Hola juntos! :-)
Just arrived in Guayaquil - 4h bus ride over the mountains and through the jungle, passing by at banana and cacao fields and getting the Caribbean feeling with all the small fruit shops along the streets - and finally wearing only shorts, top and flip-flops!
Guayaquil is with 2,5million habitants the biggest city of Ecuador with its most important harbor. After more than 2 months in high altitudes, it feels great to take a deep breath (even if the air is full of smog). The city has not too many things to discover, therefore I decided to relax for a while on the balcony of my hostel, write, chat and upload some new pics of the last week.
Back to Quito, I finally went up to the TelefériQo together with Ellen and Jakub (couple, I met on the free walking tour) and Claudia (room mate in my hostel) and we started our hike on 4100m altitude. Oleg, a guy from Kasachstan, joined our hike, which was great, so the men could do their high speed walk while the girls were talking and walking slower. *thanks for the great conversations* As the weather changed again super quick to rain and thunderstorm, we decided to go back downtown and having lunch together (menú del día - offered in many restaurants every afternoon: soup, main dish, juice, dessert, between 2 and 5$) at Plaza Foch. After the lunch I met Kati *finally* again and we celebrated our reunion with some passion fruit mojitos! Later we had a great Crepes Dinner followed by a stand-up comedy event - super interesting and funny.
The next day started with a delicious breakfast in a the European Cafeteria „La Fábrica“ together with Kati and Marcelo. To do some more touristic things, Kati and myself climbed up to the towers of the cathedral, enjoyed the view and afterwards a fresh juice on the market. After a good lunch in a vegetarian restaurant, I went to the house and museum of the famous Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín - Capilla del Hombre (http://www.capilladelhombre.com/), where I was allowed to play on his piano. :-) His paintings are very impressing, too - worth a visit.
Spontaneously decided, I checked out of my hostel, went to a Italian Pizza restaurant with Kati and Marcelo and we were heading already into direction of Quilitoa Loop, where we went on Saturday. Amazing place at around 4000m altitude - so the hike down to the crater lake and especially up again was quite exhausting but enjoyable and breathtaking (in 2 ways) ^^ For the night we drove to Banos, where we went to the hot springs - absolutely overcrowded, but warm! After a good sleep and breakfast, we visited the waterfall close by (natural shower) and of course „La Casa del Arbol“ (the tree house with the big swing) - feeling like a child again!!!
Via the view on the snowy top of highest mountain of Ecuador (Chimborazo, vulcan) and the city of Riobamba we had a pleasant ride to Cuenca (beautiful sunset sky, mountains, stars), where I stayed in Marcelo's house until this morning. *muchas gracias por todo*
Besides of relaxing, playing with the cute cat Zeus, washing clothes, cooking and eating (one day I did again my famous Swabian potato salad ^^), we spent some time in the city centre, on the viewpoint „Turi“ (overview of the whole city, day and night), walking through a museum and parks, spoiling at mani- and pedicure, getting healed from shamans on the market and release body stress in non-crowded hot springs. One morning we went to the National Park Cajas where we did a nice and small but - due to the altitude and weather conditions - exhausting hike around a lake. Nobody else except of some llamas and alpacas were there, pure nature silence :-)
Time to explore the city now - looking forward to a cappuccino in the sun and seafood along the promenade of Guayaquil. Next stop on Sunday will be Jipijapa, more in the North, where I will do a volunteer work via „workaway" (helping out on a chocolate and eco farm for free accommodation and food).
Hasta la próxima… <3