During our three week trip through central Ecuador we spent a few days in three different cities: Quito, Baños and Cuenca. As we made our way down through “The Avenue of Volcanoes” we also spent a few days exploring the Quilotoa Valley, but we have a separate post for that.
Here are some selected highlights from our visit to these popular cities of Ecuador.
Quito
While we seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time in one of Quito’s big shopping malls sorting out glasses and other admin type stuff, we did find time to visit what turned out to be one of our favourite art galleries in South America – the Casa Museo Guayasamín.
This museum and art gallery is set in the former home of the legendary Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919-99). Yet again we’ve discovered a major South American figure that we’d never heard of before. Guayasamín is preposterously popular not only here in Latin America, but around the world.
During the latter stages of his career, Guayasamín realized that most of his earlier artworks and sculptures had been sold to private and public collections outside of Ecuador. He wanted to ensure that the people of Ecuador would be able to see and enjoy his art, and so he started re-acquiring some of his early works and putting together a comprehensive collection from each of the major periods in his career. He was also an avid collector of art from all over the world, and all of these works are on display here as well. He designed and had built the home that is now the museum, and lived there from 1979 until his death in 1999. When he died he bequeathed the house and all the art to the people of Ecuador (checking first with his kids to make sure they didn’t mind). The museum opened in 2012, and includes his studio where his unfinished works remain.
His studio
One of his early works when still a student: Self Portrait
One of the most jaw-dropping experiences in the studio was a short video capturing Guayasamín painting a portrait of Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia. He created the portrait in about an hour, and the finished work is still in the studio. (Guayasamín painted it for himself, because he was such an admirer of de Lucia). Watching a master at the peak of his creative powers was awe-inspiring; it was incredible to see a few bold strokes quickly transform into the distinctive characteristics of the guitarist’s face.
Completed in about an hour!
Guayasamín was a genius at painting hands. Once you’ve seen one of his paintings with hands, you’ll never forget it. He was of Quechua and Mestizo heritage (In Latin America, Mestizo usually refers to someone of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry), and was a champion of indigenous rights around the world. He envisioned and created a ‘Chapel of Man’ on the grounds, a Cultural Centre that pays tribute to the suffering and injustices of mankind from all over the world. There are a number of large-format works in this space where his hands loom large.
The Chapel of Man
Unfortunately he died before the Chapel could be completed, but the Foundation has been able to continue his vision. On the cupola ceiling there is an unfinished work remembering the workers who suffered and died in the silver mines of Potosí, Bolivia, which was particularly poignant for us after our recent trip through Bolivia.
The Guayasamín Museum was an absolute highlight of our Quito visit, and without a doubt we’ll be seeking out his works in other art galleries around the world.
Baños – Where the Andes meet the Amazon
We’re going to start this section on Baños de Agua Santa with a quote from a book based in Ecuador that we’ve both recently read and really enjoyed: ‘The Mapmaker’s Wife‘, by Robert Whitaker. We both agree the title of the book doesn’t do it justice, because actually the story of the wife, although remarkable, wasn’t the most interesting part. The book tells the story of a group of 19th-century French scientists who travel to Quito and Ecuador on a decade-long expedition to determine the precise shape of the earth. The discoveries that this group of Enlightenment-era scientist make, as well as the physical challenges that they overcame (or not), make for a gripping read.
This description of the journey through the mountains of Baños from the town of Riobamba is so powerful and gives an excellent sense of the scale of the landscape here:
Since leaving Riobamba, they had traveled about fifty miles and dropped 3,000 feet in altitude, and they had now entered the cloud forest that covers the eastern slopes of the Andes, a lush world of moss-covered trees, delicate orchids, and hanging vines. There is no other place on the planet where massive snow-capped mountains so closely overlook steaming tropical forest, the two disparate climates separated by less than 150 miles. In rapid order, the alpine world turns into a dense forest perpetually bathed in clouds and fog, and then, at 3,000 feet above sea level, the cloud forest gives way to a rain forest, where although it may rain nearly every day, clouds are not constantly present.
At an altitude of about 1,000 feet, the vegetation undergoes a further change, into lowland rain forest. For every 1,000-foot drop in elevation, the temperature rises about 4 degrees Fahrehneit, such that it will be fifty degrees colder on the slopes of Tungurahua [the highest peak in Ecuador] than it is at the headwaters of the Amazon, only 100 miles away. As a result of these extremes in temperature, the terrain in between receives more than 160 inches of rain a year.
