Day 8: We started the morning off with a tour of Cuenca which is Diego's home town, where he showed us all of the beautiful spots to go, eventually leading us to an overhanging cliff where we got to see a view of the entire city. Here we learned of Cuenca's history, with it's first inhabitants settling almost 12,00 years ago, and how the Inca people came down from the mountains and eventually warred with the current natives, taking their land and building up their own civilization in place of that.
We also learned of quencas history of planting eucalyptus trees back in the early 19th and 20th centuries to help produce paper in larger quantities, but was not observed for it's invasiveness and eventually sprialed out of control. This was visible by the numerous high reaching trees that covered almost every square inch of green land left in the city. The efforts to completely removed them is too costly and difficult at this point, but it shows the delicacy of nature when mxied with unwelcome elements.
We also learned about the early bus system that was attempted to be put in, but ultimately failed due to political time wasting, showing that their old diesel bus system was dirty and decrepit. Their efforts to be a more green city were being hindered by the poor transportation system that helped Quito flourish. Often being stopped by cops to write the bus drivers citations for having too dirty of a vehicle for emissions. Their efforts were Noble but slow in action due to funding
Before our next move to the Panama hat factory within the city, we stopped at a BBQ place where we got to see fresh cooked pig on a spit roast. And the most important part, we got to try the delicacy of Cuy which was roasted guinea pig. Most everyone in the group tried the food, even the vegetarians, to live for a new experience. Not many were fans though besides Aiden and I, with the flavor being a bit tangy and gamey, it made me think of how some see them as pets where we come from but here they are food. This culture shock is the changes we learn about when traveling the world, that cultures see animals in different lights In various parts of the planet.
From there we made our way to the original Panama Hat factory, where we got to see the delicate process of hand weaving some of the finely woven hats and how complex the process can be. With all of the hats being made of palm and being famous all over the world, their craftsmanship was known abroad. Many famous actions like Bruce Willis and Bryan Cranstons's Walter White wore the hats every day. We learned of the unquine history of hand splicing each strand for.the hat to.make it finer and more precise, and how the timeless art was never lost or forgotten.
Following this we walked the city markets looking for an alpaca store I requested, as I wanted a warm souvineer to bring home in memory of the trip. We evemutslly found it and quickly spent gobs of money to buy warm clothes we didn't really need. Shortly after we found a pizzeria to eat at before heading off to Pumapungo, an old abandoned Incan ruins that overlooked the countryside. Here we got to learn of their puma shaped town and how they created everything of pattern to make a tribute to their God's in their living.
Following the rest of the night we had Paul Amos, Tait's friend, explain what life was like liing as an American within the city and how he was enjoying the experiemces. This helped some people understand that not everything is butterflies and rainbows, but if you're willing to accept change it can be an interesting city to live in and a beautiful change of pace.
We also learned of quencas history of planting eucalyptus trees back in the early 19th and 20th centuries to help produce paper in larger quantities, but was not observed for it's invasiveness and eventually sprialed out of control. This was visible by the numerous high reaching trees that covered almost every square inch of green land left in the city. The efforts to completely removed them is too costly and difficult at this point, but it shows the delicacy of nature when mxied with unwelcome elements.
We also learned about the early bus system that was attempted to be put in, but ultimately failed due to political time wasting, showing that their old diesel bus system was dirty and decrepit. Their efforts to be a more green city were being hindered by the poor transportation system that helped Quito flourish. Often being stopped by cops to write the bus drivers citations for having too dirty of a vehicle for emissions. Their efforts were Noble but slow in action due to funding
Before our next move to the Panama hat factory within the city, we stopped at a BBQ place where we got to see fresh cooked pig on a spit roast. And the most important part, we got to try the delicacy of Cuy which was roasted guinea pig. Most everyone in the group tried the food, even the vegetarians, to live for a new experience. Not many were fans though besides Aiden and I, with the flavor being a bit tangy and gamey, it made me think of how some see them as pets where we come from but here they are food. This culture shock is the changes we learn about when traveling the world, that cultures see animals in different lights In various parts of the planet.
From there we made our way to the original Panama Hat factory, where we got to see the delicate process of hand weaving some of the finely woven hats and how complex the process can be. With all of the hats being made of palm and being famous all over the world, their craftsmanship was known abroad. Many famous actions like Bruce Willis and Bryan Cranstons's Walter White wore the hats every day. We learned of the unquine history of hand splicing each strand for.the hat to.make it finer and more precise, and how the timeless art was never lost or forgotten.
Following this we walked the city markets looking for an alpaca store I requested, as I wanted a warm souvineer to bring home in memory of the trip. We evemutslly found it and quickly spent gobs of money to buy warm clothes we didn't really need. Shortly after we found a pizzeria to eat at before heading off to Pumapungo, an old abandoned Incan ruins that overlooked the countryside. Here we got to learn of their puma shaped town and how they created everything of pattern to make a tribute to their God's in their living.
Following the rest of the night we had Paul Amos, Tait's friend, explain what life was like liing as an American within the city and how he was enjoying the experiemces. This helped some people understand that not everything is butterflies and rainbows, but if you're willing to accept change it can be an interesting city to live in and a beautiful change of pace.
Day 9: Today we finally started our journey on the Pan-American highway, where we made our trip towards Ingapirca, where we would get to see some the largest Inca ruins in the country, and we got to see how their houses were built in proper fashion to their jobs and purposes around the town. We also got to see the condemned housing that littered the countryside on our journey to the ruins.
The housing failures were due to many natives leaving the country in an effort to find work, and sending money back to the country to buy houses and build them on the side of mountains for a dream house for them to come back to. Issue being that some people did not make it back to the houses, or the houses would become condemned due to poor structural integrity on the side of a loose mountain. The geological makeup of the area made it difficult to have housing on the side of the steep mountains die without deep anchor points, which would never be installed in such a poor areas as they were not essential.This caused many houses to be finished but quickly ruined years after their creation, leaving the family in financial ruin.
