As of 6am this morning, am back in the Andes, which strangely feels like going home a bit, I think because I spent so long in Cusco, and then Quito as well. After meeting Irene in Chiclayo, we had a 3 hour bus to Trujillo, which was MUCH nicer, and quite modern. Our hostel was a little sketch, pretty grungy around the edges, but we only stayed there one night, and most of the day since they kept our laundry hostage about twice as long as they promised it would take.
From there, it was only a short, but hilarious (due to our awkwardly large and bulky backpacks, Irene´s medecine bottles falling out of the grocery bags and rolling down the aisles, hitting people in the face with our luggage, etc) colectivo bus ride to Huanchaco, back on the coast. Actually one of the nicer beach towns, (although freezing cold, there are some HUGE waves) definitely much nicer than Máncora- although this assessment might be slightly elevated by the fact that on our first night there, I managed to find a coffeeshop that a)serves actual cafe, not the instant kind and b) serves delicious, warm brownie with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce that almost made me forget how disappointing all other desserts have been for the past 2 months.
Then on Saturday Irene and I, plus our Norwegian roommate Matteus, took a few colectivos and found a guide to show us around Chan Chan, which is one of these huge walled cities in the middle of the desert. Only one of the palaces (the royal one) is open to the public, and only parts of it, but the place is huge, with tombs, a giant well/pond, etc. In all, there are 13 of these palaces, and they make up over 25 km square of cities, all in and around Trujillo. Plus they keep finding more all the time, even in the ones which they thought had been fully excavated and partially restored. There are a bunch of other sites you can see, and I especially wanted to get to Huaca de la Luna, but by the time we were making our way over there, it was too late in the afternoon and we were told we´d basically be stranded i nthe middle of the desert with no way to get a ride back. And then Sunday (yesterday?) it was closed, so only got to see Chan Chan unfortunately, but that was still pretty cool.
So then a night bus last night to Huaraz, and we´re staying at a pretty cool family place with a bunch of other backpackers. Very friendly and everything is decorated for Christmas, and we´re actually having a midnight Christmas meal tonight, so that should be really nice. And then tomorrow possibly some mountain biking (you can hitch a ride on a bus that takes you up the mountain and then you can just coast down, which is definitely my idea of exercise, especially since I am having a little bit of headaches and fatigue from coming back to high altitude). And then probably find another restaurant or something for a second Christmas dinner tomorrow night, so it feels like I´m eating leftovers for a week, just like at home. After that I think we´re leaving the town and going up to this lodge that was recommended to us, where you can do some great hikes, and even though it´s a lot colder (the town I´m at is right beside the second highest peak in south america) they have a hot tub, and a sauna room, etc. so I think I´ll be able to endure it. Barely. And then it´s to Lima for New Year!!
So that´s about it for now, although I hope you all have a great Christmas and new Year and miss all of you sooo much!! Hope you´re enjoying the great food and I´ll let you know how everything goes here soon!!
Love, Sarah
Monday, December 24, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
On the way to Máncora!!!
So the last week has been a blast. Got to Montañita on Friday night all grumpy and tired, but managed to randomly bump into the Swedish boys again and some of their new friends, won some money off boys at poker and then went out to see this live band playing sweet nineties songs at a bar that has sand floors and a campfire in the middle of the dance floor. Soooo fun!
The next two days were pretty lazy, with great weather, and just laying on the beach, swimming, beach volleyball, and good music all the time. My favourite part is how you can just lay on a deck chair under an umbrella (rented for only 3 dollars a day), have people selling ceviche (seafood soup that I'm trying to train myself to like because it's such a specialty and EXTREMELY fresh, seeing as how they add the oysters and snails to it right in front of your eyes), empanadas (these fried pastries that can have cheese, ham, chicken, vegetables, or my personal favourite, carne, which is a vague label for any sort of meat), ice cream and various other treats. Plus the fact that when they rent you the umbrella, that means the cabaña boys will just keep going to get you drinks and you don't even have to get out of your chair. Veeeeeery nice. Didn't get into any surfing, partly cause the waves weren't all that great and partly because I was too lazy. Wanted to be fresh for Máncora, you know? hahaha But I really am looking forward to getting some lessons, maybe starting this weekend. First I need to get a new bathing suit though, as I got a big rip in the ass of my old ones, which was a) embarrassing and b) annoying, seeing as how I now have to replace them and bathing suit shopping is gross at the best of times, let alone in a foreign country when you're already at the beach and have no other options but to buy the one suit that fits. Grrr. Oh well, hopefully the fact that Máncora is a surfing mecca will provide at least something that will at least be functional, even if I have to pay a crapload for roxy.
And then Monday morning I woke up all gross from salt and sand everywhere (it seems like you can never get rid of it. May have something to do with the fact that no one in the entire town ever wears shoes anywhere. Literally. Only to find that both the water and electricity had been shut off to the whole town without anyone telling any of the tourists. I had the feeling that either this happens often enough that the locals are used to it, or they were anticipating such an event, whereas all of the tourists were obviously walking around all day with dirty clothes, unkempt hair and grumpy expressions. Especially since it was bad beach weather on top of everything else, all cold and cloudy, so we sat inside on the patios all day playing cards (shithead and poker, both excellent wastes of time). And then Tuesday, said goodbye to people and took the bus up north an hour to Puerto Lopez, where I arranged to take a tour of Isla de la Plata the next day.
