The Ecuadorian Amazon - Cuyabeno

After a shorter than expected night bus that left us in Lago Agro (home town of Soccer Star Antonio Valencia) at 4 in the morning (not advised) we were put on a bus to Cuyabeno, an area of the Amazon in the north of Ecuador. It took a two hour motor canoe ride to make it to our lodge. Half the time it was bucketing down rain and we had to share 1 poncho between two. Welcome to the Amazon!

Apparently it's the rainy season right now, this meant it rained 4 out of 5 days and when it rains in the Amazon it really rains. Usually there is a garden in the middle of all the huts in the lodge but it was totally flooded when we were there. This means that you get things like electric eels and caiman swimming around your hut.

Our room was nicer than expected but we were ready to get out of there by the end. After hanging all our wet clothes that never really dried all around it the place takes on a bit of a weird smell.

Activities of the Amazon

Most of our time was spent on the motor canoe cruising around the rivers trying to spot some animals. Occasionally we ventured onto land. 

We went on a leisurely walk through the forest which involved a lagoon crossing where the water level was generally just above the top of your wellies. This involved a lot of screaming, slipping and cursing. 

A night walk to find insects involved an unexpected equator crossing. I've lost count of the amount of times we've crossed the equator line since being in Ecuador.

We visited our guides local village to learn how to make yuca bread, from the ground to your stomach. Yuca is the root of a plant that is similar to potato, a bit more stringy, and is everywhere through Latin America.

Recipe for Yuca Bread

• Using a machete (because you're in Latin America) chop the branches of the yuca plant off.
• Get a strong man or two to pull the roots of the plant out of the ground.
• Peel, still using the machete, and wash the yuca.
• Finely grate the yuca. Traditionally you would use a spiky tree but if one is not available a grater will make a fine replacement.
• Using a large woven mat squeeze all the liquid out of the yuca. This liquid can be saved to later make a sauce.
• Sift the now dry yuca. 
• Place a cup of the yuca in a pre-heated pan. No oil required. 
• Continue to flip the yuca until slightly brown on both sides. 
• Remove from pan, add toppings, enjoy. 

Note: the more you eat the dryer your mouth becomes. 

Yuca fresh from the ground

Grating was a team effort

Draining the Yuca

The final product - Yuca Bread, Capsicum, Tomato Sauce and Tuna

After the yuca bread feast a game of soccer with the local kids kicked off.

We were supposed to meet a shaman but we were told he'd "Gone fishing" and wouldn't be back until 9pm. The replacement activity was a 30 minute walk to a 200 yr old tree.

On the walk we got to try fresh cocoa. If you cut one of these cocoa pods open there's white flesh and cocoa beans (used to make chocolate). We didn't try the beans but the white flesh around them was sour but quite nice.

Finally, a trip to the Amazon wouldn't be complete without a sunset swim.  

Animals of the Amazon

While the animal spotting was good, we've been spoiled by Costa Rica. We saw 5 out of the 10 types of monkeys that were knocking around and ticked the big two animals I wanted to see off the list: an anaconda and pink river dolphins. We have no photos of the pink river dolphins, they were too quick, but we got to watch a pod of them make their way up the river, one of the highlights. 

Squirrel Monkey - still my favourite

I forget their real name but the locals call them Stinky Turkeys. The locals don't eat them because their meat smells so bad. They were the most common animal throughout the Amazon. 

A little mouse in a tree

Baby Anaconda - 1m long

A nest of freshly hatched birds that we nearly ran over while trying to get a better look. Oops :/

One of the many birds around

Woolie Monkey. We got to watch a huge family swinging through the trees above us. 

Tamarin Moneky

The Amazon was an awesome adventure but after 5 days of wearing stinking clothes and being wet and cold we were quite happy to return to our comfy hostel in Quito with the best beds and hot hot showers. 

Welcome to Ecuador and the Otavalo Market

 The border between Colombia and Ecuador was hands down the easiest border we have ever crossed! There were hardly any lines, no weird offices and an official worker gave you the papers you needed at the start. Bliss.

Whooooo, Ecuador!

We had our first night in Otavalo, about 3 hours from the border. We didn't get in until about 9ish. We wandered around an empty town looking for food until finally we stumbled on a kebab shop. Amazing! The next day we were gone to get down to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, but on Saturday we made a day trip back up to go to the famous Otavalo Markets, one the largest outdoor markets in South America.

First we visited the animal market for locals who are looking to buy a new pig, cow or chicken. I wasn't sure if the rabbits and guinea pigs were being sold to restaurants or as pets (Alex: definitely food).

Then it was a breakfast break and into the shopping. I hate having to haggle but by the end of the day I was starting to get kind of used to it. It was a good, expensive day out but I've got the shopping bug out of my system for a while now.

The View from the Bus

Some Pigs for Sale

Alpaca! 

These little piggies went to market

We have no idea what this drink was, it was the consistency of whipped egg whites with the tang of slightly fermented lemon.  

