Banos...again

So, I´m back in Banos again, had to come see my latin cutie one more time before heading out. He´s really great, very sweet and doting, plus he digs me. I will indeed miss him.

We rented a car on Saturday and did some site seeing. It was really great to have a tour guide and to get off the beaten path. He showed the land he owns that he will be building a house on soon. It will have awesome mountain views. Yesterday we spent the day at some thermal pools here in town. Banos is famous for its thermal pools. It was great...hot tubs, saunas and steam rooms. Today he scored me a t.v. for my room, it´s rainy, so I´ve spent most of the day watching t.v. in English no less. That´s been a real treat!

My next destination will be Cuenca, Ecuador which is on the way to Peru. I´m trying to avoid the 7-8 hour bus ride south. So, I think I will head north to Quito (3 hours by bus) and then fly south to Cuenca. You have no idea how I´ve come to loathe the busses. I did fine in Central America, but I think that´s because it wasn´t as mountainous, so the roads were far straighter, plus most of the transportation I took in CA was extended mini vans, so I wasn´t stuck in he back of a long coach bus. I´ve been making it a point to befriend the bus drivers and sit up front with them whenever possible.

That´s all for now amigos. Hope all is well.

Montanita for Carnaval

I arrived in the beach, surf town of Montanita last Tuesday. Town was ramping up for Carnaval then, and for the last 4 nights this place has rocked ALL night long.

The beaches were packed, PACKED with people. At night the 5 blocks or so that make up the dusty town of Montanita became a moving throng of people. Latin and techno music blared from out from all of the restaurants and bars. Street vendors from all over South America selling their jewerly clogged the sidewalks. Craziness. Fire dancers were out, saw some women in costumes and body paint that were very cool. It was like a mini mardi gras. The town ran out of hotel rooms. I was glad I got here when I did and got my room (which is very nice) but it went from $15 to $40 for the weekend.

The beach has awesome waves, but that is about the only thing worth mentioning. It´s located in a dry, barren dessert. There is nothing pretty to see either way, although the town is cool, almost Disney like, as restaurants and hotels, all bamboo, are stacked on on top of each other. Most have 2 or 3 floors.

Umbrellas on the beach can be had if you get out early enough. Although, many families made their own shade with 4 large sticks and a sheet, that was cool. Many, many people put up tents as well. It´s hot, really hot here. I won´t miss that.

I´ll be here another couple of days, before moving along. I´ll be heading to Peru eventually, in about 2 weeks or so.

Adios for now! Love to everyone.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

I arrived a couple of days ago in Guayaquil, the country´s second largest city. Guayaguil is a modern and busy city situated on a river, near the south coast. I walked along their boardwalk yesterday, it was very, very pretty, but very hot and humid. I made a new friend for the walk, a guy from Chile. He is also traveling alone, but sleeping in bus stations or parks. He was a bit odd, at one point, he just dropped trow and took off his pants as we were walking (he had shorts underneath). It was quiet funny, as locals and tourists alike stoppped to watch and giggle. After that I thought it wise to make my escape. Taxi!

Before leaving Riobamba on the train ride to the Devil´s Nose the other day, I made more new friends. I was in an internet cafe and a local guy asked if he could practice his English with me. I was happy to help, and he asked if I could meet him later, with his wife so that she could practice English too. I met them later that day, along with their little boy. They drove me to a couple of stores, a rug store and a leather store to see if I wanted to buy anything (I´m sure there would have been a commission in it for them) ....uhm, no thanks...my backpack is heavy enough. Later we went for ice cream and they asked to meet up that evening to play chess. Seeing as my social calander was empty, I obliged. So, they met me at my hotel and we played chess in the dining room for a couple of hours. The guy was an ace, and won every game. It did get a little awkward at one point, they see Americans are wealthy beyond belief and asked me how much money my trip was costing.

The next morning I got on the roof of the train for the 5 hour train ride down to the Devil´s Nose. I rented a couple of cushions for $1.00 each. I sat next to a girl from England that I met when we bought out tickets the day before. She was very cool. The train ride was excellent. Very cold at the beginning. In fact we made a brief stop in a village and I bought a pair of gloves. My friends from the night before had given me a scarf, in thanks for me treating for ice cream, and I was very glad for it. The train decended through mountains and passed by rivers and villages. We had fun waving at locals and the more south we went, the hotter it became. At one point we were in a bit of a desert before the landscape become green again. At the end of the train ride, I was in a tank top and had rolled up the cuffs on my pants. The town we stopped in was very scenic. I then caught a 5 hour bus ride (uggh) here to Guayaquil. My hotel is very nice with bright, clean tiled rooms and hot showers.

I´m leavng this morning for beach town called Montanita. I think it´s about a 3-4 hour bus ride from here. It´s a surf, party town from what I´ve heard and read in the Lonely Planet guide book I have. But, there are hotels just north of the beach that are quieter, so that´s where I´ll stay...I must sleep!

That´s all for now folks, love to you all!

Riobamba, Ecuador

I arrived in Riobamba yesterday after my second visit to Banos. My new friend (Darwin) played hookie and came along for the night. Was really great, but he´s gone back to Banos to work now. He works 7 nights a week for 12 hours each shift, and then...Monday through Friday he works at a tourist information booth for an additional 7 hours a day. He makes a whopping $300.00 a month and is very glad for it. Man oh man. We don´t know how good we have it.

