Four day biking tour

         Last week, we went on a four day bike tour, starting in Quito, and ending in Baños. We went from 5,000 meters, to 1,800 meters, or from super cold weather, to warm, humid weather.

We started biking in Cotopaxi National Park on a slightly uphill dirt road at high altitude.  The road was very slowly going up, but at the altitude, I had to take many breaks.   Later, I would be thinking of how much I'd rather be biking up this hill, rather than speeding down a steep downhill. 

Next, we all got into the van with our guide, to drive up Cotopaxi, a rounded mountain with snow on the peak.  The top was 4,600 meters.  It was windy, but not too much for it to be dangerous for biking down.  We got all of our gear on, and started down the long road.  It was a dirt road, which made the ride harder than expected.  The dirt road was bumpy, in addition to all the rocks.  I had thought before, that going downhill on a bike was super easy, but I found that you had to pay attention to the road for sharp turns, and had to press on the brakes a lot, to slow down.  Around a third of the way down, my mom and I got into the van.  We had been jostled enough and our hands were aching from pumping the brakes.  It was a relief to finally relax, but upsetting that we weren't able to go down the whole mountain. Oscar and my dad met us at the bottom. 

When we got to the bottom of Cotopaxi, my mom and I got out of the van, and started riding on the paved road to the visitors center.  There, we picked up Chompy, who was Alberto, the guide's, dog.  We played fetch with him for a while, taking a Dorito break, then we got into the van, and drove a bit.  The Doritos bag said that there was one spicy chip inside.  So every time I picked up a chip, I had to have someone take a tiny bite of my chip to make sure it wasn't the spicy one.  By five o'clock, we stopped at a square in the center of a small town, and had lunch.  We ate delicious curried macaroni with spinach pie, and banana bread for dessert.  We drank ginger tea.  It was late, but still really good. 

That night, we stayed in a town called Quilotoa.  The town was at high altitude, and sometimes you couldn't see more than ten feet  in front of you.

The next day, we started off by taking a hike around a lake.  The afternoon before, we had come to look at the view, but saw none, because of the mist and fog.  In the morning, there wasn't as much fog, it was even pretty sunny out. The hike was a beautiful, narrow path, looking over a lake.  The altitude was pretty high, so I was panting, all the way up to the small peak that we hiked to.  Even though the hike was hard, it was really cool to look down hundreds of meters to the blue/green lake from a high-up point.

When we got back to the van, it was time to bike again.  The ride to the town where we had lunch before, was short, but did have a few uphills. I enjoyed riding on the smooth paved road, even though we had to push our bikes on the uphills.  We saw small stone cottages and mini shops selling ice cream, fields with cows and llamas and alpacas, and people wearing indigenous clothing working near their houses along the way.  People were friendly and waved to us as we went by.  

We got in the van next, for a short drive to a small dirt road at the top of green fields and grass.   A flock of sheep was grazing nearby, and two sheepdogs came over begging for food.  We had lunch there, then started biking downhill.  Half way through the ride, I got into the van.  I think I was pretty lucky to, because there was a huge uphill right where I got in, plus a super bumpy dirt road, and a dog chasing Oscar.  When we reached the paved road, I got onto my bike again.  After descending a huge downhill stretch on the paved road, with a cliff on our right and a valley on our left, we got into the van, and drove to the lodge for the night.

The third day of our biking tour, we drove up to Chimborazo in the morning.  Chimborazo is a very tall mountain, more than 6,000 meters.  We drove up all the way around the mountain, which was scenic and beautiful, but the thought that was in my mind was that I would be riding down this path later.  At the top, we started hiking up a small trail.  It seems like the hike would be easy, but in addition to the altitude, it was really windy.  I made it up to 4,800 meters.  Chompy, Alberto's dog, really liked to play fetch, so we threw him a stone on top of the mountain.  

After our hike, we got out the bikes and started riding down.  It didn't seem quite as steep as Cotopaxi in the beginning, but it was way more bumpy, plus extremely cold.  At first, I started to feel in control, but then, I kept on bouncing up and down on my seat.  In the beginning part, I stopped to put an extra layer of gloves on.  I kept on riding and riding, but eventually, I got into the van.  It was a good call though, because at the next bend, we entered a cloud, where you could only see a few feet in front of you. 

After we got down the mountain, there was a short, 7 kilometer drive.  Then, we stopped for lunch at a bend in the road.  There was a small stream, and we played fetch with Chompy. It was way warmer than the top of Chimborazo, and we didn't need our wind breakers.  Half way through lunch, a man walked up to Alberto and asked him how much he wanted for Chompy.  Alberto said that Chompy wasn't for sale.  The man kept on asking and asking.  Eventually, he went away.

