Jan 12, 2007 - The Last Day (Sniff, sniff)!

Today-our last day-was a busy one. We got up at 6 am (!!) so we could get a 7 am bus to Otavalo. Otavalo is a town a couple hours away from Quito with a huge indigenous market . The Otavaleños are known for their weaving - they make carpets and bags and scarves and blankets out of sheep, llama, and alpaca wool. This market is much more of a tourist-oriented market than any other in the country. Even though it's only 2 1/4 hours from Quito, we got caught in traffic and arrived at 10 am, which meant that we had exactly two hours of shopping before we had to get back on the bus, head back to Quito, grab our bags, and head to the airport to go to Guayaquil.
I needed to visit the Immigration office in Guayaquil before it closed that evening. Our flight left the next morning at 8 am, and apparently I wouldn't be allowed out of the country unless I had some kind of form from Immigration showing when I entered the country.

Two hours was not nearly enough time at the market (well, it was enough for Dave, but I had left all my gift buying to the last minute, so it wasn't enough time for me!). When 12:00 struck, we had to leave. The following pictures are of the trip to the market and the market itself. It was a far cry from the indigenous market in Saquisili, that's for certain!










































































































































After visiting the market, we arrived back in Quito, rushed to the hotel where our backpacks were stored, grabbed our bags while a taxi waited, and rushed to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 3:30 pm and somehow managed to get on a 4 pm flight to Guayaquil. The national flights within Ecuador are so easy and hassle-free. Can you imagine showing up at the airport in Canada or the US with no plane ticket, half an hour before a flight is about to leave, and easily getting on the plane easily? We even had time to buy a cup of coffee!

We arrived in Guayaquil, got our bags, got in a taxi, and arrived at the immigration office at 5:45 pm - 15 minutes before it closed. I'll spare you the details, but my experience there was crazy. No one wanted to help me because my police report was from Quito and their office was in Guayaquil. The way they were acting, it was as though the police report was from another country or something! The "boss" was a real jerk who told me I needed to go back to Quito and get some other form from the comisaria there...even though our flight was leaving early the next a.m. and the comisaria was closed. Thank god there was one really nice cop (the National Police run the immigration office) who wanted to help me, and who was also the only cop there who spoke English. He put me in touch with this crazy lawyer, who also wanted to help me and who also spoke a little English. After paying $40 to the lawyer (supposedly the fee for getting documents notarized, but most definitely with a "tip" thrown in for the lawyer's trouble...and I'm ok with that!) and going through a bunch of hassles, we finally walked out of there at almost 8 pm (1.5 hours after the office closed to the public). Apparently, I was very lucky that the lawyer wanted to help me or I wouldn't have been leaving the country! I don't know what the lawyer did, but I know it took a long time and involved a lot of whispering, hiding from the lawyer's boss, and the lawyer leaving the premises for about 30 minutes with my passport and other documents. It also involved me sitting alone upstairs in a weird office with a bunch of cops watching Ecuador play Venezuela in soccer (football) while they talked about me in really fast Spanish, asked me if I understood what they just said, and then laughed about how I couldn't understand them. I was so relieved to walk out of that office when all was said and done!
We quickly found a place to stay, dropped our stuff, and headed out to explore Guayaquil. Guayaquil is the commercial centre of Ecuador and the country's biggest city (2.5 million people). In the late 90s, Guayaquil invested millions to redevelop the city; in particular, the city's waterfront. Now, El Malecón 2000, the boardwalk/park/playground/shopping/
reacreation/museum/garden area along the Rio Guayas, is one of the most important and modern tourist and commercial areas in South America. It is also an incredibly safe area that is gated (it closes at midnight) and crawling with tourist police. All of the night photos up until here were taken on the Malecón 2000.
At the North end of the Malecón is an area called Las Peñas, which sits on a steep hill and is accessed by a seemingly neverending staircase. Las Peñas is the oldest neighbourhood in Guayaquil and has been gentrified in an effort to showcase its beauty. It is a historically important neighbourhood that has been home to many of Ecuador's presidents and other important people. Now, it is a really touristy area that has a lot of trendy restaurants and bars and gift shops.

