time to explore ecuador... :)

i'm heading to ecuador today and humourously, i'm flying from santiago de chile, up to panama city and then back down to quito, ecuador. i booked this crazy flight plan as a direct flight (only ~4 hours) was triple the price!!  since i was arriving around 9pm into an unknown city, i asked the hostel to organise a taxi to collect me. there's something a little bit fancy about seeing your name on a sign when you arrive somewhere :)

it was close to an hour from the airport to the hostel in the old town. i checked in, found my pjs and fell into bed as it was effectively midnight based on my body clock and flying always seem to tire me out which is funny considering you do absolutely nothing :)

the following morning, i did a walking tour around the old town, checking out some basilicas, markets and government buildings. it was a nice introduction to quito and i'd planned on passing the afternoon revisiting some of the buildings except before i did that, i wanted to explore the fabric shops! (i'd saw about 10 of them on my way to the start of the walk and i was keen to find some fabric to make a dress or skirt.) by the time i'd found my fabric and a bookstore with english books, i was worn out and not overly keen to explore the rest of quito.

the next two days were spent exploring areas outside of quito. the first day, i headed to an active volcano called cotapaxi for a hike up to the refuge (it shouldn't have been hard hike but the altitude made it a bit more challenging!) and then passed the refuge, to the glacier. i got a couple of good shots but the weather wasn't fantastic on the way up and it started to hail/snow/rain in the way down, reducing the visibility substantially!  we were supposed to mountain bike down the side of the volcano but there were limited volunteers for the activity given the weather!

the following day, i headed off to quilotoa which is a volcano-crater with a beautiful green lake in the middle of it. quilotoa is about a 2hrs drive passed about 10 volcanoes and mountains with breathtaking views before you arrive at your destination.  en route we stopped at a local market where they sold everything from livestock (including guinea pigs) to bed frames and everything in between :)  it was a pretty location and the hike out of the crater was definitely challenging, particularly in the altitude!       

i'm heading to banos tomorrow!

ciao,

sarah

p.s.  husband had a giggle when i told him i was going to banos as the word "bano" in spanish means "toilet" :)  i'm sure the city i'm visiting will be nicer than a toilet!          

San Pedro de Atacama - into the desert!

We started our trip to San Pedro in Valparaiso, taking 2 buses, a plane and a mini bus before we arrived at our hostel. It's a bit out of town due to budget constraints but otherwise seemed okay until we got into bed and discovered they were silk sheets in the middle of the dessert which meant tons of electric shocks!!

We've booked 5 tours so we'll see much of the surrounding area. Our first full day trip included a stop at a lake to see some pink flamingos before we headed off to Piedras Rojas to see some red rocks juxtaposition against a pretty green lake and then finally to a couple of other pretty lakes and scenery before stopping for lunch at 3pm. It was a lovely day however we both felt rushed from place to place which was particularly annoying considering the agency had been over an hour late collecting us! 

The following day we headed to see El Tatio geyser which is the second largest geyser in the world. We had an early start (5am) and hubby took tons of pictures from the bus on the way up of the sunrise over the mountains and volcanoes while I tried to snooze. The geysers weren't what I remembered them to be from years ago - I'm not sure if they've changed or my recollection of them is false :)  We subsequently visited Valle del la Luna (Moon Valley) and the national park nearby which was absolutely outstanding! Gorgeous sand dunes and vistas and then the Valle looked fabulous at dusk. Impressively, we also got to see the full moon rising over a nearby volcano, so clear in the night sky, which kind of made up for the lack of star gazing we were able to do due to the full moon.

The day after, we headed to Valle del Arco-iris (Rainbow Valley) which was formed by a collapsed volcano years ago. The valley has a variety of different rocks and minerals as a result of the volcano erupting and then collapsing into itself which is where its namesake is from. It was really nice, particularly as we were pretty much the only tour group in the valley. Our final tour was a swim in a nearby salt lake however we had laundry that needed doing and the entrance fee was $17 each for a swim which seemed a bit rich, even for Aussie standards so we passed, deciding to have a nice dinner and some cocktails instead :)     

Our last half day was spent relaxing, packing and shopping for some souvenirs as we hadn't really found any so far along the journey. We were late coming back as Shannon hadn't finished packing when the bus pulled up so I tried to stall the driver for a bit! 

We arrived at our hotel in Santiago around 9pm and we'd both had in mind a nice dinner and maybe some dancing to celebrate our last night however most restaurants were closed and we were both exhausted from the crappy sleep we'd be having in San Pedro so we decided to enjoy our fabulous hotel room - the best one during the entire trip!   

We're parting ways tomorrow - Shannon's heading back to Melbourne and I'm going to Ecuador for the next part of my adventure! 

Until next time,

Sarah

P.S. I have an airline named after me - LAW - Latin American Wings!  Too bad we've booked all our flights already as otherwise I would've wanted to give it a try :)