Andra & Steve's Journey: From Quito to the Amazon Rain Forest (Sunday, December 24th, 2017)

We had breakfast at the hotel this morning, then boarded our bus to head for the Amazon rain forest. As we boarded the bus, a street vendor was selling scarves in front of the hotel.

All of the vendors here in Ecuador are friendly and not too pushy, which is nice. Some of them are more willing to bargain than others, but they all have pretty good prices. Many of them even enjoy practicing their English on us and make it really fun to shop from them. This man wasn't one of those, but I loved his serious look.

Unfortunately in this post you are once again going to get pictures out of a bus window, which isn't great, but the landscape is breath taking and changed as we went around every corner.

The Andes Mountains create three natural regions, coastal, highlands and Amazon. Quito is in the highlands, and we will now be traveling down to the Amazon region, but before we can go down, we must go further up.

We left Quito from the same valley we flew into two days ago. This is the valley to the east of Quito that keeps it growing in a north / south direction. The valley is just too steep for building much of anything.

As we made our way out of the city, we quickly moved into the agricultural area of the highlands with lush green fields and cattle grazing.

The houses in the countryside are very similar to those in the city. Many have the first floor completed, but the remainder of the structure is still "under construction".

After dipping down into the valley to get out of Quito, we quickly started climbing.

We started in Quito at 9,200 feet, then drove over the Pass of the Virgin, which is at 13,500 feet, before dipping down into the Amazon rain forest at 1000 feet. Our total drive took five hours and was quite spectacular! We drove through multitudes of vegetable and dairy farms going up the eastern mountains. They can farm up to 11,000 feet, and can raise cattle above tree line. Most of the mountains never see snow, but above 18,500 feet you will reach the point of permanent snow year round. The only bears in Ecuador are the Spectacle Bears. They live in this area, so we were hoping to see one, but no luck. They got their name from the white spots around their eyes.

We stopped at the top of the pass of the virgin to stretch our legs and feel the very thin air in our lungs. It appears that we were above tree line at this altitude, and it was quite chilly and misty. Giovanna said that there are spectacular views from the pass, but unfortunately the clouds covered them up today.

There was a dirt road that lead back into the hills at the top of the pass. The perfect place away from the traffic of the highway to stretch our legs before getting back on the bus.

I was very glad to have a jacket here. When I think of the equator, I think of warmth, all the time. But depending on the elevation, that is not true at all.

On of the water sources for Quito is a lake located on the east (Amazon) side of the pass. 80% of the electricity in Quito is hydroelectric, coming from lakes like this. They produce so much hydroelectric power that they have extra electricity that they export to Colombia.

As we descended from the pass, we entered an area called a cloud forest. It is kind of like perma-fog. It makes everything so pretty and yet ominous looking.

Oil has become one of the largest exports for Ecuador, and has completely changed the economy of the country, but they believe that they only have 20 to 25 years of oil remaining. It is a huge problem for the country, knowing that if they use all of their oil reserves they have nothing to pass on to their future generations. Below you can see one of the oil stations, high in the Andes mountains. The oil is sent to the coast for exportation.

Landslides are very common in the Andes Mountains because of the constant rains. We saw many of them on the east side of the pass as we continued toward the Amazon valley. We can't image how they put this road through in the first place, but it is also amazing that they can maintain it and keep it open.