Guamote

SHARLA: We got up around 7:00am this morning to more clouds. Blah....but, we are excited to experience a ride on a milk truck. That's right....milk truck. We ate breakfast with the other travelers and then we paid our bill at the Hostal Cloud Forest. The hostal was awesome. We paid $15 per person per night which included breakfast and dinner. Not bad, huh? The owners and staff were very friendly as well. We carried our backpacks out to the street and waited for the milk truck bound for Sigcho to arrive. It came around 9:15, and we crawled into the back of the truck along with the "milkman" and three 50 gallon drums. We had to stand in the back and hold onto a wooden pole to keep from falling out. We stopped to pick up more passengers on the way. We were actually going in the opposite of Sigcho for a little while stopping every few minutes to pick up milk from the local farmers. The milk truck goes by every day at the same time and it was so interesting that the locals knew exactly when to be there. If they couldn't be there, they left their milk in buckets on the side of the road, sometimes in a carved-out part of the hill, or hanging on a post. I'm not sure how the milkman keeps track of how much milk everyone gave, but I'm sure there is a method. The farmers get paid every 15 days. So interesting!

It started raining shortly after we got on the truck and it was cold! So, I had on four coats for the ride...a thin jacket, a medium jacket, a heavy coat and my raincoat. I looked like the Michelin man! We thought the truck was full with 6 people on it, but by the end of the ride, I think there were 10 people crammed on like sardines, and still we were stopping to pick up milk! The ride lasted for about an hour and a half. The milkman told us that the bus to Latacunga didn't arrive until 2:30pm, and it was only 11:00am, so we hopped in the back of a truck with two other backpackers for an hour ride to Actually, the other two rode inside, but we wanted to experience the freezing cold of the outdoors! I forgot to mention that the milk truck ride only cost $1 per person and the truck was $6 per person, so the milk truck was quite a deal! The scenery was beautiful. This side of the Quilotoa Loop is much prettier than the other side, but interestingly enough, this side is less traveled.

Once we got to Saquisili, we barely got our backpacks off the truck before we flagged down a bus and ran to get on. It was headed to Riobamba and cost $2.50 each. We had to transfer buses in Ambato, and the bus helper (I have no idea what he's called), grabbed our bags and we ran through the bus terminal to our next bus which would take us to Riobamba. We got there around 3:45pm and the next bus to Guamote was leaving at 4:15. We asked if there was an ATM there, but it was a block away and we were afraid we would miss the bus if we went to get money. Surely, Guamote will have one! While we were waiting on the bus to leave, we bought some banana chips...which Camille hated, but we liked, and some blueberry (mora) ice cream, which was amazing. Marsha talked to the ice cream man, and found out that the blueberries were picked at Chimbarazo, where we are going in a few days!

Off we went, on our third and final bus of the day headed for Guamote at a huge fare of $.75 each. This bus took around one hour. All in all, it took us from 9:15am until around 5:15pm to get from Chugchilan to Guamote. Quite a trek, but the scenery along the way was worth it all! Once in Guamote, we asked a local if he knew where Inti Sisa guest house was and he said for a dollar he would take us there. It was only about four blocks, but we would have never found it on our own. Chris, the man from Holland who runs the guest house, greeted us and showed us to our room. Inti Sisa is also an educational center and they also have an artisan shop. It is a very nice place. We had dinner here, which was Quinoa vegetable soup, fried chicken (not like our fried chicken...no batter), rice, french fries, and of course, the never ending supply of aji (their version of picante sauce). Also, there was what looked like pico de gallo that was delicious. For dessert, we had a big bowl of freshly cut papaya.

We were pretty tired from our long day of traveling, so we went to bed around 8:30pm. We played Scrabble for a little while on our iPads, but the room was so cold, we didn't want to hold our arms out from under the covers, so we didn't play long.

This morning, we woke up to the sun peeking through the clouds! We had decided to go on the mountain biking tour that Inti Sisa provides. Chris drove the truck and our guides name was Luis. Luis can't speak English, but Chris said he is teaching him now. We drove for about an hour and a half. Chris is a CRAZY driver....once, Marsha hit her head on the top of the truck when he hit a hole in the road, but other than that, we got there safely. We were high in the tundra when we began our descent on the bikes. We were about 4300 meters in altitude, and the air was VERY thin. Luckily, about 80% of the ride was downhill. The scenery, once again, was breathtaking. From up there, we could see for MILES!!! We passed a man herding his cows, and once we scared a baby burro away from its momma. It ran and ran and ran. Luis made us stop riding while he herded the poor thing back to its mother. Chris drove the truck behind us so that we could stop and have drinks or snacks any time we wanted. Once, we got down lower, we were in pine trees. At one point, we stopped for pictures and it looked exactly like some places I've been to in New Mexico and Colorado. It was gorgeous. At the bottom of the trail, we crossed a wide "Colorado-like" river on a wooden bridge. We stopped to take several pictures, then loaded up the bike and headed to a small restaurant a few minutes away for our fresh trout lunch which was included in the price of the tour. Camille thought she was going to have trouble eating it because the head and tail were attached, but she was a trooper and did anyway. It was truly some of the best trout I've ever had. Yummy!

We got back in the truck for a wild hour-long trip back to Guamote. We stopped along the way to pick up some local hitchhikers. Chris said one man in the back of the truck would hit the back window when he was ready to get out. He was back there so long, that we forgot about him. He reached around and banged on MY window. I screamed, and then Marsha and Camille screamed. I think it even startled Chris. It was pretty funny. We made it back to Inti Sisa, and took some much-needed hot showers. We will probably go to bed early tonight, again, because the Thursday market here starts at 9:00am. Chris said there is a small electric heater we can put in our room tonight....we hope he doesn't forget! We are about to go try some of the local cuisine...wish us luck! Until later, ciao!