Our departure from the Galapagos were hard, you know when you’re in an amazing place and the likelihood that you will return is probably never. But, we forged on. In a way, we were very glad to be leaving low elevation coastlines because we are not hot climate people, although we thoroughly enjoy lazy beach life.
We got our AC fixed and headed out of the port city of Guayaquil as fast as we could. But of course we stopped at produce stands to buy nature’s marshmallow (4/$1) and amazing mangoes (10/$3.50).
It amazes us how elevation changes vegetation, especially this close to the Equator. I thought all of Ecuador would be 75F or more. But to my surprise Ecuador has the paramo, aka altiplano or puna, alongside it’s beautiful jungle and humid banana coastlines! Incredible. This realization set in for me after we climbed 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) in several hours and were greeted by Chimborazo, Ecuador’s tallest volcano at 6,300 meters (20,700 feet).
For some good karma, Todd helped out local construction guys to get their truck going. Their battery was dead, but didn’t have cables to jump start it. But they did have a rope, so we pull started them.
After another day of driving through intermittent rain showers and cloudy skies brought us farther to the northeast. We arrived in Baños, where there are more than a dozen waterfalls and a bunch zip lining options. We like adventure, although we weren’t up for the adrenaline rush. We did go to a $1 adventure park where we got to swing up into the sky and race one another on a kid-size zip line.
Tungurahua Volcano managed to give us a little rush as we felt its 5 something magnitude earthquake at our campsite.
We also walked up to the beautiful and gushing Diablo de Pailon waterfall…talk about flow.
And then the big question- to selva or not to selva? I had great doubts about whether I could handle the jungle climate. Peru’s Puerto Maldonado was quite an experience. At least we had AC this time, but I was also going to need a pool! Thankfully we found some beautiful remote limestone pools near Puyo, where we swam and camped for the night.
As we drove further along we realized we were at higher elevation than Puerto Maldonado, this was going to be OK. And OK it was, we found several botanical reserves in Puyo, a small town that is surrounded by 3 types of indigenous groups: Huaorani, Shuar, and Kichwa. Some of which still prefer to live isolated and without contact with western culture.
Beautiful pottery, massive trees, and rich flora surrounded us. Visiting an Orquideria (Orchid Garden) we learned a ton about the difficulties the region is facing due to cattle grazing and lack of sustainable agriculture. Farmers have taken to clear cutting their land (destroying native palms, kapok/ceibo trees, plants of medicinal value) and grazing cattle and collecting palm larvae which are of high value on the market. The hardworking and conscientious owner, Omar is trying to share this message with the local government, but because interests are always driven by money, his cries are falling on deaf ears.
It was really hard to listen to this devastating story and I hope by writing about it we can spread Omar’s message and share how important native rainforest and jungle protection is. If you can truly identify that a product is sustainable and rainforest-safe, go with that. I’ve found myself simple not buying things that don’t seem sustainably grown. Trout, chicken, beef, palm oil, picture perfect produce, in South America these products are raised at the expense of the environment, it’s simply not worth it. Eating beans and local vegetables never killed anyone….
After Puno we stopped by in the city of Tena. It was crazy to see so many people comfortably living in a place that seemed so hot to me.
Emerging out of the jungle we stopped for some thermals and then headed to Cotopaxi, one of Ecuador’s crown jewels.
We traveled through Banos, Puyo, and Tena, Ecuador on January 30th through February 4th.
The plants are amazing and beautiful!!!
Why would they name a town Banos???