Animal
KiNGDOM EcuADOR
Words by MARIA ALAFOUZOU Photos by CLAUDIA LEGGE
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t 283,000 sq km, Ecuador is tiny in comparison to its neighbours Colombia and Peru, but its biodiversity more than makes up for its size. As one of 17 countries in the world classified as ‘megadiverse’, Ecuador is home to a beautiful coastline, the Andes mountain range, the Amazon rainforest, cloud forests, historical cities and, of course, the Galapagos Islands. The country’s main export is petroleum, but Ecuador has done well to leverage its natural assets for tourism over the past few decades – ensuring the country has a resource that if managed responsibly, won’t run dry.
After two weeks, Claudia and I had seen life regenerate in the most inspiring ways – a volcano exploding, a decaying piece of wood glowing with bacteria in the pitch black of night and giant tortoise hatchlings leaving their eggshells behind. But as we sat in the dimmed cabin on our flight home, we felt that we had only seen a tiny fraction of what this country has to offer.
I flew to Ecuador, along with the underwater photographer Claudia Legge, to capture the natural beauty of this South American country. In Quito we walked for hours through the cobbled streets of the Old Town, exploring markets and speaking to locals as volcanoes loomed around us. In the Andes, home to the spectacled bear and the Andean fox, we encountered a group of llamas who begged us for carrots, but then spat on us indignantly when we refused to give them any more. In the Galapagos we spent five days discovering species we had never dreamed of seeing – jet black iguanas that sprayed salt water from their noses and flightless cormorants who had traded in the ability to fly to swim in the ocean. At the end of our trip we found ourselves high in the cloud forest hiking to waterfalls and skybiking hundreds of feet across a canopy filled with toucans and hummingbirds.
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QUITO ECUADOR
city iN tHE SKy Quito, Ecuador
Words by ISOBEL FINBOW Photos by CLAUDIA LEGGE
S
tanding almost 3,000 metres above sea level, Quito – the Ecuadorian capital – is one of the highest cities in the world. Cradled in a long valley no more than three miles wide, the place is hemmed in by a wall of mountain peaks. One side offers views of the magical Old Town with its winged Maria statue, the other has volcanoes, forests and swooping birds of prey. Its sprawling and well-preserved colonial centre dates back to 1534 when the Spanish ousted the Incas as rulers. Known for decades as a halfway house for wealthy Americans or straggly backpackers on their way between Andean treks, the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands, Quito has in recent years become a destination in its own right. As well as the mysterious Old Town – with its plazas, baroque churches and narrow passageways – barrios like the bohemian Guápulo beckon. Here, pastel houses and bars tumble down steep cobbled streets frequented by local artists and musicians, offering the magnetic appeal of a bygone era. Quiteños are reserved and painstakingly polite: residents will greet each person they pass with a formal buenos días. But behind their mild manners lies a vibrant political tradition. A mural on the highway celebrating the dynamic women of the city’s history, like independence heroine Manuela Cañizares, acts as a testament to Quito’s revolutionary spirit. Recently a Left-leaning government has prioritised social issues, so while health and education have improved immeasurably since 2007, high taxation on imported luxury goods still frustrates the locals. A bottle of Chilean wine might set you back £12; the latest iPhone £650. The city is currently shrugging off a tradition of fusty services with thrilling new restaurants. Young, creative types are hanging out at the new coffee, cycling and indiefilm joints springing up in the La Floresta area, while a crop of bars and microbreweries are bringing nightlife to Old Town. That said, the best of this new crowd is limited to a handful, so foodies might not be impressed every night. Brilliant hotels are also scarce and pricey, although the salon glamour of Casa Gangotena is worth the extra money. The so-called city in the clouds is undoubtedly moving forward, but seems determined to do so at its own pace.
