🇪🇨 La Floresta & Papallacta, Ecuador - 04.15.23

Here’s a zillion billion pics of round 1 in Ecuador. I decided to rent a car here… there’s too many places to be and it can be a production finding transportation. The dudes at the car rental place upgraded me to a small SUV since I’d be driving in the mountains… they were super friendly and seemed quite proud of their country.

The drive was easy and incident free into Quito… really… it’s been some of the easiest driving in any country or place I’ve been. Example, I refused to drive in Lima… I considered myself lucky to have escaped the traffic with my life and also without the need of years of trauma therapy following my experience there. You apparently don’t tip drivers in Peru… but after my driver got me to the airport without crashing into a living being, or bus, or into the sea (all close calls), I gave him $10Sol in hopes the color would return to my face after the ride via good karma.

Anywho, I made it to the ultra hip La Floresta barrio of Quito. Swimming with creative energy, good snack places and cool people. Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar for their official currency. It’s crazy to me… I’ve been navigating different cutie colorful currencies of 4 different countries… and now… “4 dollars!” I had a hamburger and a kombucha at a hipster restaurant… $20 bucks. I now call La Floresta “lil California.” I enjoyed all moments but I’ve been anxious to escape the city so I would leave the next day for Papallacta.

I drove an hour and half into the hills to Papallacta Hot Springs resort. I had booked 2 nights there while I was recovering in Bolivia. The cost seemed excessive but I wanted some place special to land when I got here… rather than the “show up and figure shit out as I go,” which is often the norm for me. The resort is just surreal… in the cloud forest mountains… lush with tropical flowers… next to a National Park. My cabin was not a cabin but a posh room with exclusive pools to soak. Total VIP treatment. I thought “I could get used to this…” but to validate my particular station in life… I kept holding the door for the staff, tried to bus my own dishes, and pour my own coffee… I don’t think they could figure out what I was about. I told them “I’m just a regular dude…” only smiles in return.

Dreamy place… there’s a lovey trail up the Papallacta river on site to hike and I walked that at dusk. Only myself, birds, mountain cows and lots of rabbits.

The Cayambe-Coca National Park entrance is a 20 minute drive so I headed there the next day. You check in with the park ranger before you hike and she was a no nonsense type of gal. Name! Number! License! “You’re from the United States…hmmmm!!!” 🤨 The nice thing about a no non-sense person… they talk it straight… and I could comprehend her Spanish. I would ask her questions and then understand her responses. “¿Estamos… estamos…?” as I scoured the map.
“Estamos aquí!” She pointed.
“¿Cuanto tiempo dura por aquí?” as i pointed to a place with lakes.
“3 horas… solo camino” she said with great seriousness.
“Necesito un plan. Entonces… necesito snacks!” I always need snacks and I’ll let everyone know… siempre!

She tried to sell me a hat and gloves… because I am a soft American who would probably get cold, and lost, and die from frog bites and she would have to retrieve my pale body. I could get no smiles out of that one… but I still like like her. ☺️

I continued on with my hike without a hat and gloves. It sprinkled on and off but it was just all kinds of cool. Waterfalls, singing birds and mountain lakes. Cloud forests covered in clouds. And… not one frog bite! Wowww! I came across no other people. And I am doing what I came here to do… and heart smiles happen.

I was hiking in an area that had a boat load of bear crossing signs. There’s a population of Andean bears in Ecuador… and if I don’t see one before I leave I will be petitioning the Ecuadorian government for a permanent visa so I can stay until I do. 💙🐻

I fumble much with the Spanish language but I’ve been in Latin America for a month and half, quickly approaching 2 months and the language is in the brain. So… the other day in some correspondence, I translated my Spanish to English using Google translator, and then ‘copy and pasted’ my English into a message… I was like “what the hell am I doing?!? I’ve been here too long…” and… so you know… I speak the very good English ☺️

So… this was the last night in the cloud forests, in a lovely mountain cabin with a beautiful view. Sheep, cows, chickens, roaming packs of dogs and super nice country people. The internet guy showed up to fix the WiFi… and asked me if it was too cold (cuz I’m a soft American), “vivo en el Norte… hace frio siempre.” ummmm yeah… it doesn’t snow here… this is light jacket temps. Visit the Colorado mountains when it’s -15°F and ask me that question again. Anybloop, as I waited for the WiFi guy to do his thing… I thought, “shit is the same everywhere you go in the world.” How many times have we all waited for the cable or internet guy? 🙄

And now I can post my pics… cuz we all love the internet guy… eventually. 😘