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.