The day after the wedding, after returning the U-haul, hauling all the leftover drinks and other wedding sundries up to our place, and almost losing Kate's bridal gown, we had about 4 hours to rest before we had to wake up at 3AM to get a cab to Dulles. Thankfully, we both got a bit of sleep on the flights. We got into Quito around 1PM, and promptly fell asleep, waking up around 6 for dinner, and then going back to sleep until morning.
Astrid, our horse guide, picked us up at the hotel in Quito at 9AM and we set off for her ranch in the Pululahua volcanic crater. When we got there and Astrid was trying to figure out which horse could hold Yoel, we walked around and visited with the rest of the animals, which included a bunch of horses, a fuzzy donkey, a Husky, and a cat named Bagheera who would complain if she wasn't getting attention. She also loved to be held, which we are both suckers for, since our cats will kill you if you try to pick them up.
On our ride, Kate rode Fulgor, whose name means "Little Spark", and he was definitely a handful, although teeny tiny, very affectionate, and lots of fun!
And Yoel rode Aguadar, which literally means "Water Give", but which Astrid told us means "Water Paint." She took good care of Yoel--he didn't fall off once.
On the first day of our ride, we started through the roads in the basin of the crater, and as we were riding down one road, a truck stopped, and started chatting with Astrid in Spanish. We had no clue what was going on, but then Astrid asked if we would mind cantering by them so they could film us for Ecuador TV. Apparently they were doing some news story on outdoor activities near Quito. So, we cantered towards them, and the horses got so excited that they started galloping, which was a tiny bit scary (only for Yoel, Kate thought it was awesome).
After our television debut, we rode through an ancient mountain trail that was created by the Quitucaru, a group of indigenous peoples predating the Incas (making the trail maybe 10 centuries old). The trail was so worn into the ground that we could see the different layers of rock in the trail walls, and it was so narrow that at one point, Yoel had to take his feet out of the stirrups and lift them above the horse so that they could fit through. After this trail, we ended up in the middle of the crater.
We stopped for lunch here, and while we were eating, there were a bunch of cows and bulls around, who were tied up singly to posts, trees, etc. As we were eating, some of the cows started mooing at us, and one bull in particular just stared at us and made noises the entire time. Astrid told us that when people come out to tend the cows, they give them special mineral licks, because the soil is a bit deficient in some of the things they need. So, this poor bull was just asking us for a treat!
We were lying down post-lunch, and we heard a weird snorting sound behind us. We initially assumed it was just a horse being weird (they were allowed to roam and graze while we ate), but when we turned around, it was actually the cutest pig in the world!
Little Terrier Pig
The next day, we had another short horse ride, but Astrid didn't come with us. Instead, we rode with two Ecuadorian guys who spoke zero English, which led to some interesting conversations. When we were in the "what music do you like" conversation, we learned that our 19 year old guide likes to sing 'romantic songs'. Our ride on this day consisted of a whole lot of galloping up the mountain for a few hours. Then Astrid met us at the end of our trip, and drove us the rest of the way to the Bellavista lodge in the cloud forest near Mindo.
When we arrived at Bellavista, Astrid told the owner that we were on our honeymoon, and the owner said "Oh, well we should give you a bigger room then!" It was hard to tell if he was joking or not, but sure enough, he moved us into a room (on the second floor of the picture above) with 2 beds on the ground floor, and then 3 beds in a loft. The second bed ended up being helpful for laying out clothes to dry.The cloud forest is known for its birds, and especially its hummingbirds. Our lodge had a bunch of hummingbird feeders, and our first night there, we spent about an hour watching the hummingbirds buzz about.
On our first night at the lodge, we noticed something about the place: infinite bugs. One bug in particular, which we named Mothra, hung out on our window all night, just staring at us. Yoel slept very little that night.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:30AM, for an early morning bird walk. Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck seeing many birds, but we did get to learn a bunch of different bird songs.
After breakfast, we took a hike down to a waterfall, which was of "medium difficulty". Perhaps this is true when it is dry, but it was a steep incline down, and a lot of places were pure mud, so Yoel fell quite a few times, sacrificing himself to show Kate the best places to walk. Kate would like to note that she eventually had to carry everything Yoel brought on the hike by midway through, so she sacrificed as well.
Our destination, Discovery Falls
Halfway through our hike, it started to pour. And then, it didn't stop for the rest of the day. So, we went and rested in our room for the rest a while, and then we went and drank mulled wine in the lodge Unfortunately, the rain hadn't stopped by the next morning, but we still woke up at 5:30 again for another early morning bird walk. We were luckier this time, seeing many birds, including a mountain toucan!
After breakfast, the pouring rain notwithstanding, we set out on a horse ride. Unfortunately, these horses were not as well behaved as the ones in the crater. They would barely move, even after kicking the crap out of them. Yoel gave up and walker his horse.
After lunch, we got a ride back to Quito, and our driver told us that the roads were out in a few places because of landslides from the rain. But, we got back to our hotel safely, and stuffed one backpack full of our wet clothes, to facilitate their mildewing by the time we got home.
The next day in Quito, we slept in a bit, and then walked around the new city, visiting the Museo de Banco Central, which had a decent art selection from all times in Ecuador's history, and a sort of crappy archeology exhibit. We also visited the Ethnographic Crafts Museum, which Kate enjoyed thoroughly, while Yoel read a book at the coffeeshop next door.
That night, we met with our tour group, and our tour company's liason, and learned how we shouldn't pack all of the clothes that Kate decided to bring anyways.
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