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08. - 14.12.2019: Macará
We got to the border at 3-40pm and the Peru side only took 20 minutes. Then we drove to the Ecuador side and had to get the underneath of our vehicle sprayed by a man in a full body suit!! Do we need to worry?? Or do we stink?? At least they didn't charge us!
The paperwork took 1 hour 20 minutes because there was a problem with others in front of us. Firstly a large group of Venezuelans with taxis packed to the brim, tried to bring over more goods than they're allowed. That meant they'd have to pay import duty which is 50 percent of the value for all the rest!! They left behind kiddies bikes, a large TV, a huge boom-baster and various other goods.
Then a Colombian couple had had their vehicle broken into and passports/vehicle papers stolen. Their visa was running out but the vehicle was being repaired and they'd come to the border in a taxi to get an extension. The customs officer was under a lot of stress so we just waited patiently for our turn. We were a straightforward case but it still took 20 minutes to get our vehicle permit.
Afterwards we drove through Macará, the border town, but all the shops were already shut because it was a Sunday. About 9km further we turned off the highway and up another extremely steep gravel road to get to the concrete forecourt of a hostel where we could get electricity, drinking water, cold showers and a swimming pool for $5 US per night for the 2 of us and our vehicle.
We spent a week there. We definitely needed a rest and I needed somewhere that had good enough WiFi to watch the British election results live on the BBC on 12th December. The only good news was that England is 5 hours ahead so when the live programme started at 10pm it was only 5pm for us and I could watch everything until the last results came out ... 2-30am our time (rather than staying up all night in the UK!!)
For the rest of the time we worked every day on our website and finally managed to get an update done. I also went for walks every day up the extremely steep gravel road with great views over the surrounding area.
We had to get creative in the kitchen because we hadn't done any shopping at the border because the shops were shut and we didn't fancy driving back down the steep gravel road and back for supplies. So we needed to survive on what we had. Fortunately we had enough yoghurt so we could have granola or oats for breakfast and we always have Hasta La Pasta pasta on board. In other words we didn't starve! We got used to the cold showers and could also use their washing machine. All for a great price! Perfect!
After a week it was time to move on. We'd only just got into Ecuador and we're only allowed 90 days in a 12 month period so we need to save some of those 90 days so we can head back south through Ecuador again after visiting Colombia.
15. - 17.12.2019: Macará via Catacocha to Loja
We got up early at 7-30am to watch our football team draw - very disappointing. Then we packed up, filled all our water containers and did various other jobs that always need to be done before leaving and drove out at 12-30pm.
The road north was very windy, ascending and descending a lot. It was quite a roller-coaster! After our lunch and photo stop in Catacocha we hit thick fog which slowed us down and I was amazed that other drivers still overtook on bends where it was impossible to see oncoming traffic! In the fog!! Crazy!
Our GPS took us on another short-cut, uphill over 2600m and then dropping steeply downhill to 2100m. The final part into Loja was at least a 45° descent which I did in 1st gear trying to avoid dogs/cats/kids/people/potholes/buses in the road stopping every 50 metres. You name it! And ... all in the dark!! The drive had taken us far longer than we thought and we hadn't made it in daylight.
We headed for a sports centre where we could park for the night but it was extremely busy and almost full. So we parked on the street and Kirsten went out in search of food. We had nothing left and hadn't found any shops en route. She came back with half a roast chicken and a bucket load of soggy chips!! Oh well, we still ate it! At 9pm the sports centre car park had virtually emptied so we could park up for the night.
It wasn't exactly a quiet night and from 6-30am the traffic noise got really loud. We wanted to go and see the theatre in the town where other campers had said they'd stayed overnight. So after getting shopping from a supermarket and fruit and veg from a local market we drove to the theatre.
The parking system there was really complicated. There were 3 car park attendants who said we needed to buy a ticket but they couldn't sell them to us! We had to go to a kiosk on the car park. Once we had the ticket ($1-50) we had to ask a uniformed officer called Antoinette for permission to park there. She told us we'd only get 1.5 hours and we'd have to come back to ask her colleague, who would be on duty later, for permission to park for longer.
Our ticket got marked for 1.5 hours but then our very friendly officer took us around to a back door of the theatre so we could get a private tour despite the fact that it was closed! Wow! Luz Marie gave us a tour of the building and took us to the top where we got a great view over the city. She also told us there was a special concert taking place tomorrow. We could see the main concert hall being prepared for light and sound. Loja is the musical centre of Ecuador, or at least it's trying to become the musical centre! The concert the next night was some sort of musical homage so we thought we'd see if we could get in.
We really enjoyed our free tour and then went to ask for more time on the car park. The next uniformed officer was Guillermo, who gave us until 6pm, and said we could stay overnight. Great! We walked around the centre of town and went to various churches and plazas.
Plaza de San Sebastián in Loja - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We started looking around for places to eat and picked up a flyer for a Chinese restaurant at the tourist info centre. We tried to find it but then we realised we were looking at a map for the restaurant in a completely different town! Inside was the map for Loja and the place was miles away!! So ... no Chinese!
After visiting the last church for the evening we found a woman selling hot food from large cooking pots outside. We spoke to a man from Colombia who was eating a plate of rice mixed with meat and veg and he said it was really good. So we decided to try it out and bought a plate that came with tomato salsa and a sauce that looked like avocado/mayo/coriander. We'd only had a few mouthfuls when we went straight back for another plate!! The woman laughed and was really happy that we liked it so much.