Had a nice bbq with some people at my hostel, where I made myself overcome some psychological barriers to eat marlin (which i'm pretty sure was still raw except for the seared millimeter on the outside) but it actually wasn't too bad. or at least I didn't gag.
Was to the tour agency first thing in the morning, and we went down to the beach to get on the boat. We got down to the beach, and besides being a jumping off point for these tours, Puerto Lopez is a big fishing town. So at that time in the morning, it's chaos. Boats coming in, people measuring catches, cutting up fish, selling fruit and snacks and remote controls (ya bizarre, i know, but he was there and there was a little crowd all gathered around him). And for every person actually doing something, there were about 5 or 6 men just standing around supervising everything, so that you could hardly move without running into someone or getting honked at by a truck trying to snake its way down the beach. There were a ton of tuna, eels, giant marlins and I even spotted a big hammerhead shark being carted away. Counting me there were 9 people in the tour, and these 2 swiss couples were absolutely ridiculous. Like as soon as they saw the boat we were taking, which was admittedly not a luxury yacht, but more than adequate for a 3 hour round trip purchased for $30 including transportation, guide, snacks, lunch and snorkelling equipment, they all freaked out on the guide, being like "at these prices I was expecting something much bigger, this is absolutely unacceptable and I am very disappointed". And then continuing to mutter under their breaths (rather loudly) about how crappy they thought this whole day was going to be, and they should ask for their money back, etc etc etc. And then when they saw the rest of us pulling off our socks and shoes to roll off our pants to wade to the boat, they were flabbergasted. Actually had their mouths hanging agape. As if they never had to remove their shoes for anyone in their lives, unless it was a pedicurist. And then when presented with the bag to store all the shoes in until we got off at the island, they balked even more, to the point where they actually refused to get onboard until the guide went around and found a separate bag for the four of them to put all their shoes into first before deigning to put them beside the rest of ours in the bag, as if they had spotted someone with a nasty foot fungus or something and were afraid of catching it. It was about at this point that I realized how much fun they were going to be, and made friends with everyone else.
So about an hour and a half on the boat before we got to the island, and before getting off, the captain and skipper started throwing lettuce overboard, which confused me at first, but then all of a sudden the entire boat was surrounded by sea turtles and angel fish. So close you could touch them, although that was discouraged both by the stickler guide and my fear of their giant snapping mouths. And then on the island (which was a lot drier and more desolate than I guess I was expecting) we walked for a few hours along these trails where there were blue footed boobies in various stages of courting and nesting. Saw some doing the little courting dances and others with eggs or various sized chicks, which were so fluffy and cute. And then at the far end was a HUGE colony of magnificent frigate birds (that's their actual name, not just me scraping for adjectives by the way). And then back to the boat for a late lunch and snorkelling off the boat, which was AMAZING. I don't even know what all the things were so I can't name them for you (sorry) but unbelievable colours of fish, that you could see on the reef like 15 or 20 m away, but the reef even was surprisingly close to the surface in some places so you could see into all the little nooks and crevices all up close. Saw some manta rays and angel fish, clown fish, eels, and even a jellyfish from far away. Plus there were tons of schools of tiny fish that would surround you, which was kind of fun except for the fact that they kept bumping up against me or nibbling at me, which would freak me out and make me thrash around like shark bait and get salty water up my nose putting me into a sneezing fit. Probably not all that graceful or attractive, but it was good fun.
And then back at the hostel when I was packing up my stuff, happened to run into more people that I knew and stayed to talk with them for a little bit before catching the bus back to Montañita, where I stayed for the night. Then I caught the 5am direct bus from there to Guayaquil, where I arrived at 8am to find that the next direct bus over the border to Máncora doesn't leave until 11:30 tonight. Which is good because now I have time to have a bit of a look around the city and hopefully buy a new camera in a mall somewhere, otherwise I'd have to wait until Lima likely. So hung around in the bus station dozing for a bit after buying my ticket for tonight, and then took the bus downtown to find something to do. After hopping on the bus (with all of my huge pack, which is gross considering how disgustingly sticky hot it is here) the man who was the announcer of what bus it was (ie the guy who hangs around on the curb yelling out the destination, trying to find more people to get on) started off screaming in a booming voice, and at first I was a little confused by what he was talking about, but it ended up being one of the most elaborate and convincing sales pitches I've heard in a while. Now I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but maybe i should backtrack to a bit of a description of the south american bus system
So when you get on a bus, you can board pretty much from anywhere, whether a specified stop or not, as long as you are waving your hand, flicking it like getting a bug off. Boarding is sometimes on a bit of a rolling stop, so you better make sure you have all your stuff ready to hand to the man assisting the driver (see description above) or just look extremely helpless so that they will fully stop and help you load it. And you don't have to have a ticket, in fact, most people don't, since the assistant guy usually comes around after every stop or two and collects either tickets or money from anyone who got on recently, figuring out the fare based on where you tell him you're going to get off. Sometimes other passengers are holding bags of fruit, pushing sugar cane lengths under the seat, or holding chickens in their laps. And at any given time, someone jumping on the bus may actually not be looking to go anywhere, or are a passenger but still use the opportunity to sell whatever they are peddling that day, whether it be bags of coconut milk, boxes of incense, fresh fruit, chocolates, empanadas or sandwiches, baked goods, peanuts, plantain chips, etc. So anyway, back to today's story, said assistant guy goes into this spiel and I wasn't sure where it was going, because the first several minutes were about how Ecuadorians are eating too unhealthily, the state of nutrition in schools and nursing homes, and the expanding waistline of the nation. And then he started hauling out laminated newspaper and scientific journal articles, citing his sources for statistics and nutritional information. VERY thorough research being presented here, for another few minutes. And then the pitch began. How he was extremely concerned for the future of his nation, and in fact every person on that bus. He wanted to improve each of our chances for survival by offering us the opportunity to purchase some of these special herbs and seeds from a very important native ecuadorian plant which was thought to prevent problems due to high cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer, etc etc. And actually by the end of it, I was one of the few people on the rather crowded bus who wasn't convinced to buy something from his bag of tricks, although I was extremely impressed by the thoroughness of the effort, haha.
