Bathrooms and Whales

Hi folks

Well after the paradise that was the Galapagos, we had just over one week remaining on our South American odyssey. Our plan was to head from Quito to Baños, and then to Puerto Lopez, before finally heading back to Quito to fly back to sunny England. Yay :(

So we spent a single night in Quito before taking a 4 hour bus ride to Baños. The town is set at the base of Volcan Tungurahua, which is highly active; the last eruption was in 2008, which forced the evacuation of nearby towns. Sitting at 5,023m amsl, the Volcano would ordinarily be the town’s major feature, but unfortunately we are in Ecuador in “cloudy season”, and most of the time visibility is quite poor.
Baños (English Translation: Bathroom) has a really glowing review in the Lonely Planet, and is also known for a few other things such as the thermal springs (we gave them a miss - been there done that!) and the numerous waterfalls on the road towards the jungle (the town is halfway between Andes and Jungle).

Baños is known for it's local toffee as well

Baños from a lookout

It was in Baños that I also became a bit sick. Nothing major, just man-flu. But it had me bed-ridden for a day or so, meaning we stayed in Baños a little longer than planned. Still, we got to see the awesome Pailón del Diablo by biking the 20-odd kilometers through brilliant scenery (at one point going into a road tunnel through a mountain which had almost zilch visibility.. Scary stuff!) and walking a km or so to the falls. You can even walk behind the raging torrent as evidenced below.
On the way back to town, we put the bikes in the back of a truck and sat with them and shivered as the clouds opened on us. It ain’t pleasant being rained like that, let me tell you.

Pailón del Diablo

me in front of Pailón del Diablo

To get to the spot where you can stand behind Pailón del Diablo, you first have to crawl through a huge crack in the rock. Not for the claustrophobic

Unfortunately, that only served to make me a bit more sick, and we missed our 6:30am bus out of town because I couldn’t move. We caught an afternoon bus back to Quito (and our driver was Schumacher's Ecuadorian cousin, I‘m sure), waited in the bus terminal there for a couple of hours and then vamossed down to Puerto Lopez, this time with Schumacher himself.

Puerto Lopez's main drawcard is that once a year, hundreds of humpback whales congregate off the coast to feed, mate, and for the females, to ween their young. Each year humpbacks (both Northern and Southern species') migrate for summer to the Poles as the feeding grounds bloom. Then they make their way back towards the equator in winter and shallow waters, where the young are safe from predators like the larger shark species, but more importantly, the roving packs of Orcas. Aussies will know about this migration as the whales often travel up the coast, sometimes popping into Sydney harbour for a frolic.

So we arrived at around 5:00am, and immediately (like at most bus stations in South America) were set upon by taxi drivers (they drive rickshaw-like motors here), hostel owners and the like. Still feeling sick, I have to admit I was a little grumpy and basically gave them evils. Not proud of that, but at least it got them away! So we headed out to a place recommended by the LP: Hostal Mandala. Bloody expensive though! But as I was sick, I couldn't be bothered walking around town looking for accommodation so we stuck it out.

The cabin we stayed in in our "hostal". Most of the private rooms were these cabins.

We were in town three days and in that time, we got to see the whales!

What a trip! I've been whale-watching before, but never ever have I:
1. Seen so many! Easily 16 whales, but more likely 20 in our three hours on the water
2. Seen them breach! You beaut. What a site. After encountering our second pod of whales of 8 individuals and tailing them for a short while, suddenly about 20 meters from the boat the leviathan leaped from the water like a salmon fighting its way upstream, twisted onto its back, and slammed down onto the surface. I took easily my best picture of the day in this moment.. I don't know how I did it, because from memory I was jaw-agape and motionless, but as soon as I looked at my camera, this beauty was staring right back at me on the LCD screen.

Up from the depths

From then on it was breach after breach. We saw so many that I even had time to put the camera away and just watch! They came pretty close to the boat as well, and a lot of times several would lie on their backs and slap the water with their pectoral fins. What a site!
After about 20 minutes I began to see a pattern and could predict to within 10 seconds when and where the next breach would be. I was pretty proud of that achievement but Fran didn't seem so impressed, so I just showed off to myself.. "man you're cool Adam, how did you know that?!" haha.

Play. Fin slap and Breaching. We were just spoiled!

One his back, lazing about

Fluking was another behaviour witnessed

And twist!

Waving

Lots more breach pics can be found here:
Puerto Lopez

After that brilliant display, the naturalist guide on board made everyone give me their email addresses so I could send them the photos, because I had a "good camera".. No problem except you all HAVE TO PAY FOR THE PICTURES YOU THIEVING SCUM! ...ahem..
Anyway, that's not the first time I've been put in that position. When my dad and I went to Skye to see the Sea Eagles, everyone wanted copies of the pictures (for free). I think it's time I did something about that, maybe make some money from it.

Anyway, back to it!

After Puerto Lopez, we came back to Quito, firstly staying at another LP recommended place: Secret Garden. Filled with backpackers and it was pretty noisy so we left after one night. It did have fantastic views of the city though as seen below.

Quito Panorama

This gringo (don't be fooled by the clothes.. she was a gringo) was playing the most God awful music. Yes, you do remember that instrument on the floor from when you were in school

One of Quito's many squares

Locals enjoying the sun

my delicious lunch! Sandwich de pollo y champiñones con guacamole y papas fritas. Servido con te de menta y jugo de piña

An honour guard. These guys were waiting for the President to make an appearance, and he was actually supposed to be facing the other way. But they get bored easily I suppose

Can't think of a caption for this one, sorry!

Don't want to think of a caption for this one

local woman

The next day, Fran was due to leave Quito for her flight back to Blighty and onwards to Italy. Her flight was at 5pm and at mid night I got an email from her saying her flight was delayed by 24 hours! She was in Guayaquil, 30 mins flight from Quito. So that's where she is right now. For me, today has been a slow day as I've sat around waiting to see what happens to her situation. My flight is tomorrow, so we might end up being on the same plane back! Weird.

Right, I'll leave it there. I'll blog a final farewell post tomorrow morning. I might even shed some tears! Or not.

Much love!
Adam

In other news, Canon have just announced the brand spanking new EOS 7D, which is absolutely packed full of features. Those of you looking for a new semi-pro camera, this is a worthy contender for your dollars. Based on the feature-list of this model, the upcoming 1D Mk IV should be a killer.