Work has been keeping me very busy these last few weeks, from acclimating to a new school culture, getting up to speed with the international baccalaureate program, and designing a new curriculum. Outside of school, running errands en español is similarly exhausting. Yet, I try to preserve my weekends for relaxing and exploring. My friend Maurissa from Denver is living with me for three months, and I’m really enjoying her company. She’s a great partner-in-crime for adventures as well as for practicing Spanish.

Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with me knows that I have a classic Type A personality, and I historically approached travel by creating full, detailed itineraries. During my sabbatical trip, though, I started to embrace a more spontaneous approach, partly out of necessity and partly due to a realization that some of my most memorable experiences occurred during these unplanned moments. 

My weekend excursions in Ecuador have largely reflected this less-structured style. A few experiences have been a disappointment, while others included lovely, unexpected surprises. Yet, the general approach of opening myself up to possibilities seems like an apt metaphor for my life right now.

Otavalo

Otavalo, a town located in the Andean highlands, boasts the largest indigenous market in Ecuador. Popular wares include ponchos, blankets, and “Panama” hats (which originated in Ecuador). Like other markets, many goods aren’t actually handmade anymore. For example, authentic alpaca blankets cost over $100; whereas, most in Otavalo are synthetic and can be bargained down to $10. A colleague organized our tour and included a couple of “surprise stops,” all of which were a fun entry into Ecuadorian life.

Our driver ate dinner with us and ordered cuy (guinea pig), much to the dismay of my colleague’s younger son, who used to have a pet guinea pig. The picture here was prominently placed above the cash register, which I found amusing and a bit disturbing. I haven’t been brave enough to try a whole cuy yet, but I did eat cuy dumplings (the meat tasted like chicken!).

Quito Adventures

Maurissa and I took a tour of the historic center one Saturday. The guide spoke little English, so she and I compared notes throughout to try to piece together his explanations. There’s a good chance our understanding of Quito’s history is completely wrong! The gem of this experience, though, was that the son of the family sharing the tour with us wanted to practice his English, and he answered many of our questions about Ecuadorian culture. The family treated us to canelazo, a spiced hot drink with sugar cane alcohol, while we continued our conversation after the tour.

I’ve been trying a lot of different types of Ecuadorian food, which is quite different from Mexican cuisine. I even tried larvae (which is just as awful as you might imagine it to be).

One sunny day, we took the TeleferiQo cable car up the side of the Pichincha Volcano, which is a popular weekend outing since it’s just on the edge of town. The top, at 13,000 feet, afforded a gorgeous panorama of the city and multiple volcanoes, including Cotopaxi.  

Cotopaxi Province

We spent a weekend at a lodge with beautiful views of Cotopaxi. It was a treat to be back in nature! While there, we hiked to a nearby waterfall as well as to a glacial portion of Cotopaxi. I enjoyed talking to people at the refugio who had just summited the volcano (elevation 19,347 feet!), which inspired me to add this to my bucket list!

Mindo

We also spent a weekend with some colleagues in Mindo, a town situated in the cloud forest. We rode two cable cars in succession to access hiking trails along a series of beautiful waterfalls. In a moment of spontaneity, I joined a brief “splashing war” in a waterfall pool with some Ecuadorian tourists, which ended in cheers and fistbumps – a highlight of my weekend.

An unexpected discovery in this tiny town in the middle of the cloud forest was a restaurant with some of the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten. We enjoyed it so much we returned the next day!

Another unplanned adventure was a night hike in the jungle; of course, it started to downpour within the first five minutes. I learned the hard way that I’m overdue for a new raincoat! The hike itself was fascinating, as the jungle  is chock full of critters that you might never notice without a guide. We encountered a lot of spiders and frogs, as well as the biggest flying cockroach in the world (about the size of an adult hand!). In addition, our guide showed us a phosphorescent fungus that forms on wood when oxygen and water combine. I loved experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the cloud forest at night.

Cuenca

Last weekend, we flew to Cuenca, a quaint city with colonial buildings and cobblestone streets. I enjoyed getting up early and wandering the historic core as the city woke up. Unfortunately, we ended up on the worst walking tour I’ve ever experienced, a huge disappointment for this history buff. 

However, the Piedra de Agua Spa provided a fun, unexpected hot springs experience. Over the course of a couple of hours, staff orchestrated us through a circuit of seven pools, which included applying red volcanic mud on our skin; going back and forth between a warm, aromatherapy pool and an ice-cold pool in a grotto; and resting in “drawer baths” (imagine sitting in a wooden box full of soothing hot steam with just your head sticking out).

On our last day in Cuenca, we booked a private tour to visit a series of towns known for their craft guilds, a tradition Ecuador borrowed from Spain during the colonial era. Our guide was a gem, and we learned more about Ecuadorian/Cuencan history in the first five minutes of our drive than in the entire walking tour the day before. 

The town of Chordeleg established a reputation for gold and silver filigree jewelry, due largely to the existence of precious metals in the surrounding area. We expected opportunities to watch silversmiths demonstrate the process of crafting pieces of jewelry. Instead, we encountered an overwhelming number of redundant jewelry stores, a shopper’s paradise for some but not the experience I craved.  

San Bartolomé is known for its hand-crafted guitars. The absolute highlight of my trip to Cuenca was visiting the Jose Uyaguari workshop. I fell in love with and purchased a beautiful guitar made mostly of native woods and embellished with beautiful inlays. It was such a special experience talking to its creator and witnessing guitars in various stages of construction. I am thrilled with this one-of-a-kind souvenir. 

Ecuador continues to amaze me with the diversity of places to explore. I’ve been pleasantly reminded over the past few weeks to stay open to new opportunities. The disappointments eventually evolve into memorable stories, and the surprises become the experiences that I never would have discovered with my nose in a tour book. This is the magic of travel.