After lunch, we started riding down a really beautiful valley, with cows grazing beneath the cliff we were riding on.  The road followed a small stream that grew bigger and rougher.  It was beautiful and quiet, until we got stopped at a construction site.  After that, was a mix of riding behind giant trucks, and squeezing through traffic jams.  It was kind of stressful trying to stay as close as possible to the side of the road so that delivery trucks could pass.  We got into the van shortly after that.

That night, we drove to Baños, where we are still staying right now. The next day, was the last day of the tour.  We took a short ride on our bikes all the way to a tall and roaring waterfall.  The ride was pretty easy, downhill, with a few uphills.  It was windy though, so I never had to press on the brakes to slow down.  Even on the downhills, I had to lean all the way forward to go fast.

At the waterfall, we bought a whole bag of sugar cane to eat.  Then, we started hiking. When we got to the waterfall, we hiked down a little structure that got you as close to the water as possible.  The water was turquoise, because it came from a glacier.  Water was spraying up on you, and making rainbows on the side of the structure.  We walked back to a restaurant close to the waterfall, which apparently hadn't been noticed by many people.  While the waterfall was crowded, we were the only people in the restaurant.  That afternoon, Alberto drove us back to Baños, where we ended our trip.  After four days of biking, I felt more experienced and I probably could do much more than I did on the first day at Cotopaxi.

Going to the Amazon

           Eight of us are standing by the telescope, sixteen stories high in the air.  We are up in the emergent layer.  Pure joy is the look on everyone's face.  A sloth is slumbering on a tree, a kilometer away.  The sun beats down on us as we look through the scope.  We are in the jungle.

          We just arrived back in Quito after a trip to the Amazon, also known as the Oriente.  We had a day of travel, two days in the jungle, then another day of travel. The day that we traveled to the jungle, we arrived at the airport in Quito early in the morning.  The plane ride to Coca, a town in the jungle, is just twenty minutes long.  The plane arrived at lunch time, and we waited in a sleepy boat port for an hour.  While in the port, we saw a squirrel monkey.  It was the first monkey, and the best because of how close he was to us.  He acted like a human, lying down and hopping around.  We got on to a large canoe in the port and headed down the Napo river. The canoe was motor powered, with fancy seats.  We had bagged lunches, and rested on the boat for two hours.  In the middle of the ride, it started raining.  Luckily, there was a rain cover, but some seats still got wet.  

Squirrel monkeys 

         The big canoe arrived at a small dock that belonged to the hotel.  Since we were in a tributary of the Napo, we got into tinier canoes.  Our group was our family, plus two others, a native guide, a naturalist guide, and a paddler.  These canoes were not motor powered.  We had another long ride in those canoes, but stopped for wildlife.  Our guide taught us a lot about wildlife and plantlife in the Amazon.  For example, how the Napo river was a different kind of water from the tributary.  The smaller one was black water.  When you see where the two rivers meet, it seems like milk chocolate and dark chocolate mixing in a swirl.

          The hotel rooms were luxurious.  Our family had one cabin, to the side of the heart of the resort.  Oscar and I shared a room, while my parents shared another one.  All meals were served at the hotel.  The next morning, I was woken at five by my dad saying,"Good morning, good morning."  We had breakfast at five thirty, and left the hotel at six.  Our tour group went all the way to the motorized canoe again, and rode it to a clay lick.  The clay licks are places close to the Napo river where parrots and parakeets eat clay.  They eat the clay each morning so that they can digest seeds.  We saw swarms of parrots feasting on their morning clay.

          We were supposed to go to another clay lick next, but it was "canceled" because of rain.  Instead, we went to an interpretation center owned by the indigenous tribe called the Kichwas.  Twenty seven women worked there, and they own it.  We saw traditional dances, and then got to see a traditional house.  We learned about a plant called,  yucca , and all the women harvest it.  When a woman wants to get married to a man, she has to make yucca  for the man's father.  If he likes it, they can marry.  We also saw a variety of tools.  We saw graters, which we later saw came from the root of the walking tree.   The woman also showed us bowls and other tools.  Then, we saw weapons.   There were spears and such, but the best part was trying out blow guns on a target.  We each got to try out shooting the fake bird.

          Next, we went to the Kichwa community.  They had a natural heating and a hot water system, but it wasn't working at the time.  We also saw a school, and solar panels being set up.  The community had gotten a huge grant to set up all of these natural systems.

