Backpacking South America

Sometimes the best trips are the ones that you didn’t plan thoroughly. We were set on visiting Banos, Ecuador, but at the last minute, we changed our plans and headed to Latacunga, the start/end of the Quilotoa Circuit. Latacunga was a fine enough city whose views of the surrounding mountains are supposed to be incredible on a clear day – unfortunately it was damp and dreary the entire time.

We made our arrangements and set out Thursday morning to Sasquisili for the market. The market is based in the town’s squares. We were only able to squeeze two squares in, but our book said that there are seven squares in all. Our goal of the day was to try/buy any fruit that was sweet and that we hadn’t tried yet… We also found a pretty awesome felt hat with two pretty feathers.

From Sasquisili, we headed up into the mountains. Interestingly, an older man bought a sheep at the market and it was decided that the best way to transport it was to tie it to the top of the bus. Eventually the road changed from paved to gravel to mud with lots of ruts.

So, it needs to be said, not all of our experiences have been “hoops and glitter.” We have been traveling now for 8 months. We have seen big cities and remote towns. We have survived crazy bus rides and avoided countless dangerous situations. But, no matter how cautious you are or how “on” you are, traveling can be tiring and sometimes you feel as if you can never be “off.” Sometimes you feel like you need to sleep with your eyes open.

We have had such a positive traveling experience. We have met wonderful locals and fellow travelers. In comparison, it is a relatively rare occasion that we meet legitimately unfriendly, unhelpful people. But, while the majority of people are friendly and often eager to help, one Sunday morning we happened upon a bad apple in a good area of town.

We had arrived in Cuenca the night before. It was late and we were tired, so we didn’t venture too far from the hostel into town. Sunday morning we woke up to a dreary, rainy and quiet town (nothing too far out of the ordinary for a Sunday in South America).

Our first stop in Ecuador was Cuenca, Ecuador – one of the hubs of the Panama hat industry. Interestingly, Panama hats are not actually made in Panama, but Ecuador. The name Panama Hats was a result of the hats departure point being from the Panama Canal, so once they reached their destination, they were called Panama hats because of the origin of the shipment.

After a lazy Sunday in Cuenca, we set out Monday to learn more about the Panama hat industry and made stops at Homer Ortega and Serrano Hats to view their process and collection of hats. Ortega was the only factory that was offering tours on the day we visited. So we were shuttled through the history and process of making the hats.

The hats are made from the plaited leaves of the paja toquilla straw plant. The finer you are able to peel the leaf, the finer the weave of the hat. There are two main processes to making these hats: weaving and blocking. The more weaves per block in one square inch, the finer the weave and the better quality the hat.

We have finally left the mountains and descended several thousand feet and made it to the beach. We have come upon my heaven on earth…the Beach. After Huaraz, we took an overnight bus and arrived around 7am in Huanchaco on the northern Pacific coastline of Peru. With nothing else to do at 7am, except sleep, we hit the beach! To our surprise, the beach was a great place to people watch – from dramatically posed photographs, old men getting their pictures with young ladies and a lot of experienced and beginning surfers.

Huanchaco is a beach town, of course, and has great seafood (the ceviche’s pretty tasty), but it also has great waves to surf or learn to surf. They are just big enough to get a good ride, yet small enough to not be overly intimidating for a new surfer. Despite our second chance to learn the trade of surfing, we decided to simply sit on the beach and sip our beer and be onlookers. But, we did take in some beautiful sunsets!

Aside from vacationers, Huanchaco is a big fishing village and is famous for its narrow pointed fishing boats, known as caballitos, made of totora reeds.

While planning our trip back in 2008 and early 2009, we lost the ability to plan much beyond Argentina, Chile and early 2010. So for the last few months we’ve been doing our planning just prior to our next destination. So, when we were trying to decide what we should do after Lima, we were slightly surprised to find the Cordillera Blanca (for some readers, this may be blasphemous). We never knew that Peru had a range of such impressive peaks. So we got overnight tickets to Huaraz.

Upon arrival, we were blown away by the shear size and beauty of the mountains. They towered over top with brilliant white peaks. It was not short of breathtaking. The Cordillera Blanca have the largest concentration of glaciers in the tropics as well as the tallest peak (Huascaran).

We didn’t have too much time in the Cordillera Blanca, so we set out to hike the popular trail to Laguna 69. After nearly 2 hours in a car, we arrived at the trailhead with our guide. The trail starts at just shy of 4,000 meters above sea level (13,000 feet) and ends at 4,600 meters (15,000 feet).