Brown socks

Only volcanic dirt makes black socks dirty...

Isla de la Plata- this little piece of heaven was well worth the tour. On our way to the island, we stopped for some whale watching, where we we fortunate enough to see Humpback whales come unforgettably close to the boat, including one that swam right under. Unfortunately, I didn't capture a single good picture. It was scarey and amazing, how huge they are! After the whales, we toured the island where we saw many types of birds including blue-footed boobies. They are these curious little birds with cotton-candy blue feet. The view of the coast from the hike is amazing, especially because there are birds everywhere! Once back on the boat, after a roasting hike, we made friends with some turtles, who were interested in our watermelon. Our guide, who took his job quite seriously, but with a good sense of humour, did not approve of my plan to feed the turtles nor did he like my joke about having turtle ceviche. This is, in part, due to the fact that people used to eat turtle, and our guide himself admitted, slightly red in the cheeks, that he himself had eaten turtle as a child. Following the turtles, and some far off dolphin sightings, we went snorkeling. Not that much to see, but the little schools of tiny fish tried to nibble my body, which was slightly weird! The tour was remarkable, and though we may have spent a huge amount of time in the bathroom for the days to follow due to the sandwiches, that won't take away from the fact that we were only feet away from a surfacing whale!

Where's the beach?

We finally made it to Pacific ocean- my first time with my toes in Pacific at Puerto Lopez! We certainly had to earn our beach time though. This should be a warning to any future travelers who ever are trying to make it from Latacunga direction to the coast- do not take the route that goes through Quevedo! Between the combination of late buses, unhelpful people, and more late buses followed by being dropped off on the side of the road 12 hours after we began our way to the coast only to wait for a bus that never came and having a supper of what we though were 30 cent potatoes but turned out to have fish in them and then taking yet another speedy Ecuadorian cab to finally make it to the coast- well, a combination of all of this makes me suggest to anyone not to take this route. We did learn some interesting things though. For example, pigs are very much allowed to ride on the bus, as long as they are stuffed below with the luggage. Also, I actually know what it feels like to think your life might be coming to an end- that feeling was provoked by three people boarding the bus in the middle of know where covered in blood and carrying a machete and huge shears. I felt like I was cast in a horror movie, and Allie was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell us we were being punked! Sadly, we didn't get to meet Ashton, although Allie did get a number from an interesting bus employee named Angel, who may or may not have asked if Allie and I were a couple. Moral of the story- don't take this damn route! BUT- a visit (or two) to Los Frailes, a very secluded beach and national park was well worth the ride!

We almost didn't take the tour to Cotopaxi Volcano, which would have been a travesty. We organized the tour through Hostel Tiana (to avoid another experience with the driver from the tour company from the previous day) and the extra $5 was well worth the awesome guide (go, Diego, go!) and the jeep rather than the van, that was clearly meant for roughing it. Doing Cotopaxi and Quilotoa back to back, made for the most amazing two days EVER! After driving up to the base of the volcano, where we were given a small tour of the museum and had some cocoa tea to help deal with the altitude, we passed stunning landscape from where which we could view the volcano through the clouds. We also saw, what I thought was the most amazing thing ever; wild horses, a herd of them, including young horses grazing at the bottom of the volcano! After Diego towed a van out of a ditch ( he's my hero) we parked and then hiked 300 metres to the refuge- the slowest 300 metres of my life! The altitude makes it impossible to rush and one of the women in our group really struggled. After freezing for a bit in the refuge we made it another 200 metres to 5000 metres where the glacier begins! It was a bit scarey- if you slid down, the only thing to catch you are the rocks! After descending, we stopped to view an untouched glacier lake where we found, again, the wild horses which were frolicking about! BEST DAY EVER!

After humming an hawing as to whether or not to attempt this trip from Latacunga, through the small towns and unreliable buses to Lake Quilotoa, we finally settled on a $35 tour- which was direct and a great decision. The only major complaint would be the speed-demon driver (note the photo of Hannah and I after we almost rolled off a cliff when the driver of the 10 passenger van got out of the vehicle without putting the car into park properly). The lake itself was stunning with its perfect blue-green water the reflects both the clouds and the phenomenal sunny sky above- well worth the nauseating route to get there. The crater lake was picture perfect! We hiked down the sandy slopes in 1 hr and 45 mins and then spent some time relaxing by the lake with a couple of alpacas before trucking back up to the small, windy town for lunch in under 45 minutes (go us!) Lake Quilotoa was up pretty high on my bucket list for this trip and it was everything I hoped for!

