Last night in Cuenca

Last night was my last night in Cuenca today I am heading back to Canada. Went to Zoe for happy hours and then to the wonderful restaurant at the Santa Louisa Hotel. Fun times. Bye for now Ecuador.

Saying Good bye

I leave Ecuador tomorrow to go back to Canada. I am excited about that, I miss my family, grandson Nollie, my dog and my friends and I am anxious to see everyone but I will miss Ecuador and the friends I have made here too. This past week has been about saying good bye.

I will miss a once a week treat from the mercado, $3. worth of spit roasted pork. I would take my plastic container and the pork lady would fill it up with pork and potato patties, yummy yum yum.

I will miss all the fresh wonderful tasting fruits and vegetables.

I will miss having someone do the cleaning and laundry for me.

I will miss not having to cook, eating out here is so reasonable it just does not make sense to cook.

I will miss the parades.

I will miss the bundles of fresh flowers for $1.

I will miss walking miles and seeing new places and things.

I will miss Friday night happy hour(s) and group dinners. So much fun.

Susana took me for a farewell lunch to the country club, I will miss her and her family.

I will miss the weekly pedicure. Bye Fabiola

I will miss the busy mercado and the central park and people watching. Tuesday and Friday are spirit days when those in need who are sick or have sick children have the evil eye caste out by the herb ladies at the mercado.

I will miss all the wonderful restaurants, the national Pilsener beer, the cakes, inexpensive taxis to take me home late at night after a fun night out.

A fun night out here including the taxi home never costs more then $10. or maybe $15. including dinner. So not so many fun nights out once I am back in Canada where $10. does not go far.

Tonight I will say good bye to the gang at happy hours.

Isla de la Plata

I had booked a trip to Isla de la Plata for Wednesday morning leaving at 9:00 a.m., a guided boat tour from Puerto Lopez is the only way of seeing this island. It is often called 'poor mans Galapagos because it is an accurate duplicate of an island there. I went because I really want to see the Galapagos but just cannot spend the money this time however having been to Isla de la Plata I now want to go to the Galapagos even more, seeing and being on the island is a teaser for the real thing. There were eight of us on the tour plus the guide and two boat drivers.

The island is about 40 km offshore from Puerto Lopez, taking about an hour to get there. It is home to nesting colonies of sea birds like frigate and pelicans and large numbers of blue footed boobies, masked boobies, the island and the Galapagos are the only places in the world where the boobies live. Albatross are migratory and can only be seen between April and October. There is a small colony of sea lions, and snorkeling in the coral reefs around the island.

It was a steep climb from where the boat landing is to the two trails that loop the island. Some of the trail is rough and there are 200 stairs on the way up. It is hot and there is no shade. I seen the boobies and the sea lions and after hiking the loop snorkeling is offered where I seen schools of beautiful tropical fish and sea turtles. We had a picnic on the boat and were back in Puerto Lopez at 5:00 p.m.. On the way we were lucky enough to see dolphins jumping and diving. The guide was informative and the others on the tour really nice people, it was a perfect day in a beautiful location.

Hosteria Mandala and Puerto Lopez

I headed out of Guayaquil early Tuesday morning taking an 8:00 a.m. bus, Jipijopa Bus line, pronounced Hippihopa, love the name had to mention it, to Puerto Lopez and Hosteria Mandala where I had booked a couple nights stay. It took about 4.5 hours to get there and turned out to be every bit as hot and humid as Guayaquil. The scenery en route was mostly flat lands, lots of small towns, pineapple, rice fields and coconuts trees and lovely tall bambo stands. A lot of the housing built up on stilts, is wood framed, has palm front roofs and is clad in bamboo. The last half hour is along the Pacific coastline, mile after mile of light sand beach, so beautiful. The hosteria looks just like the pictures on the website, very nice and the location right on the ocean gives it the benefit of the ocean breezes that help a little with the cloying heat and humidity. I stayed in the Pelican room.

The hosteria staff were very friendly, the food good, my room nicely decorated and you just cannot beat the location. Some of the other guests there at the same time were there to surf, I spent some time after arriving sitting under the shade of a beach palapa watching the surfers and taking in the beauty of the ocean and beach areas.

