Hey everyone! This is going to be a longer blog as we had a long travel day the other day, and I was getting adjusted to our 4th hotel (the lodge).
On Wednesday (day 5), we started our morning bright and early in Otavalo, Ecuador as we were woken up by the sound of roosters and mysterious music coming from loudspeakers. At the Villa in Cayambe, we were also woken up by farm animals, and we thought we were going to be safe from it with our new hotel being on the side of a cliff away from the city, but I guess not. We had our staple breakfast of scrambled eggs and rolls, and we had to get our cash ready as we were taking on Plaza De Los Ponchos Mercado, a big market, with a ton of different souvenirs.
We took our bus and left our hotel around 9am, and it was a quick 20–30-minute bus ride to the markets. Before we were allowed to leave the bus, a guide came on to give us tips and tricks on how to navigate the market and get the most out of our shopping. She told us to be weary of our surroundings and put our backpacks in front of us to ensure that no one pick-pocketed us. In addition, we were told how to bargain, so for example, instead of buying a vendor’s asking price of $100, try to negotiate and get the price to $20. We had two hours to spend, and as I walked through the market, my eyes immediately started looking for jewelry. I came across several vendors who sold necklaces, rings, and bracelets from real silver and a lot of the jewelry had the indigenous calendar and Mother Earth symbol of peace. I found a bracelet that I really wanted, and the guy wanted $160! I was shocked. Going to the markets, I thought that most things, especially a bracelet, would be less than $20. I tried to negotiate with him, but he still wanted a very high price. I continued to walk through, and somehow, I ended up getting separated from the group I was with and literally got lost. I had no idea what direction I was going in, and I felt like I was walking in circles. During this time, I was very gullible and somehow ended up buying a hand painted picture of an Ecuadorian street that I didn’t want. I felt bad because he said that he spent 20 hours making them, and he laid out 30 different prints for me to look at. I ended up finding my way back to a couple of people, and I ended my trip to the market trying to re-negotiate with the bracelet guy. He wanted to trade the bracelet for my Apple watch! After him and I went back and forth several times, he ended up pulling out a different bracelet and I ended up getting it for $25. By the end of this shopping spree, I had spent over $60, and I definitely wish I would have brushed up on my Spanish speaking!!
We then left the market and took a 15-minute bus ride to Cascada de Peguche, a small area, that had a quick hike to a beautiful waterfall. As we got off the bus, we entered the city with an indigenous woman who acted as our tour guide and took us into what she called an “energy circle.” There she explained her and her communities’ beliefs, and their close connection to Mama Pacho (Mother Earth). She also explained the spiral symbol and that the reason they treat the Earth so well is because they believe their life is like a circle. They believe that their life is separated into 4 areas: birth, growth, reproduction, and death where they ultimately will be re-borned on the Earth and that is the reason why they want to treat so well because they believe that they will keep coming back. As someone who has a spiral necklace, I found this very interesting! After this, we hiked up to the waterfall, and we got drenched! On the way back down, we stopped at a playground, and I decided to take the risk and swing from a swing high up in the trees! It was similar to a zipline, and it was very thrilling.
We then left and headed back to the market area to get lunch. Once again even though we were allowed to go to separate restaurants, we all ended up at the same place, and I got a delicious plate of chicken pasta and fries. We had to eat quickly as we were heading next to Parque Condor, a bird park, and we were supposed to watch a bird show. Unfortunately, we came late, but we got to see the Ecuadorian Environmental Minister give them an award for their preservation of birds. I was a little surprised though because the majority of the birds were chained to the ground, and they were unable to fly. As an animal lover, this made me sad. We walked around the park though and saw all types of owls, condors, falcons, and more and we even got to see them eat dinner, which was baby chickens!
Even though this day already had a lot going on, the staff on our trip decided to take us back to our hotel and give us a little surprise. I didn’t know what to expect, but we were asked to meet in the dining room around 6:30. When we got there, they pulled out two guinea pigs to try! I was scared at first especially because I use to have pet guinea pigs, but I took a bite. The only way I can describe the taste is like chicken but with a weird fish after taste.
To finish off the night, we went to dinner at Balcon De Imbabura, which was a restaurant that had both Mexican and Italian options. The group that I was sitting with decided that we wanted nachos, and I also got a cheeseburger and fries for $6.50. We left dinner around 9, and we had to quickly get back to our hotel because the owners wanted to perform a special ceremony for us. The made us a special juice that is only drank around the equinox. The owner talked about when they have guest at their hotel, they are “family,” so he wanted to do something special to honor us. Two of them also played music from their handmade instruments, and we one of their traditional dances of dancing around in a circle. It was a great way to end our stay at the hotel! After, we finished packing our belongings as we had a 7-hour travel day ahead.
On Thursday (Day 6), we woke up and left our hotel in Otavalo. We once again had scrambled eggs and rolls for breakfast, and we were about to embark on one of the longest days so far. We checked out of our hotel at 8:45, and we started driving towards our first stop, which happened to be a museum all about the equator. This was one hour into our drive, and we got to stand on the actual equator line, and I even got to do a cartwheel. During our tour, I learned that Ecuador is actually in the center of the world which I thought was pretty cool.
We continued our drive for another hour where we ended up stopping again and parting ways with our translator Gabby. It was a sad goodbye as I had enjoyed having her with us for the last couple of days. We ended up getting snacks, and we were about to enter the highest altitude and elevation levels from the whole entire trip. We were over 14,000 feet up, and we decided to park our bus on the side so that we could go on a little walk. Even though it was cold, I was glad that we did this because we got some really cool pictures!
After this, we drove for another hour and a half, and there was much anticipation for our next stop which was a place that had hot springs. We got there, and luckily, I already half my bathing suit on so that I could immediately start heading over to the water. It had been cold and rainy for the majority of the day, so finally stepping into what felt like a hot tub was amazing. There were several pools throughout the property ranging from very hot temperatures to very cold all well being surrounded by the most breath-taking views of mountains over top of us. We swam for an hour and a half, and then we had lunch at 3:30. This lunch was one of my favorites with it being chicken, rice, and salad.
We then were supposed to stop at a hummingbird place, but we started to get behind schedule a little bit, and by the time we were done eating, it was closed. We kept driving for a couple of more hours, and we stopped at our final gas station. The majority of the group got ice-cream, and I decided to get Golden Oreos and a coke.
As we drove closer and closer to the Oriente area (the rainforest), the views were straight out of National Geographic. I genuinely wish my phone camera could have captured how beautiful it was. Our last stop was a cloud forest, but by the time we got there, it was pitch black. Even though we couldn’t really see, we still got out of our bus and walked around for a little bit. It wasn’t a big deal that we missed it because we are going to stop there next Friday when we head back into the city to leave for the airport.
Our travel day started at 8:45, and we ended up making it to what we call “The Lodge.” The path to our rooms was a long-pebbled path, and I struggled carrying my two suitcases, backpack, and tote bag, but it was all worth it when I saw our beautiful rooms in the middle of the rainforest. We unpacked, ate tacos for dinner, and went searching for animals. I ended up finding a gecko, and I enjoyed settling in especially after such a long day.