Tag Archives: ecuador

The cloud forest

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Mindo is a small town which lives from local and international tourism. The landscape surrounding the town is characterized by steep mountains which are covered in rich vegetation. The clouds from the ocean collide with the Andes so that this region gets a lot of rain.

We decided to make a little walk to a waterfall. A pick-up taxi brought us up the mountain. We were sitting in the back of the truck as it went up a steep and bumpy dirt road. On a little cabin we jumped off the back of the truck. We new that there was some sort of cable car that we would need to use in order to get to the path that leads to the waterfall. We did not expect what we saw.

A small cage, hanging on a steel cable transported people from one side of a large valley to the other. The cage was moved by a second small steel cable that was driven by a truck engine. A guy was sitting there, acceleration with food-pedals. After max. 5 people entered the cage, the guy put in 1rst gear and accelerated the steel cable, shifting to second gear as the load was getting some speed. To get the cable car back from the other side of the valley he was putting in reverse.

Cable car to the waterfalls

Cable car to the waterfalls

We paid our 6$ return-ticket and entered the rickety transport. There were 2 benches facing each other for 4 persons. The fifth has to stand and hold on to a cable. And off we went. It was quite impressive. This thing got pretty fast, swinging left and right. It started with the tall trees left and right and very quickly the treetops were far underneath us. The view was incredible. We could see the forest from a very unusual point of view. Safely arrived on the other side of the valley we started our walk to the waterfall. The path was winding along the mountains ledge. We were walking like through a tunnel of green leaves. In all shapes sizes and shades of green. In between once in a while some glowing red bloom.

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The sheer variety of plants was mindblowing. The eye could hardly separate one from the other as they all grow on another and in another. A wild chaos of all kind of exotic plants with leaves 3 times as big as we are.

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Humming birds flying to get the nectar our of the flowers, always a bit to quick to make it into one of my pictures.

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Once in a while you could see through the thick vegetation into the steep valley. This view offered the 3-dimensionality of this whole scenery.  As we walked clouds moved into the mountain range opposite of the slope we were walking along. The air was very humid, but fresh and cool.

It was a fantastic walk.

Getting the bikes

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On Tuesday we took a taxi to the airport. The taxi driver takes a different route than the one we had when we arrived in Quito and so we are irritated a little bit first, but it turns out he takes the easier route: a brand new 3 lane highway from the city to the airport.

There are different cargo areas and it takes a lot of asking and driving back and forth to find the right place to go. It turns out, we first have to go to the shipping company (which was Iberia Airline) and then to the customs where our bikes actually are. The two things are a few kilometers apart from each other. So we are very thankful to have such a great taxi driver.

He was really super kind. After we had our papers signed at Iberia Airline, we drove back the 5km to the customs where they told us we would need a SOAT, an Ecuadorian insurance to get the bikes. Of course we couldn’t get it at the airport, but only in the city. AAARrrrgh. Well, we kept asking and talking and finally we found a young lady who would help us. She told us we wouldn’t need to have it right away but would need it generally and would need to get it ASAP.

There was a lot of waiting going on there on this airport. Our taxi driver got a very good extra money for the great work and support he has done and took off. We waited and waited, and finally got the papers to get the bikes off. Of course there was a mistake, so back and waiting and waiting…

Finally we met the boss of the delivery section. And she was really cool. When she saw our bikes she was all over them. With real tenderness she was moving her hand over the handlebars of the bike, clearly in love with it. She used to have a bike herself, she told us.

With her help everything went a lot smoother and quicker. Until we had to pay 200$ customs. Well, they would not take any kind of card. No, there is no ATM here, only 5km away in the airport. And they would close in 20min. There are two banks here, but you cant withdrawal cash there. I started cursing and rushed to bus stop, got the next bus to the airport, ran to the next ATM, got some cash and back in a taxi.

The boss lady already arranged everything, so all went smooth from that point.

We were allowed to leave the wood of the crates just leaving behind. So we uncrated the bikes and wheeled them out of the shipping area.

There we stood, everybody leaving for his or her families. The sun was slowly descending, in 30 minutes it would be dark.

We connected the batteries, put on the panniers and filled up the bikes with some gas. It was all very much reminding me of the hectic days we had in Munich the last few weeks….

Filling up the bikes with gas was necessary, because we had to ship them without gas. A nice guy from freedom bikes lent us a 20l gas-can so we could make it to the city.

