The Earth + Nat

Boy oh boy. Sometimes when you're travelling you just don't catch a break and all you can do is laugh. So I arrive in Cali off the night bus ready to really see what Colombia had to offer. Only problem, there's no wifi. It's Sunday, so not much is open and I can't buy a SIM card. I got an arepa (a corn pancake thing with cheese inside), then asked every soul in the building for internet until a bus company let me use their wifi for a bit. So I tracked down my accomodation, met up with my friend Cat from Melbourne and had a look at what was on. Shorts, Jandals and shirts. ANZAC ambassadors right here. Turns out...not much, because its Sunday. We took a free walking tour, and we were the only people on it. It was actually kind of nice, the guide seemed relieved to be able to give the tour entirely in Spanish (apparently we were the she had ever had to request a Spanish tour) and we could ask questions without feeling like a douche for holding everyone else up....

My trip out of Quito was going to be a 24 hour slog to Cali in southern Colombia, which was not something I was particularly keen on. Then I heard about this place called Las Lajas where you can see some cool stuff just on the Colombian side of the border, so why not break up the trip a bit? After a cheap, scenic and trouble free bus north from Quito, all you had to do was cross the border, find a collectivo in the border town and Roberto is your tío. Easier said than done, as the border was chaotic and full of some seriously dodgy characters. Two stamps in the passport, a loud, dramatic negotiation for a fair taxi price, buy a night bus ticket, leave your big bags with the bus company then hop in the car before sunset. You arrive to a couple of beautiful statues and a long stone path down the side of a canyon through stalls flogging all kinds of religious souvenirs. On the left side the canyon got more dramatic at every turn, then this appears... A gorgeous neo-gothi...

After conquering Quilotoa, Lachie and I rolled into Quito feeling pretty exhausted. After negotiating the city's public transport to get our hostel (they change the bus routes after 8pm for some reason), we knocked back a well earned beer and collapsed into bed. Our hostel was in a great spot in the old city, with a rooftop area that gave us this view... Seriously this place is just endlessly picturesque. It reminded me a lot of La Paz, only without the crippling food poisoning, drab brick buildings and poor weather. I spent my first day doing a walking tour, which was good even though our guide was clearly more interested in the ladies in the group than the tour itself. We saw a lot of the old town, including the beautiful Plaza Mayor, several magnificent churches, markets and government buildings. The guide took pains to remind us that most of the old Spanish buildings were built on the back of indigenous slaves, a depressing but necessary fact to keep in mind when tourin...

While Ecuador is lovely, I have limited time to spend here as I am meeting a friend in Colombia quite soon, so I have to rush and skip a few things. However, one thing I couldn't miss was the spectacular Quilotoa trek. After another bus misadventure, me and my mate Lachie ended up in the village of Quilotoa, a small, unassuming place almost 4000m above sea level. This was supposed to be the start of the trek, but there wasn't much signage and it didn't really seem like a tourist hub, so we were a bit confused until we found a hut where some friendly Kichua people showed us which way to go and let us stash our big bags.  We walk up a dirt track, over a hump and see this... And that's what we got to see for the rest of the day. An enormous crater, the dismembered heart of a once massive volcano, filled with copper-blue water at the bottom of its steep slopes.  The highest point, 3,930m above sea level. Not visible: sweat, the gruelling climb up to thi...

After Mancora I tried to get a direct bus to the city of Cuenca in Ecuador, where I was hoping to meet a friend. Though I was sure the lady who sold me the ticket said it was direct, I ended up with a van to the far northern town of Tumbes, a taxi to another bus company, a bus to the border with Ecuador, 4 long, sweaty hours waiting to cross the border, back on the bus, then another taxi to another bus company, almost missed the next bus while grabbing a bite to eat, then finally arriving in Cuenca 6 hours late. Say what you want about travel here, it's never boring. The view from the mirador. Unfortunately the best mountains are hiding. I checked into one of the cheaper hostels I found online, Mallki Hostel, which turned out to be a tip top choice and one of the best places I have stayed in. I woke up in the morning to a fresh, complimentary brekkie of pancakes, fruit and coffee, a marked improvement on the stale bread and jam in most Peruvian hostels. I quickly made a few...

As of today I have been out of Pulache for a few days, but I thought I would write about the village itself because its a really lovely place. I also had a piece written already which has vanished (thanks google) so I am rewriting it in a state of bloody-mindedness. But here we go! Moonrise over the lake bed This is a special little place. To begin with, it's very isolated. The village is in the far north of Peru, about 2 hours from the nearest city, Piura, 45 minutes from the nearest town of any size, and 1 hour from the Ecuadorian border. You won't find it on Google Maps, you have to do some sleuthing on satellite mode to even find the dirt road that leads there. It is a sleepy hamlet on the edge of the Peruvian map, a long way from the bustle of city life. The village itself is a windy dirt road with a couple of other dirt roads branching off it, lined with brightly painted adobe houses. Most of the men work in farms producing rice, papaya, potatoes and some chic...