It’s my last day in Ecuador, meaning it’s the perfect time to recap the events of the past 2 and a half weeks traveling through the world’s most biologically diverse country.
Ecuador: The Quick Itinerary
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| More or less the route that we took through Ecuador. |
- July 19th-23rd:: Plans to lounge on the beach for four days were interrupted by sting raysand hospital visits, but we still managed to relax, find a cheap and delicious local bakery, and drink daily fruit juice smoothies.
- July 24th-25th: Left the beach for a trip to Quito, the capital of Ecuador (pop: 2.5 million). Visited the Mitad Del Mundo(Monument at the Ecuador), had a wonderful dinner with a local family that hosted a friend while she studied abroad, and one of our travel trio flew back to the US.
- July 26th-July 28th: Took a bus south to Banos, a thriving adventure sports city 3 hours south of Quito. Spent two days trying to climb Volcan Chimborazo(20,701 feet), made it only to 19,000 feet because of wind storms and expansive ice fields.
- July 29th-August 2nd: Spent a day resting and hiking around the hills near Banos, then spent three days in “The Oriente”, Ecuador’s slice of the Amazon jungle.
- August 3rd-4th: Took the last bus of the entire trip (and only 3 hours!), and spent two days enjoying Quito’s youthful party district (La Foch), and sharing another two meals with the Sanchez family.
So it’s been quite the rapid two weeks, with highlights and strange events abound. Here are a few of the best:
Hospitality at Its Finest
Let me set the stage a bit. Imagine you’ve talked to a person once. All you know is that they are some sort of friend of a student that you hosted, and that they are visiting your city. So what do you do? Well, for Franklin and Maria Sanchez, the clear answer was to invite this somewhat random person and his two friends over for an amazing Ecuadorian dinner and be world-class hosts.
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| Ok, so it wasn't quite like this, but it sure felt like it. |
And the love extended far past the three hours of food and great conversation. The Sanchez’s’ met us at the bus stop and helped us find their apartment, gave us travel guides of Ecuador, and even called a taxi after dinner and bargained down the price so that we could get home safely while paying a fair amount. After a month of eating in restaurants and staying in hostals, being welcomed into any home for an evening meal was an absolute treat.
So It’s Like the Highest Mt. in Ecuador, Can’t be That Hard Right?
Sometimes you just have to go for it. At this point our travel group was down to only two: myself and my friend Aaron. Both 22, both in good shape, both excited for adventure. So when we read that Vulcan Chimborazo was the highest in the world (as measured from the core of the earth), of course we had to try and climb it. I mean, how high really is 20,701 feet? (Answer: 3.9 miles). Ok, well it sounds like a lot, but how bad could it be? (Answer: Quite bad).
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| Looks so innocent right? It's just asking to be summited. |
The plan seemed simple enough. The first day we would drive to a base camp, acclimatize a bit at 14,000 feet, and then head for the summit around midnight. We had everything provided: ice axes, crampons, winter clothing, a strong mountain guide, etc. And the day of the climb, things started off quite swimmingly. We arrived at base camp, did some exploratory hiking, ate a carb-loaded dinner, and then hit the hay around 8:00pm. We woke up from this short nap around 10:00pm, ate a quick “breakfast”, geared up, and started the ascent.
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| Ok, so it wasn't quite like this, but after six hours of hiking it sure felt like it. |
And we were absolutely cruising! Our guide, Faustio, set a blistering pace and we were practically flying up the mountain. Before we knew it, we had climbed from the 4800m base camp to 5300m. But then we started hitting ice, and it was time to get serious. We harnessed up, tied into to the same rope, put crampons on our boots, and started to pick our way toward the summit. It was an absolute slog. 5400…5401…, the meters crawled by as we scrambled up dangerous ice faces. A little background: When the mountain is covered in snow, it’s an easy hike up because walking on snow is pretty simple. But we weren’t lucky with snow, and at 5700m we were met with unyielding canyons and valleys of ice, making our progress excruciatingly slow. By 4:30pm we had reached 5800m and were completely exhausted. I had lost my footing numerous times (one time falling about 20 feet down a vertical ice face), the wind was howling, and every other group of climbers had given up. Reluctant but relieved, we abandoned hope for the summit and descended to the safety of base camp. So we only made it to 5800m (19,000 feet), but kept our lives. Not a bad trade.
Prime Experiences in the Secondary Jungle
"Destroying a tropical rain forest and other species-rich ecosystems for profit is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner." --- E.O Wilson
Having been soundly defeated by the Mountain, we resolved to conquer the Amazon Jungle. Quick lesson: There are two basic types of jungle. One is called "primary jungle", meaning it is basically untouched by human influence, while the other is "secondary jungle", or jungle that was once entirely cut down and is in the 2,000 year process of recovery. So good news everyone, the jungle that we've been cutting down at ridiculous rates grows back! Pssh, I guess environmentalists are just being impatient. I mean what is 2,000 years between friends? Right?... (Crickets)... Anyone?
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| "The Shaman's" strategy: listen to the river, watch for familiar trees, and use the map in his head to find the right trail. |
We couldn't secure a primary jungle check for a number of frustrating reasons, so we settled for a three-day non-camping trip to nearby secondary jungle, which turned out to be surprisingly rewarding. Our guide, Byron, a.k.a. “The Shaman” was native to the area, and took us down trails that other guides couldn’t navigate. He also had a wealth of knowledge about local plants and medicine, teaching us that the jungle is probably the world’s best natural pharmacy. And this was jungle that was cut down 30 years ago, 1.5% recovered to it's full capacity. Obvious conclusion: Stop cutting down the freaking jungle. How to help? Support rain-forest certified products, or research relevant organizations.
So What Now?
I’m currently sitting in an airport in Bogota, Colombia, waiting for my flight to whisk me back to the states. I’m excited to return, but bummed that it’s much more difficult to find Spanish speaking opportunities in the US. I’ll finish up this series of blogs on South America with one last recap in a week or so, but for now…
Much love from Ecuador,
Kurt