From Quito to Medellin
We’ve now spent a month in Ecuador. Yes I know, time was flying for us as well… From visiting colonial cities to the Galápagos Islands, we did not really had time to rest.
As always, we have to proceed and our next step is Colombia 🇨🇴!
Hold On!
If you’ve seen the recent news in the area, there is a catch. There are tensions with Venezuela. And of course, they had to organise some protest right when we decided to cross the border 😤. An armed group (ELN) called for a global protest for three days.
Because we’re somewhat responsible 🐒, we tried to get as much information as we could from the French embassies. As always, this is my opinion and I don’t recommend anything. I am just telling you what we did and saw. So, tried… The website is useless. It consists of disclaimers, that’s all. Everything is vague and being able to take a real decision based on that is… difficult.
We had one question. Can we cross the Ecuadorian border safely to get to touristic areas. If you look at the risk map, there is a slim corridor in orange from where we would need to cross. It means: avoid unless necessary — whatever this even means 🤷♂️. The rest of the places we would go is in yellow (be careful). Peru and Ecuador are in yellow 👉 so we know this color is fine as it was candy land.
So what? I called both the Ecuadorian and the Colombian local embassies to know if we could go. Magical (and by the way rude people) answers here from people “on the field”.
The website is up to date and we don’t have any more information, said the operators.Great! The last information is: avoid if necessary and watch local news before traveling 😱. Yes yes, you’re supposed to be able to read local news in Spanish. When you know that French have difficulties with English… 🤣. Isn’t it your job guys!? To analyze the data and assess the risk for me? (It reminds me of Rwanda. I had a question about our VISA. The operator did not even know our type of VISA 🤦♂️).
We had two options: take a risk which we don’t measure or wait for more information (from any side…). We decided to report our entry to Colombia for a week 🤬. A big thank you to the people of the French embassies in charge of travelers, you’re absolutely useless and are completely unable to ensure my safety 👌. Oh, I tried to send a review to improve the service — as suggested by the annoying popup on the webpage. But of course, they only ask closed questions which were also completely irrelevant.
Quito
We should only have passed but stayed 2 days. The historical center is super tiny compared to the huge city and Cuenca was richer in terms of architecture. Still, we had a good time. During our city tour, I managed to buy some handmade Montecristi, mostly known as Panama hat. This turns out to be the best worst idea ever. I expected it, but it’s such a trouble to transport a hat 😒.
Quito is also located close to the Equator. So they made a center which they called mitad del mundo. Well, I would advise not to go. There is nothing but the imaginary line to see. It’s a convention center with nothing to see or experience. Instead, we had a better time going to the teleferico. This cable car get you to 4000 m. With a clear weather, the view is top notch!
Mindo
With some extra days in Ecuador, we decided to go to the nearby town of Mindo. After just two hours of bus, Mindo is found in a cloud forest. It’s crazy, the weather was changing so fast. From one valley to the other, it was cloudy and raining 🌧.
Mindo is a paradise for bird lovers. But you have to be an early bird — as in 5 am — to spot the famous Cock-of-the-Rock. This red bird is Peru’s National bird. We’ve seen it! But forget about pictures… You need long lenses here and a 55 mm is not quite one. We’ve done a walk without a guide (I’m done with guides in Ecuador, at least…) in a private property ($6). They have marked trails and give you some indications about where to spot everything. It was a nice morning activity, even if I had to sacrifice my morning sleeping.
We did two other smaller activities. A butterfly nursery and a chocolate factory. These two activities are clearly there to increase Mindo’s attractiveness. The butterfly nursery is cool, there are so many and you better watch your steps!
But the chocolate is not really good and is overpriced. The most disappointing thing is that the plants are not here but just the factory. The spot was chosen for the temperature: cold is better for storage of the bars. I would suggest to go on the coast to the plantations instead.
Let’s Cross
After this extra week in Ecuador, we’ve been able to reassess the risk to cross the border. The protests finished and there was no follow up… A last attempt with the embassies… still the same… So hell you, we crossed! I am really upset about this service. Beautiful public money thrown out of the window.
But our initial two weeks now had changed into one. With all the kilometers we had to do to reach Medellin, we just got a snapshot of Colombia.
San Agustin
One of the biggest archeological site. I was really curious about this place as they uncovered more than 500 carved statues. It echoed with my Polynesian culture and our tiki. The difference is that they are huge. Not like Easter Island’s Moai, but bigger than me (I hear you, that’s not a miracle).
The region is reach, with waterfalls and hikes. Sadly, we lacked time to explore further and had to move…
Tatacoa
This place is advertised as a desert. But it’s a trick because it’s raining all the time there. Why a desert then? Because it looks like it from afar. In really, what you see is only dry mud! Nothing like Peru which places like Ica with dunes. But it’s worth stopping by, and you can walk by the formations. With a clear sky, which we did not get, you can observe the stars with a cool background. Ideal for insta pics I guess 😉.
Medellin
We finished with Medellin. Already. Just a classical city tour — passing by the most dangerous neighborhood by accident 🐒. And had some Colombian coffee. We befriended a barista who’s making a great coffee. He even opened his shop for us earlier so that we could have an espresso before an early take-off. We will be back Colombia!
Beach Time
That’s the end of our South America trip 🎉. It’s also been 4 months since we started this adventure. And we’ve already experienced so much. Doing a recap would be quite hard as everything was so diverse, rich and intense.
I just know that I am getting tired. Tired and a bit less amazed as well. Yes we’re getting spoiled 😅. That’s something I was not expecting. When you spend your days on the roads, at some point, things start to look similar. Oh again a waterfall, yet another hike, look at these ruins… We anticipated the tiredness part by planning to go to French Polynesia. It’s my home and although we will do a lot, it will still be a million times more relaxing. By the way, that’s the reason I’m only posting now: just chilling by the pool 😎.
