Exotic orchids in Puyo

With Tom’s ankle sore (he is wearing an orthopaedic boot and using a crutch), Carlos and Jenny said they’d take the children out for the day. I was invited as well; also Camila, so six of us went in the Montero.

I think Carlos said we were going to Baños, but (at some stage) he decided to go to Puyo in the Amazon instead. We stayed in Baños and went through Puyo when we were here five years ago.

From Ambato to Baños is a long fertile valley where they grow lots of fruit and vegetables. The road sticks to one side of the valley and as it narrows towards Baños you can see crops and fruit bushes on the steep slopes. Today was a national holiday, known as 'Día del Primer Grito de Independencia de Quito' and marks Quito's declaration of independence from Spain in 1809. It is Ecuador's National Day, so there were plenty of people on the road, mainly heading for Baños.

At the side of the road, there were lots of people selling food and drink and cuy were being barbecued by the thousand on great skewers mounted on wheels being turned above the hot coals. Jenny and Carlos think cuy is absolutely delicious. There were also whole and half pigs hanging up. If you stop, they slice some off and cook it for you. In Baños, there are lots of people smashing sugar cane to make jugo de caña. It contains lemon, but the main ingredient is sugar juice. I imagine that would wreck the remains of my keto diet.

As you near Baños, the valley really narrows along the flanks of Tungurahua, the third great snowcapped volcano in this area. It erupted in 2014, covered the whole area in ash and Carlos pointed out the point where the lava flow hit the main road and valley. It wasn’t possible to get a view of Tungarahua in the cloud. I hope to see it properly one day. We carried on down, down through Baños and along the valley road that we used five years ago. The land flattens out at about 1200 metres and the cloud forest, turns to jungle. We went through Mera and Shell to Puya, where Carlos knew something about an orchid sanctuary.

After a week above 2500m and some time at 3700m, I am getting a little used to the reduced levels of oxygen, but it was still good to get down to the relatively low heights of Ben Nevis and take a few deep breaths.

There was a bit of debate as to whether to go to an Italian restaurant, but Carlos opted for La Hosteria Turingia, which is run by a German family. It’s a nice walled hotel in the centre of Puya, almost deserted (we were the only people in the dining room.

Upon Camila’s advice, I had Guanabana (soursop or custard apple) to drink. Like many fruit drinks in Ecuador, it’s sweet, but sour at the same time. Perfectly pleasant to have with lunch. Camila also advised me to try tilapia, a fish widely eaten here and extensively farmed. I think more tilapia are eaten than cod, but I’d never heard of it. I’m sure we’ll be eating it soon in the UK. It’s a nice fish, not too bony and with quite a meaty taste.

We then headed off to Las Orquideas, which is the sort of place you’d expect to be established by an eccentric Englishmen. It seems Ecuador has its eccentrics too (thank goodness). The place is around 10 hectares of restored jungle, with the plants that sustained indigenous people before chemical factories. It also caters for flower lovers by having established a large variety of orchids growing in the wild.

We saw tiny orchids, strange-shaped orchids like shoes and highly scented, large-flowered ones growing high off the side of trees. We have a ladies slipper orchid in the UK, so I guess the shoe-shaped one is related. Some of the small ones were absolutely tiny. We were taken through the jungle by a guide (Christinas, who Julia fell in love with) and she had a magnifying glass for us to see the very small flowers. I took some pictures and also tried some shots using my phone against the spyglass.

Apart from orchids, the jungle contained slow- and fast-growing trees, a tree which produces the fibre for panama hats, cacao for chocolate, a trees whose roots produced a deadly fish poison, a flower whose bract looked like a pair of red lips, leaves used for wrapping food and cooking, leaves that felt as soft as a baby’s skin, a fruit that was supposed to cure anything (even hangovers) and a plant that produced a hallucinogenic substance used by a shaman to get high out of his mind in ritual ceremonies.

I really enjoyed the tour – thank goodness for eccentrics (English or Ecuadorian).

I thought we might head back, but Carlos wanted to go to the exotic bird centre. This wasn’t as interesting as the jungle. To an Ecuadorian, an English pigeon and hen is exotic …

Again, I thought we’d head home, but Carlos has somehow learned there was a folk festival in full swing that night. We headed to a park in Puyo where the show was happening. Lots of the barrio had been blocked by fences across the road, but Carlos just drives up and gets them opened. We parked right alongside the action, having passed a group of Amazonian tribesmen on the way.

Julia and Aureliano spotted a bouncy castle and so there was not a lot of time to watch the dancing (click here for video).

There was a massive traffic jam going back through Baños and it was quite late (9.30pm) when we got back. Aureliano feel asleep before Mera, Julia by Baños.

Ecuador – the Devil’s Cauldron

Tourists posing on the viewing platform

The Church of England has recently delisted the Devil – he (or she?) no longer exists. Worshippers who were once invited to “renounce the Devil and all his works” are now to be invited to “fight against the power of evil.”

It’s a shame; I’ve always been rather fond of the Devil and if this new, modernist policy is adopted more widely many of our great religious works of art, to say nothing of numerous geological features, will need to be adapted or renamed.

Take the Pailon Del Diablo for example. This violent waterfall, just outside Baños in Ecuador, translates into English as “The Devil’s Cauldron” and “Waterfall in the Deep Gorge” just wouldn’t sound as good.

It’s an impressive natural feature, but not easy to find, even though it’s just off the main road from Baños to Puyo. In a country where rules governing signs are non-existent, you’d expect there would be a massive hoarding with a picture of a blonde girl in a bikini pointing the way (blonde girls in bikinis are the standard image in Ecuador for advertising anything), but the operators are remarkably modest about this attraction.

