Geny was arriving the next day so we immediately started planning our trip. The one thing we all wanted to do, was explore the Amazon Jungle. We wanted to do an adventure trip, however the problem was, that with our itinerary, we would no have the time to get deep enough into the jungle. So after a bit of hunting around we settled on a lodge in the Cuyabeno Reserve. This is in the North-East of the country and is quite famous for being a beautiful place. The one problem is; that because it’s so great, it has been run over by tourists – however it would have to do.

We found a good travel agent, and booked our tour and, the next day, set of by air to Lago Agrio (Sour lake – now there is an inspiring name). This is a mining gateway town (yes – unfortunately there is oil in the Amazon), and is quite dirty and ragged; no reason to stay there long, so we didn’t. Our guides picked us up and we started the four hour journey to the river departure point, following a dusty road that followed the dusty oil pipe!!!

Arriving at a small village, we got ourselves organised and took off in our motorised Canoe after paying the park entrance fee. There were about 8 of us in our group; and with our luggage and guide, filled the boat. Within about 20 minutes we had left civilisation and were travelling down a tributary river. We were surrounded by thick vegetation on each side, motoring around logs and being surprised by brilliantly coloured birds flying out of our way; the beauty of it was exceptional and the peacefulness was disturbed only by our motor and the occasional Kamikaze boat coming the other way (the rivers act as highways here).

Occasionally we would stop to look at a bird or monkey that we had spotted. Now I emphasise the word ‘we’’; because unfortunately, while our guide was a lovely lady, an animal would have to come out and bite her on the butt for her to see it – almost anything we saw on the whole trip was spotted from our own little beady eyes.

The Lake!! - Cuyabena

After a hew hours we arrived at the great lake area. This is a huge Amazonian tidal lake that is spectacular in its setting. It has a brackish black water and is set around islands that disappear and reappear, depending on the river / lake height. There are many trees and shrubs that, when it is still, is shimmering with the reflections from the surroundings. Coupled with this, is the flight of many birds and bush turkeys that inhabit the area giving it a surreal natural beauty - Natural beauty at its best; it is difficult to describe and pictures don’t really capture the magic.

As it was quite late, we passed over the river quickly, with only a brief stop, to our lodge location. As we entered the mouth of the tributary again, some grey river dolphins surfaced; blowing air as they did. This was a great start. The Amazon river contains both grey and pink freshwater dolphins; scientists I believe are not really sure of their origin.

We arrived at the lodge Jetty and started to unload our gear. It was amazing, peaceful and a nice surprise. And surprised we were; nothing in life can make a man jump, yell and run quite the way that carnivorous ants can – and we all, starting with me, stepped right into their trail. We didn’t see them, hear them, smell them – but oh god did we feel them. One minute we are revelling in jungle heaven – the next we are yelling, slapping and cursing the very existence of our souls; all caused from the vicious bites that we encountered from such a small itty bitty creature.

The desire fro revenge was immediate and deadly – stomp, stomp, slap, more stomps - killing every ant in site until the futility of attacking thousands of ants that just keep coming and biting sinks in – now please note; that reality set in, in about two nano-seconds. We took off. However, of course there were the obligatory yells every few minutes as one or the other was bitten by the seeming endless supply that had managed to find a temporary home in our clothing!!!

The lodge was absolutely perfect. It was constructed from wood, and was divided into a central eating / bar area and then a number of rooms on double levels. The rooms were very simply furnished with a basic bed and cupboard. The lodge had hammocks distributed at strategic rack (sleeping) locations and an upper hammock, heaven, deck. It was surrounded by the jungle and had a jetty leading down to the river (past those ants!!). Very cool place!

Peaceful environments – truly peaceful environments are very hard to come by; but this was one of the closest I had been too. Surprisingly there was very little insect noise, and no mosquitoes (well almost none) so it was fantastic. In addition, there was no electricity; everything was by candlelight and fire. The showers utilised rain water and the only downer was the toilet – which had the door so close to the bowls you had to sort of turn sideways to …….

And of course – nothing better than to make ladies get the hibby jibbies than creatures living in them – in ours was a large and friendly frog – a ‘’Sapo’’ in Spanish!!!!

The next few days were spent on various tours, which were not that awesome in an animal viewing sense, as we didn’t see many animals, and our guide I have already explained; but it is just magical rowing up the rivers, swimming in the lake, seeing amazing coloured birds, caimans, sloth’s etc. It is back to nature – and everyone was enthralled.

