Ecuador (Quito, Otovalo, Quilotoa Loop, Baños)

We arrived in Ecuador the last week of October and spent a few days in Quito before we went to the farm to volunteer. During November we visited a few place in the north but mainly hung out at he farm. We are spending the month of December exploring the rest of Ecuador.  So far we have travled through the highlands starting in Quito then the Ecuator, Otovalo, The Quilotoa Loop, and Baños.

Crossing the border from Colombia to Ecuador!

We made it to the equator!! Kissing in 2 different hemispheres!

This is the Basílica del Voto Nacional in Quito. It's a very sweet old church and you are allowed to climb to the top of the three tallest points.

The view from the top of the Basílica del Voto Nacional.

We visited the Otovalo market during the week when it was calm but here were still lots vendors. On the weekend this is the 2nd biggest market in South America.

 While in Otovalo we went to the Peguche water fall. Here we are with our friends Amanda, Adam and Ricardo.

This is the begining of the Quilotoa loop. We hiked around 35 k. for the whole loop, it has been one of the highlights of Ecuador.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colleen and I on the first leg of the loop.

A fresh baby lamb that we saw on the loop. The woman who owned the farm tried to charge me $2 for taking this picture but I told her I didn't understand her and hurried away as she was tugging on my arm.

Colleen and I at the top of Laguna Quilotoa.

This is the view of the lake from our campsite at the bottom of the crater. We camped at the lake for 2 nights. Every evening the clouds would spill over the craters edge making for a beautiful view.

 

Setting up camp!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked on the rim of the volcano around the lake. Great views, amazing weather, and some steep cliffs!

Here I am Standing on the rim trail.

Adam and I enjoying the view!

The sunrise from our campsite.

This is a bridge outside Baños that I did a pendulum swing from! It's 400' to the river below but the swing was only 100'. Standing on the edge preparing to jump....

Head first!

The swing was amazing!

One of the days in Baños we rented bikes and did a 40k ride, passing lots of waterfalls.

These water falls are called Manta De La Novia. Very Beautiful.

We hitched a ride back to town in a truck so we didn't have to endure the uphill.

This is a tree swing at the base of Volcan Tungurahua. It's called the swing of life.

Wooooo!!!!

We have had a great time so far in the mountains of Ecuador! Next is Jungle Time and Beaches!

RHIANNON (Malchingui Ecuador)

We spent our first month in Ecuador volunteering at a vegetarian permaculture farm/commune. The farm was located 2 hours north of Quito in a small town called Malchingui. This was by far one of our best months yet! It is an amazing place with some amazing people all of which we will miss tremendously!

Here we are writing out RHIANNON with our bodies for a picture in a calender they are making.

Patrick and I ready to work!

The views at the farm were breath taking. We were surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. Here is a picture of Volcan Cayambe, one of the snow capped volcanos we could see from the farm.

A beautiful sun flower in the garden behind the main house.

At some point in the day we were always above and below some clouds. As you can imagine this made for some amazing sunsets.

Rhiannon has 7 dogs on the farm. Here is a picture of Matt and Azul enjoying one of the gorgeous sunsets.

We also got to do some bee keeping! Which has inspired us to get bees when we get back home! If you are lucky you may get a taste!

Surrounded by bees! The hive had around 50k bees.

Patrick and Adam getting the donkeys(Ursula & Feya) who escaped 2 days in a row. Patrick was the donkey wisperer for the month.

They are making a huge new earth bag house. The first few weeks we helped work on the building project. We would mix dirt, clay and cement to fill these bags for the walls.

Rhiannon sunrise.

The morning dew.

Here we are recreating a Rhiannon style nativity scene. Patricks beard got him the role of Joseph. We also have Adam as a wiseman with our friend Ricardo.

There was lots to do in our spare time. Here I am doing some outdoor yoga. Also a good view of the property.

We got some lessons on acrobatic yoga as well!

Adam getting some flying lessons from Ricardo!

Sylve giving Ursina and me a lesson.

The farm is not prodcutive enough to provide food for all 25 of us so once a week fresh produce was delivered. Best Mangos ever!

Here Patrick is making breakfast with Ester and James.

Here is where we did our laundry, a bicycle powered laundry machine!

haha... Patrick got his beard/mustache braided.

On Thanksgiving we spent our night in the temazcal. This is similar to a sweat lodge. We spent over 2 hours in here singing, chanting and sweating. It was quite a hot and cleansing experience.

Singing songs around the fire as the rocks heat up for the temazcal. 

On our very last weekend we were lucky enough to have Vladi, a Shaman who works with the community regularly lead a San Pedro ceremony. This is a very special ceremony that has been perfromed for hundreds of years and passed down from generation to generation from native Ecuadroians.We spent 12 hours singing chanting and learning from him.

Colombia Part 2

We spent almost 2 months in Colombia and loved every second of it! The country offers culture, nature, activites and the nicest people.

After El Cocuy National Park we spent a night in Villa de Leyva, a small town outside of Bogata. It is a very popular local Colombian tourist spot. Mainly people from Bogota go there for the weekends. It also has the largest plaza in Colombia.

Next we went to Bogota and spent 2 weeks there. Here is a view of the large sprawling city from the mountains behind it.

Here is where we stayed in La Candelaria (the historic area of Bogota). It was a very beautiful neighborhood with numerous universities and government buildings. Almost every building was covered in grafiti. Majority of it was political. We found out that whenever a major political event takes place the streets get covered in grafiti. They leave it on for a month or so until the crowds calm down and then shortly after everything will be covered again.

There were rallies in the main square at least twice a week. With their crazy political history, the people of Colombia are very active and make their voice heard.

One of our favorite activites was walking up and down this pedestrian streeet. There are vendors everywhere selling anything you could ever imagine, street preformers, protests, amazing people watching and of course guinea pig races.

This shop would put a pair of pants in the street everyday to show they were open. It always cracked us up as this was a busy street and all the cars would just go around them.

One of our favorite treats was bocadilla which is guava paste (in my leftt hand). One day while I was enjoying my snack a bird pooped right on my hand.... and hair and back.  Patrick found it hilarious and made me pose for like 10 pictures beofre I could wash it off.

Our friend Matt from home and Ronaldo came and met up with us for a few days in Bogota. Here they are on top of the mountain behind the city.

A big highlight in Bogota was the beer. There were a few breweries here with good beer. A treat from the watery lagers offered everywhere else.

After Bogota we went to a small agriculture town called Salento. 

Here was our camping spot at the hostel. Our view was amazing !

Salento is a 20 minute Jeep ride to a beautiful National Park where we spent a day hiking.

The jeeps were actually the local transportation to the surrounding towns. So we were crammed in.

It rains a lot in Salento so our hike was quite muddy but it made for some awesome vegetation.

Huge leaves! This is a plant we have in our house. Only our house plant has leaves smaller than my hand.

There were amazing humming birds on our hike! We have never seen such a beautiful tail.

There were palm trees all over the country side before the hike. It made for an interesting mix of trees.

Patrick paying the jeep back in Salento.

We went through a few more towns before we made our way to the Ecuadorian border. We did some more hiking in Buga and some good eating in Popyan. One of the last soups Patrick ate in the border town Ipiales. Yummy chicken feet!