ESCAPING FROM QUITO TO THE CLOUD FOREST

Now I must finish off otherwise it will never be done. Sitting at the Mill now, snowing outside and nothing better to do so back to South America.

But no excuses now, the keyboard has letters on it and the spellcheck works and, best of all, the instructions are in English and not Spanish.

Thinks thinks, okay Quito, Ecuador. We landed at Quito airport at 12:30am very tired and are taken to a very pleasant but modern hotel just alongside the airport. We are told that a meeting has been arranged for 10:30am later that morning and that after that we will be transferred to another hotel more in keeping with our itinerary.

Breakfast at 10:00am, the tour company have rung but did not want to disturb our meal so that will come back to us later.

Midday, no meeting no contact. We are unable to contact our tour company by telephone.

Eventually we find a tour rep at 2:30pm but he cannot help but does give us a 'bypass' number. Contact made, 'Ah, we were waiting for you to contact us' hmmmm, ok.

Apparently we have to tell them what we want to do but not knowing the options what do they suggest. '

Well, we have no one to help you we are short staffed and anyway we do not have anywhere for you to go. But hold on we have a bed and breakfast for one night in the rain forest, that will be $524US.'

But we cannot go today because it will be dark soon and its raining!!!!!!!!!! Very odd.

They then explain that there is nothing else available. We could pick up our trip to the Napo Valley, flying in on Monday and out on Tuesday and a six hour trek in then the same out. Whats the point? We would just spend two days flying.

We speak with the hotel staff and ask for help and are told that we have been booked into their hotel by the tour company for four nights!!

This hotel, all very nice, but our room has two massive picture windows that look out onto other picture windows of other rooms in the hotel and if I stand on the toilet seat I can see the airport runway. We are under the flight path of this very same runway.

This is contrary to all our booking instructions and basically the tour company have dumped us in this hotel until our schedule catches up with us. We are not being moved to a better hotel as promised, there will be no meetings to discus the next three days, they have nothing for us. We have been dumped!!

We hit the books, go on the computer and after twenty minutes Christine finds two nights at an eco centre in the rain forest for $360US.

Guided tours included, full board, waterfalls and bird watching. A quick telephone call. They have vacancies tonight, taxi arranged, packed and off we go. Then we are stopped at reception, we have to inform the tour company where we are going, for how long and how have we made our arrangements.............

'Just tell the tour company we have gone' I could have said more but why bother?

The minibus taxi is ready. Henrique driving and his daughter, Monica, is along for company. We drive out of the city, pass the Equator Line theme park with its massive obelisk and out into the darkening road.

Henry is an 'electric' driver. The switch is either on or off. The brakes are on, they are off. Bang. The clutch is the same, the accelerator, the steering are all bang on, bang off. This is going to be a rough ride.

The road out is the major road between Quito and the coast. It is full of massive potholes and as it gets dark we realise that there is heavy traffic in both directions.

Some have lights, some don't. All the traffic sways from side to side as they swerve around the million and one pot holes.

Someone in front? Just overtake, into blind bends, junctions whatever.

And now the road really starts to snake as we enter the mountains. The rain is torrential and the road clings to the side of the mountains, twisting, turning, up, down.

There is a sense of a massive void in the blackness on our right side and on the left sheer cliffs for mile after mile. There are landslides down from above and all have to swing round the piles of debris and rocks. Throughout our Henry never stops talking, jabber jabber.

Oh dear, oh dear now I understand about the rain and dark. We fly by transport cafes with trucks all around. On endless bends the armco barriers have holes where previous travellers have not made the curve, and on and on we go.

This switchback last for an hour and a half and at last we turn off into a quiet side road, the tarmac soon disappears but does Henry slow down, no Henry does not.

Twenty, thirty minutes, endless potholes, donkeys, cattle loom up and pass by. Small ill lit villages then the track narrows, a few houses, and the track narrows and narrows. Then a dead stop at a set of gates. Mobile calls in Spanish, we reverse back through the mud and holes and there in the rain is Tom. Flashlight in hand, wow, at last.

Out we get into warm rain and warmer greetings. Henry and Monica make their way back to Quito and Tom takes us down a track to the river. We know its a river because although we cannot see it we can hear its roar below us. 'We don't have a bridge' Tom tells us and we step under a shelter that holds a 'bosun's chair' suspended on cables over the river below.

'Quite safe' Tom says.

Our luggage is loaded and off into the night it goes, lost to sight. Tom explains that as an eco centre that they do not have electricity only oil lamps, candles and torches. Okay...

The chair is back, Christine clambers on, I can see her white knuckles in the dark and more of an indication of her concern.

She has stopped talking!!!!!!

Slowly she is winched away into the dark. I do not know how far it is to the other side or what is there, but slowly she vanishes into the total blackness, just the river roaring below. Five minutes pass and the chair comes back empty, did she make it?

On I get, creaking cables as my 200lb takes the chair almost to the floor. Making a jerky progress I go into total black only to see a faint light coming toward me, I can't hear a thing with the roar and then a smiley indian and Christine ease into view, solid ground underfoot. Oh my, I feel better to be off that thing.

