Latacunga to Bogota (Part 3)

Latacunga

Latacunga and the Mama Negra festival turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, especially after the parade in Cuenca. We had been looking forward to the festival, which was supposed to be partly religious and partly pagan. We only saw the pagan part; it was more like carnival.  The parade was rather boring, lots of dancers with colorful dresses and beautifully decorated shawls, cross dressers, and bands. There were also “purifiers,” women and men in white with decorated back shields who would cleanse people by spraying water, passing herbs, and beating the evil out of the person with sticks. Both Glenda and I were “purified.” The parade went on for hours, always the same, but towards the end people were drinking, even those in the parade. Mama Negra in all her glory came by on horseback at the end, and we were finally able to escape, but the partying continued well into the night.

 Quilotoa Loop

The Quilotoa Loop is an area with small villages where one can hike from village to village. We stayed in one village, Chugchilan, and took several hikes from there. We went by bus to the village of Quilotoa (12630 ft./3850m), and walked down to the huge Crater Lake. We had come with Ian from Scotland and Kerstin from Germany. Kerstin had been on the Galapagos cruise with her father; her father had returned home and we hooked up with her at the hostel in Latacunga. She arranged for horses to take us from Quilotoa to Chugchilan, the next village.We started out enveloped in the clouds, but as we dropped down lower it became clear and we could enjoy the scenery. The riding was fun.We descended into the canyon and then came up again to the village on the other side.  The sides of the canyon were very abrupt.There were people working in the steep fields, and cows, sheep and burros grazing. One of the main products being harvested were lupine  seeds which will be the next miracle grain we were told, it has even more protein than quinoa. The weather pattern was sun in the morning, then clouds and rain.

Lupine

 Mindo

After Latacunga and Quilotoa, we escaped to Mindo, a small tropical town with bright exotic flowers, and lush green vegetation, but with broken sidewalks and dirt streets that would surely be muddy in the wet season. We hiked to see a number of waterfalls and heard tropical birds, but saw few. It was suggested that we try the zip lines and since neither Glenda nor I had ever been on zip lines we decided to give it a try. We zipped on ten different lines. What fun and such sweet young men that helped us get on and off. We were above the canopy so we saw the treetops. It was thrilling. 

Otavalo

I remember what a spectacle and exciting place the Saturday market at Otavalo was 45 years ago when the Indians came to town with their goods which were laid out on the ground. Not much is on the ground anymore, everyone has booths, but it’s huge with booths stretching onto all the streets that lead to the main plaza. We started out in the animal section: cows, goats, sheep and pigs where people held their animals with colorful ropes. If a person bought a pig and it was small, it was put in a sack. Lots of people were carrying beautiful cocks, and there were many baby chicks in boxes and cages, guinea pigs, rabbits, and puppies were for sale as pets. The parking lot was jammed with trucks and pickups ready to take animals home. We walked around admiring animals and other merchandize. From there we went to the Plaza of Ponchos. There were an unbelievable number of booths with knitwear, hats, sweaters, ponchos, woven bags, hangings, shawls, scarves, and blankets. We did our share of bargaining. Then we went to the main plaza where there was a festive atmosphere with musicians playing traditional Andean music, vendors selling food and drink, and people congregating and having a good time. 

We returned later in the afternoon and wandered on the streets when the vendors were packing up and a quiet had spread over the town, a certain calmness was present, there was lots of garbage in the street, but that was being removed. Early the next morning all was quiet, all was cleaned up until the next Saturday when the excitement would start again.

Colombia

Once we were in Colombia, we were able to take long distance buses that did not stop for anyone on the road.  That was efficient because it was a long way to Bogota from where we would fly home. We had three long days of bus rides, but with days in between to explore towns. Popayan was the first white colonial town that we arrived in and explored.  

Popayan

In Armenia we met up with the sister of a former colleague from Harding High School, Martha Peterson. We had a delightful time with Edi who showed us around the area. We stayed at her family’s coffee finca (small farm), and visited two towns nearby. Filandia was buzzing at night with activity and had colorfully painted balconies, and trim around the doors and windows. Then we went to Salento, another colorful tourist town where we ate delicious trout. It had been rainy and misty all day, but luckily the rain stopped and we were able to hike to waterfalls in the late afternoon. The trail was muddy, but it was beautiful and we enjoyed ourselves crossing several rickety bridges and scooting by cows on the trail.

Coffee beans

We visited Villa de Leyva, several hours from Bogota. We were told it was a beautiful colonial town, it was, but we had seen several beautiful colonial towns by this time. It poured on the way there and that put everyone in a jovial mood. The next day, returning to Bogota, we got caught in a downpour, even hail, and everyone thought it was great fun. A very kind man in a wheel chair went out of his way to guide us to our station. Transportation is efficient on the Transmilenio buses in Bogota that have their own fast lanes and stations. We had to change buses three times and it was cold and wet and very crowded, getting a wheel chair in and out of the busses was a challenge, but the man thought it was great and we were extremely grateful to him for showing us the way. 

Villa de Leyva

We enjoyed the Art Museum, the Gold Museum, and the changing of the guard in Bogota. On Sunday everyone was out enjoying street entertainment.  We didn’t have a lot of time in Bogota, but enough time to realize it was big, crowded, and polluted, and we were glad to leave.

Changing of the guard

All in all we had a great trip. The Galapagos were definitely the highlight, but we also enjoyed the other places we traveled. We met many very nice and friendly people who helped us a great deal.