We were successful in staying up past 9 pm last night. We actually watched the June 16 game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Las Vegas Aces. I have WNBA League Pass so we can watch any game, any time as long as we have wifi. And it worked in Ecuador! The game was very fast-paced and fun to watch but, alas, the Lynx lost by one point.
We got down to breakfast around 7 am and received a Whatsapp message from our vendor indicating that we are not going to AnSattisana volcano today because roads are blocked. They’re also trying to book us a room nearer the airport for tonight, as our flight to Coca leaves tomorrow morning. Alas, all the hotels are booked. We guess it’s because traffic is snarled – it takes about 45 minutes to get from our hotel to the airport.
The protesters made their way into Quito yesterday, and many were assembled in the park across from our hotel. Our hotel is barricaded. The protesters were chanting and drumming until around 10 pm when the curfew takes place.
Here’s the news today: “President Guillermo Lasso extended a state of emergency to cover six provinces, with a nighttime curfew in Quito, as he seeks to curtail demonstrations that have seen roads barricaded countrywide, cost the economy tens of millions of dollars, and left dozens of people injured.”
The report continues: “On foot, on motorcycles and in crowded trucks, the Indigenous protesters began a peaceful march towards the city center from Cutuglagua, an area in southern Quito where they have been steadily growing in number since Sunday.
A hundred Indigenous people also entered the city from the north.
The powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) – credited with helping topple three presidents between 1997 and 2005 – called the protest as Ecuadorans increasingly struggle to make ends meet.
Indigenous people comprise more than a million of Ecuador’s 17.7 million inhabitants, and their protest has since been joined by students, workers and others feeling the economic pinch.”
Totally out of our control. We’re so glad we’re in the hands of Audley, our travel agent for this portion of the trip.
We are scheduled to fly to Coca tomorrow and be in the Amazon until Saturday then the folks from Casa Divina in Mindo are supposed to pick us up at 5 am on Sunday for our five days in Mindo. If the roads are still blocked on Sunday, we most likely won’t be going to Mindo so our options? Probably cancel the Mindo trip as well as the indigenous experience, reschedule our flights and come home. Dang.
So there was a platoon of police on motorcycles that accosted a young man on his bike right in front of our hotel, and they’re moving to block the road. Audley just informed us that they found a hotel room in a hotel closer to the airport so Eddie, our guide, is picking us up at 9:30 am, luggage and all, and we’re supposed to do an excursion then he’ll drop us off at the hotel.
It’s going to be an interesting day.
By the time Eddie got to the hotel, it was barricaded so he had to park in the underground parking garage to retrieve us.
It was a beautiful morning – the sun was shining, finally, so he took us to the Telefériqo Quito’s cable car that whisks passengers up the Pichincha volcano in glass gondolas. The 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) journey up the mountain offered what was the best panoramic views of the city. It ended at the Cruz Loma plateau, where hiking trails lead to Rucu Pichincha, one of the volcano’s twin peaks. Needless to say, we did not hike.
In fact, the gondola took us from 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet, and that might possibly be the highest we have ever been (our favorite pass, Beartooth Pass, in Wyoming is only around 11,000 feet). So we stood for a while and listened to Eddie tell us about the volcanoes and such. I was still feeling a little woozy from the boat but I felt REALLY WOOZY standing there, as was Beth so we didn’t stay long. It was beautiful though.
From there, Eddie took us to the botanical gardens. It seemed so far removed from the protests. However, we heard two explosions as we were getting to the gate, and helicopters flew over twice. Eddie was constantly checking his phone to get updates.
The Hotel Hilton Colon at which we were staying was totally on lockdown, as many more protesters were in the park across the street, and they had closed it. Our friends from Canada said at breakfast they were going to the Old Town. Well, I’m certain that didn’t happen because on the news this morning, we saw razor wire at the presidential palace and no one was permitted into Plaza Grande nor Plaza San Francisco where we were yesterday.
The botanical garden was beautiful. We saw lots of endemic flora and fauna. The best part was the orchids. Some so tiny you would never know they were orchids, while others were beautiful colors.
We strolled through the gardens until about 1:15 pm, and Eddie used his GPS to see where the obstacles were located on the road to the airport. We did alright until about 20 minutes out when we had to detour as protesters were burning tires and blocking the road. We wound up through the suburbs where you could see that the protesters had been there – blackened streets where tires were burned, some spots still had flames and all.
There was hardly any traffic at all, and we all were praising the fact that there were very few tourists so we had things almost to ourselves.
We get to our new hotel around 2:15 pm but had to wait until around 3:30 pm when our room was ready. It is so much better than the Hilton – it’s a charming colonial complex with 78 rooms, gardens and one of the most important collections of trees of the Ecuadorian highlands. There are trees of all latitudes: 5 types of palm trees, 5 types of pine, 4 types of eucalyptus trees, kapok, sequoia, coffee trees, magnolias, nags. In addition to many native trees as cholan, walnut, pink sauce, among others. In total, the collection of trees contains a variety of species, some trees over 200 years old.
We probably won’t see them as I took a nap and Beth took advantage of the whirlpool bathtub. Then I worked on the blog.
There’s also a farm here that is specially designed for children, an interactive experience with rabbits, ducks, chickens, sheep, goats, peacocks, etc. There was a llama and her baby milking in the parking lot.
So here we sit waiting to go eat supper at the on-site restaurant.
Eddie is picking us up at 7 am and get us to the airport that is about 15 minutes from here so we can catch our flight to Coca then we’ll be met by those folks and put on a canoe.
Another emergency order was just issued with a curfew and encouraging everyone to remain in place. Even the U.S. Embassy and Consulate officials have been instructed to avoid road travel and remain in place.
We might very well be in the midst of a revolution.
We fly back to Quito on June 25, then we’re supposed to go to Mindo for five days. If things continue as they are now, we probably will cancel the remainder of our trip (we have a three-day indigenous experience in Guamote planned for July 2-5 after the Mindo excursion), and – with Elaine’s help – get a flight back home.
Each day has become a bigger adventure than we had imagined.
BTW, I have no idea if there is wifi in the Amazon so this might be my last post until June 25 when we hopefully arrive at our hotel in Quito.
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