Photos Visiting Ecuador & Peru

[siid]

Quito is surrounded by mountains on all sides which the Incas used to protect themselves from attackers/invaders.

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Friend I made on CouchSurfing who really helped me out on what cities to visit, cheapest ways to get around, different foods to try, taught me the history of Ecuador and took me to her house 2 hours from Quito, very thankful I had her as a friend, would have been so lonely and depressing without her, we became best friends and still keep in touch a year later.

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Skate park

Cruz Loma // Rucu Pichincha
4,000 meters above sea level it was cold and rainy af up there my lungs were about to freeze up and fall out my ass tryina get to this volcano

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i know i look compossed but thats just me being fabulous cuz Im actually freezing and coming to terms with the fact that im gonna freeze to death on this mountain

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Mountain doggies i saw on the way up


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So i didnt die, heres me just having come off the mountain til a random car came and said "wtf are you doing standing here? people get robbed and killed on this corner are you fucking crazy? gtfo here!" but i was like wtf i was just standing here having a great time with my rainy ass photoshoot lmao so he actually drove me back into the city

El Panecillo (The Apocalyptic Virgin Statue)

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This statue is on top of a huge hill which is considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city, especially for tourists who wanna be brave and WALK up the hill (which is like a 40 minute hike up LOTS of stairs if you're fit, but probably like 1 hour + if you're not and arent used to the elevation and need to take a break to breathe) cuz you can get robbed and stabbed and no ones there to help you but now they have some safety officers (like 2 or 3) that are there to welcome you, explain to you what your getting yourself into and immediately tell you to take the bus or $3 taxi up to the statue because its really dangerous (which EVERYONE will do, even people driving by will warn you to stop and take a taxi especially if youre white) but if you choose to walk up anyways, they have to write your name on a clipboard so they can keep track of you on your way up incase something happens to you, they do this twice on your way up. The safety officer at the bottom pointed to the safety officer halfway up the mountain at the next "checkpoint" and said "My friend is up there with the reflective vest waiting for your guys to make sure tourists make it up to the statue safely."

I went up and down this hill about 3 or 4 times, nothing bad happened. One or two times I went with my boyfriend and his friend who are both Russian and white as hell which is when people warned us the most to NOT walk up and basically said they were gonna get their white asses killed lmfao

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On the way up.


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The statue.

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From the top of the hill.

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La Mitad del Mundo (the equator) - there's two. Theres the very famous tourist attraction with a huge statue, beautiful view, beautifully decorated where the north south east and west and marked. But this "equator" is not 100% accurate, its not EXACTLY 0 degrees, the REAL equator is a tiny little statue in a small park around the corner from this one)

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Homeless dog I saw on the way to the equator, so cute he has a little muppet face


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North and South

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ya gurl in both hemispheres at the same time at 0 degrees

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Cascada de Peguche (Peguche water falls)

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On way to the waterfalls. Saw a lot of homeless dogs playing with chickens lol

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Lmao look how majestic he looks with his hair blowing in the wind

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he looked like a little muppet too

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after hours and hours of walking and wrong turns, finally found the waterfalls and almost died climbing up slippery ass rocks with my heavy ass pack to take these pictures so yea

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[siid]

The following is from a trip i took to the coast and to the jungles by myself, some buses, some hitch hiking, some random ass shit, some motor bikes

Atacames beach

A pedicab

So, on my way back to Quito my plan was to stop in Santo Domingo de Los Tsachilas and Mindo.

Santo Domingo de Los Tsachilas is a city in Ecuador that is home to several comunes of the indigenous tribe Los Tsachilas (sometimes called Los Colorados which means "the colored/painted" because they dye their hair with the spice ACHIOTE which comes out red, and use black dye from a fruit to paint their faces and body to ward away evil. Their communes are in the middle of the jungles, theres VERY little information if any on the internet, theres no easy directions on how to get there, no signs, no address, so it was definitely a crazy ass mission.

Heres what they look like:

(got these from google just to give you an idea) They do rituals, ceremonies and ayuhuasca rituals and shit.

So after what was supposed to be a 3 hour trip turned into a 9 hour trip of making circles in and around mountains, getting yelled at by the bus driver for having a shit attack on a not-poop friendly bus in a NOT poop-friendly country (ill tell you more about that another time) , lots of wrong directions (i had to just go to the city and ask around but no one really knew how to tell me exactly how i can get to any of the comunes so i just did the best i could, having to jump on and off random trucks full of people with my big ass pack moving at full speed not having any idea where i was getting off cuz everyone was telling me different things, i made it to the entrace of the jungle.