So then got off the bus downtown and lugged around my stuff all morning checking out the Bahia street market, which is this huge collection of stalls, like a mixture of flea market and tiny little shops all bunched up together, lots selling the exact same products, tons of clothes, shoes, aforementioned remote controls, food, etc. Very interesting place, and probably you could find almost anything you needed. Except for a camera that is. So now I've just had a bit of a stroll along the Malecón waterfront and am sitting in an underground mall trying to see if there's anywhwere here I could find a digital camera, because if not I'm off to find another bigger mall. Possibly one with a movie theatre where I can kill some time before heading back to the bus station later tonight. so going to be one long day, but hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be ready to check into my next hostel for a few weeks and start on those surf lessons. Oh yeah, first I have to find that bathing suit......
Thanks for the comments guys (Aunt Laurie especially). And Allison, that sounds like a perfect thing to add to your list- we should do some trip planning comparisons, cause I have had some amazing accounts from other travellers I've met on the road if you want some ideas of places to go, hahaha. Off to brave the heat again- I know I shouldn't complain when it's like snowing and stuff there, but seriously. Love you all!
xo Sarah
The next two days were pretty lazy, with great weather, and just laying on the beach, swimming, beach volleyball, and good music all the time. My favourite part is how you can just lay on a deck chair under an umbrella (rented for only 3 dollars a day), have people selling ceviche (seafood soup that I'm trying to train myself to like because it's such a specialty and EXTREMELY fresh, seeing as how they add the oysters and snails to it right in front of your eyes), empanadas (these fried pastries that can have cheese, ham, chicken, vegetables, or my personal favourite, carne, which is a vague label for any sort of meat), ice cream and various other treats. Plus the fact that when they rent you the umbrella, that means the cabaña boys will just keep going to get you drinks and you don't even have to get out of your chair. Veeeeeery nice. Didn't get into any surfing, partly cause the waves weren't all that great and partly because I was too lazy. Wanted to be fresh for Máncora, you know? hahaha But I really am looking forward to getting some lessons, maybe starting this weekend. First I need to get a new bathing suit though, as I got a big rip in the ass of my old ones, which was a) embarrassing and b) annoying, seeing as how I now have to replace them and bathing suit shopping is gross at the best of times, let alone in a foreign country when you're already at the beach and have no other options but to buy the one suit that fits. Grrr. Oh well, hopefully the fact that Máncora is a surfing mecca will provide at least something that will at least be functional, even if I have to pay a crapload for roxy.
And then Monday morning I woke up all gross from salt and sand everywhere (it seems like you can never get rid of it. May have something to do with the fact that no one in the entire town ever wears shoes anywhere. Literally. Only to find that both the water and electricity had been shut off to the whole town without anyone telling any of the tourists. I had the feeling that either this happens often enough that the locals are used to it, or they were anticipating such an event, whereas all of the tourists were obviously walking around all day with dirty clothes, unkempt hair and grumpy expressions. Especially since it was bad beach weather on top of everything else, all cold and cloudy, so we sat inside on the patios all day playing cards (shithead and poker, both excellent wastes of time). And then Tuesday, said goodbye to people and took the bus up north an hour to Puerto Lopez, where I arranged to take a tour of Isla de la Plata the next day.
Had a nice bbq with some people at my hostel, where I made myself overcome some psychological barriers to eat marlin (which i'm pretty sure was still raw except for the seared millimeter on the outside) but it actually wasn't too bad. or at least I didn't gag.
Was to the tour agency first thing in the morning, and we went down to the beach to get on the boat. We got down to the beach, and besides being a jumping off point for these tours, Puerto Lopez is a big fishing town. So at that time in the morning, it's chaos. Boats coming in, people measuring catches, cutting up fish, selling fruit and snacks and remote controls (ya bizarre, i know, but he was there and there was a little crowd all gathered around him). And for every person actually doing something, there were about 5 or 6 men just standing around supervising everything, so that you could hardly move without running into someone or getting honked at by a truck trying to snake its way down the beach. There were a ton of tuna, eels, giant marlins and I even spotted a big hammerhead shark being carted away. Counting me there were 9 people in the tour, and these 2 swiss couples were absolutely ridiculous. Like as soon as they saw the boat we were taking, which was admittedly not a luxury yacht, but more than adequate for a 3 hour round trip purchased for $30 including transportation, guide, snacks, lunch and snorkelling equipment, they all freaked out on the guide, being like "at these prices I was expecting something much bigger, this is absolutely unacceptable and I am very disappointed". And then continuing to mutter under their breaths (rather loudly) about how crappy they thought this whole day was going to be, and they should ask for their money back, etc etc etc. And then when they saw the rest of us pulling off our socks and shoes to roll off our pants to wade to the boat, they were flabbergasted. Actually had their mouths hanging agape. As if they never had to remove their shoes for anyone in their lives, unless it was a pedicurist. And then when presented with the bag to store all the shoes in until we got off at the island, they balked even more, to the point where they actually refused to get onboard until the guide went around and found a separate bag for the four of them to put all their shoes into first before deigning to put them beside the rest of ours in the bag, as if they had spotted someone with a nasty foot fungus or something and were afraid of catching it. It was about at this point that I realized how much fun they were going to be, and made friends with everyone else.