As for the Inca ruins, we arrived to a beautifully carved countryside with old stone foundations still laid from the original civilization. Here we could see how their simple lives we're ruled by God's and the seasons, and how their vilages resembled that of a puma to pay homage to their god. This design was laid out carefully to place each facility crucially in a way that would aid the community and assist their artistic goal. With a temple being at the head, and storage facilities being in the midsection. The well plotted design was created from rocks locally cut in the area, where the older civilization that they had stolen the land from had obtained their different looking stones from further away from the encampment. Easily marking where the old and new civilization had laid.
Most of the test of the day was spent driving, with us covering the end of the day with a recap about what we had seen and how preservation of the area involved using herbicides to prevent any growth or deterioration on the rocks. This preservation method was cruical for history but poisoning the land.
The housing failures were due to many natives leaving the country in an effort to find work, and sending money back to the country to buy houses and build them on the side of mountains for a dream house for them to come back to. Issue being that some people did not make it back to the houses, or the houses would become condemned due to poor structural integrity on the side of a loose mountain. The geological makeup of the area made it difficult to have housing on the side of the steep mountains die without deep anchor points, which would never be installed in such a poor areas as they were not essential.This caused many houses to be finished but quickly ruined years after their creation, leaving the family in financial ruin.
As for the Inca ruins, we arrived to a beautifully carved countryside with old stone foundations still laid from the original civilization. Here we could see how their simple lives we're ruled by God's and the seasons, and how their vilages resembled that of a puma to pay homage to their god. This design was laid out carefully to place each facility crucially in a way that would aid the community and assist their artistic goal. With a temple being at the head, and storage facilities being in the midsection. The well plotted design was created from rocks locally cut in the area, where the older civilization that they had stolen the land from had obtained their different looking stones from further away from the encampment. Easily marking where the old and new civilization had laid.
Most of the test of the day was spent driving, with us covering the end of the day with a recap about what we had seen and how preservation of the area involved using herbicides to prevent any growth or deterioration on the rocks. This preservation method was cruical for history but poisoning the land.
Day 10: Today marked the day we leave Cuenca for our journey further into the Andes mountains, so I decided to leave this day under this category even though it is mostly spent back in the Andes mountains. We were to start our drive towards Chimborazo and start a small climb towards their first base on the mountain. The ranger outpost from one to the next was only 200 meters higher in elevation but would pose more of a struggle than we thought.
This trip was an interesting due to how high in elevation we were at the start of our hike, with the hike starting at almost 18,000 feet above sea level. Your first natural instinct is that its going to be easy because you see such a short distance, something that you could eaisly cover in 5 minutes time. Only challenge being that you're at such a high elevation, your oxygen levels are cut significantly, and even with our altitude pills aiding us in our efforts, it took us almost 45 minutes to climb up. Anything faster than a 3mph pace would leave you wheezing like you just ran an Olympic marathon, and my arrogance kept telling me to try and go faster and I was burned for it every time. The challenge was interesting to learn how different things are as you get closer to the edge of the atmosphere, where oxygen is so low not many plants survive up there. Interestingly enough though there were many different native alpacas roaming the area and were so used to travelers that we got within feet of them. Their ability to gracefully prance away though was eye opening, as they have spent their entire lives at this elevation and being this high up was no different than what they're used to.
Our climb up to the station was met with a nice ranger cooking empanadas and making hot chocolate for us, which was a pleasant surprise since everyone was exhausted from the arduous 600 foot journey. We took some pictures and caught our breath before heading back down, which was significantly easier on the lungs but difficult on the knees. As we lumbered our way back to the bus, we got ready for our drive to Quilatoa, though the ride ended up taking longer than we thought as things got tied up with traffic and financial hiccups. Quilatoa would be left for day 11 so we didn't have to wander around the area in the darkness.
As we got to the hotel things started to aim south for me as I started to feel sick and it only got worse as the trip went on. I ended the night by throwing up the dinner and going to lay down in bed for a bit to calm myself.
This trip was an interesting due to how high in elevation we were at the start of our hike, with the hike starting at almost 18,000 feet above sea level. Your first natural instinct is that its going to be easy because you see such a short distance, something that you could eaisly cover in 5 minutes time. Only challenge being that you're at such a high elevation, your oxygen levels are cut significantly, and even with our altitude pills aiding us in our efforts, it took us almost 45 minutes to climb up. Anything faster than a 3mph pace would leave you wheezing like you just ran an Olympic marathon, and my arrogance kept telling me to try and go faster and I was burned for it every time. The challenge was interesting to learn how different things are as you get closer to the edge of the atmosphere, where oxygen is so low not many plants survive up there. Interestingly enough though there were many different native alpacas roaming the area and were so used to travelers that we got within feet of them. Their ability to gracefully prance away though was eye opening, as they have spent their entire lives at this elevation and being this high up was no different than what they're used to.
Our climb up to the station was met with a nice ranger cooking empanadas and making hot chocolate for us, which was a pleasant surprise since everyone was exhausted from the arduous 600 foot journey. We took some pictures and caught our breath before heading back down, which was significantly easier on the lungs but difficult on the knees. As we lumbered our way back to the bus, we got ready for our drive to Quilatoa, though the ride ended up taking longer than we thought as things got tied up with traffic and financial hiccups. Quilatoa would be left for day 11 so we didn't have to wander around the area in the darkness.
As we got to the hotel things started to aim south for me as I started to feel sick and it only got worse as the trip went on. I ended the night by throwing up the dinner and going to lay down in bed for a bit to calm myself.