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QUITO ECUADOR
QUITO ECUADOR
TO STAY
TO EAT
CASA GANGOTENA
JW MARRIOTT
ROCOTO
LA CUCHARA DE SAN MARCOS
CALLE SÍMON BOLÍVAR, 170401
AVENIDA ORELLANA 1172 Y AVENIDA AMAZONAS, 170150
CALLE J.CARRION
CALLE JUNÍN
+593 2 400 8000
+593 2 297 2000
+593 99 523 1361
+593 2 295 1713
casagangotena.com Rooms from £270 per night
marriott.co.uk Rooms from £79 per night
rocotocafe.com
facebook.com/lacuchara.desanmarcos
This renovated 1926 mansion in the centre of the Old Town is by far Quito’s best hotel. In looks and service Casa Gangotena sets a high bar – beautiful designs are complemented by flawless service. With 31 rooms, the place is small enough to feel like a private abode but with all the trappings of a five-star hotel. A conservatory filled with exotic flowers is ideal for afternoon tea, there’s a wood-panelled bar perfect for late-night drinks, while the restaurant serves up delicious Ecuadorian food. Rooms are spacious and elegant, furnished with a neutral colour palette and outfitted with oversized bathrooms. Take advantage of the concierge who knows everything there is to know about Quito.
In the centre of the city, with the Pichincha volcano looming overhead, lies the imposing JW Marriott. The hotel offers a predictably sweeping lobby mobbed by flowers, a useful concierge to hook you up with the best restaurants and activities and a pool area where you can catch the morning sun. From the sixth floor upwards the rooms have panoramic views from east to west, an imperative in this vista-obsessed city.
Surrounded by vividly coloured colonial houses, with a tree hung with lampshades sat in the middle, Rocoto lights up for jazz bands at the weekends. This is one of a handful of bars and eateries on the square, ideal for European-style people watching. Food here is a modern take on Ecuadorian, but the cocktails alone are worth a visit. Inside the exposed brickwork and long bar with wine glasses hanging from the ceiling give Rocoto the feel of a Barcelona tapas bar. Ask the patron about parties going on in the city – the former nightclub owner always has one ear to the underground.
At the bottom of Calle Junín, one of the loveliest streets in Old Town, you’ll find this restaurant and gallery. Good vegetarian cuisine is hard to come by in Quito, a city that runs on stewed goat and pan-fried meat, but La Cuchara de San Marcos is a haven for any vegetarian. Using soy and meat replacements inventively to create dishes like ‘goat stew’ and ‘hamburgers’, Cuchara lies at the quirkier end of the spectrum. The sunny courtyard dining space is romanticised by fairylights and candles at night. You’ll find cocktails mixed by bicycle and coffee brewed in a giant test tube over a bunsen burner.
ZAZU
EL GATO PORTOVEJENSE
CALLE MARIANO AGUILERA
GENERAL ULPIANO PAEZ Y 18 DE SEPTIEMBRE
+593 2 254 3559
+593 2 255 7863
zazuquito.com
facebook.com/elgatoportovejense
Regarded as one of the top restaurants in Latin America, Zazu is still at the vanguard of Quito’s dining scene almost a decade after it opened. The strength of its menu, which uses organic produce and is inspired by local dishes, lies in seafood – the langoustine with passion fruit vinegar and stone crab ceviche are both unforgettable. So are the brilliant mad-scientist concoctions, steaming into life as waiters pour over liquid nitrogen. Good wine is hard to come by in Quito, but Zazu has the best collection in the city with thousands of bottles housed in a tower-like library of booze. This is one of the few places where it is advisable to dress up. Make sure you book ahead at weekends.
At local staple El Gato, you will not see another tourist. It might look shabby with its plastic chairs and telenovelas playing on the TV in the corner but the menu, a mammoth list of ceviches and other seafood dishes, is anything but downmarket. Named after its green-eyed owner from the coastal city of Portoviejo (who will pull up a chair and tell you about the time he served Hugo Chávez) each of El Gato’s dishes comes with a battalion of salsas, fresh lime and plantain chips. Try the feather-light peanut jipijapa ceviche or the viagra – El Gato claims this fish stew has aphrodisiac qualities, but in reality it is so rich that the only thing likely to be getting dirty is your napkin.
