Viaje del Diablo,Panic in Piura, Cotopaxi so high

Hey Guys, I haven't posted a story in a while, but believe me this one is worthwhile, and I guess it is going to be a long one.

I´m going to kick it all off with me trip to Lima into stages, so first we went to some village in the middle of nowhere by bus, to be able to take the Nariz Del Diablo train the following day. As you really have to get used to quite long commutes by bus in Ecuador I decided to prepare some bottled Cuba Libres to go, just in case anyone would be thirsty. So after 5 hours of travel, listening to some music and drinking the supplies later we arrived in the middle of nowhere at a gas station where we had to take a taxi up to the hostel. We got crammed into an old white car with the 6 of us and our luggage. So after driving for about a few minutes we arrived, and went straight to bed. The following day we got up quite early because we had a train to catch which as well was in another village than the village in which we got dropped off, so after checking out the Ecuadorian architecture of the village we arrived at the bus station to take a bus to the other village which was about an hour away, but because the bus was full we decided to ask a local driver to take us in his pickup to take us there, so we started negotiating the price, but as there were two drivers they drove the price down themselves. So we got quite a cheap and fast ride in the back of a pickup truck as the driver thought he was Damon Hill, Niki Lauda or Aryton Senna, but we went through magnificent landscapes. So I already wondered what was next, especially because the train ride was supposed to be even more spectacular. So we arrived at the station just in time to get our passports copied once again, take a quick look around and hop on to the train. So whilst driving out of the station we noticed that the train coupés were really old, but the chairs were from somewhere in the 80´s. it was a bit of a funny sight. Driving through these landscapes the train went forwards and back wards (switchbacks) because of the gradient it had to drive. The rest is just too difficult to describe just look at the picktures…

After this, we do what we always do, look for the bracelets which have the name of the place or the activity, but they didn´t have them, at least not nice ones. So we had to get to Cuenca and decided to take the Ecuadorian quality taxi to the bus station, arriving there the bus was already waiting for us, but is was so awfully full that we decided to get out and after waiting for the next bus and getting disappointed again we decided to take a minivan to Cueca, so with a beer and a with some other people crammed into a van we were on our way to Cuenca, and we arrived at our hostel at night which was a pretty good hostel for only $6 a night.

Cuenca

So there we were, Cuenca a city with a beautiful historical center a lower crime rate than Quito and to me a more European atmosphere, we visited the colonial churches built by the Spanish and a lot more things as you can see from the pictures. In Cuenca we thought we could just visit the museums in the weekend, but they are closed during the weekend which must be Ecuadorian logic I guess. So after a walking around in nice. After dinner in Cuenca we still decided to shoot some video in the evening for our video clip in progress which is going to be called `La Cuenca esta muy loca`` Which means the bill is really crazy. That same day I also bought my ticket to go to Perú but from Cuenca I couldn´t go directly to Lima. So I will have to do a stopover in Piura which is still quite in the north of Perú.

Trip to Lima.

So the following morning I got up really early to leave for Lima, than I couldn´t get out of the Hostel because the door was closed so after calling the boss and him calling me a taxi I was on my way to the bus station to catch the bus to Perú, the first bus should take 15 hours, and we would have to change bus at the border for some strange reason. But in total it took us 18 hours to get to Piura and from Piura it would be about 15 more hours to Lima. When after a lot of procedures long waiting at the border and the bus stopping 30 minutes for no apparent reason I and a maniacal bus driver I finally arrived in Piura I had to change money from dollars to soles, I first tried to take out Soles from the bank but it didn´t work, so my backup plan was to change money I wanted to change $60 to soles, and then they said they could only change me $40 because one of the bills had a small tear in the corner, but what I didn´t see is that they simply changed my bill for a fake one really quickly this was because I was tired from the bus ride and because it was dark already not the best circumstances to spot fake money, but I found out a little bit later when I felt the bill again that it was totally false, so with only $40 worth of soles I wondered if I even could get to Lima as I also had to pay the taxi driver. Who charged 20 soles for the first small ride to the bank, and when I started arguing with him he said that was just the price, 20 soles is about $8 which is a total rip off, So when he drove me to one of the many small bus stations around town which was still open and drove to Lima I decided to ask for him to wait for me to buy a ticket to Lima, At the station I bought my ticket and had no money left to pay the taxi driver so I offered him the fake 20 dollar bill and he said it was fake, and I told him that if he wanted to charge me for that ride then he shouldn´t have ripped me of with the first ride to the bank and then he drove away.

So without any soles left I was on the bus on my way to Lima, thirsty and hungry, but at least at got to get to Lima, so half an hour into the ride I decided to take the sleeping pill a friend of mine gave me and I was vast asleep for about 10 hours so and when I woke up there was breakfast being served in the bus so I had a little bit to eat. After arriving in Lima I wanted to take out money which just didn´t work at all as there was a connection problem between Perú and the Netherlands (banking wise). So I started to panic a little bit actually as I didn´t have any money on me, no food, no water, and I couldn´t even take a taxi to a better part of town. So after a while this woman came up who spoke English very well and she decided to take me near the part where I needed to be and give me .50 soles to call my friends in Lima to tell where I was. After having called Paulo, I wasn´t really sure if he got it but some time later he turned up where I told him to Luckily.

