Jan 5 - Puerto Lopez & Ecuador's Bus System

We got up very early today (I literally sprang out of bed I was so ready to leave), went out for breakfast, and found a nice new place to stay right across from the beach ($8 each for a nice, clean room with a comfortable bed and hot water). The hostal has a nice terrace with hammocks and tables and chairs where they serve breakfast. The first two photos below show the view from the terrace.

Ocean view.













Side street view.













Today we decided to just relax, get some work done, and do explore the town. I had been sick with a cold and wanted a day to recuperate. Puerto Lopez (population 7720) is a great little fishing town with a nice beach and friendly people. It is warm and sunny and provides easy access to the Parque Nacional Machalilla, which we planned to visit over the next few days. Below are a few photos Dave took around the town.

Kids on the beach.













The beach.













A crazy nativity scene that was outside of a restaurant. Notice that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are about to get trampled by a dinosaur, an elephant, a kangaroo, some large and colourful turtles, and various other animals. Very, very bizarre!








Not much action to report today, but I have been waiting for just such a slow day to write about riding the bus in Ecuador. Taking a bus here is SO different than taking a bus at home. First of all, every bus – without exception – has at least one, if not two, employees other than the driver. This person (always a man) is in charge of going around the bus taking money from people after everyone is on the bus, and perhaps even more important, he is responsible for getting passengers on the bus. Before the bus leaves the station, these guys (“officials”) stand outside the bus shouting the destination of the bus. My favourite is when the bus is going to Quito – I don’t know why; I just like the way it sounds (A Quito, A Quito, A Quito…but fast, like an auctioneer, and loud: ¡Akeetoakeetoakeeto!). Jipijapa sounded pretty great too; kind of like a tongue twister: ¡Hippeehapahippeehapahippeehapa! They approach the people at the bus station and shout the name of the destination(s) at them, hoping that they will lure passengers onto the bus. The makes it easy to get on the right bus, but it also makes the bus station feel rather chaotic when many different destinations are being shouted at once.

Once the bus starts moving, the official must hang out the open door of the bus and scream the name of the destination at people on the side of the road. There is no such thing as a real bus stop – people just wave the buses down. If a bus is running a bit (or a lot late), it’s nuts! The driver won’t come to a full stop for people. He will just slow down and the passenger has to make a running jump onto the bus! If the passenger is someone who looks like they might have trouble doing this, the official will either give them a hand and pull then on the bus, jump out and shove/lift them in the door from behind, or grab their luggage for them. There is no paying when you get on the bus; you must wait until the official comes around to your seat for the money or your pre-purchased ticket. If a passenger has large luggage that needs to be stowed beneath the bus, the bus will come to a full stop while the official puts the luggage in the compartment. However, as soon as the door to the luggage compartment is closed, the official screams at the driver to go and the driver floors it, leaving the official to sprint alongside the bus and jump in the door. This catching up to the bus and jumping in routine seems to be an important part of the official’s job.

Getting off the bus is interesting too. There are certain spots where the bus will stop (not necessarily at a station, just predetermined places on the side of the road), but if you want to get off in another spot, you have to stand up and scream one of two things: Gracias! (as in thanks for the ride, let me off now) or Baja (which means down, as in, passenger wants to get down). If the bus is on time, it will stop to let you off. It it’s running late, it will slow down and you must jump off (or, if you have luggage underneath and they are in a hurry, they will come to a full stop and yell at you to ¡vamosvamosvamos! while they try to set some kind of record time getting your luggage out from under the bus and firing it into the nearest puddle/pile of shit/mound of dirt).

The actual bus ride is quite different, too. For one thing, there will always be music blasting. This is a given. Usually it's reggaetón or Ecuadorian cumbia (fast dance music featuring a lot of electronic keyboard), but sometimes it's Ecuadorian folk music, or even Abba, Simon & Garfunkel, or Shakira. The other main difference is the food vendors who board the bus. They will sell anything from ice cream to baked goods to chicken and rice to beverages to fruit to pieces of sugar cane. These vendors are very often young children. Every so often one boards the bus, walks up and down the aisle a few times yelling out the name of what they selling (ridiculously loud), then gets off a few miles later.

The bus itself is also very interesting. More often than not it will have huge letters across the windshield that say something like "God Bless" or "God is my friend." Inside the bus, towards the front, there is almost always at least one picture of either Mary or Jesus, if not several large posters.

Well, must run and eat, Dave awaits!