On the way back we found a cafe where we bought some passion fruit cheesecake and a piece of orange cake to eat for dessert back in Winnietwo. I think our week in Macará without cake for at least 4 days had badly affected us!!!
We had to leave the theatre car park before 8am the next morning so at 7-45am, we drove back to the sports centre so we could have a cuppa and breakfast. We had lots of fruit which we'd missed over the last few days. We thought about going to a Podocarpus National Park for the day but we'd need to be back in Loja by 5-30pm to get ready for the concert and it would be a bit of a rush.
In any case, Winnietwo decided our plan for the day ... our axle cover had come off ... again!! So Kirsten went off to check out mechanics nearby to see if they could take us in. Then we drove there but stopped at a battery shop first and bought a new back battery. Our old one wasn't holding the charge for very long and we kept ending up without any power. At least the old one had lasted 4 years which doesn't sound very long but it's been heavily used. They normally only last for 3 years so we were quite happy. We managed to find one that fits and had to pay more than we wanted ... it cost us $160 US.
Afterwards we drove to the mechanic to get our axle cover refitted and we also got our coolant changed. Ours was 4 years old and didn't have any anti freeze in it. We'd be driving high up into the hills and we might encounter freezing temperatures overnight so needed to get it changed. One mechanic changed our coolant and cleaned out our reservoir but we got a trainee who dealt with our axle cover and we weren't too happy. We didn't think he was doing a good job.
It took 2.5 hours and our next stop was just around the corner to an auto electrician to see if we could get a fuse problem fixed. He wasn't able to help us but told us to drive to a different place about 200m away. We didn't make it because our axle cover came off again!! We didn't think the trainee had done a good job – well, obviously he hadn't!! It lasted 10 minutes and it was off again.
The mechanics raised their eyebrows when we drove back in! This time a more experienced mechanic sorted out our axle cover but it took quite a while. We didn't leave until 5-30pm and needed to rush back to the theatre, quickly got changed and got into the queue at 6-15pm.
We had no idea what to expect and thought it might be a bit like a free concert we went to in El Salvador 8 years ago. Lots of talking to introduce various people and a crooner singing the night away! The concert in Loja started off exactly the same!!! There was at least 40 minutes of speeches and a prize was given to Klever "El Chivo" Novillo, the man we had seen on a poster advertising the concert, who looked around 70 years old. Apparently he was being awarded for contributing 50 years of music in Loja. Of course, we'd never heard of him!!
We were sitting in a very nice old fashioned theatre with plush velvet seats. There is room for over 300 people but the balconies were all empty. At least the main seating area was quite full. We waited patiently to see if there would be any music and got really surprised!!
The first "Act" was a female singer about 25 years old who had a very good voice and sang three songs that would make the charts in South America. In other words ... very modern music. Next came a young girl who we thought was about 16 years old. She also sang very well but was inexperienced. We later found out it was Mr Novello's 11 year old daughter!! Wow, in that case she is a budding star!!
A father and son act followed, both singing and then the father also played the guitar. They were really excellent. They were followed by a Samba music singing crooner who sang two songs and then came the star of the show ... El Chivo himself ... and we got blown away!!!!! Wow, super Latin American music played by a 9 piece band. Trumpets, sax, trombone, keyboards, drummer, bongos, percussionist, base guitar and one other singer.
We've never of heard of Klever Novillo but we certainly won't forget him!! He is a real entertainer, great singer who knows how to get a crowd rocking! The crowd were mainly people the same age as Novillo himself but in the end there were lots of people dancing in front of their seats!!! Including Kirsten and I. Superb fun!
We had a really good time and were extremely glad we'd decided to go to the concert even though we hadn't got a clue what it would be like. Viva Loja!!!!
18.12.2019: Loja via Zamora to Parque Nacional Podocarpus
It rained heavily during our last night in Loja and we had a leak so I had to keep getting up - not much sleep for me!! Our next destination, Zamora, wasn't very far away but it took us 2 hours to drive the 60km (45 miles). It was a very windy road which took us up and over 2800m and then down to 970m.
We continued through the town and out to Podocarpus National Park only 6km further. Podocarpus is the name of a conifer that can only be found in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador between 1800 and 3600m. The trees are extremely tall, grow very slowly and can live for 200 years. A ranger pointed out a small one that was planted 3 to 4 years ago but was only 18 inches tall!!
We walked along some of the trails for 2.5 hours, went to see some waterfalls and tried to get up to a viewpoint. But the trail was extremely steep and we were running out of daylight (well that's our excuse!!), so we had to turn around. It had nothing to do with the fact that we were sweating buckets in the 100% humidity and the path was a 45 degree angle uphill!!
At least we'd tried to get up there and had battled for over 40 minutes before turning around. We thought the viewpoint was closer! Anyway, we walked back and decided to drive back out of the park because the road wasn't tarmac. It was sandy and it looked like it would rain overnight so we thought we'd be better off driving out.
We found a spot by the river just before getting back into Zamora but we had to drive over a hump back bridge that looked more like a pedestrian bridge than part of the road. At least it didn't collapse when we drove over! Our decision to drive out was the right one because it rained overnight and the next day.
Fabulous free concert in Loja and exhausting hike in PN Podocarpus.