We were starving and finally found a place to eat in Las Peñas that didn't look touristy and had some local patrons. Wow, was it ever not touristy! Turned out it was someone's living room that had a few plastic tables set up in it. We sat down and the owner -a cranky woman- came over and barked at us, "Pollo, carne, o pescado?" No menu, no mention of side dishes, just chicken, meat, or fish. I got chicken, Dave got "meat," which turned out to be pork. A few minutes later, we were treated to the worst meal in the entire country. I got a thin, greasy, bony piece of fried chicken, two stale plantain chips with mayonaise on them (?), and rice with soupy beans on the side. Ok, I am a sucker for rice and beans, so I did like that part, but Dave didn't. Dave got a greasy-on-the-outside, dry-on-the-inside, fatty, cardboard-thin piece of pork with the same side dishes. Ew. The good news was that we only paid $2 each for the meal. We weren't disappointed that our last meal was gross; in fact, we found it kind of funny.

After supper, we headed back to our hotel and slept. We had to get up at 5:00 am to be at the airport by 6:00 am. The airport was a bit frustrating - apparently the easy, hassle-free flying is only limited to flights within Ecuador. Anyway, we did make it on the plane and I was allowed back into the US with only minor hassle (relating to the fact that I didn't have a work visa - it was lost with my passport).

Ecuador was so amazing. We were both amazed by the richness of experiences the country has to offer and by the kindness and warmth of the people. We both loved this trip and look forward to going back to visit the Galapagos one day. In the meantime, we are already getting excited about our next adventure: This summer we are heading to Eastern Europe! Thanks to all who kept in touch and sent best wishes and comments about our blog and pictures!

Jan 11, 2007 - Night bus from hell!

After our bike ride we got on a night bus to Quito. We needed to get back to Quito so that I could pick up my passport from the Embassy. From Puerto Lopez, it's an 11 hour bus ride to Quito, so we were really happy to find a bus that left at 8 pm and arrived at around 7 am. We knew that there was somewhat of a problem with night buses being held up at road blocks and robbed at gunpoint, so we were especially happy to find that this night bus was a special high security "executive" bus. On this bus, everyone and their bags are searched prior to getting onboard and people are only allowed to get on at designated stops - no flagging down the bus just anywhere. The driver is also separated from the passengers by a locked bulletproof door.

So, anyway, we were happy about the bus situation...until we actually got on the bus. It was UNBELIEVABLY hot and, because of the extra security, none of the windows opened. We also didn't get the usual breeze from the open door, because we had the extra locked door separating us from it. One of the passengers requested air conditioning, but nothing happened. It was like a sauna. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore...the thought of 11 hours in an oven was too much for me. I went to the passenger who had requested the air conditioning earlier and asked him why we weren't getting air conditioning (talk about a newfound confidence in my Spanish abilities!). He didn't know, but was just as unhappy about the situation as I was, so he banged on the door to the front compartment of the bus. The official opened the door and we complained about the heat. He came in and pushed open the emergency exit on the ceiling of the bus, which let in some air, thank god.

Finally, we thought, we can relax. Wrong! Turns out that our bus was absolutely infested with cockroaches. I am not exaggerating when I say that the bus was literally crawling with them. When we first got on the bus, I saw one and commented on it. Then, I saw one more a little while later and thought, "Hmm, isn't that funny. Two cockroaches on the bus!" Then, a woman across the aisle had a big one drop down onto her head (she went NUTS!). A few minutes later, I reached into my backpack to get something and a cockroach jumped out (the bag was open a little bit). That's when I started to get freaked out. Throughout the next hour or so, we watched coackroaches come out of every crack on the bus. It was a though the awful music that was blasting was driving them out into the aisles! I saw a huge one jump from one luggage rack to the one on the other side of the bus. There was one crawling on the curtain by my window and another one on my armrest. Needless to say, I wanted to kill myself. I'm not particularly afraid of cockroaches, but of course I don't like being trapped in an enclosed space with a large number of them. I felt so claustrophobic and trapped, and just when I was thinking things couldn't get much worse (unless, of course, the cockroaches were spiders), they turned out all the lights on the bus. There we were, in the pitch black (there were dark curtains over the windows so we couldn't even see outside) with cockroaches everywhere. Dave took the window seat (bless his heart) because there was a steady stream of cockroaches moving back and forth along the wall. I somehow managed to fall asleep, as did Dave - probably only because we were exhausted. We both woke up a few times throughout the night brushing bugs off of ourselves...or at least dreaming about it! The morning couldn't come soon enough for me. When we got off that bus at 7 am, we were both very relieved!