With that kind of landscape it’s not hard to see why Baños is marketed as a bit of an adrenaline-seeker’s town. To be honest this was a bit of a turnoff for us, but in fact it wasn’t nearly as over-the-top touristy as we were bracing ourselves for.
Edmundo, our Black Sheep Inn host in nearby Quilotoa, explained to us that Ecuadorians traditionally don’t travel much, even within their own country. There are two or three places they go. Baños is one of those places. We’re here on a weekend and it’s filled with Ecuadorian families and young couples. It has a nice feel, that kind of buzz you get when people are happy to be away for a short holiday.
In a similar way to Japan, Ecuador has a fascination with taking natural landscapes and filling them with tacky activities. The whole area at the top of the mountains is filled with random ways to have your photo taken: in heart-shaped bamboo (for only $1), in enormous hands (for only $1), on a suspended perspex platform (for only $1), on giant dinosaurs or other animals (for only $1); the list goes on and on.
La Casa del Arbol
The town’s namesake are the hot springs (baños). However, comments from people we’ve met and reviews online are not sound positive. Something about getting there early before it became polluted with baby diapers and people peeing don’t really sound like our Japanese onsen experience, so we give it a miss. Instead in the morning we take a taxi up the long, winding road clinging to the side of the mountain to La Casa del Arbol (The Tree House). There are plenty of different places to visit up here (see ‘for only $1 above) but we’d read good reviews about the Tree House.
Maybe it’s because we haven’t had many tourist-filled experiences lately, but somehow this felt kind of nice. There were lots of families with kids and young couples out enjoying the day. It’s a garden area with various ways to enjoy the view of the surrounding mountains and valley and in particular the mighty Volcan Tungurahua which dominates the horizon. The main drawcard is a ‘Swing at the End of the World’ (for only $1) but we were there for the view of the volcano.
El Pailon de Diablo
We head back down to town and have lunch, and then get on a bus for a short ride to the other big attraction on our list: the Devil’s Cauldron (Pailon de Diablo). This is a waterfall with a strong emphasis on water and fall. Imagine the Jolly Green Giant hosing down his driveway with a giant firehose, and you start to picture the volume of water blasting straight down a sheer cliff face.
More from The Mapmaker’s Wife, this time about the Pastaza River, which captures the feeling the rivers evoke here well:
The Pastaza is formed by the merger of the Chambo and Patate Rivers a few miles above Baños, and it is a violent, turbulent river, hurling its way out of the Andes with a fury.
There are two entrances to the Devil’s Cauldron, and we were encouraged by other travellers to experience them both. The ‘New Entrance’ follows along the right bank of the Rio Verde. We get a taste of what’s to come as the water rushes through narrow rocks and crashes into a natural pool before it begins its true downward descent. The path winds along until we reach the top of the waterfall, descend some stairs, cross over a suspension bridge and a few more stairs and we’re standing in front of it. A completely vertical cliff stands behind a wide and round column of water hurtling 80 metres down to the river below.
We picked peak tour bus – an hour later and these steps were empty
The rocks on the cliff face are completely smooth and, surrounded by tropical forest with mountains towering above. It looks for all the world like a Disney movie set.
Click for the video:
The ‘Old Entrance’ approaches the falls from the bottom up, and is just a few minutes from the new one. The difference here is that we really must work for the view. We follow the path through the jungle along a dirt path for about 15 minutes, and then ascend to several levels of viewing platforms.
It’s at this point that we realize why they built the ‘New Entrance’. From here we must crouch and scramble on hands and knees up under the rocks to a higher platform and then eventually climb up a narrow hole and clamber up some stairs to stand behind the waterfall. And get utterly and thoroughly drenched in a matter of seconds. Luckily it’s warm and humid so the drenching is actually kind of refreshing.
Coming back down and turning right takes us across another suspension bridge over Rio Pastaza and to a cafe at the base of the waterfall. Here we have a great cocktail and sandwich while three condors circle lazily above us in the valley.
They’ve done a really good job with both the Old and New Entrances of the Paillon del Diablo to keep quite a natural feel around the actual waterfall. The Old Entrance is definitely more physically / contortionally challenging, but they’re both worthwhile in their own way.