So about an hour and a half on the boat before we got to the island, and before getting off, the captain and skipper started throwing lettuce overboard, which confused me at first, but then all of a sudden the entire boat was surrounded by sea turtles and angel fish. So close you could touch them, although that was discouraged both by the stickler guide and my fear of their giant snapping mouths. And then on the island (which was a lot drier and more desolate than I guess I was expecting) we walked for a few hours along these trails where there were blue footed boobies in various stages of courting and nesting. Saw some doing the little courting dances and others with eggs or various sized chicks, which were so fluffy and cute. And then at the far end was a HUGE colony of magnificent frigate birds (that's their actual name, not just me scraping for adjectives by the way). And then back to the boat for a late lunch and snorkelling off the boat, which was AMAZING. I don't even know what all the things were so I can't name them for you (sorry) but unbelievable colours of fish, that you could see on the reef like 15 or 20 m away, but the reef even was surprisingly close to the surface in some places so you could see into all the little nooks and crevices all up close. Saw some manta rays and angel fish, clown fish, eels, and even a jellyfish from far away. Plus there were tons of schools of tiny fish that would surround you, which was kind of fun except for the fact that they kept bumping up against me or nibbling at me, which would freak me out and make me thrash around like shark bait and get salty water up my nose putting me into a sneezing fit. Probably not all that graceful or attractive, but it was good fun.
And then back at the hostel when I was packing up my stuff, happened to run into more people that I knew and stayed to talk with them for a little bit before catching the bus back to Montañita, where I stayed for the night. Then I caught the 5am direct bus from there to Guayaquil, where I arrived at 8am to find that the next direct bus over the border to Máncora doesn't leave until 11:30 tonight. Which is good because now I have time to have a bit of a look around the city and hopefully buy a new camera in a mall somewhere, otherwise I'd have to wait until Lima likely. So hung around in the bus station dozing for a bit after buying my ticket for tonight, and then took the bus downtown to find something to do. After hopping on the bus (with all of my huge pack, which is gross considering how disgustingly sticky hot it is here) the man who was the announcer of what bus it was (ie the guy who hangs around on the curb yelling out the destination, trying to find more people to get on) started off screaming in a booming voice, and at first I was a little confused by what he was talking about, but it ended up being one of the most elaborate and convincing sales pitches I've heard in a while. Now I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but maybe i should backtrack to a bit of a description of the south american bus system
So when you get on a bus, you can board pretty much from anywhere, whether a specified stop or not, as long as you are waving your hand, flicking it like getting a bug off. Boarding is sometimes on a bit of a rolling stop, so you better make sure you have all your stuff ready to hand to the man assisting the driver (see description above) or just look extremely helpless so that they will fully stop and help you load it. And you don't have to have a ticket, in fact, most people don't, since the assistant guy usually comes around after every stop or two and collects either tickets or money from anyone who got on recently, figuring out the fare based on where you tell him you're going to get off. Sometimes other passengers are holding bags of fruit, pushing sugar cane lengths under the seat, or holding chickens in their laps. And at any given time, someone jumping on the bus may actually not be looking to go anywhere, or are a passenger but still use the opportunity to sell whatever they are peddling that day, whether it be bags of coconut milk, boxes of incense, fresh fruit, chocolates, empanadas or sandwiches, baked goods, peanuts, plantain chips, etc. So anyway, back to today's story, said assistant guy goes into this spiel and I wasn't sure where it was going, because the first several minutes were about how Ecuadorians are eating too unhealthily, the state of nutrition in schools and nursing homes, and the expanding waistline of the nation. And then he started hauling out laminated newspaper and scientific journal articles, citing his sources for statistics and nutritional information. VERY thorough research being presented here, for another few minutes. And then the pitch began. How he was extremely concerned for the future of his nation, and in fact every person on that bus. He wanted to improve each of our chances for survival by offering us the opportunity to purchase some of these special herbs and seeds from a very important native ecuadorian plant which was thought to prevent problems due to high cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer, etc etc. And actually by the end of it, I was one of the few people on the rather crowded bus who wasn't convinced to buy something from his bag of tricks, although I was extremely impressed by the thoroughness of the effort, haha.
So then got off the bus downtown and lugged around my stuff all morning checking out the Bahia street market, which is this huge collection of stalls, like a mixture of flea market and tiny little shops all bunched up together, lots selling the exact same products, tons of clothes, shoes, aforementioned remote controls, food, etc. Very interesting place, and probably you could find almost anything you needed. Except for a camera that is. So now I've just had a bit of a stroll along the Malecón waterfront and am sitting in an underground mall trying to see if there's anywhwere here I could find a digital camera, because if not I'm off to find another bigger mall. Possibly one with a movie theatre where I can kill some time before heading back to the bus station later tonight. so going to be one long day, but hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be ready to check into my next hostel for a few weeks and start on those surf lessons. Oh yeah, first I have to find that bathing suit......
