Yes, today´s update is from Guayaquil in Ecuador. We have had a lovely time here in Ecuador, the scenery is beautiful, having said that it has to be admitted that most of the country is quite high (except for the immediate coastal áreas) and there is hardly any straight roads in the country. South of the Quito área and up to the northern boundries, you are surrounded by some lovely volcanoes – some alive, dormant and one or two actually are extinct.
A brief resume of our movements is outlined below:
Thursday: 05.09.2013
We crossed in from Peru at the Maracas crossing. We experienced no major problems and the Ecuadorian staff member was training in two junior staff members so everything was checked and doublé checked. We did notice that it was the first country that the stamp that was inserted in our Passport was generated by computer (and not a manual stamp as in all the other countries to date). We drove and made it up to the edge of Loja city in the late afternoon.
Friday: 06.09.2013
We got our bearings and did a quick recce on the city of Loja and did some minor shopping. It is strange to get used to using USD (that is the currency that they use here in Ecuador) they use the same coins and notes but they have actually created their own Écuadorian dollar coin as well.
Saturday & Sunday: 07-08.09.2013
We drove down to stay in the Podocarpus reserve. As it turns out, we could not drive the camper up to the ´Refuge´. We had to camp about 3km short of the top of the mountain and we used the motorbike to go up to the top and do our walks up there.
When we had returned to our car and just put the motor bike back into it, who arrived but Simon & Angelika in their Duro. (We had met them in La Paz and also in Cusco. They knew they had some car problems and that they were not getting any better. We had planned to meet up again in about 4-5 days time in Cuenca.
Monday: 09.09.2013
We drove down to Mallactos and Vilcabamba before we returned north to Loja. Vilcabamba is an ex-pat haunt for americans. We Heard more american accented people speaking in this village than on our entire trip in South America. In the evening we ate out in a lovely restaurant in Loja. A real sense of culture pervailed.
Tuesday: 10.09.2013 – 21.09.2013
Cuenca – Cabañas Yanungay with Angelika & Simon As it turned out while we were on the route from Loja up north to Cuenca we spotted them in their Duro behind us. We stopped and chit chatted for a while and they had bad news in relation to their car, it was definitely getting worse. We both travelled up to Cuenca throughout the rest of the day and settled ourselves into to the Cabanas Yanunguay, Us for the next 2 weeks and them for the next 4 weeks. As it turned out Angelika has to fly back to Switzerland and pick up the parts that were need for the car.
While we were togther, we wined and dined and toured in between the times that Simon worked dilligently on their camper. Angelika and Simon introduced us to two very interesting Canadian media productions i.e. Íce Pilots and another Alaskan Fliers.
Tuesday: 22.09.2013
We stayed in Riobamba for the night on our way up to Quito. We noticed a lot of road Works in the área with some minor deviations along the route.
Monday & Tuesday: 23/24.09.2013
We got a basic service done on the camper, oil changes and filters changed. When all was done, we hit the road again. We went back into the centre of Quito to try and park and tour the city, alas it was a disaster. We could not find anywhere within the city precincts where we could park our vehicle. The city is very big and busy but the streets are small and narrow and if we wandered off the main arterial roads, we had problems negotiating our way in the maze of narrow streets. In the end we gave up and abandoned our misión. We just headed north after a while trying.
Wednesday: 25.09.2013
We tried and wanted to stay along the Laguna San Pablo, this was not to be, the locals seem to have now put barriers in some places that we drove down to and we could not park along the edge of the lake. Once again we were thwarted and had to just overnight at a local petrol station across from the lake itself.
Thursday-Tuesday: 26-30.09.2013
Finally success, we stayed at La Luna, Hosteria, Mojanda, Otavalo. It was a lovely retreat for us for a few days. Lovely walks and tours. We were active but not as active as many of the ´hiking fraternity´that frequent the place. We did visit the market on the Saturday … a fabolous experience.
Tuesday: 01.10.2013
Calderon (Tunda Loma Lodge) unexpected we tried to park at the filling station and they wouldn’t allow it. Jose & Jennifer invited us back to their place. A gorgeous lodge which was full of ´bird fanciers´ our hosts let us park here as we had problems in San Fransisco itself parking. The área is near the Columbian border and there is a heavy pólice and military presence in the general área. We saw no evidence of any trouble at all, but the locals are on guard it seems.