Back in town we treat ourselves to some of the famous Ecuadorian chocolate. We head to Aromi cafe for what can only be described as the without a doubt THE BEST hot chocolate we’ve ever tasted anywhere. The chocolate blanco was heavenly creamy goodness. Maybe this is what helped the Mapmaker’s Wife survive her journey down the Amazon.
Cuenca
As the bus approaches the city of Cuenca, the jungle-covered mountains suddenly stop and a flat valley spreads out below. Cuenca is at 2,500m above sea level but as we descend off the central Ecuadorian Sierra it feels like we’re coming down into the lowlands.
It has been an epic 10-hour bus journey from Banos with just one toilet break at hour eight. The 340km journey usually takes about 6 hours but with the recent landslide destroying part of the Pan American highway it is much longer.
Stepping off the bus somewhat stunned, we immediately notice the high plateau chill has gone and the weather is warmer and drier. Cuenca is a very popular place for foreigners to retire, live or study. Wandering the streets it’s easy to see why. It’s a mid-size city, with lots of great restaurants and cafes, the water is safe to drink, the weather is warm all year and the people are friendly. We’d like to have longer to explore the city, but with the Galápagos calling we have to keep it to just two days.
I got bored waiting for this group to move out of the way
Exploring the Historical Centre
As we stand in the wonderfully ornate central patio of the provincial court building, our walking tour guide explains that Ecuador continues to grapple with human rights issues in many ways. There’s also issues with corruption and international drug gangs battling for ground.
Outside it’s hard to see any evidence of unrest. The building stands in one corner of the Spanish colonial town’s central square. People sit and laugh together, kids run around and play.
On the other side of the square stands the impressive Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, locally known as the ‘new cathedral’. Built over a period of more than 100 years from 1885 – 1992, it is a centrepiece in a city traditionally known as very devout. From the tower of the cathedral we spot 8 other churches. There are in fact 52 churches in this city of just under half a million people, one every three blocks.
Our free walking tour guide takes us up to the second floor of the seminary next door, where there’s a great view of the huge blue domes of the cathedral. The seminary is a beautiful white walled two story building with huge wooden beams built in the classic colonial style. But this is in fact not a colonial era building at all. The seminary has burned down and been rebuilt several times. Most recently 70% of the building was destroyed in 2012 in a fire started by fireworks. It was rebuilt in the original design and opened to the public for the first time ever just four years ago. It now houses restaurants and hosts cultural and educational events.
While fires have caused damage, earthquakes are rare in this area. This is just as well since apparently the architect of the ‘new cathedral’ was a better artist than engineer. It was originally designed to have two spires, but when a large statue was placed on the roof during construction a huge crack formed right down the centre of the building. It was deemed unsafe to complete the bell towers in the original design. A issue with the foundation it seems, which cannot be rectified without rebuilding the whole thing.
Across the plaza from the new cathedral stands the original town church, an adobe building painted a sparkling white. It was of particular interest to us because it links back to The Mapmaker’s Wife. This church was used by the French academic expedition to complete their epic measurement of 300 miles from Quito to Cuenca in the mid 19th century. All in an effort to accurately measure a degree of latitude at the equator. In hindsight they probably wouldn’t have chosen the Avenue of the Volcanoes as the ideal place to measure a straight line.
You say Panama, I say Toquilla
In its colonial heyday, Cuenca was home to a number of wealthy families who shipped quina quina trees to Europe for the extraction of quinine as well as cocoa for chocolate. Their huge mansions can still be seen lining the river bank.
These days the city exports different popular item – toquilla hats. You may not know them by this name. Thanks to an entrepreneurial Ecuadorian who took many of these hats to the workers during the construction of the Panama Canal, one happened to make it onto the head of President Roosevelt. From then on they became known as Panama hats.
Standing in front of a wall of perfectly white, wide brimmed hats it’s hard to believe they started out as green stalks of the toquilla palm. While expats might like the climate here in Cuenca, the toquilla palm prefers the tropical heat of Ecuador’s coastal province of Manabi. Here it grows much taller which means much better long strands of straw.
We’ve stopped in at the Homero Ortega hat factory in Cuenca and Emilia, a fifth generation member of this family owned business, is showing us through the whole process of hand making a hat.
The straw that is ‘combed’ from the peeled stalks is boiled for 48 hours in salt water before it even starts the journey to becoming a hat. The resulting threads are woven by hand into what looks like a very floppy hat. The people who do the weaving aren’t here as they are the original ‘work from home’ staff. We see the fruits of their labour hanging up waiting for the next step.