The Pailon Del Diablo is off the old road, which is a tiny track (best suited for mule trains not HGVs) that winds in and out of the rock face on the steep valley. Where the new road tunnels through solid rock, sections of the old route are now cut off and stranded like an ox-bow lake. The entrance to Pailon Del Diablo stands on such a section.

Bottom of the falls

Getting to it requires a long walk through cloud forest down a steep track. When you get to the bottom, you discover that you have to pay to see it. The operators should really have made it clear that there was an entrance fee at the top of the track. Clearly, they think that having walked all that way, you’re not going back up without seeing it (and they’re right). However, the fee isn’t high, just a couple of dollars, and they have built numerous viewing platforms and bridges so you can get a good view. 

The waterfall plummets into a steep, narrow gorge and this isn’t a waterfall that you can stand and admire, you have to get involved in it. To enjoy a proper view, you have to  get wet, covered in spray, climb narrow paths to get higher up and appreciate the drop, then finally wriggle through a narrow, low passage to emerge at a platform near the top of the falls where the river plunges into the gorge. Standing at the top section means you will get very wet, but it’s worth it.

The walk back up the track to the road is quite a puff and the trudge was relieved by meeting a couple of local dogs, who were very friendly and trotted along with us for a while. I’d found one of Holly’s dog biscuits in the pocket of my cagoule and offered it to my new friends as a treat. These Ecuadorian dogs clearly had never seen a dog biscuit and had no idea what to do with it – they certainly didn’t recognise it as food and left it by the track.

Folded rock strata in the gorge.

Ecuador – a hot bath that might be about to get a lot hotter

Bath is one of my favourite cities in England; it’s a lovely place, full of history and great architecture and it has the added mystery of a hot spring – something of great wonder to ancient people (and to us).

Ecuador also has a city called Bath, or rather the Spanish equivalent – Baños.

The two cities couldn’t be much different. The Romans didn’t get as far as Baños, of course and while John Wood was laying out the Royal Crescent in Bath, Tungarahua (the local volcano) was laying out Baños.

In Ecuador, you’re never far from a volcano and in Baños, you’re literally at the foot of the volcano. Tungurahua is a particularly troublesome character; it likes to go off every 100 years or so and it’s going off right now. In 1999, everyone in Baños (19,000 of them) got out double quick when there was a red warning and in 2013 (into 2014) it has been rumbling and grumbling.

The most recent eruptions have killed "only a handful" of people (five to be precise), deposited millions of tons of ash on the surrounding countryside, buried roads and destroyed a bridge. I can’t help thinking that it’s just flexing its muscles for the big one.

Sadly, I didn’t get to see Tungarahua - a 5000m job, complete with snow cap (its summit glaciers melted in 1999 when it started its latest active phase. The weather was cloudy and grey, but there are some pictures here, including one (taken by Tom) of Ambato, with an erupting Tungarahua in the background.

Images from the current eruptions. No wonder the glaciers melted!

Panorama by Tom of Ambato, with an erupting Tungarahua at the far right. See the original here.

The day was quite cloudy and grey, especially on the paramo, adding to its similarities with Scotland, but it picked up as we lost a little altitude. On our way to Baños, we called in at Ambato to visit the hospital built by the agency run by Lucy's father, Carlos. This is an impressive facility, used for training and healthcare, but most of the agency's work is done out in the remote communities in mountain and jungle.

Tom and Lucy, with help from some friends, put this website together: http://www.allicausai.org/en/

There are also a couple of videos on YouTube by Tom and Lucy: http://youtu.be/WhTeG57uAWg and with an English commentary: http://youtu.be/_UYC3WEPlE4

There was also time to call in at an Indian market on the way to Baños. I bought myself an alpaca wool jumper for $19, which is a really good price, also a colourful tablecloth which Margaret wanted for the kitchen table.

The drive to Baños is quite spectacular, you're losing height (although Baños sits higher than most Alpine ski resorts) and travelling through deeper and deeper valleys. As you lose height, you can see the foliage becoming more lush, more jungle-like. Baños sits in a bowl and it's quite a pretty town, catering for tourists and backpackers. Conveniently, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision nearby, so there has been a steady stream of pilgrims for many years, now replaced by backpackers. It was quite strange to see so many bars and nightclubs; also signs everywhere for bungee jumping, rafting, quad hire, etc. Tom had suggested we might hire a couple of motorcycles and do a quick tour along the old road, but there simply wasn't time.

The hotel Luna Runtun above Baños

After lunch in Baños and a visit to a bank with a cash machine which recognised my card, we headed for our hotel. Lucy had pre-booked all of our hotels. She'd done a good job, but in Baños, she excelled herself. We stayed at the Luna Runtun, which is sited above Baños on the flanks of Tungurahua and this was a fantastic place in an amazing location.

The drive up was quite steep and the hotel comprised a central building with restaurant, plus lots of separate chalets dotted around the grounds. Our room was fantastic and we had a balcony overlooking Baños about 200 metres below. The trees outside were full of hummingbirds. At first they were quite hard to spot, but once you'd got your eye in, they were flitting around here, there and everywhere.

There was a jacuzzi and swimming pools, so we were able to take a dip before dinner. It seemed as if we were the only people there, so we had great service. When night fell Baños looked even more pretty all lit up below us.

iPhone panorama of Baños, taken from our balcony at Luna Runtun