The stories we have to tell... You´ve already heard and seen pictures of the first major story of the trip! But a lot more happened... we decided to leave Quito after a quick visit... it was very crowded. But before we left, we celebrated Christmas Day by taking a bus out of town to La Mitad del Mundo, literally translated as the center of the world, but really it was the somewhat anticlimatic equatorial line... we enjoyed ourselves watching some local dancers (see picture) and listening to salsa music while eating local ecuadorian treats of empanadas and humitas...
We decided to take our parents to Canoa which is on the coast, we absolutely loved it when we were there a week earlier and knew they would too. BUT it required a bit of a bus ride. We started our journey at 8:30 AM on the 26th and arrived to Canoa around 5 PM after two different bus rides. We arrived just in time for happy hour at our favorite place, Hotel Bambu... we left our parents to find them a place to stay for three nights (Hotel Bambu was booked), and by the time we got back, they had decided they wanted to move to Canoa for good... the camarones ampanada and capairina´s may have been talking at that point! But we enjoyed a great sunset with our families relieved that they had weathered the bus ride and were in good spirits. (bus rides were long, fast, and bumpy!)
We enjoyed some days in the sun on the beach in Canoa, renting a sun shade, playing in the waves, marveling at the fact that we were swimming in the Pacific Ocean on East Coast time a day after Christmas, no less. We enjoyed happy hour quite a bit... the staff grew to know us as the grande gringo´s! As well as the hospadaje our parents were staying at. They had to rebuild the beds after the first night to support our grande gringo dad´s :) Orlando the owner was happy to do it, after kissing Bill´s hand when he found out that he fell through the bed the previous night... now his hospedaje has the ¨Grande Gringo¨stamp of approval (patent pending). Unfortunately both Tony and I got sick towards the end of our time in Canoa and we weren´t sure if we were going to travel to our next destination, but we fought through it and headed on to Baños.
Baños is a beautiful town tucked in the mountains south of Quito, but there does not happen to be a direct route there from Canoa. So we embarked on another journey starting at about 11 AM...this time the bus ride total was 4, yes you heard that right, it took us 4 bus rides to get to Baños. Luckily the day got better as we went. The first bus we got on was full and we all had to stand until there were open seats... slightly worrisome for Tony and I. Not for us, we are used to it, but we were a little worried about our parents but they did just fine! The next stop was a little hectic and we ended up getting on a bus before all of us had a chance to go to the bathroom. Once again a fast and bumpy ride... the last bus of the night was very comfy and even had a movie in english. We arrived to Baños around 10 PM, ate a quick bite and checked into Hostpedaje Santa Cruz.
In Baños we hopped on a Chiva bus (see picture) and rode just outside of town to see lots of waterfalls. We did some souvenir shopping and enjoyed some great ice cream. New Years Eve in Baños turned out to be quite interesting! It turns out it is something like a form of Zozobra (for those of you who are from New Mexico). People make life size and larger paper mache dolls and line the streets with them. Some are very elaborate and creative. Then they write a letter about what the doll represents. The dolls represent things in the past year that have been problems and the letter is a sarcastic reaction to those problems. At midnight all of the dolls are burned in the streets. All day long prior to this, kids are dressed in what we would think as halloween costumes asking for money to do the finishing touches of their dolls. The kids use rope and wrap people up while asking for money... my dad experienced this first hand! Also lots of guys dress in drag... not quite sure where that fits in, but it was fun to people watch for sure!
The next day we had booked a jungle tour to the area around Puyo... well we probably shouldn´t have booked one the day after new years, but oh well! Our driver did show up about 20 minutes late, he was sober so that was a good start. We did see lots of people still out from the night before and the driver said we had to pick up our guide in Puyo... we arrived at his house and he informed us that he had just been told about the tour and he was very baracho (drunk) so would we mind another guide. Unfortunately the new one did not speak english, but that was okay we had fun! We were taken to a wildlife reserve where Sue and Joan got pick pocketed by the monkeys! We headed out to the jungle and took a canoe ride down a river (see video)... it was a little rougher than we expected, but fun and then took a hike to a waterfall.... after that we had a huge fish lunch and headed back to Baños. It was a great tour and a great last day to spend together!
We boarded a bus back to Quito after our jungle tour... it seemed everyone and their brother was headed back to Quito so both Sue and Joan ended up with young children asleep on their laps for the 3 hour ride. We arrived back at the Secret Garden for one last night before flights home.
We had such a wonderful time with our families. We would like to thank them for their good humor, adventurousness, and willingness to be flexible! We know it was challenging not knowing the language or being familiar with the culture, but what an exciting adventure we had together! We are glad to hear that everyone got home safely. THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE TRIP DOWN HERE, WE APPRECIATED IT VERY MUCH!
Stay tuned for more pictures, we asked our parents to send a few pictures of their favorite memories.... they will be posted as soon as we get them!
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