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