Goods for Sale

Ja Ja Ja

The View of the Market from the Tequila Sumrice restaurant 

This is the most interesting and horrific presentation of crackling I've seen

Semana Santa in Popayan

Semana Santa (Easter Week) is BIG in Latin America as they are predominately Catholics. Easter in Latin America doesn't mean Easter Eggs or presents but it does mean a week off. Usually with big Latin American holidays the cities empty and everyone heads to smaller villages. This time we were prepared so we booked ahead to be in Popayan. 

Popayan is .... ok. There's not a whole lot to do there, a few museums, a small colonial city, a nice bridge to look at and a mirador (I wonder if they know this because their tourist information representatives were out in force trying to understand what it was you were doing there). However, it's one of the prime spots in Colombia for Semana Santa as well as being a UNESCO World Heritage site for Colombian food. 

Semana Santa seems to be mostly celebrated with different but similar processions throughout the week, starting from a different church each day. A procession seemed to vary from 2 hours to 4 hours, we usually only had enough of an attention span for about half an hour. The processions are made up of marching bands, police units, groups carrying what looked like very heavy statues of religious figures and everyday people with candles. Even with the average size of Colombians it was still hard to see much within a crowd so we headed back to the hostel to watch from the window. 

The Processions were being broadcast on TV

I had read that the processions would be creepy but this was about as close as it got

When Jesus came out there was a huge applaud from the crowd. The applause followed Jesus around as he made his way through the streets. It was a bit weird. 

Some tributes at alters near one of the churches

View of Popayan from the Mirador

The church on the main square with all the action. Our hostel was those windows on the left. 

I don't find Colombian food to be very good (not enough vegetables, too many deep friend pastries and huge portions of dry meat) so I was a bit confused by the UNESCO world heritage status. Turns out it's because in Popayan they've keep the traditional processes for making Colombian food. Our first attempt to find some nice food at a nice restaurant was a failure - a plate of mostly gross fried things. By the end of the week we managed to find a few winners.

Empanadas with a Peanut and Chilli sauce. They were amazing. 

Obleas - a Colombian version of Stroopwafles. Most people wouldn't put these in the winning category (and they don't hold a candle to stroopwafles) but I enjoyed mine. They are thin wafers with you're choice of filling - usually Jam, Caramel or Cheese. I had all three fillings. 

These have become one of my new favourtie fruits and they only come out around Easter Time. Granadillas are related to passion fruit and are super fun to eat. 

You crack them open like an egg and peel them to reveal the delicious goodness within. 

Close to the border of Ecuador, near Ipiales, there's one of the coolest churches I've seen. We stopped off on our border run between Popayan and Otavalo.

A wall of Acciones de Gracias plaques

One of the doors of the church

How often to you see a church that spans a gorge?

Desierto de la Tatacoa & San Agustin - Fake Deserts and Fun Statues

Desierto de la Tatacoa

I knew nothing about the Tatacoa Desert, only that I wanted to go there because the pictures looked pretty cool. Turns out it's a bit off the gringo trail, although it was packed with locals on break for Semana Santa, and isn't really a desert. It rained A LOT while we were there. It's not that much fun being in a desert while it's raining, there's not a lot you can do. We spent a lot of time hanging out in our tent reading. We stayed two nights and luckily on the second day the rain eased off enough that we got to go on a tour around the 'Grey Desert' as well as the 'Red Labyrinth'.

Cacti in the desert

This type of cactus bears one of my new favourite fruits - it looks like a pink chilli

On the inside it looks like a dragon fruit and it tastes delicious. 

It was crazy muddy walking around here

The Red Labyrinth 

It really was a beautiful part of the country

Grey Desert - not quite as striking as the red one

Someone has built a pool in the Grey Desert that is filled with a natural spring. It was quite a weird experience. There was also a man selling rum and raisin ice-cream. It was definitely a different experience to what I was expecting. 

I don't want to brag or anything but I want to note that our tours through the desert were only in Spanish and we understood about half of it! Although our guide did say he was speaking very simply because our Spanish is so bad!

San Agustin

San Agustin is an average little town but it's surrounded by amazing statues that were left behind by  pre-Hispanic peoples. There have been over 500 different statues discovered. Some have been moved around and placed in a museum but a lot of them are still out in the fields, if not in their original locations then close to them.

Our first day in San Agustin we went to the archaeological park which contains a museum and a lot of statues and burial mounds in their original positions.

The "Chocolate Mustache" on this guy indicates where he was buried up to when he was originally discovered. I think the sharp teeth make reference to Jaguars. 

This one is my favourite and has been adopted as the town's logo

This is an example of a tomb. A bit creepy. 

Our second day we had a 4 hour horse ride around the country side to see a few more archaeological sites. It's been a reaaaaaaallly long time since I've ridden a horse and possibly the first time for Alex. We both enjoyed it, even got a bit of a trot in. We were also predictably very sore the next day.

Our horses having a snack as we had a refreshing juice

This statue still has some of it's original colouring. Although a few years ago, for some reason, someone decided to repaint the whole statue, basically bright yellow. After some restoration work it's pretty much as good as old.