Piranhas

One of the highlights of course was Piranha fishing. These little meat eaters live in the brackish, quiet waters at the edges of the rivers, where there is not much to disturb them and the sunlight doesn’t penetrate.

We guided our canoe into a suitable spot and started fishing. The rod was basically a wooden pole, line and a small hook with some bait. You throw it in and kind of smack the water to create a noise, which in turn interests the piranha. Then, when you feel a bit you whip the pole out, as hard and as quick as can be, trying to snare the little bugger. We caught two this time – Justin and the Brit guy – good sized teeth that you can see in the picture, which can, if they are inclined take your finger off!! They are very tasty to eat and we all derived a certain pleasure from eating such a famous ‘killer’’ fish!!

Swimming in the river was also great, and the current is quite strong; even though it does not look it. The conventional wisdom of swimming in a river full of piranhas and caimans might cause one to wonder on the sanity of tourists; however the likelihood of them disturbing us was very remote (they are not crocs like the Australian crocs). We even had Amazon River beers in the river, which were very refreshing considering the heat!!!

The best time we had was when we had decided we had had enough of the ‘’kid glove tourism’’ that is prevalent today and demanded to be taken on a canoe trip up a smaller tributary, with more chance of seeing wildlife. Our guide didn’t want to go, so we started to set of alone, when she realised that a bit of canoeing on her behalf, would be much preferable to two missing Australians and Colombian in the Amazon!!!

Off we went; down a small tributary where we had to ease the canoe over logs, lie down flat in it to go under them, punch off out of the way from the amazingly spiky trees (I called them spiky trees – yes very original – I have no idea of their real name; however they were everywhere and looked very dangerous – you can see them in the photos.). Indeed we did see more animals, some frogs, snakes, monkeys playing high in the trees and we were still out when it was pitch black. It was a great afternoon and night, and we were fully satisfied and worn out by the time we got back.

We arrived back to the lodge in time for a late dinner which was delicious; as were all the simple meals that were prepared for us. Essentially, you do not have to lift a finger on these tours – every thing is done for you.

This really was the highlight of our trip and the Amazon is such an amazing place, my simply scribed words cannot convey the beauty of it – so savage yet peaceful. Many a time we found ourselves lamenting that we wished we were back in the lodge!

Our 5 days had come to an end so we motor boated out the way we had come in; by which time the river level had fallen considerably so we had trouble getting over fallen logs and sand banks in some areas. We arrived back to the town, dirty and tired and booked our bus to Papallacta which was where we would visit the hot springs.

Town

The bus ride was cramped and long. In this area, the Oriente (the east), there are many governmental controls and we had to stop at about 3 checkpoints and hop off the bus for our passports to be checked etc. This is due to the oriente being an oil rich area, however also in an ecologically significant one; which brings all of the environmental classes to the forefront. It is also near to rebel areas for the famous FARC from Colombia.

We finally arrived at midnight. The bus driver let us off outside the hotel we had wanted, which was in the LP guide. Knock knock knock ;no answer– there is nothing better than being cold, (we were now up in the Andes), wet (it decided to rain two minutes after we dismount) and tired (we have been amazoning for 5 days) and having the hotel you want to stay in, there in front of you – complete with a open 24 hour sign - with not a soul in sight (or able to wake up to quite large knocks!!!).

After 45 minutes of fruitless knocking; we decided another tact - walk up the hill to the next hotel!! Great plan; poor execution. We asked a street kid how far – 20 minutes – greaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttt - and Off we set. Unfortunately, my usually well tuned ability to recall that Latinos couldn’t tell the time, or distance, if their life depended on it, resulted in us walking for 45 minutes, getting mad, giving up and walking back to where we started. Excellent. A taxi pulled over (thank god) and took us to another hotel, in which we finally got to put our heads down.

We got up nice and early and walked up the hill to the hotel where we were the last night (the shuttle bus for the hot springs was located there). About to jump into the shuttle bus, we noticed a stall. Cana = sugar cane juice. Wooopeee – ‘’ on driver’’ (‘’por favour, esperanos’’) – there’s juice to be had!!; I have not had ‘Cana’ since I was a kid in Northern Queensland. Justin, being from North Queensland, was addicted anyway having grown up with it; so we paid our 50 c for delicious freshly squeezed cane juice before resuming our interrupted journey.