Thanks for the comments guys (Aunt Laurie especially). And Allison, that sounds like a perfect thing to add to your list- we should do some trip planning comparisons, cause I have had some amazing accounts from other travellers I've met on the road if you want some ideas of places to go, hahaha. Off to brave the heat again- I know I shouldn't complain when it's like snowing and stuff there, but seriously. Love you all!
xo Sarah
Friday, December 7, 2007
Mantañita, finally
Okay, so the last few days have been mostly less than entertaining. Got up with a deja vu of my cold on Thursday, so skipped the canyoning in favour of more sleep and leisurely packing. Kinda sucked, but thought I would feel better afterwards.
Checked out of my hostel, and headed to the bus station, where I waited an hour for one going to Riobamba, supposedly a 1.5 hour drive, but because they're still clearing roads and doing work since last year's volcano eruption, you have to backtrack to the last main town and go all the way around, so became like a 4 hour drive. Due to said cold and the warding-off medicine i took, was sort of dozing during the last part of the trip, so when got off the bus, failed to double-check all of my stuff and so I lost my beautiful new camera. On which were all of the Ecuador pictures which I still hadn't been able to upload yet. And my peruvian sim card which I was going to reuse starting next week. Among other things.
So realized this after the bus had gone, and because of the way the terminals are, there wasn't anyone to ask about where I could contact if it got returned (doubtful, but still, I wanted to at least try). Went to a few telephone cabinas to use their phone books, but apparently bus terminals don't have phone numbers here. Anyway, long story short, someone in Ecuador now has a very fancy camera to play with and is probably emailing all my photos to their friends as we speak.
Needless to say, wasn't in the best of moods by the time I caught a cab (with two Finnish- is that a word? girls who had been staying at my hostel and were on the same bus as me) to the train station, because apparently this Devil's Nose Train ride is very popular and it's best to buy your tickets ahead of time. So we show up to do just that, all eager beaverish, to have some man at the train station explain to us (and point to a sign repeating what he already said as if we were the dumb tourists which we are) basically that because the President of Ecuador was going to Alausí (the midpoint town where the special section of the train ride starts) the next day (Friday) for an official visit, the train would not be running from Riobamba to Alausí, but rather only from Alausí onwards. He did, however, assure us that if we stayed in Riobamba and took the bus in the morning, we would get to Alausí in time to buy tickets and could go on as per normal from there. Despite his assurances though, the three of us were skeptical that we would have enough time to get there, buy tickets, and reserve seats on the roof. So we decided that the best plan of action would be to take the bus to Alausí that day and then we could buy the tickets the night before and be sure we'd get on.
So that's all well and good. We take a taxi back to the bus terminal, 5 km away, hop on another bus to Alausí which takes about 2.5 or 3 hours. So we get there around 7:30, head to our hostel, the top one of 3 which Lonely Planet recommends, and let's just say that I'm glad we managed to get the first choice because otherwise I might have caught some strange disease. In fact, I may have one anyway cause that place was gross. Also, because of the presidential visit, reception informed us that there was absolutely no room anywhere in town for the following night, so if we missed the train or the few select buses that may (or may not, due to the president) be running, we'd be shit out of luck. Head down to the train station, only to find that it is, of course, closed. And when we ask passersby, reception at the hotel etc., when the boleteria opens and whether or not the train is actually going, I think we got about 12 different replies, none of which matched the guidebook, but all were completely confident of their advice. Aaaaaanyway, we got some food (pollo a la plancha AGAIN- who knew you could actually get sick of chicken and rice?) and then went off to bed so that we could get up at 7am and stake out the ticket office. I will just also said that I probably should have been eerily aware of the fact that in a very small town, we were the only tourists there. Curious.
7am. Janitor informs us that information will become available at 8am. Go for breakfast, which makes me feel more queasy than I have in a VERY long time, but luckily didn't amount to anything other than making me feel even crappier than before. Go back to the boleteria at the appointed time, to find noone there, but a plethera of workers scuttling around the train, polishing every nut and bolt. We ask several of them and they (including one rather official looking guy) absolutely say that there is no possible way the train is going today because of the presidential visit. Still unwilling to accept defeat, we stop at the nearby tourist office which is now open, ask the lady there, and after she asks around, are again told that the train for sure is not running today, but to come back on Sunday or Wednesday. We then figure out that we have 50 mintues to pack all of our stuff and buy bus tickets away from that craphole before everything gets completely congested with military and secret service looking people, who have already begun to mill around and sit in cars with tinted windows talking into their sleeves. No jokes.
Manage to find our respective buses (theirs back to Riobamba to wait till Sunday, mine to Guayaquil to catch one to the coast) and I was off on another bus ride, this one 5 hours long sitting behind a man who insisted on fully reclining his seat into my lap, and actually managed to give me grease stains on my clothes from his slicked back hair that he kept flicking into my personal space. I almost slapped his slightly agape mouth about 9 times.
