Gosh! I miss this already. It’s only been five days since I returned, but what an incredible place. I’m already finding myself researching other places, mountains to climb or other adventures!
When I first mentioned I was visiting Ecuador to do volunteering and then spending a further five days exploring by myself, the announcement was met with a good deal of shock from friends and family. Shock that I would want to go to a country that was violent and full of murderers (obviously Race across the World is genuine facts on the status of countries!) and even worse, alone? Whilst I’m not trying for one second to stand up here and say ‘I’m an intrepid explorer who will go to any country and put myself in stupid situations’ because, I am not! However, it is SO important to just try to read all the articles and information about a country before categorising it into ‘somewhere to not visit’. Frankly, I would rather visit Ecuador than the UK in recent months with the violence on the streets and stabbings here.
That said, it is really important to read AND follow the FCDO guidelines on a country, avoid the areas they tell you to avoid, don’t go out on your own in dodgy neighbourhoods, use reputable taxi companies or Uber, get a local sim and stay in contact with your family, don’t flaunt expensive cameras or tech or even jewellery, don’t be abusive towards local people or treat them with disrespect, and don’t lose your ability to stay fully in control.
I have had some dodgy situations throughout my life (this might now be a revelation for my poor mother!) but have hitchiked in South Africa and was picked up by a guy who clearly was drunk and had a gun in his glove box (there were three of us, but it was stupid!) and my husband and I were mugged in Rome in broad daylight…so not sure what advice we didn’t follow there. So it shows, it happens anywhere.
Anyway, let’s not tarnish this blog with too much about safety. I felt safe AT ALL TIMES in Quito and the other parts of Ecuador I visited. I did not go to Guyaquil as this is the one place that is advised to avoid, so cannot make assumptions about this part of Ecuador. I did hear one story of a mugging in Quito, however, so I’m not saying you should throw all caution to the wind. Just be aware of where you are, don’t wander around late at night alone and exercise the same sense you would in any capital city.
The volunteer side of the work was fantastic. Rather than it being in a school which is where I thought I was going to be, I was placed in a music after-school organisation that taught private lessons. Music in Ecuador in state schools seems to be even less available than it is in UK schools. On top of that only 30% of Ecuadoreans are in High School. This is mainly due to lack of availability and the rural localities in which many indigenous families live. The school itself charges for lessons, so again, music is reduced to those that can afford. That disappointed me I won’t lie. However, there is still great need, even amongst those who can afford. Supplies are not easily available. The saxophone class I taught had students learning on damaged instruments that needed things like new necks or bells, but parts are not available, and instruments are unaffordable. Students struggle to obtain reeds and there are only Rico and Vandoren available and straps are awful cheap ones that rub up on youngsters necks. Pianos are out of tune and sound better suited to a UK pub. There are some keyboards but these are generally not touch sensitive and certainly don’t have hammer action. However, the willingness to learn is far superior to that I’ve experienced in the UK. The youngsters come at least twice a week for lessons and are very keen to take instruction. You get a feeling that they want to be there and there is an unwritten respect for their teachers too. The week quite literally flew. I was asked to participate in the teaching and also conduct two piano masterclasses (that was a little bit of an ego puff up!).
After the 6 days in Quito I took a shuttle bus over to Cotopaxi. I was keen to see the mountain as it is a cone volcano with snow on the top and yes, there really are no two pictures the same of this beautiful place.
I stayed in a ‘hostel’ and I put this in inverted commas as it was not my experience of a hostel from the UK or other parts of the world, called ‘The Secret Garden’. They have another one in Quito itself. This hostel has dorms but it also has HOBBIT HOLES, that have a literal picture frame view when you wake up in the morning. The only down side to opting to pay a little more for your private hobbit hole is that the toilet is an outhouse – a clean, incredible dunny with views of the mountain, but it’s a bit of a parky poo-with-a-view at 6am in the morning with temps close to 1 or 2 degrees c and apparently (although I saw no sign) the locals to avoid: puma, spectacled bears and jaguars!
All meals are included, there is a jacuzzi, hammocks, as much tea, coffee, chocolate or filtered water as you want and their home made banana cake. There are dogs to stroke and groom, a fire in the evenings with marshmallows for toasting, a yoga studio and every Lonely Planet or Bradt travel guide to South America in human form that you could ever care to meet. You want to know about where to stay in Medellin or the Amazon, there will be at least a dozen travellers there to help you. You could literally plan the rest of your SA itinerary from The Secret Garden in Cotopaxi (well other than the very limited wifi!).
The first afternoon I arrived we hiked, scrambled and baby bouldered up to a waterfall.
This was a real achievement for me as it was steep, the altitude was over 4000 metres and at times we had to boulder around the corners where the path ran out whilst hanging over a 10 metre drop to the river below. I also kept up with the younger group (Yes, I was the oldest there for at least two days!). My face says it all in that second picture (it was taken before I remembered we had to go down the same way we came up!).
Day two I decided to go horse riding, which again was a huge achievement for me. It seems nothing, but a massive bucket list item has been to ride again, and riding across the Andes, well there can’t be much better place to do it!
