Ecuador day 7: Vamos a Tena!

This morning we rose bright and early to catch first a bus to Riobamba and from there to Tena, out east in the rainforest (tropical rainforests, oh my!). We packed the rest of the fruit from yesterday's market trip and headed out to the station, saying our farewells to Guaranda.

The ride was mostly uneventful, except that Chimborazo (tallest mountain in Ecuador, tallest in the world if you measure from the Earth's center instead of sea level, inactive volcano) was for once on the trip not shrouded in mist. We saw the whole thing!

Unfortunately the bus window was pretty dirty and also damp with condensation, so I didn't get many decent photos. 

We also saw a few vicunyas, the llama relatives that only live really high in the Andes, on the slopes of mountains. They were really cute! I saw a small herd of them loping down a hillside, very picturesque. 

After we passed Chimborazo we stopped in Riobamba for a bus transfer and an early lunch (we had an hour layover). Then we were on our way to Tena! It was neat watching the landscape slowly change from high mountains to low mountains to foothills to hills to relatively flat. The plant life changed too, from grassy slopes and conifers to more and more trees as the elevation came down. Eventually we were in a massive forest of trees, bushes, flowers, and all sorts of things I couldn't identify. 

We finally reached Tena after about five hours, hopped off, found a taxi, and got to our hostel. It's on the outskirts of the city, far from the hustle and bustle and noise. It's also up on a bit of a hill so the view from the patio is quite nice. 

Looking out upon the city from the hotel

We lay in bed for a few minutes, recovering from the heat (it was a warm, sunny day, and the bus became quite uncomfortable by the end), and then we journeyed out upon Tena. 

We walked down to the river where there's a cool footbridge that stops at an island in the middle (I think two rivers come together here, so it may not actually be an island). There's a neat little nature area that was unfortunately closed for construction, so we climbed the bridge's tower and looked out upon the city. 

You can see the hotel from here (there's a pink building in the upper left on the slope)

When the rivers come together, you can see a line where the different silt concentrations mix. 

Looking east, out toward the flat areas and the deep jungle. West are the first foothills of the Andes. 

And so many bromeliads! The trees were covered in them, to the point where you couldn't quite tell what was tree and what wasn't.

We had dinner at a place called the Guayusa Lounge (guayusa is a kind of tea very popular in this area), which serves decent Mexican food and therefore Patrice loves it. They also serve delicious drinks, and during happy hour they're half off, which brings them down to $1.75. We enjoyed that, and then played drunk (well, tipsy) chess. Patrice won, but we didn't notice for five moves because we were distracted by the other side of the board.