Week 36: Quitó, Cotopaxi, Baños & Chugchilán

On the first day of week 36 we went to a whole new country called Ecuador. That means we were on the equator of the world! We went to the middle line of the whole entire world! There was this line you could stand on and you could be in both halves of the world at the same time. It was crazy. And there wasn’t only a line in the middle of the world, there was also a few trains, a playground, houses from a long time ago only made of bamboo and so many more cool things. We went on one of the trains, I played on the playground and we went inside the houses! It was really fun. At the equator line my dad and I dressed in 2 different outfits, I dressed in summer clothes, and dad dressed in winter clothes. We did that because it was winter on one side of the equator and summer on the other side. It was a really cool photo. It was actually a little bit colder on the winter side than the summer side! It was a really fun day.

The next day we went to a super duper nice place called the Secret Garden. For the first couple of hours we were there it had no power or anything. Just nice people and great views, llama feeding, 5 dogs and so much more! It was AWESOME! And we were staying there for 2 nights. My favourite dog was a very old dog called Smash. I think he was called Smash because he had lots of scars on him. But he was still as cute as a bunny.

Spanish: El tengo un poco de un diffirantè eye en este foto. English: He has a bit of a weird eye in this photo

At the Secret Garden we had a whole house to ourselves! It had 4 rooms! It was amazing. I wish we could stay there forever. We also met some nice people from Australia too. Their names were Maddie and Ally. We also met a few more people called Matias and Celia from Denmark, and Ryan and Jordan from the UK. We met so many more people I would have to write 40 names.

We didn’t just meet new people and stay in a really nice place, we also were going to walk up a volcán (volcano)! When we got to the start of the hike we were at 4500 metres altitude! That is the highest I’ve ever been. But I did not do the hike because when I hopped out of the car I nearly blew off the volcano! I had to use my mum as a pole so I wouldn’t fly off the mountain. It was crazy windy. I made a joke that if you tied a string to me and I was at the top of the volcano, I would be like a kite, flying through the sky like a bird! So mum stayed with me in the car because she did not want to do the hike either. So we were just sitting in the car reading our kindles, with mum in the background going “oh gosh I hope Davo is ok”! 😂 And while we were reading the car alarm would always go off because the wind was so strong it would always set off the alarm. And every time we moved it would go off. So we had to sit as still as a cheetah when it’s about to pray. It was a really crazy day (when I went to sleep all I could hear was nee naw nee naw, and so on. It was so annoying).

For dinner that night we tried guinea pig for the first time! And it was disgusting. I wish I hadn’t tried it. It was like pumpkin in your mouth! Anyway, at least I can say I tried it. During dinner Ryan and I did a bit of a work-out against each other. There was a push-up competition, a wall squat competition, and I won all of them! Not too surprising. I did about 25 push-ups and wall squatting for 3 minutes! And I wasn’t tired at all.

Then after dinner we were going to do karaoke. I did not plan on doing it at all (I ended up doing 2 songs) 😂. I sang The Jungle with everyone and Cover Me In Sunshine with Maddie. Nearly everyone sang at least one song. And Ryan and Jordan did about 4 songs! My favourite song they did was Hey Jude because they did this funny part at the end where when the song started to say Na Na Na Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Hey Jude they would add this extra part after the Hey Jude, they went Hey Judy Judy Judy Judy! It was hilarious.

Anyway, it was a really fun night 😃.

The next day we sadly left the Secret Garden! I nearly cried! But before we did leave we got to do a really fun activity. We had a mini Olympics! The things we did in the Olympics was a push-up contest, curling, a banana eating contest when you eat a banana and you have to run to the llamas and feed the banana peel to them, then there was gumboot throwing, and a crab competition! That’s a lot of activities. And of course our team (eggs and bacon) won! It was so much fun. But there is always an end to the Olympics, so we had to go back inside and chill. But I tried to make chilling fun, so I started a game of wink murderer. And that went on for a looonnnggg time. But then the time had come, and we had to leave the Secret Garden😭.

