Ecuador

The center of the world!

Not too much of an interesting adventure in Equador for the most part -- too much travelling and not enough time to really explore I think. Plus, we got ripped off a few times. Spent all our time in the Ecuadorian highlands as it’s the only part of Ecuador that has no malaria.

We made it to Ecuador fairly easily... was just an incredibly long trip, took us almost 24 hours: 6 hours to get to Piura a town in northern Peru, arrived at 5 in the morning only to find that the bus terminal we were leaving out of to go across the border to Ecuador was closed. With our big backpacks we had no where to go but also didn’t want to sit in the middle of the street, very unsafe in the dark especially near a bus terminal. Ended up  going to a small local diner across the street and ordering inca cola and some corn… the cheapest stuff that would be the least likely top make us sick. Holy, it is hard drinking pop in the morning. But it took us enough time to eat and drink that the bus station was open when we finished. Spent 4 hours waiting for the bus, which was 9 hours including border formalities which were surprisingly easy despite being half asleep and dying from the heat. It is so incredibly hot in the middle of the day!!

Crazy how much things can change across the border. Things are a whole lot greener in Ecuador. The last part of Peru and the majority of Ecuador that we drove through were very green and full of vegetation… very pretty, a big change from the scenery we have been used to, the greenery reminded me of Vancouver ... but the plants were very different. One thing about Ecuador is that the pineapples are to die for!!! So incredibly good!!! The pineapple juice and the pineapples themselves are amazing!! Never tasted one so good!

We are now in a small town called Loja in the Ecuadorian sierra, at about 2000m. It’s one of the few towns that recycles in Ecuador and also seems to have a good garbage system as the streets are spotless compared to what we are used to in other cities we have been in. A nice change. Arrived in the evening on a Sunday, everything was closed! So hard to find a place to eat. The only places open were weird pseudo-american fast food chicken/burger joints. Still nervous about getting sick again so we ended up at a four star hotel­-restaurant…we were the only people in the whole place, served really nasty yet expensive food by a guy in a full suit. The next morning the city was very alive, felt like we were in a completely different town. Lots of military people around, people here seem very friendly, don’t recognize a lot of things on the menus... funny how much things can change across the border. Things seem to be a bit more expensive, maybe cause we are dealing with American money now. Did the states recently come up with a one dollar coin that we are not aware of?? All the bills here are American but the coins are a mix between American and Ecuadorian coins.

Took a long bus ride to Quito, Ecuador’s capital city. 10 hours on a semi-local bus.... 3 hours into the trip the bus driver stops the bus (this time not to pick up passengers) and without any warning gets out and walks into a restaurant and orders a meal and eats it! Didn’t offer us the option of eating lunch or getting out or telling us that we were going to take a break or anything ... hehehe ... only in South America! :)

We arrived in Quito, , at night and went to "hostel cafecito" because it was Canadian owned. They had only one room, which we took because the hotel area in Quito is a great place to get mugged and loose all our gear walking around the streets at night looking for another hotel. It was a closet…no exaggeration! But then there is the dangerous thing ... so we slept in a bloody closet for 9US.

Next day found a splendid hotel which included a buffet breakfast with pancakes (Peru thinks crepes are pancakes so we were excited to have a real one finally). Picked Frances (Tony’s sister) up at the airport who arrived a little shaky from the journey, but she in one piece.

We visited the “center of the world” (i.e. the equator), where we put one foot in each hemisphere, being half in summer and half in winter. The place was a big tourist trap, each of the many little buildings asking for some dollars to enter, which was irritating. The place had a guard who had a big shotgun, which seems to be the weapon of choice for guards in Ecuador. I can only assume he got to use it if you didn’t pay. We toured the big monument, took mandatory touristy pictures standing by it, and flushed some toilets to see which way the water spun on the different sides of the equator :) hehehe

Ecuador cities are beautiful, with flower markets and impressive cathedrals and much more green all around than Peru. We got to watch some musicians playing traditional instruments using mics with a mixing table, to get some pretty fun music. But all in all the cities were more western feeling and are priced more western, which was draining.

Visited Otavalo, a town 2 hours north of Quito, in which there are three huge markets: an agricultural one, a food one, and a touristy one selling handicrafts ranging from necklaces to carved objects to woollen goods to tapestries... tons and tons of stuff. Frances seemed to really enjoy her first market experience and seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff being sold at super cheap prices, well in comparison to Canada that is. There was this cute little old woman there walking around and begging for money. She must’ve been half the size of me, had the cutest little face and was so smiley. She first walked passed us and we didn’t give her any cause there are so many people on the street begging for money in South America that you just cant give everyone something to help them out. It’s sad but true. She just smiled and continued. Every time we passed her she would start to ask for money then realize that she had already asked us and she would laugh. We passed her so many times and ended up being so taken with her we ended up giving her some :)

We had an unfortunate time going back from Quito to Cuenca through the highlands, About 6 hours into the 10 hour trip the engine failed and our bus comes to a halt on the side of the highway. It’s about 5:30pm…  Everyone seems to get out as rumours of a broken brakes travels through the bus… of course neither the driver nor the assistant mention anything about a breakdown… we just follow the people outside to the side of the road….  The locals have grabbed their belonging from inside the bus and are taking their bags out from beneath the bus. We are left at the side of the Pan-American highway on a foggy night to watch the last remaining light die.