Bus terminal at Guayaquil, extremely modern. Managed to get something to eat, use the ATM (although again, the first few I tried wouldn't accept my card. vERY annoying) but then after wandering around for a while was told that despite the very deceptive looking boleteria area with open booths, I had to actually leave the terminal and go to the OLD terminal (duh!) where you could buy tickets. By this point, it's about 3 pm and soooooooo hot there I thought I was going to faint, especially since I've now been hauling all my bags around for the past hour. But figure out the tickets, via a nice man who only charged me $1 for his excellent advice which almost got me on a bus back to quito, and then it was 2 or so hours to Santa Elena. Where I had to get off and take another bus to get here, Mantañita. So got here just after dark, so I'm not exactly sure what it looks like, but on the way I did manage to see some of the Pacific before dusk set in, for the first time ever, so I'm pretty pumped to get up tomorrow and go swimming. Found a room at this very surferish hostel, which is pretty nice except for the fact that a water shortage has made my shower rather colder than I would normally like, but either way, it felt good to not have greasy ecuadorian hair all over me.
It's now about 9:30 and i might grab something to eat before going to bed, but first impressions are good. Very chill, although I sort of feel like I should have studied up my surfer lingo, because it is definitely like a scene straight from Blue Crush or something, and I'm the blonde girl who has no idea what we're talking about but oh well. Probably going to stay here until Monday, hopefully doing a day trip somewhere in there to Isla de la Plata and then on to Cuenca (or perhaps Alausí again if I can work up the courage to risk another disappointing Nariz del Diablo experience).
Either way, feeling a smidge less bitter than earlier today, and I'm sure relaxing on the beach tomorrow will do wonders for that.
xo
Checked out of my hostel, and headed to the bus station, where I waited an hour for one going to Riobamba, supposedly a 1.5 hour drive, but because they're still clearing roads and doing work since last year's volcano eruption, you have to backtrack to the last main town and go all the way around, so became like a 4 hour drive. Due to said cold and the warding-off medicine i took, was sort of dozing during the last part of the trip, so when got off the bus, failed to double-check all of my stuff and so I lost my beautiful new camera. On which were all of the Ecuador pictures which I still hadn't been able to upload yet. And my peruvian sim card which I was going to reuse starting next week. Among other things.
So realized this after the bus had gone, and because of the way the terminals are, there wasn't anyone to ask about where I could contact if it got returned (doubtful, but still, I wanted to at least try). Went to a few telephone cabinas to use their phone books, but apparently bus terminals don't have phone numbers here. Anyway, long story short, someone in Ecuador now has a very fancy camera to play with and is probably emailing all my photos to their friends as we speak.
Needless to say, wasn't in the best of moods by the time I caught a cab (with two Finnish- is that a word? girls who had been staying at my hostel and were on the same bus as me) to the train station, because apparently this Devil's Nose Train ride is very popular and it's best to buy your tickets ahead of time. So we show up to do just that, all eager beaverish, to have some man at the train station explain to us (and point to a sign repeating what he already said as if we were the dumb tourists which we are) basically that because the President of Ecuador was going to Alausí (the midpoint town where the special section of the train ride starts) the next day (Friday) for an official visit, the train would not be running from Riobamba to Alausí, but rather only from Alausí onwards. He did, however, assure us that if we stayed in Riobamba and took the bus in the morning, we would get to Alausí in time to buy tickets and could go on as per normal from there. Despite his assurances though, the three of us were skeptical that we would have enough time to get there, buy tickets, and reserve seats on the roof. So we decided that the best plan of action would be to take the bus to Alausí that day and then we could buy the tickets the night before and be sure we'd get on.
So that's all well and good. We take a taxi back to the bus terminal, 5 km away, hop on another bus to Alausí which takes about 2.5 or 3 hours. So we get there around 7:30, head to our hostel, the top one of 3 which Lonely Planet recommends, and let's just say that I'm glad we managed to get the first choice because otherwise I might have caught some strange disease. In fact, I may have one anyway cause that place was gross. Also, because of the presidential visit, reception informed us that there was absolutely no room anywhere in town for the following night, so if we missed the train or the few select buses that may (or may not, due to the president) be running, we'd be shit out of luck. Head down to the train station, only to find that it is, of course, closed. And when we ask passersby, reception at the hotel etc., when the boleteria opens and whether or not the train is actually going, I think we got about 12 different replies, none of which matched the guidebook, but all were completely confident of their advice. Aaaaaanyway, we got some food (pollo a la plancha AGAIN- who knew you could actually get sick of chicken and rice?) and then went off to bed so that we could get up at 7am and stake out the ticket office. I will just also said that I probably should have been eerily aware of the fact that in a very small town, we were the only tourists there. Curious.
7am. Janitor informs us that information will become available at 8am. Go for breakfast, which makes me feel more queasy than I have in a VERY long time, but luckily didn't amount to anything other than making me feel even crappier than before. Go back to the boleteria at the appointed time, to find noone there, but a plethera of workers scuttling around the train, polishing every nut and bolt. We ask several of them and they (including one rather official looking guy) absolutely say that there is no possible way the train is going today because of the presidential visit. Still unwilling to accept defeat, we stop at the nearby tourist office which is now open, ask the lady there, and after she asks around, are again told that the train for sure is not running today, but to come back on Sunday or Wednesday. We then figure out that we have 50 mintues to pack all of our stuff and buy bus tickets away from that craphole before everything gets completely congested with military and secret service looking people, who have already begun to mill around and sit in cars with tinted windows talking into their sleeves. No jokes.