URKO
LA BURGUESA
CALLE ISABEL LA CATÓLICA, N24-862
CALLE MUROS N27-193 Y GONZÁLEZ SUÁREZ, 170135
+593 2 256 3180
+593 2 252 3009
urko.rest
facebook.com/laburguesaquito
Opened this year, Urko represents a new Ecuadorian dining experience. Decorated in a neat loft style and manned by efficient, glowing Argentinian waiters, Urko draws a young crowd who sip on apple gin and tonics while listening to a well-crafted Balearic playlist. The menu takes traditional dishes like Ecuadorian potato soup and adds gastronomic flourishes – there are plenty of foam and nitrogen powder garnishes here. Save some space for pudding: Urko’s take on the Ecuadorian staple of figs and cheese is mind-blowing.
If you need a break from the Ecuadorian staples of soups, ceviches and corn, then make a beeline for La Burguesa. This buzzing joint, just off the city’s swanky González Suárez street, serves up gourmet burgers with hearty side portions. Truffle oil chips sit alongside smoky patties, which come in every conceivable size and flavour combination.
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QUITO ECUADOR
TO DO
TO SHOP
CHURCHES
SANTA CLARA MARKET
CHEZ TIFF CHOCOLATE
CALLE ANTONIO DE ULLOA
CALLE LA RONDA
+593 2 252 2321
+593 2 229 0020
Residents buy and sell local produce at the hive that is the Santa Clara Market. You will pass stores stacked with quinoa and cacao, mountains of vegetables with little doorways forged to allow the seller in and out of the pile and fruits with names you can’t pronounce. To one side is the medicinal herb area, fragrant with chamomile and tarragon; to another lies the flower garden, with orchids and baby’s breath. Quiteños tend to stick around for lunch, perhaps sharing a spit-roasted pig with potato cakes, or fish soup and popcorn. Purchase ceramics and wicker at bargain prices upstairs or in the surrounding streets. Haggling is a formality and can shave a few dollars off the asking price.
Tucked down La Ronda, Quito’s most historic street, Chez Tiff will make your eyes pop and your tummy rumble with its Willy Wonka array of Ecuadorian chocolates. Here you’ll find fuchsiacoloured bars, quinoa truffles, and every percentage of cocoa on the planet. Cacao, as well as coffee and plantain, is one of Ecuador’s greatest (and finest) exports, so the ‘when in Rome’ policy heavily applies here.
With an unremarkable interior, the Basílica is best viewed from outside or from the top of its tower. Here the gargoyles typical of the neo-gothic style have been replaced with Ecuadorian animals like turtles and dolphins that appear to dive out through the stonework. If you can handle vertigo, climb all the way to the top for a sprawling view of the city and the clock towers which never show the correct time. La Compañía church off Plaza Grande has a dazzling interior, lined with frescoes and gold leaf. Head there on a Monday morning to catch the weekly changing of the guard in the adjacent square, and possibly spot President Rafael Correa giving an address from his balcony.
BASÍLICA
CASA DE GUAYASAMÍN CALLE MARIANO CALVACHE E18-94 Y LOREZO CHÁVEZ +593 2 244 6455
guayasamin.org The house of legendary painter, Oswaldo Guayasamín, opened to the public after his death in 1999. Voyeuristic tours sift through his dining room where he entertained Che Guevara, his bedroom with his collection of pre-Columbian erotic sculptures, his 1970s bathroom with a sunken tub and into his wardrobe to see his painter’s smocks. Half-indigenous Guayasamín built his Chapel to Mankind on the site, a huge stone temple filled with paintings depicting the suffering of Latin American people. TELEFÉRICO
As the Teleférico cable car climbs further up into the sky, the city below starts to look like a toy town. From the top – 4,053 metres above sea level – the whole world seems to unfold below, with volcano peaks mysteriously appearing and vanishing with the clouds. From the upper cable car station, the fit can hike to the peak of Pichincha, one of the four volcanoes in the area, or find the nearby horseback tours. A word of warning: 1,000 extra metres of altitude makes a difference, and can lead to a loss of coordination, and helpless giggles. ARENAS MARKET LUIS VARGAS TORRES AND FRANCISCO DE CALDAS
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Just down the hill from the gothic cathedral is Arenas market, a mismatched jumble of second-hand clothes, tools, pots, books and vinyls. At this locals’ bazaar you can find a cheap fur-lined jacket, or peep into the cramped stalls to see a crinkle-faced woman deftly working an ancient foot-powered sewing machine. Unlike many Latin American markets the mellow stallholders will leave you to browse as you please, with no one hassling you to make a purchase. SUITCASE MAGAZINE
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TO DRINK + DANCE
TIPS + TRICKS
CAFÉ MOSAICO
CAFÉ DIOS NO MUERE
CALLE MANUEL SAMANIEGO 30 Y ANTEPARA
CALLE JUAN JOSÉ FLORES
+593 2 254 2871
+593 2 257 1995
cafemosaicoecuador.com
facebook.com/café-dios-no-muere
Café Mosaico is a strong contender for the best view in Quito. Set up on the city limits on the mountain by Itchimbia Park, the bar’s top balcony gives a panoramic vista all the way down south, and up to the high rises of the modern north. Some of Quito’s monuments – including the bullring and the gothic basilica – leap out as you stare. At sunset the city takes on a pink-gold hue, just before the streetlights pop out and the mountains turn black. The café offers dining, but stick to the olives and a gin and tonic before heading to a restaurant or out for more drinks.
