Tween Travels

While we were in England, we asked my cousin Maisy if she would like to join us while we were in South America. She said yes! Maisy is 19 and is taking a gap year before starting university in September. She chose to join us in Ecuador for three weeks.  We were so excited!

We flew into Quito from Lima, Peru and spent the night in an airport hotel before meeting Maisy off the plane the next day.

We stayed in Quito for the first few days next to a giant park where we rode swan boats on a lake. Quito was a fun city with weird food.  On the first full day we went to the market and my mom ordered a bunch of dishes for lunch. When the dishes arrived, we were all a bit shocked to find a chicken foot and head floating in the soup. There was also goat stew and lamb intestine soup. That night we had beef heart and intestines. Nice easy start on the food front!

One of the highlights of Quito was taking a cable car to the top of a mountain.  There were a bunch of cute dogs at the top and the views over the city were amazing.

Our home for the next three days was a hostel overlooking Cotapaxi volcano.  I was NOT excited about staying in a hostel. We took a really bumpy two hour van ride to the middle of nowhere. I was informed there was a free two-hour hike to a waterfall on the first day which sounded OK. I was a bit nervous when they made us put on rainboots and said there would be a bit of scrambling over rocks, but my mom said it would be fine. WRONG! We were crossing rivers and hanging off ropes attached to slippery cliffs. It was not what I had been expecting, but two really nice guides helped us a bunch.

We were very happy we booked into a cabin called the Hill House rather than a dormitory.  The view was amazing and at nighttime someone lit a fire for us which made the cold space cozy. We ate all our meals at long tables where we got to meet other travelers from Australia, New Zealand, USA, England and France. There were also at least eight dogs running around the property and llamas we got to feed.

On our first full day we went horseriding in Cotapaxi National Park, one of the windiest places I have ever been. Even the horses were trying to shield their faces from the wind. For the first time we got to go really fast on the horses which William and I loved. Dad and William did a six-hour hike to the top of Passachoa mountain while Maisy, mom and I had a lazy day together.

Next stop was Latacunga, a two-hour truck ride from the hostel.  The idea was that we would get the bus from there to Quilatoa where there is a lake on top of a volcano. Latacunga was a bit gritty and grimy and where we stayed wasn’t the nicest. After the windiest ever two-hour bus ride crammed with people, we got to Quilotoa. Sadly it was so windy that as we walked through the town, we saw a sink blow off outside a public bathroom. When we got to the side of the volcano, the view was beautiful but it was so windy that we couldn’t hike down as planned. Instead we shivered in a cafe with hot chocolates while we waited for the bus home.

The last cold place we went was Cuenca. The bus journey took about 11 hours to get there which would have been fine if it had been a nice quiet journey. But bus journeys are never quiet in South America.

One of the passengers, Bus Lady, wore a skimpy bikini top and tight pants and spent a lot of time talking loudly on her cell phone or recording Tiktok videos of herself. At one point she started crawling around on the ground trying to find a list she had dropped and the older man sat next to her tried to help her, but ended up grabbing Maisy’s ankle in the process.🤣

We eventually arrived in Cuenca which was very beautiful and had pretty delicious food. Our Airbnb was a disappointment but it was close to a bakery we visited every morning.

We were excited to move onto a warmer city, Tena, but soon wished we were back in the cold!

We’re going to be back in less than a week and I’m so excited to see y’all. Stay tuned for the last Ecuador post!

🩷 Madeleine