The ?? thermal pools are in a truly beautiful setting. Up in the mountains with clouds around and snow capped mountains in the distance. In the pools, they have a inter linking setting of pools that are fed by the volcanic water and diverted stream water to give varying temperature swimming (or lazying) lagoons. As the air is quite frigid, one has to ease himself into the pool as they are quite warm (or HOT), but once immersed it is heaven. There is also a freezing bloody cols pool that you dunk yourself into – scream in a high pitched voice – and bolt back to the previous pool – scream, as you are now freezing and the warm water scalds you. This is a very entertaining activity – to watch anyway.

As this was really the only thing there was to see in the town, we finished up with lunch – I had goat hooves soup by mistake (yes; I said my Spanish wasn’t perfect), we head off to pack and take the bus back to Quito. It was a two hour trip and we made out way back to our Adventure hostel, complete with stolen wireless!!!

Manta

Should we fly or take a bus / fly or take a bus / fly or take a bus – the argument went on forever. Eventually we decided to take the bus for the scenery; Eventually we would find out that we made the wrong decision. Oh; the scenery was amazing; however the numpty bus company neglected to relay the very pertinent point to us about the road-works on the way – turning a bearable 8 hour trip into an unbearable 13 hour trip. Didn’t that get our Western whinging going!! Jaja –

Actually – I am still glad we took the bus as the Andes are amazing and a bus adventure is just that!!! There is something to be said for the scenery in the Andes; magnificent gorges with rivers flowing through them, un-scalable mountainsides with cascading waterfalls flowing down them; with the bus winding around roads, where, if it goes over the edge (and they often do) you are finished.

We arrived into Manta at about 12 pm and caught a taxi to our hostel. As Ando had all his kite surfing gear with him, we had to always catch two taxis. The price was 2 dollars for each = muy barato (very Cheap)

Our hostel was very nice – more like a bed and breakfast, and just up the road from the beach. We had come to Manta as Justin wanted to kite surf and this, apparently, was the place to do it. Unfortunately; the actual place to partake in this activity was about 25 minutes away, at a deserted beach. That is one of the downs about kite-surfing – lugging the gear. (after a few weeks lugging it every few days I had dreams about torturing the kite-surf equipment – if only it was alive!!!).

We managed to find a taxi who would take the three of us, with the large bag strapped to the roof and made our way to the beach. We had to reach out and check it wasn’t coming loose every few minutes as we hardly had any rope. On arrival, we were pretty much the only ones there, and it was a white, nice beach with windswept, barren hills to the rear. There was a little surf even – and I made the most of it for body surfing. It must be a popular summer weekend place as there are thatched bars everywhere, but these days it was only us and a few scattered others.

Kite surfing is the new yuppie sport – the sport of the new millennium along with heli-skiing, kite skiing etc. I could make fun of it; but it is seriously cool. I only got to Quamby body dragging phase, but the power of the kite that can be harnessed, is awesome – freaky - addictive. It will be a sport I follow up on. I had a few lessons and, after the wind had died down, the small children would sell us beers (yes I know –that just sounds wrong; but it’s the way it’s done over here) while we waited for our taxi.

The people here were great – very relaxed and friendly. For the beer in Ecuador, you need to give the bottles back as they cash them in. Our taxi arrived mid beer, so we asked if we could take them and bring them back the next day – Si Senor (yes sir) – cierto (are you sure) - si senor. Very trusting (try to get that service in Australia) and true to our word we brought them back the next day; with the young boy running up to us as soon as we exited the taxi!!!

Manta was an relatively uninteresting town from a tourist point of view – especially in the off season – however there were two things we had to see before moving on. One was the fish market, and the second, was the Town of Monti Cristi – 20 minutes away - where we could buy the cheapest and best Panama Hats in the world!!!

The fish market – This market is on the northern side of the town and you have to get there early to see the action. We arrived to a flurry of activity, with fish, boats, people, dogs and more fish everywhere. The mornings catch had been brought in by the small boats and there was every variety of fish to be seen and bought. A type of bartering system to sell the fish was in place and people literally rocked up with their pickup, tossed them in the back and drove off again.

Behind this action was also a fish stall type market; set up where one could purchase fillets, fish, prawns, squid etc and then a series of restaurants by the side that would cook them for you – delicious (and fresh).

