Sunday, January 23

Our day began at Papa Gayo hotel near Machachi, Ecuador. Andi, Tory, Aden and I were in much better moods this morning after a good night’s rest. Ready for a day of adventuring today!

We noticed right away that the air temperature is much cooler here in the Cotopaxi Region of Ecuador. Machachi is at 9,500 feet elevation and it was 45-degrees outside when we left our cabin to go have breakfast at the hotel’s main house this morning. It’s a “warm” 45-degrees though, if that makes sense. Spoken like a true Wisconsinite! The air doesn’t feel blustery cold, and it warms quickly after sunrise. By Ecuadorian standards, this is one of the coldest places in the country.

Breakfast is provided in our hotel stay at Papa Gayo. This morning, a continental breakfast of scrambled eggs, spinach omelets, toast, fruit, deli meat & cheese and fresh fruit juice were waiting for us in the restaurant. Tory and I were starving since we didn’t eat much yesterday.

After breakfast, we asked to hire a driver from the hotel to take us to a local market. Andi and I wanted to get a lay of the land since we arrived to this area yesterday evening and in the rain. It was hard to tell what’s around us. Evelyn, the woman who runs Papa Gayo, told us about several local markets in the area and said it’d be $80 to hire a driver from the hotel for the day. We agreed.

While we waited, a few other tour operators (I’m not sure if they work for the hotel or not) suggested we go to see the Cotopaxi Volcano today. Since it was a clear morning, they thought we should take advantage of the favorable weather. Andi and I weren’t convinced that Cotopaxi would be the best option for our family though. Cotopaxi is a national park in Ecuador, and you have to hire an official Ecuadorian tour guide (cost $40) to show you around the park. From the parking area, it’s a 90-minute steep walk up to the “refuge” as they call it, or the Cotopaxi volcano viewpoint. This is the place more extreme hikers and climbers set up basecamp for the night before summiting the volcano.

I’m sure Tory and Aden would have been able to walk 90-minutes uphill to the viewpoint, but Andi and I weren’t really in the mood to listen to them complain about it all day. Factoring in the high elevation (the refuge/look-out point is at 15,760 ft.), we thought it might be too intense of a hike for our family. Plus, there isn’t much more to do in Cotopaxi National Park other than hike or climb. There is no visitor’s center or education center. We’d basically pay $40 for a guide (on top of the $80 we were already paying the hotel for a driver) to hike up to the volcano’s basecamp.

Another activity suggestion by one of the tour guides was to visit Quilotoa — a crater lake in an extinct Andes volcano. We’ve heard from several people that Quilotoa is beautiful. You can hike up to the crater to see the lake, or you can walk around the rim of the crater lake itself. I wouldn’t have minded visiting Quilotoa actually, but it’s a 2-hour drive to get there from Papa Gayo and another 2 hours return to the hotel. After spending 5 hours in the car yesterday driving from Mindo to Cotopaxi, Andi and I didn’t really want to spend another 4 hours driving today just to see a crater lake.

Instead, what Andi and I really wanted to do was visit the nearby towns and see a local market. The vibe we continued to get from the guides was, “OK, but why?” Ha Ha. I’m guessing it’s not what most tourists who visit this area ask to do. Maybe they wondered why we’d want to see the regular ol’ towns where locals live and work.

Regardless of opinion, the hotel provided us with a driver for the day. His name is Yam and he’s been volunteering at the hotel for a few months. We first met Yam last night at dinner, and right away Andi and I liked him a lot. He seemed to know this area fairly well (though he is not an official guide), and he also seemed to have a sense of adventure to him.

Yam suggested we visit the mercado in the nearby town of Latacunga. It took us about 45-minutes to get there and along the way we saw several of the area’s volcanos in the distance — Corazon, Illinizas, Ruminahui and Cotopaxi. About 100,000 people live in Latacunga, but the city felt pretty empty on a Sunday morning. Yam dropped us off in front of the indoor market. There were several floors inside the warehouse building with people selling meat, fruit, fresh juice, and household goods. The market was completely empty of people though. As gringos, we stuck out like a sore thumb! The four of us walked through the market and then made our way to a local city square across the street from the market to come up with Plan B. This market wasn’t exactly what we had in mind.

We walked down the sidewalks of several streets in Latacunga’s historic downtown, each interconnected by traditional town squares. There was hardly anyone out & about. Andi spotted an open bakery and decided to stop for a treat. Nevermind it was only 10:30am! Never too early for dessert, I guess.