Another jewel on Junín, Café Dios No Muere is a rickety threefloor building with a gruesome history – it’s the place where lynched president García Moreno’s body was said to have been stashed in 1875. Blues and disco accompany the creaking floorboards, linked together with ladder-like staircases. The top floor, decked out with grand but comfortably faded sofas, is the place for a glass of red wine or local craft beer. Ring the bell and the American owner’s young son comes rushing up, sometimes wearing a bow tie.
CAFÉ GUÁPULO
BANDIDO BREWING
CAMINO DE ORELLANA N27-492
CALLE JOSE J.OLMEDO
+593 2 513 2424
+593 2 228 6504
facebook.com/café-guapulo
facebook.com/bandidobrewing
Locals say that one night, during the filming of the kidnap thriller Proof of Life, Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan came for a drink at Café Guápulo, where Manu Chao’s band had coincidentally stumbled in and started to jam. The bar’s terrace looks out over the neighbouring valley of Cumbayá, and on a clear evening, ideally with a steaming cup of rum-based canelazo in hand and with the fire crackling, you can spot the snowy cap of Cayambe volcano. Café Guápulo is rare in that it stays packed until late, and after hours the party heads downstairs to the basement for Buena Vista Social Club sing-alongs.
In 2013 Bandido micro-brewery introduced the art of craft beer to Quito, which residents have taken to like hops to a barrel. Three American dudes with a passion for a pint took over the disused church space in Old Town, which – still complete with a chapel area and pews – is now the spot for raucous mid-week drinking. Beer connoisseurs will love the honey ginger saison, while their accomplices can try the mango maracuya cider. All drinks are brewed with water straight from the Andes. The ‘most wanted’ chalkboard lists people who have been bought a drink by their travelling friends who have already passed through.
OCTAVA DE CORPUS
POBRE DIABLO
CALLE JUNÍN E2-167 Y MONTUFAR
CALLE ISABEL LA CATÓLICA N24-274 Y GALAVIS
+593 2 295 2989
+593 2 223 5194
octavadecorpus.com
elpobrediablo.com
Don Jaime meets you at the door of Octava de Corpus like a slightly mad relative; an impression heightened as you climb the stairs to the dining room. The space is packed with knick-knacks and curiosities: doll’s houses, ceramics, gold-leafed Japanese screens and an ostrich egg that Jaime will happily tell you was the first ever to arrive in Ecuador. Food is not Octavo de Corpus’s strong point, although the Ecuadorian truffles and rose liqueur between courses are a nice touch, but come for a glass or two of their rare homegrown wines.
Pobre Diablo, or the Poor Devil, tempts you inside with low lighting and small tables set in front of the stage and on the second-floor balcony. Live music could be anything from international jazz trios to the city’s geeky indie band, La Máquina Chameleon. Here the beards, bandanas and chequered shirts come out of the woodwork as people glance approvingly at each other, sipping on pisco sours.
