Chasing guayacanes! (Ecuador)

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While I was in Cuenca at the hat shop, Andres told me that at the moment there was the “florecimiento de los Guayacanes”, a tree that flowers for about 8 days once a year!

I went back to the Hostel and told my friend Anna since I knew she loves plants and we made the decision to go.

Getting there wasn’t easy at all! No one actually knew how to get there. I googled it, talked to the people at the Hostel, asked at the people at the tourist info, whatsapped a tour company that told me the tours were over, facebooked the Ecuador tourism for the zone but I got no real information!

Some people said to go to Loja, others to Machala, then from one of those towns people said to go to Celica, Pindal, Cazaderos, or Mangahurco! It was so frustrating the fact that no one really knew!

At the end Anna and I decided to take a bus to Machala but when we arrived at the bus station the woman at the counter told us to go to Loja... so that’s what we did!

Somewhere between Cuenca and Loja

Four hours later we arrived in Loja and asked how to get to the florecimiento but once again we got 4 opinions, 50-50... we decided to get to Zapotillo.

We had to wait in Loja for two and a half hours for the next bus so we decided to go and have some lunch. This time I tried “encebollado”, a tuna fish soup full of cebolla, onions.

At 3:30pm we left loja, the bus was packed, Ana was seating next to a rude lady but the sight outside the window was impressive! There were mountains all around, everything was green and at one point it got cloudy on top of the mountains and it felt like looking at a cloud forest.

The 5 hour ride turned into a 7 hour ride, the last couple of hours were foggy and bumpy but finally at 10:30pm we arrived in zapotillo!

We got off the bus and went looking for a hotel to sleep in. The first one only had one room left and the guy in front of us got it, the second one only had one room but some people were waiting too, the third one was $15 per person with breakfast but I asked for a better price and we each paid $14... great discount!

The next morning I woke up early to go figure out how to get to cazaderos. I walked down the street and a guy told me to go back up the street and ask the bus company but no luck, the bus didn’t go where we needed to go.

Then I walked to the main square and tried to find the camionetas that supposedly take people to Mangahurco, but nothing was there. I saw a government building and asked, somebody took me upstairs to a window less office where they explained how to get there. With a map of the Loja district in hand I went back to the Hostel to get Anna and after breakfast we went to the spot where the guys at the office told me there would be transportation. Well, it turned out no transportation was there; we could only hire a private car that would cost us a lot so we decided to go to the main plaza and hoped for the best.

The only thing to see in Zapotillo: a half dried river!

Once at the main square we sat down in one of the benches and shortly Anna went for a stroll.

This is me... waiting patiently!

When she came back she said that I could ask the local girl waiting with bags sitting on another bench where she was heading. We were really hoping she could tell us the exact time a bus would come to take us to cazaderos but no luck there either, she was going to wait for more than 2 hours for the next bus!

As I walked back to Anna a guy approached me to say he could take us for $2.50 each to paletilla; I said I would ask my friend. I got out the map I was given in the office and figured out that Paletilla was closer to Mangahurco and cazaderos so we jumped in his pickup truck.

The ride was so much more pleasant than with a bus! We could see all the vegetation and got to talk to some locals who shared a little bit about the flowers we saw and the Guayacanes.

Our ride!

After an hour we finally arrived in Paletilla, a super small town. We got dropped off in the middle of town and there was absolutely nothing! This didn’t look promising!

I immediately talked to the locals to ask when the next bus to Mangahurco was and they said maybe around 3:30pm... 5 hours later!!! 🙄so I kept asking and they pointed me out to one street where cars going in the direction of cazaderos sometimes stop and take people.

Within 2 minutes Ana and I were sitting on plastic chairs in front of a pharmacy shop chit chatting with the shop owner and other ladies.

Within 10 minutes a pick up truck stopped but it was already full, they said they only had space in the back if we didn’t matter... we thought we didn’t and we jumped in!

We sat in the back with two other guys and pretty soon we realized that the ride was going to be dusty and bumpy! I felt as if I was back in Malawi, not as bad as going up to the mushroom farm but as dusty as getting to Mzuzu.

The ride was so bumpy I started to get sick and was prepared for the worst but after an hour we finally arrived!

As we got out of the truck I saw Ana and started laughing, she looked ridiculously dirty and then I realized I must look the same:

I was covered in dirt!

Standing outside of the truck a lady said: “I got rooms” so it made our decision of staying in Mangahurco super easy!

Our hotel!

Mangahurco is an extremely small town with only one hotel, a couple of corner shops, a handful of restaurants, a plaza, and a church. We spent the whole day around our hotel, I laid on the hammock for hours taking a nap and talking to Lorena, our host.

For eating we went behind the hotel to a local lady who cooks and has tables in the middle of the street!

The second day we were woken up by Lorena knocking on our door at 7:20am and saying we should wake up now to have breakfast and see if we could get a ride to go see the Guayacanes!

Here we are having the only breakfast we could get: fried eggs and patacones!

By 9:30am no one had passed by in the direction of cazaderos, where the Guayacanes were blooming. A local guy was trying to charge $40 to take us there and back, even though the tourism guy in charge had told me the day before it would be $30. I sat at the park and the guy came to talk to me and lowered his price to $35 saying that no one was going there anymore! I told him that the day before I saw at least 10 cars going that way, he told me that it wouldn’t be the case. At that point I knew all he wanted was our money so I said we were going to wait a couple of hours and if no one could take us we would look for him. I walked out of the park and within 10 minutes we were on the back of another guest’s pick up truck!

We could see the guayacanes approaching!

As expected the ride was bumpy and dusty but this time we were prepared!

I got very car sick but after an hour and a half we finally arrived were there were many guayacanes and our ride stopped the car. We all got out and took time to take pictures. Although it wasn’t in full bloom it was impressive to see how in the middle of the bosque seco (dry forest) were all these trees blooming beautiful yellow flowers.

My favorite sight was seeing the very tall cacti mingling in between all the guayacanes!

By 1pm we had arrived back at Mangahurco and we chilled all day and did nothing since there wasn’t much to do (not even wifi!) it was perfect to talk the the locals and get to know Lorena even more.

The next day we decided to leave but since there is only one bus that leaves town at 3am we decided to skip it and try our luck by asking for a lift to the nearest town.

At 6:20 am we got woken up by Lorena saying that a car was leaving right away! But we were still in bed and impossible to pack and leave right away so we decided to let it go.

At around 9:30am we got our first lift: out of Mangahurco and into the next town, Paletillas. We rode with Johnny, an Ecuadorian gardener who lives in Italy and was on holidays visiting his family. While driving he shared about his family, his life, and even got to meet his dad and daughter!

Johnny left us at the entrance of Paletillas with some locals that were also waiting for a car and within five minutes we were seating in Darwin's pick up truck. Darwin ended up being a worker from the preservation movement in the area and during the hour ride he told me a lot of information about the dry forest and the plans they have to preserve it and to educate the locals. I really enjoyed talking to him but when we got to the highway he left us at the intersection and he turned right to go to Zapotillo and we needed to go the other direction so we said thanks and got off the truck!

Our third ride was rather interesting... I'll leave it for later!

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!