          Later that night, we went on a night hike.  We saw snakes, which I held, plus tons of other insects and frogs.  We also learned about a lot of plants.

          The next day we woke up later, at five thirty.  We had breakfast and left at six thirty.  We had a short, small, canoe ride to the observation tower.  In the tower, which was sixteen stories high, we saw monkeys, a sloth, and birds.  I looked down at one point, only to see the trees of the canopy, blocking the forest floor from sight.  It was interesting how most trees were shorter than the one that the tree house was built on.  Later, our guide taught us about these trees.  They are called kapok and are sacred in most tribes.  Jóse, our naturalist guide,  told us about how he went to one of the trees, and fasted for four days.  That was a tradition from the highlands.  

            After we had all napped -except for me- around four o' clock, our group went to a small creek. We saw a lot of wildlife, but my favorite part was seeing a group of squirrel monkeys.  Our native guide, Xavier, was really great at spotting plants and animals for us to see.   When it started to get dark, we hopped off of the canoe and took another night hike.  We saw another snake, more insects, and interesting trees.  My favorite part was the baby snake who licked my nose because snakes smell with their tongues.  After the night hike, our paddler met us at the end of the trail.  We got into the canoe. Everyone's flashlights were on because it was dark.  Then, we started seeing splashes all around us.  Splash! Splash!  Here and there.  "Uh oh," our guide had said under his breath.  We all quickly turned out our headlamps, and luckily, the splashes went away.  It could have been fishes or caimans.

             The next day, we got up and took the small canoe to the larger one.  That was the end of our trip.  I felt like the trip was so short, but the first day still seemed so long ago.

           

Daily life at the beach in Esmeraldas

I wake up around seven each day. Then I read and drink hot chocolate until around 8:30, when we have breakfast.  There are two hammocks to read in and two couches.  We eat cereal or toast and eggs.  Then we read a little more until around 9:30, and start school.  We usually start with math, then writing, then spanish.  Sometimes we have school at the table and sometimes on the couch. After school, I practice violin, using the counter for a stand.  

Then we eat lunch.  We've had tuna sandwiches, grilled cheese, and ramen for lunch so far.  When we came, there was nothing in the kitchen.  So on the way here, we had gone to a supermarket.   Plus, I went to a nearby town with my dad once to go shopping.  After lunch, we read more and get ready to go to the beach.

The beach is a big strip of sand and huge rocks.  We always put our towels on the same boulder. Sometimes when you walk on it, your feet hurt from all the barnacles. We go swimming a little bit at medium tide then come home and take showers.  There are two showers: one outdoor, and one indoor that is inside the outhouse.  After that, we go to the restaurant at the place we are staying and play cards or read while drinking soda.  The restaurant is just a short walk from our house, down a hill.  Then, around 6:00 when it is low tide, we go on a walk across the long, rocky, beach to a peninsula with caves.  The caves are too dangerous to go inside because sometimes rocks fall from the cliffs, hanging above.  There are little tide pools to walk around in though, and we climb on the rocks.   We hike around and explore or just walk around it for a bit, then walk home, just as it's getting dark out.  

When we get home, we put on bug-spray and read until dinner.  There are a lot of mosquitos and flies here.  In the night, there are beetles attracted by our lights.  We've had seafood every night.  The first night, we had seafood at the restaurant.  The second night, squid at home, the third night, shrimp.  After dinner, we read or play cards until we go to bed.     

Living on the beach

     Since we've been on the coast for a few weeks, I've been learning how to surf.  The first beach that we went to called Ayampe, was a quiet town on the coast.  There was a beach a few minutes from the hotel where we swam and surfed.  The waves were a little bit rough, and one time we had to stop our surf lesson because of it.  The second place we went to was a town on the coast called Canoa.  The beach was more crowded than Ayampe, but the waves were less rough.  We had two surf lessons there.  

When we were in Ayampe, we saw our cousins for a few nights.  We got to go in a van with them to the beach and we took surf lessons with them.  It was really fun having them there because we were such a big group and did so many things with them.  Since we moved around on the coast, we had different surfing instructors.  They taught really differently.  Our first instructor, named Keith, was mostly focusing on position and he pushed us into waves.  Our second instructor, named Cedric, mostly focused on standing up and catching our own waves.  They taught very differently but both were good instructors.

     We just arrived in a place called Playa Escondida.  It means hidden beach.  It's mostly a small country resort.  We are living here in a small thatched roof house, a short walk from the beach.  We can't surf here but the swimming is fun.  Now since school started again, we are doing school work.  

This picture is of our house right now.