Freedom Bikes is a shop around the corner from our hotel. They rent motorbikes inclduding GPS tracks. They have small 250ccm dirt bikes, but also BMW F800 and similar. They are a great group of guys who helped us in many ways, including tips for the trip and the gas can.

So we filled up the bikes (a little bit hectically, that had some effect later, but that’s a story of its own…) and started them. They started immediately and so we took off to Quito.

The ride was actually nice and the traffic not as bad as I thought. But still for Christy being the first ride outside Germany, at night, we were pretty happy when we arrived safely at the hotel. We wheeled the bikes into the garden and locked them there.

The next day we did some packing and checking and added some electrical equipment to the bikes that we bought in Germany the last day.

Quito – slowing down the pace

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It was only the night before the flight that we realized that we would arrive in the afternoon.

So far we have been too busy with other stuff than asking ourselves how long the flight would last, how much time we would have to change in Amsterdam and at what time we would arrive in Quito.

So arriving in the afternoon was a pleasant surprise for us, since we thought for some reason we’d arrive in the middle of the night.

We booked the hotel the last evening in Germany, so we didn’t know if we would get picked up. But leaving customs we already saw a guy holding a sign with our names.

He brought us to Quite to the Boutique Hotel Café Cultura where we would stay for the next few days. The drive there was quite impressive. A very narrow, traffic-blocked and winding road lead down a canyon and up on the other side. Christy was already getting nervous about that road. Later we learned that was one of three roads to the airport and it was the worst.

For the first few days in Quito we didn’t do that much. We were still in the Check-List-Mode and it was very difficult to understand that there was nothing to do until Tuesday until we would pick-up our bikes from the airport. For months we were so busy getting things organized, that the sudden feeling of having nothing to do felt like a whole new thing.

We were walking down to old-town, a very nice colonial style city with nice placas and restaurants. It is a world heritage.

Old town of Quito

Old town of Quito

On Sunday we took a taxi to the “teleferrico”a cable car to one of the volcanoes surrounding the city. The volcano is not active any more and is easy to climb. When you are adjusted to the altitude. We walked about half the way up (form 4000m to approx. 4300m) and had enough. But the view of the city was incredible. There are no bushes, but a lot of different types of gras that live at his altitude. And it is just beautiful up here.

On our little hike up to Pichincha volcano.

On our little hike up to Pichincha volcano.

View of Quito

View of Quito

Some guys on dirt-bikes ride up here for an afternoon ride.

Mountainbikers use the teleferrico to bring the bikes up and ride them down on steep slopes.

We sleep a lot, a little bit jetlagged but more tired because of the stressful weeks laying behind us.

The hotel we stay in is very nice. Humming birds fly around in the garden. Three kittens entertain us. The air is warm and the sun intense.

Quito is at almost 2900m, so the nights are cold, but in the sun it is hot.

The hotel is in between the two tourist areas of Quito: the beautiful old-town and the “new-town”, a party area with generally loud and pretty bad bars and restaurants.

With a recommendation we find a fantastic Ecuadorian restaurant there though. We eat out there twice and are having fantastic food there.

The most impressing thing regarding food here are the juices. All fresh, super tasty and with lots of pulp.

Our favorite becomes Tomarrillo, the tree-tomato fruit.

Slowly sinking in

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We’ve spent the first few days here in Quito at the Café Cultura,

Café Cultura

Café Cultura

a beautiful little oasis in the midst of city life in Quito. It’s a protected architectural gem with beautiful gardens, cozy fireplaces, frescos and books everywhere, as well as a very kind and a devoted waiter to greet us every morning at breakfast.

cuties in the garden

cuties in the garden

There are three curious, yet cautious kittens who don’t like to get close, but seem to enjoy listening to me when I do my Spanish lessons. It’s comfortable, we don’t have to worry about anything, and we can rest from the hectic weeks and months behind us. We can take time to really arrive while waiting for our bikes to show up.

The guests here are passing through Quito for a variety of reasons. There are the multi-country “marathoners” maximising their vacation time, who see a blur of South America on their way home; a woman just re-acclimating to civilisation after spending weeks in the jungle studying a plague of snails; as well as a friendly couple escaping everyday in the Midlands. Most have one thing in common, Galapagos. They are on their way or just coming back. As big as my fascination for turtles and nature, and as enticing the stories of Darwin’s Beagle, our adventure is planned differently. We can imagine coming back for the sole purpose of visiting the Galapagos Islands. They would surely be worth a vacation all their own. Right now, I can’t wait to pick up our bikes and get started.