We wait while the assistant gives people back their money… We wouldn’t have been there so long because another bus to Cuenca pulls up about 20 minutes after we broke down (in South America the buses stop to pick people up and drop them off wherever you want, you just have to signal them on route)… All the locals that were on our bus run for it and it is a mad scramble to get on it… eventually the bus is jammed packed, people pressed against the windows. The assistant of that bus comes up to us and asks if we want to go to Cuenca.  Yes, but the bus is full. So he keeps talking to us trying to convince us there is room and saying that there will be seats in about 15 minutes. Ok, so we agree and tell him that our stuff is still on the roof of the broken down bus. So he turns around and gives up on us. I guess he didn’t feel like waiting for us to get our packs out from under the secured tarp. When we got our bus driver's assistant to undo the tarp, he started throwing the gear off the top of the bus to the rocks and dirt a story below, the bastard, So Tony climbed up half way and grabbed things from him instead.

After getting our gear, we along with another 6 gringos… who have just gotten back from a hike and absolutely reek of body odour… and a handful of locals sit on the side of the highway and wait for another bus…. We are essentially in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of a small little town with a couple street lights and a few buildings with the highway running through it. No hostels or restaurants… very small and sparse.  An hour goes by and it’s starting to get dark… we notice the streetlight turn on behind us, good we have light… Some more time passes… its pitch black out now… can’t see anything… just hoping to see some headlights.. glad to have the streetlight… not feeling very safe but no where we can go. The driver and assistant have disappeared… couldn’t get our money back cause we bought our ticket in the office so will have to claim it there. Arg!

We see headlights… a bus to Chunchi… where is that!?! No idea, but great, we can get out of this sketchy situation. One of the smelly gringos (who, it turns out, had taken the bus in the wrong direction to their destination in the first place) is ahead of us asking where they are going. The assistant tells him and he says “no”… meanwhile we are saying yes… . we just want to go somewhere with a hostel and get off this dark road. The assistant doesn’t hear us and they drive off with us running behind them yelling “senor!!!” No luck. Wer’e in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the highway where robbery is common, been waiting for hours, its raining, dark, and the guy is being picky about which bus he wants to take!! We loudly said how stupid that was so the rest of them would get the picture (there were like 5 of the stinky buggers, which I guess was good in terms of safety, but I’m not sure if that made up for the nauseating odour).

So back to sitting on the side of the road. More headlights.. just little cars.. no way we are going to hitch hike here! We hear firecrackers in the background, resembling fun shots… how perfect… adds to the mood as we sit and wait.

Finally another bus! To Chunchi…. We get on, along with the smelly’s… end up in a small town with nothing much there but grateful for a place with a bed and glad to be off the dark highway. The driver was nice enough to drive us right to the door of a hotel. Have heard that there are bandits in Ecuador and you shouldn’t travel at night because of it. We had tried to avoid that by travelling during the day but ended up travelling at night for a bit, not to mention sitting on the side of the highway, very vulnerable with all our gear….Chunchi hasn’t seen many tourists, and our little walk about at night looking for food was pretty sketch. But we couldn’t complain at a place to sleep off of the highway.

Next morning, back on the highway waiting for a bus to Cuenca, this time in the daylight… got on a rattley piece of crap for a bus about an hour later. We were overcharged about 80%, not knowing the area nor the distance to Cuenca at all.  But by the time we figured that out we had been at our destination for a good hour. Shoot! At this point just wanted to get out as fast as we could… back to Peru where we know how things work and the people are friendly and don’t scam you… maybe we just had bad luck in Ecuador…

Went to get our money back… lady hadn’t heard of the bus break down even though like 20 hours had passed by then… so we ended up waiting while she made phone calls, which we had to ask her to do. We were informed by the bus company whose bus had died that they were not authorized to give us any money back, despite everyone else who had bought tickets on the bus getting a full refund... so we were kind of choked. Later came back to find that the boss had authorized some piddley amount to be returned to us... Took a room for the night cause the lady took too long and we wanted to cross the border in the daylight and by that time it was too late… Took another bus from Cuenca to the border town, managed to avoid a few con artists trying to change money (probably fake) for ridiculous rates, and then were overcharged by a taxi to take us over the border and into Tumbes, but that was okay because he guided us about and around all the rest of the cons and was quite friendly (probably because of the moolah he was getting). So finally 3 days later we made it into Peru! So nice to be back here!

Some Differences between Peru and Ecuador:

1)  Ecuador seems to have a garbage program ... streets are cleaner in some places ... less garbage it seems. We      saw many army men walking around the streets picking up garbage

2)  Ecuador is slightly more expensive due to the American dollar being used as the currency

3)  Ecuador is greener: more trees around... parks, more trees in plaza

4)  More rain in Ecuador! It absolutely down pours down ... thunder lightning ... people were hiding under things avoiding it and waiting for it to let up (doesn’t last too long) ... guess not very common although it is approaching the rainy season so maybe that is why.

5)  Ecuadorian dress is different: Men wear black shorts just past their knees, white shirt, black top hat, and their long black hair tied back in a braid.... Women wear a long black skirt, white embroidered puffy blouse, long hair pulled back in a low ponytail wrapped with cloth

6)  Ecuadorians add coffee to their milk rather than milk to their coffee