All the bakeries we’ve visited in Ecuador offer elaborate cakes and desserts. I have a hard time believing they sell them all in one day, but they must. Andi ordered a strawberry crepe, a lemon tart and an espresso, then we found ourselves a quiet booth on the upstairs level of the bakery.

After our treats, we walked for several more blocks before arriving to another city square. Andi text Yam to meet us there. We were all so hot while we waited! Not temperature hot necessarily, (it was only 55 degrees outside) but the sun felt intense as we sat on a park bench. I could feel my bare shoulders burning within minutes. This area of Ecuador is the closest place to the sun in all of the world due to the high elevation (9,500 ft) + the bulge of the earth around the equator line.

From Latacunga, Andi and I told Yam to take us to Cotopaxi National Park since we were near its entrance. As we pulled up to the main gate, the line to get into the park was at least 30 cars deep. After waiting 10 minutes or so to get up to the entrance gate, a park official notified us that they were limiting the number of visitors inside the park — one car in, one car out. I assume because of some sort of COVID precaution. We’d probably be waiting 30-60 minutes for admission, so we decided to leave. Andi and I weren't sure we wanted to do the Cotopaxi hike anyway and we definitely didn’t want to wait for it.

Yam offered to take us to the town closest to the Papa Gayo hotel called Machachi. About 35,000 people call Machachi home. Right away as we entered the town, Andi and I both said, “This is what we were looking for!” The streets of Machachi were full of life on a Sunday afternoon. Yam dropped us off on the Main Street and we agreed to text him when we were ready to be picked up.

First things first — the four of us decided we wanted to get something to eat. It was around 2:00pm now. We picked a restaurant called Qui Carne which served burgers, wings and grilled meats. As we were waiting for our food to be prepared, a mariachi band entered the small restaurant and a man began to sing very loudly. We were the only tourists inside the restaurant and obviously looked different than the other diners. The man on the microphone asked where we were from & Andi responded by saying, “Wisconsin, USA.” “Ah!” The singer said, “I used to live in Alabama! I want to play another song, just for you — Elvis Presley!” He proceeded to sing and then announced to the restaurant, “They are from Wisconsin!” All the people sitting at their tables cranked their necks and stared in our direction. Andi and I couldn’t help but laugh. These are the best moments of traveling — you never know who you’ll meet or what experiences will unfold. It’s also something we’ve noticed about the people of Ecuador — everyone here seems to go out of their way to make sure we’re enjoying our time in their country. It was really thoughtful for the singer to play a song for us... even if it was a little loud.

Shortly thereafter, our food arrived. Tory and I ordered burgers, Aden had wings again and Andi ordered a chicken platter. The food was very good. Aden said it was the best wings he’s eaten yet — 10/10!

After lunch, we decided to walk around the streets of Machachi. There were people everywhere relaxing in the park square, enjoying ice cream cones as a family, and shopping in various stores. We made our way to the Machachi outdoor market which was amazing! It was blocks and blocks of vendors selling all kinds of products from shoes and clothing to prepared food and produce. We wandered around the market for quite a while taking it all in. Eventually, we made our way to an indoor/outdoor warehouse space that had more vendors selling fruit & veggies, rice, potatoes, meat and juices. Andi bought a pound of strawberries and blackberries for each $1.

We have a small kitchenette in our cabin at Papa Gayo, so Andi and I decided to have Yam meet us at the mega grocery store in Machachi so we could pickup a few snacks to take back with us. I love going to grocery stores while traveling. It’s so interesting to see what fruits & vegetables they offer, as well as pre-packaged snacks, etc and how much they charge for them. It’s also a great place to practice the language by reading words on signage throughout the store. We bought a loaf of bread, noodles, yogurt, juice, and crackers and then made the drive back to the hotel.

The minute we were back on the Papa Gayo farm, Tory and Aden bee-lined it for the animals. Tory wanted to hold the bunnies so badly, but they weren’t having it. Instead, she and Aden settled for petting and feeding them carrots. Aden also loves the dogs on the farm & I think it’s safe to say they love him, too. They follow him around wherever he goes. Inca the black dog is his favorite, followed by Jenny (or Henny) as it is pronounced in Spanish. They even wait for him outside our cabin door.

I think we all needed a minute to decompress after a day of adventuring. Back at our cabin, we each curled up with our devices and vegged out for a while. None of us felt like going up to the Papa Gayo restaurant for dinner, so Andi offered to order some food to-go from there. He returned with spaghetti for the kids, a bowl of soup for himself and grilled chicken for me. We ate in our cabin and then called it a night shortly thereafter.

Tomorrow, we have another day of adventuring here in Machachi.