Manage to find our respective buses (theirs back to Riobamba to wait till Sunday, mine to Guayaquil to catch one to the coast) and I was off on another bus ride, this one 5 hours long sitting behind a man who insisted on fully reclining his seat into my lap, and actually managed to give me grease stains on my clothes from his slicked back hair that he kept flicking into my personal space. I almost slapped his slightly agape mouth about 9 times.
Bus terminal at Guayaquil, extremely modern. Managed to get something to eat, use the ATM (although again, the first few I tried wouldn't accept my card. vERY annoying) but then after wandering around for a while was told that despite the very deceptive looking boleteria area with open booths, I had to actually leave the terminal and go to the OLD terminal (duh!) where you could buy tickets. By this point, it's about 3 pm and soooooooo hot there I thought I was going to faint, especially since I've now been hauling all my bags around for the past hour. But figure out the tickets, via a nice man who only charged me $1 for his excellent advice which almost got me on a bus back to quito, and then it was 2 or so hours to Santa Elena. Where I had to get off and take another bus to get here, Mantañita. So got here just after dark, so I'm not exactly sure what it looks like, but on the way I did manage to see some of the Pacific before dusk set in, for the first time ever, so I'm pretty pumped to get up tomorrow and go swimming. Found a room at this very surferish hostel, which is pretty nice except for the fact that a water shortage has made my shower rather colder than I would normally like, but either way, it felt good to not have greasy ecuadorian hair all over me.
It's now about 9:30 and i might grab something to eat before going to bed, but first impressions are good. Very chill, although I sort of feel like I should have studied up my surfer lingo, because it is definitely like a scene straight from Blue Crush or something, and I'm the blonde girl who has no idea what we're talking about but oh well. Probably going to stay here until Monday, hopefully doing a day trip somewhere in there to Isla de la Plata and then on to Cuenca (or perhaps Alausí again if I can work up the courage to risk another disappointing Nariz del Diablo experience).
Either way, feeling a smidge less bitter than earlier today, and I'm sure relaxing on the beach tomorrow will do wonders for that.
xo
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Last night in Baños
Unfortunately for you guys, the last few times I´ve tried to upload photos, there have been extenuating technical circumstances which prohibit it. Sooo frustrating. Like right now, when it tells me that I don't have the security level necessary to access my own photos. I will never understand computers, especially not south american ones. I only recently found out where the apostrophe was.
Anyway......... had a great last week in Quito. It was the beginning of their annual citywide independence celebration, and was quite the fiesta. I was only there for the first few days (actually I think it's culminating today) but it was some crazy times. Concerts everywhere, streets shut down, basically one big 6 day party.
A bunch of us from the hostel (if anyone is heading to Quito, i highly recommend Hostel Revolution in San Blas, it's amazing)got pretty close and had some good times out on the town, getting invited to house parties out in the suburbs of quito, which provided an entertaining early morning trying to find a cab way out there willing to drive us back to the old town. But they had some hilarious nineties music that all of us were singing along to, and the one ecuadorian guy even started freestyling, which took me back to old times, hahaha. There was one really annoying guy there though that claimed he was part of Phark in Columbia, though he didn't really seem like the type. But made some good friends, (including my roommate for the week, who is from San Diego and has been an extra multiple times on Veronica Mars, and when I found that out I think my excited girlish squeals freaked him out, but seriously, how cool?)I actually stayed an extra day there because there were two Swedish brothers, Joel and Gustav, who were leaving for Baños on Sunday so I stayed around to travel with them. (not entirely because they're basically gourmet chefs who cook me amazing food and i only have to do the dishes, but that was a large part of it, haha)
So Sunday afternoon we got a bus here to Baños, about a 4 hour drive, whilst entertained by back to back C grade Elizabeth Shue movies in spanish. Thrilling, let me tell you.
But anyway, arrived here around 8:30 and managed to find a nice hostel with a really cool terrace and glassed in kitchen slash restaurant thing on the roof. Pretty much just crashed there after some less than impressive ecuadorian style pizza, since I hadn't slept more than an hour the night before (see account of houseparty above). But then the Monday we checked out the town a little bit, had a delicious 1 dollar almuerzo in the market after heading to the thermal baths outside of town. Definitely not what I was picturing, as it turned out to be basically public pools with dirty looking volcanically warmed water. But around behind it you could follow this stream around the base of the mountain, which was pretty cool. And then we were told it was a really good idea to take one of these chivas, an open bus sort of thing, arranged by various tour companies in town at night up to see the volcano. But after a rather long and uncomfortable bus ride, we only went halfway up the mountain to where we had a great view of the town, but couldn't even see the volcano at all because a different mountain was in the way. Felt cheated out of my three dollars, but they did serve me some delicious juice slash tequila mixture which sort of made up for it.
And then Tuesday we rented some horses to ride for the day, and a guide took us up in the mountains a bit, to a nice waterfall, etc. which was pretty fun, a)because i hadn't ridden a horse in a while and it was nice to get back on one, emaciated though it was, and b)because the boys had never ridden before and their faces, squirming and complaining was likewise entertaining. And then after dinner Joel and I managed to find this obscure pathway up to the radio tower which actually overlooks the town AND the volcano, and managed to see some explosions and a bit of flowing lava, though very far away and kept fading quickly, but still pretty cool.