TMI

After traveling for a bit you begin to modify some of your ideas about traveling out of a backpack.  I will share some of my in-depth medical knowledge with you. First of all, being overly prepared as we are, we packed pretty much every medical supply you could need for every serious jungle disease you could pick up, including being stuck with needles for a month before leaving. You get so preoccupied with the scare tactics ("you are probably going to get bitten by a bat, and get rabies and die immediately") that you forget to prepare for things that are actually going to affect you. Such as how easily it is to end up with a yeast infection when you are hiking in crazy jungle humidity. Or that if you don't drink enough water because you are worried about the bacteria you will probably end up with a bladder infection. Or if you don't eat any veggies because you have been told to avoid anything grown with water that hasn't been cooked- well, I'll spare you the details, but let's just say successful bathroom trips are often followed by a group celebration! We have learned some lessons along the way. For example, you can wear your socks up to three days in a row but underwear on the other hand, cannot be turned inside out like at summer camp! Water- boil it or buy it and drink it. A lot of it. Even if you need to make many a pit-stop in the dirty, paperless bathrooms. Also, altitude changes (even if you don't feel sick) drink more water.  We have also learned some non medical lessons. For example, don't throw out your hair dryer, because hair does not dry in humid weather! Also- the jungle makes some people beautiful (Allie, with her amazing jungle hair) and other people just get bad skin (me) or perpetual sunburns, despite sunblock (Hannah). At the end of the day though, no matter how much you might be falling apart at the seams, it's totally worth it!

Banos, Baby- here are the things you should know. Princess Maria is the nicest hostel that perpetually smells like lemon floor cleaner. There is lots of variety when it comes to food, fun and flamingos. Just kidding, no flamingos, I just wanted to alliterate! Anyways-we stayed for three nights here, and had our share of thermal baths (where men get slightly too close to you) and volcanoes (that you can't see due to clouds- I bailed on the tour and followed my nose towards the mountain *street meat*, where we had chicken feet) and so many waterfalls! The bike ride from Banos to Puyo, stopping to view the many waterfalls, was well worth being drenched for the majority of the ride. Some members of our group were a bit intimidated by the narrow roads, but luckily the huge trucks beep before nearly running you over. We picked up an additional member for our group, an American named Jaccob, who lead the pack. After hiking and biking in the rain, we hailed down a bus that turned out to be full of school girls- who all swarmed to our new friend. It reminded me of Madeline when the new Spanish boy moves in next door and the girls are all in awe! Overall, from volcano meat to (finally) a decent cup of coffee, Banos treated us real-good!

We made it to Mindo, a small town located 2 hrs or so outside of Quito, after some minor issues involving taxi drivers wanting to make more money and bringing us to a different bus station and the three of us knowing very little (ok, none at all) Spanish. We were dropped off on the side of the road where we flagged down a cab (that's me, in the back of the "cab"). We later learned, taxis in Quito are crazy as shit, and you just have to endure it to get places like Mindo. It was incredible. We stayed at a great hostel with relaxing hammocks to nap in during the afternoon showers. There are tons of outdoor adventures, such as hiking to the falls, which we did. In the middle of the forest, next to the river they have built pools, where these kids were swimming. We may have been in heaven, which would account for the weird glow that shows up in all of our cloud forest pictures. Mindo: relaxing, low key, beautiful!

This is the beginning of the *street meat* saga. Following the advice of the travel books, the first couple days of the trip in Ecuador we were very wary of all food, water, veggies and specifically food on the street. When I saw street meat in the jungle, I gave up. This bad boy is sausage topped with a potato and a banana, all grilled to perfection (and by perfection, I mean pink in the middle) in the middle of the cloud forest. It was amazing, and prompted a more food testing adventurous spirit. Mind you, it might catch up to us... but either way, the lesson I learned was not to be too careful or risk missing out on interesting food- just work your way up to it!

Fresh Cacao harvested at Ecuador Jungle Chocolate with our host Elizabeth (find info via Facebook) / Allie and Hannah in the canoe-taxi/ my butterfly friend who hitched a ride/ view from the Napo River

El mono in Misahualli- This monkey sucked me in, acting all cute and hungry. After this picture was captured, I had a falling out with the monkeys; as it turns out, they are little bullies. We watched this little guy's bigger and naughtier counterpart wait until a dogs back was turned and then chase him with a stone. Then he pushed him when he wasn't looking! Lesson learned- beware the cute and deceptive! These monkey are located in the town where we entered the jungle. We stayed at a wonderful Canadian-run lodge where we explored the areas around the Napo River. It was phenomenal and lush and picture perfect-the kind of place you would want to stay forever! From relaxing in the hammocks to eating with indigenous folks who served fish from the river. We ate freshly made cacao, which was harvested from the beans on the property where we were staying. The last night at our stay in the jungle we woke up to the loudest rain I have ever heard! Living in Halifax, am a rain lover, but the metal roof only amplified what was, to me, a crazy storm! I will never complain about Halifax rain again!

Black socks traveling through South America with two friends and their diversity of socks. All the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia . With a week stop over in St.Pete's Florida- which was lovely and wonderful and warm. From there to Miami to fly to Quito, Ecuador. Black socks around Ecuador for three weeks, then down to Machu Picchu and more Peru.. From there, Bolivia, Argentina and then Chile.Make it through the entire trip and we will be rewarded with a 2 week Habitat for Humanity build in Santiago Chile! Follow my socks and I through our adventures, as I explore the interesting tidbits about traveling. Example: what is considered one too many times when it comes to re-wearing socks?! Vamos!