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Unlike its Argentinean and Colombian counterparts, the Ecuadorian capital is not a late-night city midweek. By 11PM most of the town has wound down and by midnight it’s downright spooky. Head to your restaurant with time to spare and try to get into your bar before 11PM; owners will sometimes do a lock-in and let you party until late behind closed doors. Download the smartphone app Easy Taxi for calling a safe, registered cab at night: it’s best to take precautions after dark. Rather than four seasons a year Quito can experience four seasons a day, with burning hot mornings – you’re 3,000 metres closer to the sun – cloudy afternoons, the chance of a tropical storm and freezing, alpine nights. Layers are key, as is a decent sunscreen and something cosy for the evening.
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cLOuDy witH A cHANcE OF tARANtuLA
choc贸 Forest, Ecuador
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furry leg emerged from the hole as he continued to prod it with a thin stick. “Something very special of the forest,” he said, beckoning us closer. I turned to Claudia for reassurance but she offered none, and remained where she stood on the muddy path. “Come see, it is a friend” he said, motioning for me to turn on my headlamp. I hadn’t quite grown accustomed to Jorge’s English, but I knew that if he was calling it a friend, it probably wasn’t what I would think of as a friend. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see anything. In the Chocó Forest the sun goes down at 6PM and the darkness sets in fast. I snapped on my headlamp and it opened onto the red blinking setting. In flashes I saw that the furry leg belonged to a large tarantula. “I don’t want to see it!” I yelled, and switched off my lamp, closing my eyes for good measure. “I’m fine right here,” Claudia said to Jorge in her polite English accent as he looked on eagerly. I buried my face into her shoulder, she grabbed my arm in turn and held me near. Along with Claudia, the trip’s photographer, I was almost two weeks into a trip across
Ecuador, and we had grown very close – from strangers to bosom buddies within the space of a fortnight. Claudia had no choice but to be initiated into the friendship early on, when during a bumpy landing in Quito, with tears streaming down my face, I said to her: “Okay, I’m going to hold your hand now.” I squeezed until her fingers turned blue. Having survived high altitudes in Quito, llama spit in the Andes, a whitetip shark in the Galapagos and the abuse of a belligerent Florida couple on our way to the cloud forest, we were now onto our next obstacle – a night walk through the Chocó Forest led by the Ecuadorian equivalent of Tarzan. At night what the cloud forest lacks in light it makes up for in sound. Which in turn feeds the imagination with fantastic fodder for paranoia – was that the sound of a tarantula working its way across some leaves? Or a puma crawling into place for attack? Or maybe it was the sound of something slimy inching closer and closer to my exposed ankles.
“Aha!” Jorge exclaimed, and jumped into the bushes as I pulled up my socks. He came out seconds later with his hands cupped together. “Okay, now what is this you think?” he asked, and walked closer. “Do not come any closer,” I said, wagging my finger and pulling Claudia next to me for protection. “It is tree frog!” he said, revealing a tiny creature, its heart beating so hard I could see the organ pounding through its skin. The frog jumped out of Jorge’s hands and he somehow caught it, mid-air, releasing it a few seconds later after it had urinated all over him. Sounds my ears couldn’t detect would set Jorge off and he jumped again, disappearing into the trees and then pursuing something back on the path. I watched, my headlight landing on a thin yellow and black coral snake, and then Jorge right behind, creeping up on it. “Do NOT pick that up!” I yelled. Claudia and I remained joined at the hip for the duration of that night walk. When we were out of the jungle and back on the dirt road we relaxed, no longer worried that Jorge was going to pick
up, say, a python and throw it at us, yelling “catch this friend!” After the terror we were enchanted. A piece of glowing wood, thousands of fireflies, colourful birds and ten lightning flashes later, we were back in our room at Mashpi Lodge, completely cocooned in what felt like a treehouse suspended above the forest. Created by former Quito mayor Roque Sevilla, Mashpi is all recycled steel and tropical wood, built on land that was set to be mined. Here in the Chocó Forest, land is important – only 24 per cent of the biodiverse hotspot which grows from Panama through Colombia, Ecuador and parts of Peru remains. By training local people who used to work as loggers to staff the lodge instead, Mashpi has helped save one of the last areas of old growth in the Chocó Forest, playing an integral role in the initiative to protect 42,000 further acres of the forest. The plumbing system uses water from local rivers, and is filtered in a natural water treatment plant using bacteria before it returns to the forest. They use local and organic produce as much as possible in their kitchen, and encourage the education of their ""