Quito was freezing cold at that time of day - an unwelcome change from Puerto Lopez. We got a cab to the same hotel we stayed at last time, despite the weird people who worked there. This time, however, they gave us a room with a "matrimonial bed."That day, Dave worked and I went to the embassy to pick up my passport. In the evening, we took ourselves out for fancy dinner. The restaurant we went to served gourmet versions of typical Ecuadorian food - it was really good! The only picture we have of the day is of the fancy restaurant:

Jan 10, 2007 - Agua Blanca

Today we rented crappy mountain bikes (what did we expect for $2 each?) and decided to ride to an indigenous community called Agua Blanca. Before we headed off, Dave was hungry so he had almuerzo, the cheap set lunch that is traditional here. It always starts off with some kind of soup, then the next course is usually rice, plantains, and meat or fish of some kind. Dave got the potato soup, which included this grotesque hunk of fat, cartilage, and bones that was used to flavour the broth. He didn't actually eat it, we just thought it made a good photo! This whole meal cost $1. 50. Speaking of potato soup, on this trip we learned that potatoes originated in the Andes, where hundreds of types of wild potatoes grow.

This is a street in Puerto Lopez, on our way out of town. Someone's donkey is parked outside the pharmacy.











Our bike ride was about 10 km, which of course isn't long at all, but seemed much longer in the sweltering heat on bikes with gears that didn't work! Still, it was a nice ride. This is a termite colony that we saw on a tree and thought it looked like a turtle. Ever since Dave caught that sea turtle, we have been seeing turtles everywhere!






On the ride, there were cows wandering freely all over the road and the sides of the road. We had no idea where they came from, because there wasn't any sign of farms or houses for several kilometers. All the cows I've seen outside of North America are so thin and emaciated looking; very different from the healthy looking cows we are used to seeing. I don't know if our cows look healthier simply because we pump then full of steriods and antibiotics, if these cows are really malnourished, or if they are just very different breeds that naturally differ in bulkiness. I'm guessing it's probably some combination of these factors.

Me on our bike ride. We loved the way the trees arched over the road and made a tunnel for us to ride through.











Nice view of the countryside that we rode through on our bike ride.












Agua Blanca is the site of an excavation of several Mantena and other pre-Colombian artifacts. They have a small museum in the community that houses some of these artifacts. This is a chair that was thought to be the seat of a leader or some other powerful person.








Some other artifacts.


















These are funeral urns of the Mantena people. The guide who showed these to us said that the urns were not for ashes; rather, the bodies were placed in the urns in a seated, cross-legged, cross-armed position, decorated with jewelry. He said they were a very small people - no more than 1 metre (about 3 feet) tall. Every family had it's own plot; this is one family's plot.












A beautiful bird called a motmot. You can't see it very well in this photo, but these birds have a long tail with two big almond-shaped plumes at the end.










A home and yard in Agua Blanca.













There is a sulphur spring here with mineral-rich mud at the bottom. It reeked like rotten eggs!

















Dave got in, but I didn't want to...partly because of the smell, partly because I didn't want to ride my bike in a wet bathing suit. Ok, mostly because of the smell.











Agua blanca is home to many, many goats. I love goats (and not just for their delicious cheese), so I was pretty happy to see so many cute ones. Many of them had very interesting coats like I had never seen before.
















The goats walked along the very edge of the dirt cliffs.












This mom and kid were so cute.

This goat had crazy spots and was very nimble!


















Cute!

The village church.

On the way home, we were running really late - we had to catch a night bus to Quito. We were riding like crazy and it was starting to get dark. It was looking more and more like we'd barely have time for supper, let alone a shower. We decided that we would flag down a truck or bus and hitch a ride (this is a pretty standard procedure inEcuador, and we had already done this once in Banos). We flagged down the first truck that passed and asked for a lift into town, and the drivers happily obliged. The truck was like a pickup truck, except the back was wooden and had really high sides - so high that there was no way to see into the back of the truck. Dave climbed in the back and with the help of the driver, pulled our bikes up into the truck. Then I climbed in and I immediately noticed that we were in some kind of fish truck! It smelled SO bad (it even drowned out the lingering farty aroma of Dave's dip in the sulphur spring!) and there were a few little fishy remnants lying around. Ew! We didn't want to sit down so we just kind of stood up and leaned against the sides of the truck as it flew down the highway - fun! We were happy to have gotten the ride, and even though the driver didn't ask for any money, we gave him a couple bucks for his trouble. This picture shows us trying to keep our balance while the truck sped down the road; it also shows our fabulous sunglasses purchased in Ecuador after we both managed to forget ours (mine are especially beautiful and flattering). We made it back in plenty of time for showers in our hotel (the nice people let us use their shower even though we had checked out) and supper...and I had swordfish again!