Quito and El Oriente

After Chile and Bolivia, we were looking forward to a new country, and we have already had a great time in Ecuador. We flew into the capital, Quito, and stayed for a few days in the Old Town.

Quito was lovely, and the first of the cities we have visited which has retained a large part of its history. The centre of Quito had been preserved as if it were still in the Spanish Colonial era, with beautiful squares, white-washed buildings and churches full of gold.

It was great just wandering around and visiting each place. The Multicultural Centre was an old Jesuit Church and a university, and has been restored beautifully; whilst the Ronda is a road returned to what it looked like three hundred years ago.

We also took advantage of getting up high and seeing the city from the surrounding mountains. Taking a gondola up allowed us to see that Quito was laid out north to south along a narrow valley. In the distance there were also views of lovely snow-capped volcanoes, which we hope to get closer too in the next few weeks.

We were also very lucky in that we had an Airbnb in the Old Town itself. This was a stone and wood apartment with views over the Old Town and across to the statue of the Virgin Mary, on a hill called Panacillo. It was a joy just looking out the window, and a bonus having such a nice place to enjoy this lovely city.

After four nights we decided to go on a short circuit around central Ecuador, starting with the eastern area of the country called, “El Oriente”. El Oriente also means the Amazon Rainforest, and we stopped in a couple of places to enjoy it.

The first place was a small town called Tena. This place is famous as a centre for outdoor activities, and we came here specifically to white-water raft. The local rivers are Class III and IV, and the water was high, perfect for rafting.

We went out with two French guys, father and son, staying in our hostel, and had a blast. We hit some Class IV rapids early, and Tim was the first casualty. He tumbled through the water, and floated a quarter of a mile downriver before we could catch him up; but fortunately he was OK.

After that we had a series of big rapids and stoppers and twice all four of us were catapulted out of the boat as we hit huge holes in the water. We were rescued by Jara in the boat and Christian in a kayak, but we were also enjoying floating about down the rapids too.

We just had a great time and agreed this was one of the best things we had done so far. Afterwards, we went further into the rainforest to a place called Misahualli and stayed in a nice hotel out in the jungle. We didn’t actually do too much for two days and spent time between lazing in hammocks and having a beer with the locals as they celebrated their Independence Day.

We have had a great start to our tome in Ecuador and are looking forward to what is still to come.