Cases are whisk away and Tom leads us off along a jungle track, the noise of the river fades and jungle sounds take over. Then into view comes a massive open indian 'longhouse'. High roofs disappear into the surrounding dark, soft lights inside, quiet ' good evenings' from other guest laying around in hammocks and soft chairs, beautifully polished floors, super furniture, warm and damp. Tom takes us straight in to dinner, all vegie here, drinks, a really

good meal,chats with the other four guests then bed back with our tilly lamb into the jungle to our cabin, lets just say we got lost in the bushes for some time, someone, missed a turning.

No lights, just oil lamps, full on suite, big soft beds, the river in the back ground and sleep, dead sleep. The best for days.

Wake up to humming birds at the windows, no curtains, no neighbours.

Back to the longhouse for breakfast then Christine goes out with the guide, Sandra, for a morning of bird watching. I just relax and wander the 100 acre grounds talking with a few locals.

One, the gardener here, tends about an acre of ground right outside the longhouse, its his job to provide fresh veg and fruit to the centre, all this is done in raised beds and he does have the advantage that anything that is stuck in the ground grows, and grows quickly. The year round warmth, sun in the morning and then at 2:00pm it rains, can set your watch by it, all make for good growing.

But we all have our problems, at home we have moles here they have armadillos. They raid the beds on a regular basis scratching up what they don't eat, real pests. But this is an eco centre so they have to get round them in other ways than mole traps. We all have our cross to carry!

In the afternoon compulsory white water rafting. Well, that's what I was told.

Sandra the guide sends us off down the track to the lunch site. We miss it and walk for a mile but no problem here we just thumb a lift in an open back truck back up the hill to the start. Any truck will usually pick a walker up but it is a rough old ride!

Here we go. Some eight 'doughnuts' strapped together, buoyancy aids, helmets and then we have to sit inside the rings. Bums in water feet in air. What they don't tell you is that rain forest or not the water comes straight off the mountain and is like ice, imagine sticking your backside in

a bowl of icy water and you've got it.

Great for the piles I'm told.

Shove off, two lads acting as guides, no paddles. When a rock comes up they just leap over the side and steer round it by pushing and shoving. Not too precise as my backside can testify having hit more than one underwater 'obstruction'. Several miles later, cold bruised and laughing out we come and back for hot showers.

Back at camp we hear on the radio that Colombian troops have crossed into Ecuador killing some fourteen people. The Colombians call them drug dealers/terrorist the Ecuadorians say they are students. This is a common problem here but this time Venezuela gets involved with their new leader, Chavez? Anyways it is getting out hand, threats, counter threats, military moved to the borders. This is how wars start. Still where we are not a problem.

Both out with the guide Sandra early the next day climbing up through the dense dense forest over rough trails and strangely there are none of those annoying insects that bite and nibble here. Endless bird life, as boring as hell to me but Christine and Sandra are ducking and weaving to get better views, exchanging details and on and on. Oh dear.

But the biggest butterflies ever in the jazziest of colours abound, leaf cutter ants always underfoot, and toucans, I have only ever seen a toucan on a Guinness advert and here they are in droves. Vultures, buzzards, I must be getting the bug. They get serious 'twitchers' here who will sit looking at a budgies back end for hours and so they take them to an island in the middle of the river that stinks to high heaven and they soon give up for the day!

Further into the hills more cable cars, this one is broken thank goodness, 120' drop on a ropey rope cable car was not my idea of a good time even if you could see vultures below.

I could guess what they were hanging about for anyway.

As we make our way along the track we pass farmers on mules taking milk into town, no trucks here, and families accompanied by packs of dogs making their way back from town, all happy to meet and chat for five minutes, no town rushes here.

Then onto the afternoon and more 'compulsory games'. The Canopy. This is a series of zip wires through the trees tops, some fifteen in all, crossing from one side of a canyon to the other at heights over 70/80'!!!!!!!!!

Yep, this is compulsory, its in the room price, you have to do it.

But I do not like heights.

We whizz back and forth across this canyon. A straight two hands on, superman where you 'fly' through the air face down arms and legs akimbo with a guy holding on behind steering. The butterfly where you fly upside down in a star shape, oh my back.

I did suggest to one girl we met there that a pregnancy test after her run might be in order, but oh boy, oh boy. I then found out that members of the Church of Latter Day Saints do not always have a sense of humour!!!!!!!!!!

They being missionaries did however later relent and give us a lift into town. But I definitely suffered from a sharp case of 'Foot in Mouth'.

We had to leave sadly that evening, it was just great and just what we needed after a bad few

days. What a wonderful place. We wish them well.

Back into Quito, the same route, oh dear, it looked worse in daylight. Deep deep valleys and the road for endless miles was just cut into the cliff face and followed the contours round and round. Lots of damaged vehicles and so busy with trucks and buses, but our driver this time was the 'king of slow' and we had a scenic rather than scary ride back to town.

Back into our schedule, bed for the night at the Cafe' Cultura, every room different but old, worn out and charming. Big soft sofas and chairs, roaring fires ( cold up here at altitude 4'C ) steaks for dinner after two vegie days and to bed ready for the off. The last week.