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guests, offering lectures about the area’s ecology on a daily basis. About a three-and-a-half hour drive from Quito, Mashpi is accessible but isolated – the last hour coming in is on a dirt road running through thick forest. The next day Claudia and I emerged from our room in headto-toe expedition gear. We wore mosquito bracelets and special cloud forest bandanas and wellies, our Mashpi lodge bottles clipped onto our backpacks. We could easily have passed for a bird-watching couple on our honeymoon. On the terrace overlooking a great swathe of the forest, Jorge stood bright-eyed at 6AM, spotting birds for us that were hundreds of metres away. We saw choco toucans, blue-grey tanagers, collared trogons, ochre-breasted tanagers and palevented thrushes. Over 4,000 species of birds make the forest their home. A biodiversity hotspot unique for its altitude – running between 500 and 1,400 metres – the cloud forest is like a rainforest but colder. Almost constantly shrouded in cloud, the atmosphere also creates a unique home for plants that thrive on the constant moisture. Claudia was far more interested in bird-watching than I was and I envied her early-morning enthusiasm. But her challenge would come soon enough at the hummingbird sanctuary. For a girl who wouldn’t flinch if you held a knife to her neck, Claudia was awfully squeamish about hummingbirds. How she could be so uncomfortable around these beautiful creatures puzzled me. By contrast I was completely enthralled by the tiny birds. I even held two of the nectar feeders next to my ears to experience the full acoustic effect of wings beating 55 times per second. Claudia, struggling to photograph them, would duck and squeal when one got near her. In a continuation of our Ecuadorian honeymoon Claudia and I set off for a session of ‘sky biking’. Jorge gave us a set of helmets, and strapped us into a bicycle contraption that hooked onto a wire with me pedalling at the back and Claudia sitting at the front. With a cocky wave of my hand I said to Claudia: “I got this.” I lifted my feet off the pedals and the bicycle lurched forward into the forest. Within a few seconds we were hundreds of feet in the air, sliding across the canopy. “For the love of god,” I yelled, looking down and trying to move as quickly as I could. “Pedal faster!” Claudia yelled from out in front. “I’m trying,” I replied, out of breath adding: “Don’t stop taking pictures.” Vertigo or no vertigo, we were still on the job. It felt like years by the time we made it to the other side where Jorge was waiting for us. “Okay, now you go back,” he said, and flipped me around so that I was 120
in front and Claudia behind. Being in front turned out to be a lot worse. We returned to our room and showered after our sky-high experience, reading under the crisp white sheets of our beds for the rest of the afternoon. A few hours later we were halfway through a three-hour hike to a waterfall, deep inside primary-growth forest, slipping on mud and swinging from thick vines that Jorge would find for us. The vegetation was too dense for bird-spotting so Jorge put his forest knowledge to use by pointing out fascinating plants. We passed several killing trees along our way – a parasite that grows roots from the top of the tree down and over the course of several years wraps itself around the original tree, completely enveloping it. The walking palm was another novelty, a tree whose trunk never touches the ground, but instead has several thick roots that grow to allow the tree to reach more sunlight. We knew we were getting close when we heard the sound of thundering water and felt mist on our faces. As we descended, the smell of moss filtered through our noses; in the opening an electric-blue butterfly floated gently through the air. Being an underwater photographer, Claudia insisted that I got into the deep pool of cold water beneath the waterfall. But I offered up Jorge instead, who stripped down to his underwear and dived gracefully into the water. After much encouragement on Claudia’s behalf I ended up getting in as well, but only to the waist. Early the next day we climbed a 26-metre observation tower to watch the cloud forest in action. When we got to the top I opened up a maracuya fruit and sucked out the pulp, while Claudia snapped photographs of our surroundings. Within seconds we went from perfect visibility to almost full cloud cover, and then five minutes later the clouds disappeared again. We asked Jorge if you could predict the comings and goings of the clouds and he shook his head to say no, smiling as if we had just asked the silliest question in the world. THE LOWDOWN Travel to Mashpi Lodge and the Galapagos Islands with Metropolitan Touring. Rooms at Mashpi Lodge from £919 per night. Prices of accommodation on La Pinta Yacht vary according to itinerary length. THE WALKING PALM TREE
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