Twenty minutes and $2 for a cab and we are in the neighbouring village of Bella Vista and the beginning of a 4.5 km hike to Media Luna. Our walk climbed gradually for the first few km along a red volcanic dirt road that wandered through cattle pasture, banana and coffee plantations, papaya, and random avocado which overhang the road and threaten to fall on unsuspecting heads.
Sally was taking a photograph of a very large tree beyond the roadside fence. She had to step up a bit and peer through the barbed wire to get the shot. Suddenly she yelled and jumped backward and started swatting at her foot. She had stepped on an ant nest. Small ants, big bites. We quickly removed her shoe and brushed off the ants which were difficult to see and seemed to keep coming out of her shoe.
We continued past where the road ended and the narrow, slippery climbing began. After some attempt to avoid the mud, Sally gave up and benefited from the soothing mud treatment on the ant bites.
We started the day thinking that Media Luna was another volcanic crater, or in this case perhaps a half crater. No, it is actually a perfect cinder cone covered in myconia, fern and sedge and we only realized this when we broke through the low mist near the top of our hike and there it was. Media Luna…..half moon.
Visibility improved as we headed back, and we had clearer views down the mountain of Puerto Ayora and Tortuga Bay in the distance.
We finished our day back in Bella Vista where you may remember we were a few weeks back. OK, there was a motive, fresh cheese empanadas and spiked cane juice, well deserved we told ourselves.
For more pictures, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sataylor/sets/72157624916261339/
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