Emilia takes us outside to and open courtyard area where these floppy hats are being dipped repeatedly in bleach. They are dipped, left for 2 days and then dipped again multiple times.
From here they are moulded to one of 100 different shapes. Emilia leads us around to the next area where over a hundred silver hat moulds sit on shelves. These are used to hand press in what is essentially a large hot press.
All of the hats start off the same shape (floppy) before being pressed using the big green machine and one of several hundred custom aluminium moulds.
The hat is then passed to Jean who sits on a low stool lightly buffing the rim of a hat with glue. Then it’s remoulded and glued again at least 4 times.
The last step is to add decorations such as a ribbon, or flowers which are also made from hand woven straw.
The whole process takes a minimum of 14 days and can take up to a year for the top quality hats. Emilia explains that to determine the quality of a hat, you shouldn’t touch it to feel if it’s soft, but instead simply look at the weave. The tighter the weave, the better the quality. The highest quality hats, you can’t even tell they are woven.
Feathers considers a smart little number.
From the High Andes to the Pacific Coast
From here we’re heading to the port city of Guayaquil, the gateway to the Galápagos Islands. Even this simple journey is spectacular. As we head back out of the gentle climate of Cuenca and west into the mountains, the temperature drops and we’re once again engulfed in the cloud forest. Then we emerge to see a steep valley below and another blanket of thick cloud more than 500m below us. We’re leaving the Avenue of Volcanoes behind and descending on to the coastal plains and out over the Pacific Ocean.
A blanket of clouds below us
Next stop – the Galápagos!
In A Nutshell: Quito, Baños and Cuenca
We mostly took the bus in this region with no problems buying tickets as we went. A couple of times our hosts recommended we book tickets the day before because it was a weekend / a busy day.
Quito:
Quito (and Ecuador more generally), is sadly getting more dangerous as economic and social conditions worsen. The historic centre of Quito can be especially dangerous. We’d suggest that you carry only enough cash for the day, and leave your credit cards and (gasp) even your phone at your hotel when you venture out. Pickpockets and muggings are on the rise, and it’s safest if you don’t give papaya.
Baños:
Getting to Baños from the Quilotoa Loop: We came to Baños from Chugchilán, a popular village to do the Quilotoa Loop. To get to Baños from here, the bus to Latachunga leaves right at the Black Sheep Inn for $4pp (2.5 hrs). Just before Latachunga you can get off at the PanAm highway and catch a bus coming via Quito to Baños, rather than going in to Latachunga and out again. We waited 30 mins for the bus here. $4pp (3 hrs).
Getting to Devil’s Cauldron: You can make your way to the Devil’s Cauldron in various ways. We took a coach from the bus station heading for Puyo and got dropped at Rio Verde ($1pp) – this is a very popular way, just tell the driver you want to go to the Pailon de Diablo. On the way back to Baños we caught a local bus for 50 cents each. We realised we could have taken this on the way out and stopped at various points along the way. You can also take a day tour or rent bikes and cycle out – a truck then brings you back to Baños so you only have to cycle one way.
Try to avoid arriving at the waterfall between 12pm and 1pm, as it seems this is the time when most of the day trip tours arrive. It was wall to wall people at this time but very few people after this.
Visiting La Casa del Arbol: Best to go to the top to the mountain in the morning when the weather is clear. It often clouds over and/or rains in the afternoons.
Cuenca:
The “Direct bus” from Baños to Cuenca goes via Riobamba, costs $15 per person and leaves at 8:45am with Amazonas. Due to landslides/road closures, the trip took us about 10 HOURS with only one bathroom break after 8 hours…. Bring some snacks with you and a good book or three, or enjoy the movies they show non-stop on the screens. We watched ‘Kangaroo Jack’ in Spanish and realized you really don’t need to know what they’re saying to know that it’s a really dumb movie… And then ‘Little Man’ – here’s the description: “A wannabe-dad mistakes a vertically-challenged criminal on the lam for his newly-adopted son.” This was a deeply disturbing movie.
At the Pumapungo Museum the Incan ruins are closed indefinitely due to damage from a recent earthquake. The pre-Columbian exhibition inside is OK, but not a must see. Unless you want to see shrunken heads of course.
