Sunday, January 21, 2018

Galapagos 2018 - Day 2. Quilotoa

Yesterday I was tired and I am afraid I did not do justice to the many new sights, colors, and music of Quito. Pity, because today I am not spending the day in the city, but am taking a trip to the countryside to the south.

Before getting started, let me tell you that paying for things here is not that easy. Very few outfits accept credit cards, and paying for the Galapagos boat tour used most of my cash, plus I had to go get cash from the ATM. And here I hit a snag: I wanted to withdraw $600, which I understood was the daily maximum, but after trying unsuccessfully a cuple of machines I had to go back empty handed to the travel agency. “Oh, so sorry, we should have made it clear that the maximum at any given time is $300”. So I went out again, visited three or four ATM’s, and finally got my money. Unbeknownst to me, my several attempts triggered an alert at my bank, which promptly blocked my card.

The following morning, at 7 am, I tried to get another $300, but was denied without a word of explanation. Oh well, I thought, since we are an hour ahead of Eastern Time I probably had to wait until banks opened in the US to get my daily allotment clear.

Innocent as a babe I waited at the meeting point or the tour, and was delighted to see the tour van arrived at exactly 7:15 am, as promised. A few minutes later we took off to our third and final pickup point, and at the stroke of 8 am started on our adventure. We were an interesting group, composed of 6 Brazilians, 2 Venezuelans, 2 Colombians, 2 Ecuadorians currently living in the US, 1 Frenchman, and 1 Mexican (yours truly). In the narrow confines of the small bus, and under the cheerful coordination of our tour guide Erica, we became instant friends. Most of the adventurers were couples, young and old, so the two lonely hearts, Tania and myself, ended sitting together and having a great time throughout the day, chatting. Tania is Ecuadorian, but emigrated to the US 20 years ago and was as eager to learn all about modern Ecuador as I was.

As we drove south of the city we entered the Avenue of the Volcanoes, the name given to the central valley of the Andean altiplano, which is bordered by majestic volcanoes such as Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, Chimborazo, and Ilinizas. Erica was happily streaming all sorts of information, legends, and trivialities when she mentioned the French-Spanish Geodetic Expedition. This expedition had been sent to measure three degrees of latitude across the equator, as a way of settling the controversy about the slightly oblate shape of the Earth.  I had just recently read a book about it, so when Erica asked why we thought the expedition had decided to do their measurements along this very valley I was able to correctly answered that it was because the peaks of the volcanoes provided for excellent reference points for the triangulation. [Note: The expedition was led by La Condamine, who turned out to be a poor leader and was eventually replaced by Bouguer—of geophysical fame—so I felt I was traversing key scientific ground.]

At some point we swung quite near Cotopaxi, which is one of the most photogenic volcanoes in the whole Cordillera, and Erica took the opportunity to tell the story of how Taita Cotopaxi had fallen in love with Mama Tunguragua, and out of their union Pichincha was born. However, Mama Tunguragua was fond of flirting, and one good day was caught cheating with Chimborazo. Taita Cotopaxi became furious, tore little Pichincha out of Tunguraga’s arms, and had him live far away from his mother. This is why, from south to north, we have Chimborazo and his lover Tungurugua on one side of the valley, and Cotopaxi and his son Pichincha on the other side.

About 40 km out of the city we turned west, in the direction of the Quilotoa lagoon, and started traversing an area that reminded me very much of the area of Los Humeros, where I did my doctoral dissertation. There was something about the gentle roundness of the slopes and . . . the deeply incised canyon of the Rio Toachi! Yes, it was a landscape that had been recently (in a geologic sense) draped by a thick pyroclastic flow, and the ignimbrite that was left behind gave the region its characteristic morphology. I was thus totally primed to recognize Quilotoa as a deep collapse caldera, the floor of which is occupied by a turquoise alkaline lake. It was an awesome spectacle!

The plan of the day was to walk down to the lake from the rim of the caldera, kayak and loaf around for a half hour down by the lake, and then climb the steep path over an elevation gain of 400 m (1,200 ft). Ah, but before the exercise I got distracted by a lady who was roasting a cuy (guinea pig), and I decided I just had to have it. I offered a taste to my fellow travelers, but most of them recoiled with alarm, particularly when I informed that that it tasted a bit like rat.

Down and down we went, and with every step I became more and more concerned about the way back. My right knee has been acting up for the last few years, and I am not sure that the steep climb was wise on the second day of an extended adventure. Imagine thus my delight when, after admiring the caldera lake for half hour, I discovered that some enterprising locals offered the service of their mules to take portly tourists back up. The best $15 I have spent in my life 😊

From there we went to get our late lunch, which consisted on a soup of lamb tripe, seasoned with cooked lamb blood, onions, and avocado (yumm!), and a main dish of rice, beets, and roasted lamb. Our Venezuelan friends added the right touch when they asked for some aji (kind of a mild Mexican salsa), and we all laughed about the tender-tongued Brazilians who had never eaten spicy food.

All in all it was a great day, blessed with great weather. Speaking of weather, the day before I arrived they had had the most terrible weather, with rain, hail, and sleet. No sooner had I landed the weather turned around, and I have seen nothing but beautiful sun both in my day through Quito, and now in the day exploring the Region Andina. What can I say, I am just that kind of lucky guy.

Since I spoke about the Region Andina, Ecuador has four regions. From east to west these are: The Amazonia (where mots of their petroleum reserves are found), the Andes (where Quito is located, and where growing roses is big business—did you know that most of the roses used in the New Year’s parade in Pasadena are Ecuadorian roses?), the Coast (where most of the commercial production of bananas and cocoa comes from), and Galapagos (where most tourists are headed sooner or later). This also gives you an idea of Ecuador’s economic sectors: Petroleum, ag products, tourism, and services.


By the time we made it back to Quito it was late, about 8 pm, and after fond farewells all I could think about was bed. I still had to get money out, so I walked to Plaza Foch which by that time was in full swing, full of light, music, and happy revelers. Curses, the stupid ATM machine once again refused to give me money! So I walked a few more blocks to the Pichincha Bank, where yesterday I was able to get some money, and now finally the machine deigned to inform me that a hold had been placed in my account. $#&@ Bank of America! After a few more expletives I realized I was going to have to call the stupid bank, so I headed back to my hotel to attempt an international call via Skype. To no avail because the connection was so poor that I could not navigate through the gauntlet of “press 2 … press 3 … goodbye.” What to do next? Well there is always the internet and, kalu-kaley, I managed to unblock my account! We will see tomorrow if it works.

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