sabrinakam

Hallo Leute,

wir sind heute in Cuenca angekommen, der drittgrössten Stadt Ecuadors, doch eigentlich sind wir nur auf der Durchreise, denn morgen geht es schon weiter in Richtung Peru.

Wir haben uns aber doch etwas Zeit genommen und uns die Stadt ein wenig angeguckt. Sicherlich nicht unerwartet, Cuenca ist eine Stadt mit vielen Kirchen, schönen Kolonialbauten, hübschen Marktplätzen, netten Cafes und Restaurants, vielen Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, besonders Handwerk und interessantes Leuten, eine Mischung aus Mestizen und Urbevölkerung. Ceunca ist schlichtweg ein nettes Pflaster!!!!

In der Nähe (2 Stunden von hier) gibt es auch Ecuadors besterhaltensten Inca-Ruinen, Ingapirca, die wir uns allerdings aus Mangel an Zeit nicht anschauen. Die Umgebung soll auch super zum Wandern sein, z. B. der Nationalpark Cajas wird empfohlen, aber auch das müssen wir uns entgehen lassen.

Wir haben jetzt nur noch 3 Wochen und ein paar Tage bis wir zurück Richtung Europa fliegen und das muss ausreichen, um ganz Peru zu sehen. Mal schauen, ob es uns gelingt.

Ihr hört mehr von uns in Kürze aus Peru.

Liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik

We organized the two day mountain bike tour through the Biking Dutchman (not "Flying Dutchman" as I thought), a travel agency specialized in mountain biking tours and which came recommended by a Dutch girl who we met in Nicaragua.

The tour started early in the morning 7.00 a.m. when we were picked up by our tour guide, Fernando, who took us in his jeep to the highest point of our tour, 4400 m. Fortunately the tour was going to be essentially downhill, so we wouldn’t be tortured too much. At 4400 m the wind was blowing awfully and we had to really wrap ourselves up. I even put on my long underpants and several layers of sweaters. Harry, always trying to be the tough guy, decided to wear shorts. The first kilometers of the tour led through beautiful sceneries with paramo landscapes – the Ecuadorian equivalent of arctic tundra - and we were rewarded by incredible views. The ground made of grit and gravel was easy to handle by our mountain bikes and the only thing that in particular I had to struggle with the first kilometers was the cow dung that was spread over in the middle of the path. I ended up with cow dung freckles in my face and a moustache. Mhhh!!! Later on we cycled on paved roads and the difficulty of biking became another one, this time not only for me. Already earlier Fernando, our guide, had told us that we could expect some unfriendly dogs that would bum around at the edges of the road. He gave us the following advice:

Case 1: If the dog walks slowly towards you, cycle as fast as you can.
Case 2: If the dog comes quickly at you, slow down or even stop.
Case 3: If the dog shows signs of wanting to attack, use the cycle as protection.
Case 4: Worst case scenario (which happened to Fredrik and me after Harry had put up the dogs several meters in front of us), 7 dogs attack at the same time, here all the above rules apply and the guide in the car drives between the attacking dogs and the victims and honks.

Luckily we managed to pass the about 25 dogs unharmed thanks to the good advice from Fernando.

At about 1.00 p.m. we arrived at 1900 m where we took our lunch and finished our cycling for the day.

Later we drove to Ecuador’s biggest water fall, San Rafael Falls, where we walked through some beautiful tropical rainforest before we reached the spectacular falls. Fernando also took us to a far less known waterfall “Rio Malo” which was smaller but quite unique. We had to wade through a river to get there and once close to the fall it felt like taking a shower. Everybody got wet.

We spent the night at Baeza, a hotel with quite comfortable rooms, private bathroom, hot showers and TV. The best of all was that there was only one remote control for the whole floor which luckily was in our possession or I should say Fredrik’s. So both Harry and our other next door neighbors had to put up with that Fredrik was in charge of the night program selection.

The other day started with a jeep ride to Papallacta, maybe Ecuador’s best natural thermal hot springs, where we enjoyed bathing in hot pools with different temperatures between 25 and 40 C and in between we cooled off in a river which was close by. The surroundings were magical with rain forest and mountains all around.

After this wonderful relaxing start of the day, we were driven back up to 4400 m from were we started our mountain bike tour for the second day. It was even chillier and also rainy, but we enjoyed it a lot. Again we passed beautiful sceneries and every now and then we stopped for a photo. We finished up the day cycling through a “mountain bike park”, where we biked along an old rail way track in a canyon. Sometimes we had to pass through some really dark and long tunnels (there was no light) and we took particular care after Fernando had told us the story about the tourist who was cycling fast leading the group and all of a sudden there was a loud “MUUUUU” echoing through the tunnel. The tourist cycled into a cow!!! Fortunately both the tourist and the cow survived the accident!!!

Once back in Quito we had a farewell dinner with Harry. We spent 5 weeks travelling with him in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador and now he is off to Mexico and USA before travelling home to Germany. We had great fun travelling together and are looking forward to our next reunion in Germany, first Bretten and then Seelenfeld.

Take care, amigos!!!

Sabrina and Fredrik

Of course we couldn’t leave Ecuador before visiting this famous indigenous market. The market dates back to pre-Inca times, when jungle products were brought up from the eastern lowlands (El Oriente) and traded for highland goods. Today the market serves locals who buy and barter animals, food and other essentials and tourists who are looking for crafts.