So we had to take a 3 hour bus to Baños (Baños in Spanish means toilet). When we had arrived in Baños we had to say goodbye to everyone. It was very very sad. Then after we said goodbye we checked into a really nice hotel called Hostel La Casa Amarilla City (that means yellow house in English). It had 2 Spanish speaking kids and a really cute dog called Mash (pronounced Max). Mum and I practiced our Spanish with the 2 kids. And we figured out that they have never left Baños in their whole life, and that one of them loves Spiderman, and a few other things. Then after we were all unpacked we went to an Indian restaurant with 3 friends we made at the Secret Garden called Jordon, Ryan and Derek. It was really fun. It was also really good Indian food. I got butter chicken with rice. Eso estuvo delisioso (it was delicious).

The next day we went…. White Water Rafting (in this blog post l am going to call it WWR)! It was soo much fun. It felt like you were on a really fast wave on a surf board. And when you were on the BIG rapids you would always get sprayed all over your body. Like when you are just getting warm there is a big wave that make you cold again! When you opened your mouth you could not miss getting a splash of water in your mouth. The water tasted disgusting. It smelt like nothing at all. And the sights around us was lots of yucky water, mountains, birds, a theme park at the top of a mountain, LOTS of waterfalls and so many more cool views. At the end of the WWR there was a wave so big that someone behind me fell on top of me! It was crazy. Then we took the bus back to our hostel where I played some fun games with the Spanish speaking kids, trying my best to understand what they were saying.

The next day we were going to a treehouse at the top of a mountain that had a swing that swung over a cliff. We were expecting to have a normal drive. But there was like 5 activities on the way there and on the way back. One of the activities was going across a cliff in a gondola thing with no protection! And on the way it had a view of a big waterfall. It was really cold and windy. Because when we hopped off it was freezing.

The next activity was zip lining! It was a Superman Flight. Which is a type of zip lining but funner. It had a great view on the way of another big waterfall. And all I could hear was this screaming noise from mum! It was hilarious.

Then we had arrived at the treehouse. And it wasn’t just a little treehouse just in the middle of nowhere, it was like a whole town! It was crazy. And it didn’t only have swings, but it had more zip lining (but it was for free)! And I of course did it. It was quite fun. And the swings was the highlight of the little town on the mountain. You literally swung over a cliff into the sunlight! It was awesome.

Then we had to go back down. But there was this really fun activity, that may be the 2nd best thing we have done on this trip so far. We went on a giant swing! That’s right, ANOTHER swing. But this one was way better. It was 10x the size and it went even further over a cliff. It was awesome. At the start it was really scary, but at the end it was just a good view. Mum took photos while dad and I did the swing. I wish we could do it on and on and on and on.

The next day we went to a new place called…. Um…. I have absolutely no idea. Anyway, when we had arrived in ***** we checked into a really nice hotel, that had a sauna, lots of nice people, a game room, and it also had all meals included! It was amazing. It wasn’t a big day. So after dinner we just went to bed.

The next day we went horse riding! It was really fun. We had to horse ride on the most narrow paths. There were some paths that were right on the edge of the cliff. There was this 1 area where if the horse tripped you would fall off a mountain! It was crazy. I shared a horse with mum, so I was really squished. And by the end of the horse riding I couldn’t cross my legs they were so sore! At the end of the horse riding there was a great view of the crater. It was like a little Lake Atitlán, but cooler. It was a hole that was filed with water. Anyway, it was very cool (I will show a photo). Then after the horse ride we went back home into the Turkish bath. It. Was. AMAZING!

The next day we were going to drive back to Quito. But we didn’t just sit in a normal seat, we sat it the boot of a truck! It was AWESOME. It was cold, windy and uncomfortable, but it was still really cool. When we had arrived in Quito we were staying in a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ hotel! We were staying in a five star hotel near an airport, because we were going to fly to Galapagos! If you don’t know what the Galapagos is, 80% of the fauna is no where else on the planet! Anyway, back to the fancy hotel. It had a big warm pool, buffet breakfast, a sauna and so much more. And when I went to bed I slept like a baby. So comfortable 🤤.

THE END

Fun Facts

What is guinea pig called when you eat it?

Answer: Cuy.

How many languages are there in the world?

Answer: 7,117

What is the world record for the most amount of push-ups?

Answer: The most number of non-stop push-ups is 10,507 by Minoru Yoshida of Japan. Wow that’s a lot! I don’t think I could beat that guy.