Exiting Ecuador Elegantly and Energetically

After our lovely beach excursions, we turned eastwards and headed back towards the centre of Ecuador, before then heading south and on into Peru. And we had a mixture of modernity, elegance and relaxation as we did so.

Our first stop was the second city of Guayaquil. With two million people, it was a total contrast to the capital Quito. Being quite modern and shiny, it is the liberal opposite to the conservative And historic Quito. We only stayed a couple of nights, but managed to see both the modern “malacon”, or river front, and the old preserved cobbled streets of Las Penas, with its lighthouse and fort.

We then moved back north to Riobamba. This was a pleasant town, but we were really here to see the mighty Chimborazo volcano. It’s the highest point in Ecuador, and because of a quirk of nature, is the furthest point from the centre of the Earth due to the bulge in the Earth’s surface at the Equator.

Rather than take an organised tour, we took a local bus to the National Park entrance and walked from there to the first refuge, a distance of five miles. It started well as we were at 4,300 metres above sea level, but the second half was quite tough as the altitude started to kick in. However, we did complete it, as well as the steep climb to the second refuge at 5,000 metres. It was the highest point we had been to, and we not only walked twelve miles at altitude, but had also reached a point further from the Earth’s centre than the summit of Everest.

After a bit of an energetic time, we then opted for elegance, and Ecuador’s third city of Cuenca. It is truly beautiful with its streets of Spanish colonial buildings with their red tiled roofs, The blue and white domed cathedral in the centre is an incredible feature and is spectacular when lit up at night.

We decided to spend four days here and had a wonderful time. The city is elegant, clean and had lots of wonderful coffee shopS and restaurants, We tried everything from a French bistro to a Japanese bento restaurant. It’s no wonder that this is an expat haven, with thousands of foreigners living here for the good food and lovely climate.

After leaving Cuenca, we opted for both elegance and energy. Loja is a smaller city in the south of Ecuador, which is on the edge of the cloudforest. It’s clement climate also attracts expats, but in smaller numbers, and its centre is a mass of history, churches and squares.

Amid the elegance we had some severe trekking to do too. We took a taxi to the Parque Nacional Podocarpus, but instead of being driven the five miles to the refuge at the top of the hill, we had to walk most of it, as the road was having its annual maintenance and was partially closed to vehicles.

After an hour of walking up a dirt track we found the refuge, noting that we were the only people here in the park except for five men working on the roads below. We then decided to take the three mile trek into the cloudforest, which at an estimated three to four hours, we thought we could easily complete in two hours – but how wrong we were.

We had the most amazing, but highly energetic, three hours as we climbed a steep hill through the trees and eventually emerged at a viewpoint. At this point, the cloudforest was aptly named as we emerged into cloud and rain. We could see a path going off into the distance along a ridge, but could not see how far it went. In the end, we walked up and down what must have been eight new ridges, across tiny tracks with steep drops either side, and on wet rocks and soil. At three points we had to resort to using handily placed ropes to pull us up the steep rocks and to the top of the next ridge.

It was an incredible trek and we finally emerged at a viewpoint which was the highest part of the trip. At this point some of the cloud disappeared and we could finally see the great views, as well as where we had come from. Fortunately, heading down was fairly easy through the forest, except at the top which was like a Yorkshire bog and very wet.

We got back to the refuge and realised that we were caked in mud. We still had the walk back down to the entrance of the Park, but by now it was warm and sunny. By the time we had got back to the start, we had walked for six hours and fourteen miles. We were surprisingly in good shape, and after a forty minute wait in the road, a bus finally turned up and took us back to Loja. That night we treated ourselves to a large parillada, which is a meat griil, to replenish our bodies.

And with that we had spent seven weeks in Ecuador, and were about to head overnight to northern Peru. We have had some truly great times in Ecuador, and met some great people, It is full of great cities like Quito and Cuenca, has enough physical activities from whitewater rafting in Tena to climbing volcanoes in Latacunga and Riobamba, and has landscapes from the Amazon in the East to the coast in the west, with wildlife from whales in Puerto Lopez to the extraordinary Galápagos Islands. All this in a country smaller than Germany – wow, wow, wow!! Ecuador, you’ve been amazing.