Our friend Josh Egedy visited us and we wasted no time in getting the junk show on the road. After Josh was briefly detained by Customs, we made it back to our place to dial the final agenda for his trip.

On the first day, we went for a bike ride in Parque Metropolitano and then visited Betsy at her school. Saturday, we went to Mercado Ofelia for some fresh vegetables followed by a trip to Mitad del Mundo, where Josh successfully balanced an egg on end bringing great pride to all around him. We rounded out our day with a trip to Old Town.

Sunday, Betsy joined the party with a big hike up Pichincha from the Rucu Pichincha side (see previous posts). She made it to the top for the first time which was a big accomplishment since the last time she tried she didn’t make it because her ACL was torn and we didn’t know it. In usual fashion, we literally had to run back to the car because a storm was coming in and there was great concern the 4×4 road would become impassable.

Tena was on the agenda for Josh and I for Monday where we had an overnight river trip and jungle hike planned. On the way to Tena I noticed numerous landslides in the distance which would provide some foreshadowing. We stopped off at “monkey island” where we spotted, yes, monkeys.

Since Betsy and I had such a great time on our raft trip with River People, that was the company Josh and I used. With the first paddle stroke of the trip 30 seconds in, I fell off the boat. No harm, no foul. The river was up and flowing fast since it was rain fed and the area had received significant rain (landslides). It rises and falls so quickly that the guides took an early lunch to let the river go down. It happens that fast. Promptly after lunch we hit a big train of three significant waves. The first wave hit hard, dumping a passenger out of the boat. Jan popped up in front of the boat and, upon the guide trying to rescue her which required him to vacate his position steering, the boat flipped when it hit the second wave.  By the time passengers made it to the boat to hang on, the guide was already on top of it clipping in to flip it back over. Not all passengers were accounted for but the throw bags and support kayak quickly corralled the stragglers. Good times.

We regrouped and put a nice rest of the day together. Two guides, Josh, and myself split off from the group to set up camp at a site on the river. Even though the guides set their tents up on higher ground, when we asked about our site selection they said we would be “fine”. That afternoon, some attempts at fishing were made, however, we were informed by a local that approached us that the good fishing didn’t start until after dark. Who knows if he knew what he was talking about because he said it wasn’t going to rain that night and it did. Very much so. Side note, this is a quote from Josh just before we met our local friend: “Roman, there’s a guy coming towards us with a machete. Any thoughts on that?”

Just before dinner it started to rain. It didn’t stop until morning. We had a nice dinner under a thatched hut, adoringly referred to as the “spider tent”. Seemingly everywhere in the roof reeds there were elaborate webs with different kinds of spiders, waiting. Some were fuzzy and big and others, which I particularly liked, were shiny and angular. If Ferrari built a spider it would be these. I can’t find any photos, perhaps because were too busy capturing and throwing crickets into the webs and watching nature run its course. The guides weren’t scared of the spiders. What they were scared of were these tiny ants running into and out of a tree a few feet away. Apparently, the bite hurts for a couple of days. The words “numbness” and “swelling” were thrown around pretty liberally.

In the middle of the night, the soothing sound of pattering rain on my tent was interrupted when Josh banged on it, very sternly stating, “Roman! The river has come up. We’ve got to move our tents!” We moved our tents to the only dry spot around, under the spider tent. Double and triple checking our tent zippers for entry points, we went back to bed. By this time, our previous real estate was under shallow water.

After a quick paddle out the next day, dinner, and solid night’s sleep, we packed up to return to Quito, stopping for our Jungle tour. The first part of the tour was on private property and the son of the owner gave us a great tour of some caves. The second part of our tour was to a waterfall in a primary jungle. Back in the car, we were making great time until we hit a wall of traffic. A land slide had poured over the road and everyone was waiting for the front-end loader to come and clear the way. It took a while for the machine to get there, but when it did it got right to work….until it ran out of gas….and more mud poured over the road. When the machine breached the other side, eight hours had passed. We finally were on our way…until were were stopped by yet another land slide. The sleeping bags came out and we spent the night in the car. Briefly after dawn the road was cleared and we made it back to Quito. We made the most out of Josh’s last day in Quito getting ready for the next leg of our trip, Cuba.

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Behind Wawa Pichincha, the volcano seen from the city of Quito, is Rucu Pichincha, its blown out neighbor.  About a month ago while Betsy was at the beach for a ladies weekend, I drove up to Rucu Pichincha with some folks from the school to check out the caldera.

The weather didn’t cooperate that day and a fierce fog filled the caldera.  A return trip would be necessary to see into it.  All was not lost as a short hike revealed a variety of high alpine flowers and plants as well as several wild horses.

On the way back down to Lloa, the town that accesses Rucu Pichincha, we saw a paragliding lesson taking place. Once in Lloa, we stopped for lunch. Lucky for us, we stumbled upon their annual bull fight celebration. It was a very festive atmosphere matched by great music and food. The bull ring was recessed into the ground so spectators could sit around with an unobstructed view of the action. Literally, anyone could jump down in there. Though the bulls were small and I was tempted, I opted for the safer choice of spectating. Thankfully, no animals were harmed. However, one participant wasn’t so lucky. He thought it would be a good idea to stand on a beer crate and jump over a charging bull. He slipped when he jumped, perhaps because he was wearing casual loafers, and didn’t clear the animal. After getting roughed up a little, he limped away to an awaiting ambulance. One bull was smart enough to make its way behind one of the wooded protector walls surprising everyone, including the participants perched on the once secure wall.

It was a great day with one surprise after the other.

So much has happened since our last post, we are having to go back about a month.

Betsy and I went to Quilotoa, a crater lake about 2.5 hours south of Quito.  We hiked around the caldera, about 10km in circumference.  This was a big accomplishment because it was the biggest test for Betsy’s knee since her surgery.

The next day, we took a short, but steep drive west out of the valley to a ridge.  From around 12,000′ we were told we could see the coast.  Unfortunately, the coast was socked in.  Still, it made for some great photos to be high above the clouds.