Cuenca and Parque Nacional Cajas
Day 17-21 (20.-24.11.22):
Flexible route planning
- After the amazing round trip on the Galapagos Islands we flew from Baltra back to Guayaquil. But instead of spending the night in Ecuador’s largest city (2.7 million inhabitants), we directly took the bus to Cuenca, which is a bit more relaxed with 330 thousand inhabitants and therefore gave us some space to let all the incredible experiences of the Galapagos Islands sink in. We also took A LOT of pictures and videos on the boat trip, most of which are still unedited. So quite some homework pending.
Initially we booked a room for two nights but we liked the hotel Yakumama and the city so much, that we added two more.
Impressions from Cuenca: Wonderful colonial city with a lot of street art and nice restaurants and bars.
And truer words have never been spoken: “Alcohol…. Because no great story ever started with someone eating a salad!!
Feeling safe and welcome
Astrid and I were always very cautious and reserved at the beginning of the trip when someone offered us help on the street or at the bus terminal, because independently of each other we had had bad experiences in Bolivia, Peru and India. After more than two weeks in Ecuador we definitely lowered our defenses: So far everyone we talked to was honestly interested in helping us or getting to know us. No scams or things like starting to force you to buy things at a relative's store after a nice conversation.... Also we never paid special prices for foreigners like it is quite common i.e. in Bolivia or Cuba.
We feel safe and welcome.
Why so few new content?
I wanted to do something like a video diary and frequently post this to keep you updated. But on the one hand I underestimated the effort - you have to bear in mind that I am a complete newbie when it comes to video filming, editing and publishing (within these weeks I already did the transition from using iMovie to Adobe Rush to Final Cut Pro).
On the other hand we still hesitate recording ourselves talking to the camera in crowded places because doing so makes us feel like fools.
Well, we love food, especially a nice breakfast with amazing Ecuadorian coffee, from left to right:
Huevos rancheros (bottom, corn tortilla with beans, tomato, cheese and avocado) and Tigrillo (top, green plantain mash with eggs, onions and cheese) with beef stew in the Café Ñucallacta.
Eggs Benedict, and a mushroom-cheese omelette from our hotel Yakumama.
Also, if you are at a beautiful place for a limited time, it is far more tempting to go outside and discover when the sun is shining or have a locally brewed Belgium style beer with freshly baked waffles when it is raining, instead of sitting in front of your laptop in your room trying to figure out why the hell the low contrast areas of your under water shots show some ugly compression artifacts after export even though resolution and video quality are close to max.
Day 19 (22.11.22) - Trip to the Cajas National Park
Having a balanced stay
After a day traveling from the Galapagos Islands to Cuenca and a day of culture and leisure (museum, city walk and bar-time) we felt it was time for action again.
So in the morning we went by tram to the central bus station to take the bus heading towards Guayaquil without going all the way.
After an hour of very curvy roads mostly going up or down steeply, we reached the National Park of Cajas to go hiking. Being located at an altitude of approximately 4000 meters it was quite high, but manageable compared to our visit of Chimborazo at 5000 meter
In the office at the park entrance we got an introduction of which routes can be chosen based on the weather conditions. The day before it was raining, so some routes were closed. And we had to register so they would look after us in case we got lost. We were actually surprised about all the service: the introduction, maps, maintenance of the routes including a lot of stairs. Everything without entrance fee.
First we took a cup of tea of coca leaves with a lot of sugar to be better prepared for the upcoming activity at this altitude and then we started hiking.
Whereas most of the other tourists (on average 15 years younger than us :)), that arrived with the same bus, chose a short round trip of two hours around a lake, we went for the longer 4 hour route armed with 3 liters of water, a bottle of gatorade and two bananas.
It was definitely worth it. First half of the trip we were hiking completely alone with the nature which we really enjoyed. The landscape reminded us a lot of an enchanted forest from a fairy tale.
After not being able to use my drone at the Galapagos Islands I was eager to finally use it for the first time in Ecuador. But unfortunately also in this park the usage of drones was forbidden.
So we sticked to taking pictures and enjoying the scenery with our own eyes.
We finished the roundtrip after 3h (including pauses) to then get back to Cuenca the same way we came, but exhausted and with a smile on our faces.
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