Posts for September, 2009

We stayed at Cuicocha until late morning trying to get a good photo of the snow brushed tip of Mount Cotacachi. In the process a snow capped mountain emerged out of the clouds to our East. I guess from the map that it is Mount Cayambe at 5790 m. While at the lake we bumped into an Australian and two Swiss tourists who had come up to take the hiking trail around the lake. They gave glowing reports on their trips to the Galapagos Islands, so that is now back on Nina's agenda.

Not much to report about today. It took some careful driving to descend from our ridge top camping spot and thereafter a slow drive down the cobbled road back into Otavalo and then another trip to the super market and hardware store in Ibarra. On the way out of Ibarra we found a Lavadero to wash away the Mojanda dust and San Agustin mud that was now covering the Tiger. We sat for almost two hours while a team of three worked to get the vehicle back to something like clean condition.

Friday was the start of Festival in Otavalo and the kick off would be a parade through the streets and around the main square commencing at 7:00 pm.

Another lazy, but unfortunately windy and dusty, day in Otavalo. Its amazing how you get comfortable with a place and are content to just hang out.

Another clear but windy morning in Otavalo. The wind is blowing dust everywhere. The last few days have been windy and dusty, so much so that I will be be pleased to get away from Otavalo's dust. Though I will miss the town.

A friend in Washington had given us the phone number of some of their friends, Gene and Helen, in Quito. Thus the first task of the day was to make contact. We arranged to meet Gene at 3:15 pm.

There is not much to say about today. I had hoped to get the vehicle serviced at a local Chevrolet dealer and was optimistic enough to hope that they would be able to supply the engine, transmission and fuel filters. But it was not to be. The Tiger would not fit into their workshop, and they could not provide any of the filters.

This morning we found a newly opened cafe with WiFi, so settled into their comfortable lounge chairs to collect emails and upload some recent contributions to whiteacorn. Unfortunately this took much longer than we had hoped as I found a bug in my whiteacorn code. The map of our camping locations was not handling southern latitude with 0 degrees correctly. I had to go back into programmer mode for a few hours to fix it.

This morning we had to finally face the task of finding our way out of Quito to the south. This was always going to be somewhat of a challenge as the city is hemmed in on the east and west by mountains and hence it stretches south/north a long way. The challenge was increased by the fact that we only had a tourist map of the city and a map of the country. Nothing that showed the outer parts of the city in detail. It was around 8:30 by the time we got underway and over the course of the next hour we tried in turn each of the four main north-south trolley bus routes, starting with the eastern most and working our way to the west. Why did we do that? Not by choice. We either came to a police blockage to south bound traffic - to give north bound vehicles more lanes, or simply took the wrong turn. But in time the western route got us to the southern boundary of the city and back onto the PanAmericana. We must be becoming seasoned travelers as all of this was done without arguments or angst between driver and navigator.

Last night was windy, did I say it was windy last night. Not a constant steady wind but terrific gusts that shook the Tiger. At times I feared that a window might give way or the Thule luggage container on the roof would rip off and get carried away. The wind we felt in Atigun Pass on the way to Deadhorse, AK was stronger but we did not camp with that wind. This morning was cold, for the first time since leaving Canada we turned on the house heater. Outside temp was about 40°F but with the wind - at least 30 mph it felt much colder. Even the locals were rugged up.

It's interesting how the days on the road vary, some are so mundane that there hardly seems to be anything to say, then others like today (and tomorrow - this is the hint that I wrote up two days at the same time) are so packed with sights, experiences and surprises that it seems impossible to capture even the basics.

As I hinted in yesterdays entry, today would prove to be another of those days that leaves one searching for words. Seems appropriate somehow that the start of our second 6 months on the road should be memorable - and it was.

Neither of us slept well last night, and Nina was definitely suffering mild altitude sickness, with head ache and insomnia so we headed for lower altitude and Guaranda. We stopped just east of Guaranda on the road to Riobamba for Nina to sleep for a couple of hours, she was more her normal self after that.

We stayed around Alausi for some time this morning doing some business on the internet. Then in bright sunshine we headed South along the main road to Cuenca. For many miles the road was in great condition with newly laid smooth pavement. And I was thinking how nice it was to be back on a major road rather than some of the rough routes we had followed in recent days.

The plan today was to get setup to use a local-country propane cylinder. This would involve buying a filled propane tank, some hose, and having the carrier on the back of the Tiger modified at a welding shop. I was confident that all but the welding would be straight forward as other travelers had told us about a very good hardware store close to the campground.