And today we rented some mountain bikes and went for a ride (more strenuous than i had expected, due to the wind tunnel effect of the mountains and ridiculous equatorial sun)down the ruta de las cascadas (waterfalls) which was spectacular, went on a cable car across this huge gorge river thingie and then hitched a ride back with a rather unfriendly ecuadorian man in a pickup. And then some dinner, and then the swedish boys were off to the coast. I'm staying here another night, possibly doing some canyoning tomorrow morning and then catching a bus to Riobamba, about an hour away because I want to do this cool train ride on Friday morning, the Devil's Nose, where they let you ride on the roof of the cars. And then probably a night bus to the coast, at Mantañita, where it's supposedly a really chill beach town with some good music and a bit of surfing etc. Probably stay there a couple days, with a day trip to Puerto Lopez and the Isla de la Plata, otherwise known as the poor man's galapagos, before heading back down to a few places in southern ecuador on my way to Mancóra for December 14ish. Which I am just realizing is next thursday, ie a week from tomorrow, so I guess I´d better get my ass in gear, ahaha.
Anyway, off to the telephone cabinas, and will be tomorrow again, because December 6, for those of you who don't know, is Mr. Frank Gustin's 52nd birthday, so for all of you close enough, please give him a big birthday hug from me!!!! Thanks, and chau!
Anyway......... had a great last week in Quito. It was the beginning of their annual citywide independence celebration, and was quite the fiesta. I was only there for the first few days (actually I think it's culminating today) but it was some crazy times. Concerts everywhere, streets shut down, basically one big 6 day party.
A bunch of us from the hostel (if anyone is heading to Quito, i highly recommend Hostel Revolution in San Blas, it's amazing)got pretty close and had some good times out on the town, getting invited to house parties out in the suburbs of quito, which provided an entertaining early morning trying to find a cab way out there willing to drive us back to the old town. But they had some hilarious nineties music that all of us were singing along to, and the one ecuadorian guy even started freestyling, which took me back to old times, hahaha. There was one really annoying guy there though that claimed he was part of Phark in Columbia, though he didn't really seem like the type. But made some good friends, (including my roommate for the week, who is from San Diego and has been an extra multiple times on Veronica Mars, and when I found that out I think my excited girlish squeals freaked him out, but seriously, how cool?)I actually stayed an extra day there because there were two Swedish brothers, Joel and Gustav, who were leaving for Baños on Sunday so I stayed around to travel with them. (not entirely because they're basically gourmet chefs who cook me amazing food and i only have to do the dishes, but that was a large part of it, haha)
So Sunday afternoon we got a bus here to Baños, about a 4 hour drive, whilst entertained by back to back C grade Elizabeth Shue movies in spanish. Thrilling, let me tell you.
But anyway, arrived here around 8:30 and managed to find a nice hostel with a really cool terrace and glassed in kitchen slash restaurant thing on the roof. Pretty much just crashed there after some less than impressive ecuadorian style pizza, since I hadn't slept more than an hour the night before (see account of houseparty above). But then the Monday we checked out the town a little bit, had a delicious 1 dollar almuerzo in the market after heading to the thermal baths outside of town. Definitely not what I was picturing, as it turned out to be basically public pools with dirty looking volcanically warmed water. But around behind it you could follow this stream around the base of the mountain, which was pretty cool. And then we were told it was a really good idea to take one of these chivas, an open bus sort of thing, arranged by various tour companies in town at night up to see the volcano. But after a rather long and uncomfortable bus ride, we only went halfway up the mountain to where we had a great view of the town, but couldn't even see the volcano at all because a different mountain was in the way. Felt cheated out of my three dollars, but they did serve me some delicious juice slash tequila mixture which sort of made up for it.
And then Tuesday we rented some horses to ride for the day, and a guide took us up in the mountains a bit, to a nice waterfall, etc. which was pretty fun, a)because i hadn't ridden a horse in a while and it was nice to get back on one, emaciated though it was, and b)because the boys had never ridden before and their faces, squirming and complaining was likewise entertaining. And then after dinner Joel and I managed to find this obscure pathway up to the radio tower which actually overlooks the town AND the volcano, and managed to see some explosions and a bit of flowing lava, though very far away and kept fading quickly, but still pretty cool.
And today we rented some mountain bikes and went for a ride (more strenuous than i had expected, due to the wind tunnel effect of the mountains and ridiculous equatorial sun)down the ruta de las cascadas (waterfalls) which was spectacular, went on a cable car across this huge gorge river thingie and then hitched a ride back with a rather unfriendly ecuadorian man in a pickup. And then some dinner, and then the swedish boys were off to the coast. I'm staying here another night, possibly doing some canyoning tomorrow morning and then catching a bus to Riobamba, about an hour away because I want to do this cool train ride on Friday morning, the Devil's Nose, where they let you ride on the roof of the cars. And then probably a night bus to the coast, at Mantañita, where it's supposedly a really chill beach town with some good music and a bit of surfing etc. Probably stay there a couple days, with a day trip to Puerto Lopez and the Isla de la Plata, otherwise known as the poor man's galapagos, before heading back down to a few places in southern ecuador on my way to Mancóra for December 14ish. Which I am just realizing is next thursday, ie a week from tomorrow, so I guess I´d better get my ass in gear, ahaha.
Anyway, off to the telephone cabinas, and will be tomorrow again, because December 6, for those of you who don't know, is Mr. Frank Gustin's 52nd birthday, so for all of you close enough, please give him a big birthday hug from me!!!! Thanks, and chau!
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