As you can imagine after this experience I felt still a bit stunned so my friends took me to eat something at a Peruvian burger place, and I was never so happy to be able to eat and drink something. So after these experiences I could sleep at Paulo´s house which I really appreciated. So after a short night we hit the streets again to see if I could take out any money and at the first bank I went to I could directly take out money, and I swear that I never felt so happy to hear the rattling sound of an ATM that gives out money. I could continue my day by first letting my parents as well know that everything with the money was working again. And then I did the Mira Flores bus tour which was really nice, in the Evening I went to meet up with Emelia to eat at her place, which was really nice, they made me a real Pisco Sour which is of course the drink of Perú. The drink is made with a lot of Lime, Ice, one egg and Pisco of course. After this great evening, seeing Emilia again I went back to my newly booked hostel to sleep some and make up my plans for the next day.

The next day I went to meet Emilia and her boyfriend to go to this Korean restaurant in Lima which was really cool as next to it they also had a Korean supermarket after getting a bit lost, and calling Emilia from the internet café we finally met to eat some Korean food which was actually really good. They also had Tokbboki on the menu which in Korea costs about a dollar or so but there it was about 20 dollar which is a bit absurd, but there were also a lot of dishes which was reasonably priced. After having a great time eating Korean, I wanted to visit the Korean supermarket and I bought some Korean noodles and 2 bottles of Soju. Back in the hostal I heard from Paulo that he wanted to take me to Barranco a nice area in Lima for going out and eating something which is really beautiful, after so after Paulo and his Mother picked me up from the hostel we went for a really nice snack and a drink and of course for looking around in the area a little bit. After I got at the hostel late I fell asleep in my bed immediately and woke up the next morning to do the full day bus tour around Lima as I thought it would be really cool so with this bus tour you see downtown Lima, and a lot of beautiful old buildings and churches, one of which we also visited but couldn´t take any pictures inside, but the catacombs of this church were really impressive, as there were just so many people buried there it was totally full of bones and the weird thing was that everything was sorted, so skulls with skulls and so on. After this day I was just tired and wanted to sleep before my journey back (This time by plane).

After a 1 hour taxi ride I arrived at the airport to catch my plane and later that afternoon I was back in Quito again. Where when I got home I decided to join the group who was going to climb the Cotopaxi so I had to do that a bit last minute as the tour left the day after. As all the nice people decided to go and I didn´t want to go alone somewhere next week or the week after I decided to join them. So after getting picked up by a minivan we were off to the Cotopaxi! But not before getting briefed about the bike ride down the Cotopaxi later that afternoon. So we picked up the bicycles checked them and were off to the Cotopaxi Volcano for real. This is the second highest Volcano in Ecuador with 5897 Meters. In the local language Quichua Cotopaxi means “neck of the moon”.

After listening to the bad English explanations of our guide and laughing at it, it was finally time to climb the Cotopaxi, so we prepared for what is quite a heavy hike, as at those altitudes there is only 57% of the oxygen in the air there is at sea level so you really have to stop every few meters, at the top there is even only 55% of the oxygen in the air there is at sea level. Funny enough no one of us really had a problem with the altitude as some other tourists had headaches and had to go down, but our group made it to 5000 meters, this is the highest the tour will allow you to go but still it is higher than the highest peak in Europe, so yes you could say I was pretty high. And the landscapes up there are so incredibly beautiful I wouldn’t want to miss. So after we descended again to the normal altitude of only 4500 meters we went on mountain bike down the hill, and I was so lucky my brakes were functioning, but as these were not the best of the best roads (no tarmac what so ever) it was pretty scary to go really fast, at one time I tried to just let it go and max it and it feels great, but is just a bit dangerous as you can reach speeds up to 70-80 Kilometers an hour which is not a good Idea with windy roads up a mountain. Once again the views were awesome and it was like cycling through a painting, with wild horses, lush grasslands and the mountains around you… just Wow…

After we got back we went to this hostel because the next day we were going to lake Quilatoa which is actually in the crater of a volcano and we would also have to descent about 500 meters. But before that we got tea with chocolate cake in the hostel and they gave us our rooms, and I was lucky to be in the only one person room which was really nice, with finally good functioning hot water in vast quantities. So after dinner and talking the day over with some of the others it was time to go to bed because there was going to be another great day ahead of us. So after we slept a little we went into the minivan again to see the lake, but not before we stopped at the most uninteresting market in the whole of Ecuador, which we must see and was fantastic according to our guide. In fact I was just a very practical market for the locals to sell their products but it was really uninteresting and smelly for tourists, there are way better markets in Ecuador, for example the Otavalo market. After half an hour we did hit the road again and went on to see a house of the indigenous people of Ecuador which in fact was a sort of shack with a grass roof, of course nothing fancy, but it was quite interesting to see how they live in their house with their 40+ Guiney pigs and other animals in the corners. So we hit the road again to go to our main destination the lake, so we descended about 500 meters by foot which was really cool, but the paths were really steep and at places full of donkey shit as they use them to carry people up again after seeing the lake which was really cool we went up again by donkey of course which was quite an adventure as my donkey refused to walk up a couple of times, I guess I am just too heavy for Ecuadorian donkeys… but it was a really cool experience.
After this it was time to return to Quito and go to sleep for a nice Sunday rest. Next week it is Semana Santa, or the holy week here, but I will be staying in Quito after all that traveling.