This is the truck everyone jumps on and off of climbing around to get to a seat while its moving. It was obvious i was not from there so everyone was curious to know what i was doing and where i was going so I told them where i wanted to go and they couldnt really tell me how to get there so after about 20 minutes everyone yelled at me "this is where you have you get off!!!! hurry jump!!" i was like OMG OK OK so i threw my pack off and jumped after it that shit was scary it was driving fast as hell lmao and everyone waved at me and yelled at me to be safe as they drove off it was cute.

Heres the statue of a Tsachila in the center of the city.

I walked into the jungle where the dropped me off and ran into this so I was on the right track.

Walked about 2 miles before someone on a motorbike was like wtf you doing? I said im tryina find his damn tribe so he drove me to the commune Chiguilpe.

The shaman greeted me, told me about the history of the tribe and the commune. He cooked me some good ass vegetarian food and herb tea while he prepared a ritual for me in a dark ass cave with no lights making weird noises while he hit me on the head with knives and stones and shook weird plants at me, i spent the night in a small hut in the jungle listening to the birds screaming and trying to kill me (im scared of birds) while it rained all night, woke up at sun rise to a ritual he made with a mix of herbs he made specifically for bipolar depression which i told him about and that was it. It is all donation-based, and he didnt really give a shit about charging me for anything or discussing money.

Where i slept

The shaman. Hes the guy in the second photo i pulled off google.

So they arent normally dressed how they look in the picture i pulled off google because when they walk into town, they get robbed because the people from the city think they have money so they try to blend in. They only dress up for ceremonies or special festivals. So when i went they looked regular. I was pissed LMAO

Hitching to Mindo

 

[siid]

On the bus to Cuenca I sat next to a lady named Ruth that i became very good friends with and still talk to today. We talked for the entire 8 hour bus ride. I told her about my travels and she said she was on her way home, it was her first time traveling at age 40 something because she had spent her whole life beside her husband who never let her go anywhere and then cheated on her so she decided to take a trip to a city just 4 hours from her house. She is a psychology teacher. She was so friendly and warm i was so happy to meet her cuz i got bored of traveling alone! She went home and i continued south into Peru.

Mancora, Peru - A beach town

these are the only photos i have of Peru. went surfing, jet skiing, rode quadricyles, ate ceviche.

Then it was time for me to go BACK up to Quito to fly back to the US.

It was a looong lonely trip north, I was really depressed cuz of some things and was having a horrible time. I called Ruth on my way to Cuenca. She told me to meet her at the school she worked at. she showed me around, took me swimming, then we went to a eucalyptus filled sauna and she said "How can we be so sad when such beautiful things like this exist?" She the took me to her home to meet her family. They were sooo accepting loving and welcoming, her husband accepted me so kindly and wanted to drive me around the ENTIRE CITY to show me everything before I had to continue my trip up north.

me and ruth

me ruth and her husband

So that was Ecuador. all this shit might look/sound expensive but Ecuador is verrry cheap, I might be poor as hell in the US but i was rich in Ecuador lmao nah but a few years ago the US gov changed Ecuadors currency to USD, overnight $20 became like $1. many people lost their jobs and were left homeless because of this, thats why now there are so many homeless people on the streets in Ecuador and lots of children begging for money in parks and malls.

Ecuador has almost all 4 seasons in one day, and its the same pattern year round. Usually rainy in the morning then its hot as hell for a few hours then maybe it rains again then its cold. Not my climate but it was fun and met some great people.

 

[Matt Derrick]

thank you for sharing! those are some awesome photos to go along with a great story. I've added this to our featured threads page!

 

[VikingAdventurer]

Epic photo thread is Epic.

Thanks!

I would like to go see Central and South America at some point in my life.

 

[Magepalm]

Wow! Lovely photos and story!

 

[Popsicle]

Just found this . This is totally bad ass and what this sites all about . I love the whole thread and amazing pics . Big time high fives

 

[NIKITA]

AWESOME, fantastic view from the top of the hill!!!::woot::

 

[MamaSow]

Great photos and stories. Thanks for sharing.

Hope you are feeling better too.

 

[siid]

thank you for sharing! those are some awesome photos to go along with a great story. I've added this to our featured threads page!

hey thanks!


and thanks everyone else for reading too and i dont remember what i didnt feel good about but i probably feel the same haha