27 years ago I was thrown from a horse and landed badly on my coccyx. Nothing broke, but I definitely did some damage which, after carrying three children, has exacerbated the intermittent lower back issues I have now. In the fortnight before flying out, the same old injury reared (no pun intended!) its ugly head and horse-riding was off the cards. However, determined exercises from the physio, some massage and acupressure and I got in the saddle. Whilst the weather wasn’t exactly performing for us as we were shrouded in cloud the whole time and the frigidity was unlike anything I have every experienced, I don’t think I stopped grinning like an idiot from the minute I got on (ok, so that’s perhaps a lie, it probably took the first 10 minutes from getting out of the van, getting onto the horse and realising that he was an automaton that was just going to follow the horse in front and do what they do before I chilled out!) I did even get in a little trot or two, and remembered to rise and fall (poor horse!)
The final and biggest string to my bow was the following day. I had met up with a group of around seven other travellers, six of whom were couples, and we all decided to aim to get to the base camp and then the glacier at Cotopaxi.
Now, before I start blowing this trumpet and you all get very impressed as you have the Himalayan base camp in your minds as a comparison, I need to admit to you that whilst this was a mega achievement, the drop off is a good portion of the way up the side of the mountain. However, not to belittle it, at getting close to 5000m above sea level (19,000ft) your oxygen levels are depleted around 45%, so just breathing is exhausting, makes Snowdon look like a mole hill! Obviously a week in Quito had enabled me to acclimatise, but then you are expected to ascend, on volcanic ash and the wind was gusting at 70-80mph. Just one foot in front of the other is completely exhausting. For those of you who may not have ever experienced this level above the sea and the tricks it plays, it’s a bit like trying to jump on the ground as soon as you have got off a trampoline, your legs just refuse to do it! The willpower to make your body do as you tell it rather than just lying down on the ground in a foetal position is extraordinary, add into that mix that the volcanic ash is like walking over soft sand dunes and then the wind at 70-80 in your face is almost the final piece of adversity. You are dressed in every layer you own (wish I’d also had a pair of leggings under my trousers), sunglasses on (UV is crazy, but it also prevents the ash blowing in your eyes), and sunscream so the ash sticks to you and you look like a chimmney sweep in the exposed parts, buffer up so only your nose is exposed, and up you go.
The mantra becomes ‘one foot, then the other foot’. Eventually you see through the clouds the red roof of the refuge at base camp. Literally no further than about 250 metres away. Half an hour later you aren’t sure if you can get your foot over the step to the door or if you just want to vomit (not from the sense of achievement). Managing the former and getting into the relative warmth of the refuge, you cry happy tears for this crazy achievement that seasoned mountaineers will laugh at. The next day, the clouds clear again and you can see the refuge from the hostel…it is called BASE camp for a reason (the glacier was cancelled due to the high winds, but frankly, there was no effin’ way I was ascending any further that day!), and looking at it from the hostel made it look pathetic. It wasn’t, I promise!
So, there you have it. Nearly two weeks spent in one of the most diverse and incredible countries I’ve ever been to and I only scratched the surface. I got so much out of this trip, from the volunteering to the realisation that I am so capable and my body can do much more than I give it credit for.
I really enjoy these occasional solo trips. I have incredible holidays with my husband and my family, but for 25 years I have been a wife, mother, teacher, provider for someone else, it is easy to fall into the trap of being just the sum of that rather than who you are inside as well, and sometimes it takes some investigating to fish that person out. I truly believe in the importance of discovering things because they interest you and possibly you alone is crucial in your one life. Recently my mother-in-law passed away and her and my father-in-law had been joined at the hip for over 50 years. This is a beautiful thing, really beautiful, but at the end, he spoke for her and made her decisions and he felt incredibly responsible for her. When she passed, it was like a weight lifted. Whilst he wanted to care for her (she had Alzheimer’s) and they wanted to do things together throughout their life, I did wonder what he (or she) might have wanted to do that the other didn’t and, when you have one life, it is important to seek those things out too. My hubby enjoys walking with his university friends and they go once a year, every few years he goes to the Munich Beer Festival too, he plays golf when he can and these (apart from the walking!;-) ) are things that don’t interest me so I encourage him to do them. Volunteering, solo travel that is a little more rough and ready or spontaneous than I know my hubby likes, and pushing my comfort zones are all important to me…
Anyway, if you are thinking of South America but Ecuador is not on your list perhaps, or you are just thinking of the Galapagos, reconsider. Cotopaxi, the Amazon from Ecuador (on my list!) Mindo cloud forest, are all reasons that you shouldn’t overlook this beautiful country. It’s easy enough to do at least three of these areas in a fortnight.
I stayed at The Secret Garden Cotopaxi and Friends Hotel and Rooftop in Quito. Secret Garden also have a hostel in Quito which is lively and buzzing with great city views. All my trips around Cotopaxi were organised with The Secret Garden and further trips such as to The Middle of the World and Otovalo were organised through Viator or CarpeDM in Ecuador.
