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| Laura on the cranky slow horse |
We left at 6:30 am and met our guide, Darwin. He was born in the area around Chimborazo we would be horseback riding in and only spoke Spanish. It’s a good thing that we spoke Spanish too or I don’t know how the trip would have gone. We got on a bus out of town and got off in the middle of nowhere; the only things in sight where a small home and a restaurant that looked deserted. We went into the small home and the owner greeted us with some warm tea. It was nice since it was freezing outside. I think we were wearing every article of clothing we brought. I had three layers of pants and four layers on top, one being a down jacket. Then we both had a scarf wrapped around our head and our hoods pulled up and synched as tight as they would go. I’m sure that Darwin found us amusing. He was wearing far less clothes. However, he was wearing llama chaps. They made him look like a satyr. So he was just as amusing in return. Of course Laura wanted a pair of these furry chaps.
While Darwin got the horses saddled up, Laura and I got a sudden urge to have to pee. We asked the woman if she had a restroom and she said no. She then pointed across the street and told us to go there. We thought she was talking about the deserted looking restaurant so we tried there. Are assumptions were correct and the restaurant was closed. We went back to clarify where we were suppose to use the bathroom and found out she had been pointing to a mound of dirt behind the restaurant that we could use to conceal ourselves. So we took turns using the mound. By this time the horses were ready and we were on our way.
The first day of riding took us through a variety of landscapes. At one point I thought I was on a planet in Star Wars or maybe perhaps the moon. There were areas that had hardly any vegetation. There was nothing but volcanic dust and in places the ground would form into these weird bumps of dirt with sprigs of straw sprouting from them. It was bizarre. The majority of the trip was through these massive fields of straw. The straw grew in giant clumps in all different directions, and when the wind blew, which was almost always, the whole field would move in waves of color. The movement revealed the various shades of tan, gray and green that were hidden in the straw. It was really amazing. It was a very peaceful ride and most of the day we simply walked the horses. Slow and easy, except for after the four hour mark my knees, ankles and nether regions where starting to hate me.
We spent the night in this little mountain town called Salinas (no relation to the singer). It was a very interesting town. At night, when the clouds consumed the town in a sleepy haze that you can envision in works by Edgar Allen Poe, it took on a mystical almost eerie quality. That illusion was then shattered by the heaps of trash everywhere. This country definitely needs help with its littering problem. It seems like the people just don’t care, or don’t know any better. The town was maybe five streets and we walked over the entire town in fifteen minutes, but in the town there was a small chocolate factory, a cheese factory made from the local cow milk, a textile store that made and sold yarn and clothing, and a place that dried and sold hongos, a form of fungus that grows on pine trees. I couldn’t believe how much was packed in such a small place. Both the chocolates and the cheese where amazing. We bought a bunch to take back with us. We bought a chocolate bar for Darwin too. He was pleased.
The next morning Laura was under the weather again due to the altitude and had vomited a few times during the night. But, we were both reluctant to get out of bed because it was freezing. We put all of our layers back on and went to find our guide. He was eating breakfast so we joined him and stuffed our faces. Well I did, and I made Laura at least eat some bread and a little bit of the eggs. We stopped at the chocolate store one last time and headed out for the hot springs.
Our guide informed us that today was going to be a much further ride so we needed to go much faster today. I was a little nervous about this because I was already pretty sore. We spent most of the ride galloping through the fields. It was definitely not your typical follow the leader horseback riding trips. It was so much fun. I didn’t realize how much I miss riding horses. We made good time. I think we got to the hot springs almost an hour early.
This was definitely a local’s hot spring. It was positioned on the side of a stream. Sounds nice and serene, but next to the stream was a highway and the baths where made out of rough concrete and again there was trash everywhere. When we walked up the locals, who were already enjoying the springs, looked at us as if we were lepers. I think they would have looked less shocked if our horses had decided to come join them in the springs. Well, regardless, we changed and entered the pools. Despite the beginning impressions, the pools where very hot and relaxing and exactly what we needed after two full days of riding. After about forty five minutes in the water we got out and changed just in time for Wladimir to show up and drive us back to Riobamba. It has been the best excursion we have done on our trip yet. We might have been out of place at times, but it was exactly what we were looking for, an authentic Ecuadorian experience.
Christina
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