Adventures in Ecuador

 

I grew up in a town of about 17,000 people in Southern Minnesota.While it was a great place to grow up, the best feature of the town – actually, probably of the entire state – is the lakes. Sure we have some hills, there’s a lot of farmland, and the woods ‘up north’ are gorgeous, but there’s not a whole lot else to brag about.

 

The reason I tell you this is because three weeks ago I moved to Riobamba, Ecuador. The entire country is about the size of Colorado, and it has some of the most diverse landscape that I’ve ever seen. I’m living in the middle of a mountain/volcano range, the jungle starts just a few hours to the east of here and some of the best beaches in South America are just a few hours to the west.

 

While friends at home are complaining about the -30°F (-34°C) weather never-ending snowstorms, I’m enjoying temperatures of 60°F (16°C) and up. The worst thing that I have to worry about is carrying my raincoat as defense against the unpredictable rainstorms (that luckily never seem to last too long).

 

We traveled to the town of Baños, just a few hours from Riobamba, as a mini-vacation this weekend and got the chance to bike the roads along the river from Baños to the neighboring town of Puyo. This was a fantastic experience for me, because although I’ve gotten the chance to travel a bit through the Ecuadorian countryside, I always seem to end up feeling somewhat motion sick and end up closing my eyes … and therefore missing out on the scenery. The two towns are about 40 miles apart, following a road that is (luckily) mostly downhill.

 

The scenery along these roads is absolutely breathtaking (once you get used to the cars, buses, and trucks that are barreling past you). It really was one of those experiences that you just have to take in and enjoy, because no matter how hard you try to photograph it, you’re not going to capture it. There are several fantastic views of waterfalls along the way, and the vegetation slowly becomes more tropical the closer you get to Puyo (the gateway to the jungle mentioned earlier). We biked about 25 miles of the 40, and then took the bus the rest of the way.

 

I’ve mentioned the jungle a few times in this post, so I’ll leave you with a quick description of my favorite part of this trip so far. In Puyo we spent an hour at a Monkey Reserve where they keep monkeys rescued from homes and zoos and slowly reintroduce them to the wild.They are sneaky little creatures, but very friendly – and it’s amazing how strong those tails are! I had never seen a monkey outside of a zoo before, so it was quite the experience to have them jump into my arms, sit on my head, and climb up my legs. If it wasn’t completely illegal, I would totally be bringing one home with me!

 

 

With love from Ecuador,

 

Ascend Alliance Spring 2011 intern