We decided for a tour first to see the fish being brought in. A common snippet of information we had latched onto was that sharks and sword-fish were sold here; and indeed they were. Huge sharks were everywhere being chopped and sliced – but only for one thing – their fins. The Japanese and Chinese markets for fins (and aphrodisiac) was big business here – the rest of the fish went to waste.

It clicked in that this is illegal as I was taking photos of the sharks – and was told by scruffy man to stop. Now, normally that would not deter a photographer of my calibre and standing, however when coupled with a gang of followers, a very serious face and a machete to boot; I tend to revise my natural standing that it is my right to’’ photograph what I want’’. This shark fin business is big business, and, with the rising middle class of Chinese, I would say we can say chau chau to the worlds sharks in a very short time (I did manage a few sneak photos however and the ones I had taken before being told not to).

We viewed the carcases of a few swordfish – majestic looking creatures – before setting of to choose our fish and shrimp for our morning feast. After our selection, we wandered by the restaurants, until we found a lady to our liking with an open air BBQ for us to cook them on. It was great service, we asked for them to be cooked in various ways (ie garlic – BBq) and of she scurried to do our bidding while we watched the fish market spectacle

15 minutes later we had a scrumptious breakfast of fresh fish and fresh squeezed orange juice for three for about 8 dollars all up – beat that!!

After our meal we went to see the boats being made. We had previously read about them. The locals have, for centuries, made wooden boats by hand, and this is the last place that it occurs in Ecuador. This was an important Inca fishing pueblo before the Spaniards arrived in the 15th century!! Our expectations of a small canoe type thing being put together with fibre rope were quickly dashed – these boats are HUGE trawlers, and they are made entirely by hand. Even the nails were wood. It was fascinating, and if you observe the photos you can see what I mean by their size.

How did they develop this trade, how did they made them so damn big – incredible – even today. The foreman had teams of workers scurrying all over the skellaten structures, and it takes about 3 months to finish a boat. The labour force, a mixture of young and old, hardy looking men, must sleep there and work from dawn to dusk. It sort of diminished the proud memories I had in my youth of my balsa wood aeroplanes!! Oh well, not to bother.!!

Monti Cristi

The other place I mentioned was Monti Cristi – pueblo (small town) of the most famous Panama Hats!!!

A Panama hat – why are you buying a Panama hat in Ecuador. Well smarty pants – the Panama hat is actually an Ecuadorian straw hat. It was utilised by the teams of Ecuadorian, virtually slave laboured workers that were brought into Panama for the construction of the engineering marvel called the Panama Canal!!!

The hat is a fine woven straw hat that can be fino (fine) or super fino (super fine) and are actually called Paja Toquillas. They are made from the fibrous fonds of the Toquila palm and can take months to weave. First shoots are gathered fro the palms and transported to the villages for preparation of the fibres. They are then bound and boiled (for 20 minutes) before being hung out and dried for about 3 days. Drying causes the fonds to shrink and rolls, which are then used for the hats.

The ladies who weave them do so only by moonlight so that sweat does not form and tarnish the fonds. An enormous amount of work goes into them and they can sell in Panama for 900 USD, and many times that amount abroad.

Justin and I found the shop of Jose Chavez, which is reputed to have the finest of them all. I settled on a super fino bargain; down from 100 usd to 80 – and Justin the same; the lady even through in another les than fino for free. I am proud of my purchase – it is a master piece.

The quality of the woven products in this town (and Ecuador as a whole) is exceptional. I bought Geny a woven bag for 2 USD – it was a fantastic buy and many people have asked her where she got it. I should export them – have a look at the hats I have in my Photos. They are brilliant, feminine, well made and sell for nothing.

Canoa

We caught a bus to Crucita, however there was not much to see or do so we continued on our way after a night to Canoa.

The arrival at Bahia de Caraquez, meant we had to do a boat crossing to the other side of the bay, and then catch a 30 minute bus to the village Canoa. On disembarking, instead of a bus we decided to take the motor-biciycle; which has a little cabin at the back to sit in and then a moped out front for the driver. It was a great way to travel for a short journey; with the wind blowing in our hair and ears. Probably not the best though if we had an accident!