Spent the day stocking up on things for the next week on the Orient Road(where we don't expect to find any supermarkets) and interneting in the Mall.

We tried to get an early start this morning, but got delayed by an attempt at a last minute stop at the Mall De Rio - we are still not sure what time it opens, but its after 9:30.

The road between Macas and Puyo was on the whole new, and much better than we had anticipated, except for a small number of sections that still had to be made. Those sections were simply river gravel and rocks laid over what I assume to be the old dirt road. There were only a few sections of the unmade road and probably not more than a few miles in all. One of the more interesting bad parts of the road was the river crossing in the town of Sucua. there used to be a suspension bridge crossing the river, but that obviously collapsed some time ago as the remains are still lying on the ground and in the river. The replacement bridge is only one lane and hence impatient bus and truck drivers simply drive through the river - I presume until it is too deep.

Today we planned a return visit to the resort town of Banos, but this time approaching it along the Pastaza river valley from the East. It made for a leisurely day of driving as the round trip only racked up 75 miles. Starting in humid tropical conditions at 3000 ft in Puyo the road winds its way along the Northern wall of the Pastaza valley above the cliffs of the lower gorge and eventually climbs out of the tropical vegetation as it nears Banos at just under 6000 ft. It is an impressive road, a number of dripping tunnels and lots of tight turns. Also a number of places where it is taking a lot of hard work to keep the road from being swept from the mountain side by slides and rock falls. There are a number of narrow side roads that enable tourists with smaller vehicles than ours to visit local villages, water falls and other attractions. There were quite a few tourists, both young and old, riding bikes along the 12 km section of the road into Banos.

Not long after leaving the Puyo area this morning we got a taste of our first tropical rain storm. The small rivers crossing the road were running full of brown water and puddles were building up in the villages and along the road side. This gave us a little sample of why the road builders are so keen on the road side drains we have seen everywhere.

Today we headed for the thermal pools at Papallacta up in the mountains and on our way back to Quito, but before leaving the area we took a drive into the town of Tena to see another jungle park mentioned in our guide book. Tena is a sizable town that is becoming a significant tourist destination for those seeking a jungle experience or kayakers seeking access to the rivers and rapids of the area. It also looked like the town was trying to rebuild itself to cater to those tourists as roads were being dug up everywhere.

Before leaving Papallacta this morning we treated ourselves to an hour in the baths, hot pools. While still part of the Termes De Papallacta, this was more basic. Just a series of nicely finished hot pools. It was cold (45°F) and drizzling, so one did not spend much time out of the warm water.

Just doing stuff - not interesting stuff - in Quito

Today was another - not much to say day.

We had a bit of a rocky start to the Galapagos trip today. We had no trouble getting out of the parking lot at 5:30, the caretaker Diego, was true to his word and was awake in time to unlock the gate for us. But getting our ride to the airport was a bit more problematic. First we got into the wrong taxi - one just stopped and asked us if we were going to the airport. It took us 100 yards to realize that this was just a random request from an alert cabbie, not our designated ride. So we got out and waited some more. We had a number of further offers but now we knew that the correct answer was no. The appointed time, 5:45am, came and went and still no sign of the correct taxi. So we called the travel agent emergency number. Eventually discovering that the driver was waiting on the corner of Almagro and Pinto not Almagro and Pinta. That seems like a pretty basic mistake, particularly since we had given the street number in Almagro as well as the intersection. But ... we got to the airport, onto the plane and out to the Galapagos Islands.

Today we visited two islands and had a couple of snorkeling sessions. The first location was only two hours sailing from yesterdays location so the boat stayed at anchor until 4:00 am this morning, then sailed to todays location by 6:00 am. The seas over night were mild but we both noticed the rocking motion. I hope we get accustomed to this.

We awoke this morning in Darwin Bay, Genovesa Island. Everyone is showing the effects of last nights navigation - as they call it - which began at midnight and was rough. The morning is a bit misty and there is cloud over the top of the island. We spent the first couple of hours walking around the shores and rocks of Darwin Bay. There are the usual collection of sea lions, a few marine Ignuanas but the special treat of the day are the hundreds, maybe thousands, of nesting birds. Red Footed Boobies (with blue beaks), frigates, and gulls, plus the occasional heron, mockingbird, and even a finch or two. The birds simply don't see us people as a threat. It is common to walk within a few feet of a mother and chick without any concern being shown by the birds. The land is flat, and composed of old volcanic lava flow and supports only the most hardy of plants.

The nights navigation was rough but between the pills and our tiredness we slept the night through without much disturbance.