Puerto Lopez, a small fishing village, is a little ramshackle but has despite that it does have a certain charm, I liked it. Best thing about it though is it's proximity to Parque National Machilla and Isla de la Plata and the humpback whales that come to mate mid June leaving again by mid October, otherwise I do not think it would get much company. The whales migrate and are now in Patagonia feeding so I did not get to see them. The Parque is Ecuador's only coastal national park. It preserves a small part of Ecuador's coastal habitats which I am told are rapidly disappearing throughout most of South and Central American Pacific coasts. It protects 50km of beach, 40,000 hectares of ocean and 20,000 hectares of dry and cloud forests. Isla de la Plata is part of the park and is the most important of the offshore islands. More about Isla de la Plata in the next post.

Guayaquil, iguanas and strolling the Malecon

I left Cuenca early last Monday morning heading for Guayaquil, pronounced, Why a keel, via a van service that travels back and forth between the 2 cities hourly throughout the day. Guayaquil is Ecuador largest city with a population of 2.16 million. It is located near the Pacific coast of Ecuador with a riverfront along the Rio Guayas. The drive took about 3.5 hours, travelling about an hour of that time through the beautiful Pargue National Cajas where I hiked last week. It is such a lovely drive through there seeing the highlands, glacial lakes and numerous water falls. Later as we neared the coast we passed acres and acres of banana plantations. Guayaquil is huge sprawling and hot, so hot and so humid it was overwhelming. The temperature Monday was 30 and the humidity reading must have been off the charts. I planned to spend one night here before heading to Puerto Lopez the next morning. I stayed at a hotel in the center part of town so I could walk the famous Malecon 2000 along the Rio Guayas and see some of the beautifully restored buildings as well as visit a couple of the parks. I did that in the afternoon and early evening, seen all I wanted to see and was glad I was leaving early the next morning because the the heat and humidity was a little too much for me.

Guayaquil may be the only city in the world that has land iguanas living downtown. They are a sight to see wondering around Parque Bolivar. Jody's Oscar would just love it there.

The Malecon 2000 riverfront promenade runs along the banks of the Rio Guayas for 2.5 kilometers and is made up of playgrounds, beautiful sculptures, gardens, ponds and lots of restaurants. It really is a beautiful place to stroll and lots of people are there doing just that.

I ate one of the best ham sandwiches I have ever eaten, served in a little restaurant near the hotel where I stayed. It was carved off the roast, the sign called it Virginia ham, placed inside a large but light and flaky roll, slathered with a sweet savory sauce, then topped with chopped pecans. It was deelish.

Hiking day

The Parque National Cajas is 30 km from Cuenca, I went yesterday with an organised tour group. The park ranges from 3000-4700 meters above sea level and is dotted with 240 glacial lakes, rugged rock faces and gorges. We first walked through a cloud forest and a small forest of Polylepis trees which grow at the highest altitude of any trees in the world. The areas we hiked were 4000 meters above sea level. The trees a rusty brown color with a peeling paper like skin, are dwarf. One guide says walking into a forest of these trees is like walking into a Grimm fairytale, that is so true. The day started out sunny and clear with a few rays of sun penetrated the cloud forest while we were there and we got to see 'ghost clouds', small clouds forming in front of us in tall wispy shapes then disappearing, thus the term 'ghost clouds'. We also seen a couple tiny orchid varieties, a black orchid and one called kangaroo orchid because the flower appears to ride on the leaves, I forget the correct botanical names for them that the guide told us.

The next part of the hike was in the region of Laguna Toreadora over highland moors. It rained throughout most of the hike but it did not matter, we walked through springy grass moors, the whole area is bleak and rough yet so beautiful. We seen hummingbirds, mountain toucans and pretty turquoise jays. We also seen llamas and alpacas the guide was funny as he told us about how "sexy" llama are. He was referring to their mating habits according to him the males start "sex play" as young as six months and the act itself lasts about 45 minutes. He says they are very "sexy active" and make lots of babies.

The group was good, the guide very knowledgeable and entertaining. We hiked for maybe 5 hours total and then went to a restaurant for late lunch. We had fresh grilled trout, really good. I enjoyed the day very much and would like to go back to the Cajas and hike different areas.

The Cajas area feeds the rivers that flow into Cuenca and also supplies close to 70% of Cuencas water. The water is clean and drinkable from the streams, Cuencas water wins awards for its purity and mineral content and is safe to drink from the tap.

The photos again do not do the area justice, I am not sure why the photos are spaced all funny on the blog page and I do not know how to rearrange them.