Canoa is a fantastic beach town, just emerging it seems to foreign tourism, with a wide open white sandy beach, rustic backpackers and bars and is what I imagine Cancun (in Mexico) was 25 years ago. It is a rapidly developing place (or appeared to be) and is so laid back with an awesome atmosphere. We found a wicked 4 level hostel on the beach, with a bar, hammocks, small kitchen and great service (except for the bar staff hjajaja). The beach can cater to surfing (great surf) swimming, kite-surfing, parasailing / gliding and just hanging out and taking in the vide

It is alive with restaurants, funky little bars and locals and backpackers alike. It is the perfect place to relax and getaway from it all. We spent 3 days here just soaking up the atmosphere. Geny also had her first experience with a bluebottle jellyfish. This was probably not relaxing. The bluebottle is something every Australian knows and fears jajaja. And all have been stung by it. Geny, however, was a bluebottle virgin. Walking along the beach she came running up for me to check out this amazing ‘newly discovered ‘’animal’’ she had found. Turns out it was a blue bottle and I didn’t pay much attention – she was raptured from it and spent forever checking it out.

Later that day we were swimming in the ocean when she just went crazy. Thrashing around yelling, ‘’’me mordio’’ ‘’me mordio’’ (something bit me). I got hold of her and immediately knew what it was, as I was now also wrapped up in its tentacles as well. The infamous blue-bottles had struck!!! We got the hell out of bluebottle dodge and I have to admit Geny was stung quite well. She had huge welts across her abdomen and legs.

We scurried up to the hostel where we ordered a prompt lemon and I did the Australian lifesaver trick (I threatened her that if she didn’t sit still I would have to pee on the welts – and old Australian favourite jejeje) with the lemon to the amusement of the staff. The welts stayed for a long time and Justin and I had to convince her that it was not worth going back on a revenge mission to attack the stranded ones on the beach jajaja (I hope I never get on her bad side!!!).

It was Saturday night; so we went out for a feed. Now, often in countries the best food is found in small, nondescript restaurants with great, personal service – and this was the case here. We ate like kings on seafood and beer and ordered enough for many more people. To finish off the night we went to one of the rustic bars drinking cocktails, playing pool and reminiscing!! Magic!!

The clock was ticking, so the next day we had to pack it in and back track down south to Guayaquil. We really didn’t want to go there, but we were trying to get to Cuenca, and this was the best way for us. We took the 7 hour bus down and arrived later that afternoon – and what a pleasant surprise. It was a great town. We stayed in a hotel by the Malecon, a new waterfront development with restaurants, sculptures, olds sailing ships and gardens. A really nice area – and the weather was perfect; not too humid with a nice breeze rolling of the water.

We only had time for one night there, however I wish now we had planned more. It was a really pleasant surprise.

Off to Cuenca

We headed off the next morning in a huge taxi, with us hanging out the windows, and the bags (remember the kite surfing gear) hanging out the back. This is one of the beauties of third world travel – you are not tied down by all the politically correct OH and S correct guidelines; stuff just gets done – there is no way in hell we would have been able to travel like this in Australia!!!

The bus ride was about 8 hours through some spectacular country, at breakneck suicidal speed (with vomiting babies to boot) for an afternoon arrival at Cuenca.

This town is a colonial gem – I fell in love with it straight away. It is a fantastic place that is lost in time, with old world charm. Cobbled streets, huge old buildings, friendly people, white-washed buildings. It does not get many tourists – but one day they will discover it!

It is sort of divided by a river and is a Unesco heritage cite. We stayed in a lovely hostel near the main square called Hostel el Monarca. It was 10 USD each and quite nice; except the floor boards creaked really loud which made sleep a wishful affair. There were cafes all around, and bustling streets.

This is a city to get lost in the ambience; take coffee in the street cafes, let time pass you by. We spent a lot of time wandering the city streets, hanging out of cafes and trying hubbly bubbly for the first time (see photos)and for me, looking at property.

The hostel next to ours was for sale – first price for about 360 sq metres was 300,000 USD with 12 rooms available, 3 or 4 bathrooms kitchen, bar, two shops etc. This was first cut price. I was just getting an idea of prices for future reference – this is a place I would definitely like to own a property in!!! Places go for as little as 25, 000 USD.

Geny and I visited the Orchid centre and viewed bizarre and vivid Amazonian flowers – some that seemed to have a face (see photos). We were, regretfully out of time and luck and had to get back to Quito. We decided that buses were for the poor!!! and booked some flights for this trip.

We caught the 2 usd taxi to the airport and later that night arrived in Quito for our last night.

We were all sorry that the trip was over and had had a fantastic time exploring an amazing country. We will be back for sure!!