The market takes place every Saturday and we decided to travel to Otavalo already on Friday to guarantee an early visit to the market. We took a bus from Quito and passed some dramatic mountain scenery, which Fredrik and I missed to a great extent because we were sleeping like babies. Harry, however, was awake and observed with lots of enthusiasm the lovely scenery. Already earlier in Quito Harry asked about the name of the place where we would be going and I told him Otavalo but he understood, which we found out later, “Botavalo”. So Harry, the only person of our travel team being awake and watching the places we passed, saw after 2 hours of traveling a sign saying 1 km to Otavalo. Since he thought that we would be going to Botavalo he didn’t suspect anything and kept enjoying the scenery from his window seat. Half an hour later I woke up and asked a local on the bus if it was long to Otavalo and seconds later we went off the bus to catch another transport heading back to Otavalo. At the end we arrived with some detours but happy at Otavalo. At night we went to a restaurant where a local band was playing traditional “musica folklórica”. We enjoyed it a lot and bought even a CD.

On Saturday we were at the market already at 7.00 o’clock. Some traders were still working on preparing their stands while others were ready for the crowds of potential buyers. The atmosphere was relaxed and calm and the traders never felt too intrusive. Fredrik and I bought each a woolly hat for the cold nights that we are expecting in Peru on 4000 m, some nice colorful small sacs for odds and ends and Harry bought some hammocks, a pullover and a belt. Happy with our merchandises, we left the hustle and bustle at noon heading back to Quito.

Bye for now!!!

Sabrina and Fredrik

Wir standen auf dem Äquator, ungefähr 22 km nördlich von Quito. Zuerst haben wir den vom Franzosen Charles-Marie de La Condamine im Jahre 1736 festgelegten Punkt oder Lage des Äquators mit dem Mitad del Mundo Komplexes besucht. Dort hat man ein 30 m hohes Monument mit einer aufgesetzten Weltkugel errichtet durch das die Äquatorlinie auf dem Boden gezeichnet verläuft. Natürlich haben wir ein paar Fotos gemacht, obwohl diese Linie nicht die wirkliche Äquatorlinie ist.

Vor einigen Jahren hat man mit Hilfe des GPS (Globalen Positionsbestimmungssystemes) die richtige (exakte) Lage des Äquators ermitteln können, die einige hundert Meter von dem Monument entfernt liegt. Too bad!!!! Wir haben dann natürlich auch den waren Äquator besucht, der Teil eines kleinen Museums (Museo Solar Inti Ñan) ist. Dort kann man auf dem richtigen Äquator stehen und selbst experimentieren wie sich die Schwerkraft und Zentrifugalkraft auf und neben dem Äquator verhalten, z.B. fliesst Wasser, das aus einem Waschbecken genau auf der Äquatorfläche abfliest, senkrecht ab, ohne zu kreisen, während 1 m von der Äquatorlinie entfernt das Wasser spiralförmig abfliesst, je nachdem, ob man auf der Südhalbkugel oder der Nordhalbkugel steht, dreht es sich rechts oder linksherum. Es soll auch leichter sein ein Ei auf einem Nagelkopf zu balancieren, wenn man auf dem Äquator steht. Es gelang allerdings nur Fredrik, Harry und ich, wir taten uns da schwer.

Nach den Experimenten, die recht spassig waren, wurde uns dann noch der andere Teil des Museums gezeigt, wo man das Leben der Ureinwohner des Amazonasbeckens (El Oriente), östlich der Anden, an Hand von Reproduktionen von Häusern, Hauseinrichtugen usw. kennenlernen konnte. Dort haben wir auch einen wirklichen Schrumpfkopf gesehen, eine faustgrosse Trophäe, die aus dem abgetrennten Kopf eines Gegners gefertigt wurde. An Hand von Illustrationen wurde uns der Herstellungsprozess des Schrumpfkopfes erklärt. Von dem abgetrennten Kopf wurden zunächst die Schädelknochen entfernt, anschliessend wurde die verblieben Hauthülle mit dem Skalp gekocht, dann mit heissen Steinen und Sand oder Asche befüllt, so dass diese zusammenschrumpfte und mumifizierte. Sehr interessant, oder was meint ihr?

Liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik

Quito has become the base for our traveling in Ecuador. From here we flew to the Galapagos Islands, we went for a daytrip to "la Mitad del Mundo" (The Middle of the World), for a two day trip to Otavalo, home of the most famous crafts market in South America (according to Lonely Planet) and for a two day mountain bike tour to the San Rafael Falls and Ecuador’s best hot springs, Papallacta (see following reports). A part from being a good base for exploring the environs, Quito is a charming city, tucked amid a high Andean valley and flanked by majestic mountains. Despite the fact that it’s only 22 km south of the equator, Quito’s elevation (2850 m) gives it a spring like climate year-round, meaning during day around 25 °C and at night about 10 °C. We thought it was quite cold when we first got here directly from Panama City, but now, since acclimatized, it is quite nice.

Quito’s colonial center is a declared UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site and we took a close look at it while strolling along its old-town streets. We went to the Plaza de Independencia, Quito’s main square, the Palacio del Gobierno, the Presidential Palace, the Monastery of San Francisco, Ecuador’s oldest church, the historic alley of La Ronda and we visited El Panecillo, the small, ever-present hill to the south of the old town which is topped by a huge statue of La Virgen de Quito, with a crown of stars, eagle’s wings and a chained dragon atop of the world. We had a nice view of the whole city from the summit.

We stayed (are staying) at a good and price worthy hotel, Hostal Amazonas Inn, in the Mariscal neighborhood. The rooms are spotless, with private bathroom and hot showers, cable TV and the staff is really nice and helpful. What else can you ask for for US$22? The Mariscal neighborhood is very popular with tourists, it’s the newer part of town, where there are lots of bars, restaurants, internet cafes, travel agencies and small hotels. But you see a lot of Quiteños too, so it keeps its Ecuadorian flair.

We liked Quito, its people, restaurants and tranquil atmosphere.

Take care, amigos.

Sabrina and Fredrik