Latacunga y Baños

Luckily we got to Latacunga just in time for the Mama Negra festival. This festival was nothing like what we have in the States, so if you are looking for a few floats to pass out candy inbetween dinner and your kids bed time, this is not the festival for you. It lasted for 2 full days and the city was like constant parade full of musicians, dancers, and guys with these backpacks that consisted of a sturdy base to hold the full cooked pig, all the cooked chickens, a memorial to the Virgin Mary, flags, streamers, fireworks, and anything else they could fit. The people were very interested in the 2 giant gringos and treated us like we were old friends that they had not seen in ages. It was too bad we had already checked into a hostal for the evening, because we had offers from at least 3 different families that insisted we stay with them. Unfortunately, Latacunga was short lived. We had met up with 3 of Adam´s Peace Corps friends Kirsten, Darlene, and Laura and left with them the next morning to head for Baños. Baños was a cool little town with some really good hiking and biking. We did a big loop hike the first day that took us up all around the surrounding mountain side, and would also have produced a great view of the local somewhat active volcano if the cloud cover had not been there. The next day we rented bikes. There is a road that is mostly downhill to the next town 60 something kilometers away, and also has great scenery and huge waterfalls. We took our time and hiked to the waterfalls which meant we only made it 20 something kilometers before we caught a truck back. In the top of the group picture you can see a tunnel similar one I thought I was going to die in at the start of our biking tour. Traveling with the girls was a lot of fun and really good for our stomaches!! I don´t want to be a vegetarian by any means, but they proved to me that there are some delicious meals out there that are lacking in the meat category. Sadly we parted ways today. Adam and I are going to do some more things in this area before heading to the coast for some surfin´, and they are heading south.

Big Bad Quito

Everyone we had talked to pre-Quito had told us their personal account of being mugged, robbed, or threatened. That is why before going Adam and I decided it might be wise to come up with some code words in case one of these situations arose. In the case we encountered an inferior foe that we thought we could open a can on and teach a lesson on mugging 2 bad gringos from the Estados Unidas, the war cry would be ¨Tanenbaum¨. If the same situation occured, however, we were not in the fightin´ mood, ¨Tippy-Toe¨ would be the proper code word. If by the slim chance we felt the assailant had the upper hand, no code word would be called and we would simply hand over what ever they asked for. We ended up making only friends in Quito and enjoyed walking around the city looking at the beautiful churches and buildings. You could climb the towers of the tallest church in town, which offered some great views of the city. I would recomend not going when there is a hail and lightening storm rolling in though. I´m not sure about the lightening, but the hail hurts!! We also stayed in a hostal with an eating area on the 5th floor/roof that had a great view of the city.

2 Equators...1 Day

We Started the day off at the original equator monument built by France in 1736. We were at the ¨equator¨ so we decided to celebrate with a side of Cuy (guinea pig) with potato and salad. From the ¨equator¨ we ventured about 200 meters north to the equator as we know it today. They say the imposible is possible on the equator, and to some degree that is true. I for instance balanced an egg on the head of a nail. The actual equator, as verified by global positioning satellites, was very interactive and informative with an animal museum that reminded us all why we don´t pee in the Rio Amazonas...see full grown catfish in a jar.

We stormed Ecuador by foot

There are no international trasport services between Colombia and Ecuador where we crossed other than our feet. After waiting over an hour for electricity to be restored, we finally got our exit stamps in Colombia and marched across the boarder bridge to wait in another passport line in Ecuador. Our first stop was Oltavalo for the famous Saturday small animal and artisan markets. The small animal market was a little like an outdoor PetsMart. You could buy anything from dogs and cats, to guinea pigs and baby ducks and chickens. Only it was a food market instead of a pet store. The artisan market was full of all sorts of beautiful alpaca, wool, and carved things to buy. It was fun to walk around barganing with the people, and listening to the 15 or so phrases that they use to entice the passing gringo. ¨Check it out. Machine wash. No problem.¨ It is also incredible how strong these people are!! They are tiny, but they are like the ants on the discovery channel with how much they can carry.

Bye bye beautiful Colombia

The statues are from San Augustin. There were 100´s of them all over the place ranging from 2000-5000 years old (according to the tour guide we didn´t hire). We stayed a night at Purcé National Park with hopes of a 15,000 ft. summit. With 40 something degree temperatures, a 30-40 mile an hour wind, and horizontal flying water pellets, we decided to look for another mountain along the way. We did get some refreshing iodine treated water out of the deal though... The Church is just outside the Colombia boarder town and was built because someone kept seeing the face of the Virgin Mary on the rocks of the gorge. It has a river running under it and a huge waterfall right next to it, I just couldn´t get it all in one picture. The alpaca was grazing on the side of the gorge on the way to and from the church.

Bogota

Well our stay in Bogota is over. Bogota is a huge city!! From here we are getting on a 10-12 hour bus to San Augustine to see some ruins and to Puracé National Park to climb a volcano. Ecuador is probably a week and a half or less away, but we will see. We are going to miss getting to watch the OSU game on Game Tracker tomorrow, so everyone be sure and cheer extra for Adam and I. GO POKES!!!!

More pictures...

Other than the dart frog picture, these are all from the Ciudad Perdida hike. The frog was in Tayrona National Park.

Transport, Eats, and Beautiful Colombia

Well I would like to start off by saying Colombia is one of the prettiest places I have ever been!! The people and food have been great so far and the traffic is always and adrenaline high!! The government could have saved thousands of gallons of yellow road paint because all is fair in love, war, and driving here. It is poetic chaos!! We are getting ready to leave northern Colombia on an 18 hour bus ride to Bogota here in a little bit. We will only be there for a few days, but we are not sure yet where we are going next after Bogota. I have been working on my spanish a little bit, but so far all I have been able to accomplish is to provide some comic relief for Adam and the locals. Sorry it is taking so long between blogs. Good internet combined with a good computer has been tough to find. I´m hoping that will not be the theme throughout this adventure.