At the hotel in Banos, there is a very, very sweet Senora who works the day shift. She and I were chatting the other day and she asked me where the US was. I got out a map of North and South America. She had never seen a world map before and was excited to learn where Ecuador was located. Most kids outside the cities are only educated until the age of 12, some even younger. Academic education is no benefit to you if you are working the fields or selling food on the street. Certainly however, in the cities education is more valued as incomes are higher. My spanish instructor in Quito (the capital) for example, is a student at the university.

The bus ride from Banos to Riobamba passed through newly re-opened road. In August ´06 there was a volcano eruption in Banos. They are still clearing the lava flows from the road with bulldozers. Was a sight to see. I´ll be here in Riobamba until Sunday, when I´ll depart for a train ride called the Devil´s Nose http://www.exploringecuador.com/en_ar_devilsnose.htm The scenery is supposed to be spectacular and the best seats are on the roof! hooHA!

While in Banos the other day, I went rafting and had a great time. Was pleased to see they had life jackets and helmuts, as well as a rescue kayak. There was only one boat, and as my Cape girls know, rafting with a large tour can slow things down. At home, each boat waits until all the other boats have competed each rapid, so the trip is a lot of stop and go. Here it was uninterupted fun. In Latin America, liability issues aren´t even on the radar. In fact after going through one of the rapids we stopped, but only to climb back up, on all fours through the river, over the rocks to body surfed down again.

Ecuador, at least in the cities, compared to Central America seems to be light years ahead. For example, they have trash barrells on most of the street corners and more importanly, people actually use them! I have also seen handicapped ramps for the sidewalks as well. There is trash removal and the trash trucks play music that our ice cream trucks play. It´s very funny. I´m told it´s because the residents don`t put their trash out (because of dogs) so they wait until they hear the music to do so.

It is carnaval season here and the kids are out in full force after school tossing water balloons at each other. It´s fun to watch. Innocent bystanders...too bad for you. The adults don´t seem to mind at all.

Okay amigos...I´m off to dinner. The restaurant in my hotel serves yummo chocolate and bananna crepes for dessert. I know where I´m going for dinner.

Hope all is well in the great white north. Love to you all!

Back from the Andes

Spent the last few days up in the Andes Mountains. It was spectacular! My guidebook said the scenery is jaw dropping. It was correct. The elevation was over 10,000 feet and I was a little lightheaded from the altitude, but it wasn´t too bad. I guess some people get really sick from it.

Although brutal, the bus ride up was half the adventure. Dirt, one lane roads, that wind up and up for hours, on the edge of a nasty precipice. A few times I had to close my eyes. Certainly no guard rails exist and a couple of times the guy riding with the driver had to get out and inspect the road to see if we could continue. They all honk their horns going around corners, thank God for small things. Meeting another vehicle on the opposite side of the road most definitely presents a challenge. Getting back down to town today took extra long today as one of the roads was closed due to a landslide. Apparently they are quite frequent. I´ve never been so car sick as in Ecuador. Fortunately, most busses come fully prepared with bags. A good deal of the locals get sick too, so I don´t feel like such a loser.

I really wanted to snap pictures on the way, but I felt it would have been really disrectful to the locals, the Quetchwa Indians. My camera would most likely feed a family of them for a few months. The hills are a patchwork of green, they farm all over the mountains. Most live in shacks on the mountain side. I would say half of them are thatch huts while some have sheet metal roofs. Sheep, llamas, mules, and of course cows and horses dot the land. My first stop was Laguana Quilotoa, a crater lake in a dormant volcano. The water was a beautiful shade of green. It is a 4-5 hour hike around the rim and an hour down to the lake. Lucky for me I have a nice zoom and could see it all from where I sat.

Off in the distance I could see two more volcanoes, one was snow capped. It was quite cold and windy there, the local indiginous people all have very ruddy faces and cover up with scarves. The woman all dresses alike, it´s really neat. Thick knee high stockings, knee lenght skirts, bright red or teal capes and black thick, low heel dress shoes. Yes, dress shoes. These gals heard sheep and climb the mountains in these shoes. Both men and woman wear cool hats. I don´t know what they are called, but they look like something a British gentleman might wear. Some have feathers in them. It´s pretty neat.

The hotel I stayed at was pretty basic, and well, okay, it was a dump. Freezing cold with big giant dead bugs in the bathroom. I don´t know when the last time the sheets were washed. Lucky for me it was so cold I slept in my clothes. I spent most of the early evening at a new swanky hotel down the road that I couldn´t afford. But, they let me in and I bought a beer and got to read a current newspaper from Miami while sitting in front of the fireplace. Ah, bliss. Back at my place for dinner, they killed a chicken outside my room for dinner. I did NOT need to see that. Oof. I´d have been happy with rice and eggs. I shivered all night and split the next day.

The next day, while waiting for the bus, I was offered a ride in a collective. Collectivos are pick up trucks that act as local taxis. You just jump in the back. Now I don´t mind paying a few more dollars than they charge locals....it´s all good. But this ass to wanted $25.00. I might have paid him $10, but he wouldn´t go down that far. The bus fare was $1.50. Here in Ecuador, the currency is U.S. dollars. It´s a nice change from having to do quick math to figure out what you´re spending. Apparantly when the conversion took place a few years ago, many, many people lost their life savings. The initial exchange rate was sinful and there was civil war over it.

So, I traveled by bus to another village in the mountains and stayed at a way better place. $10.00 for a (warm) private room, private bath AND dinner and breakfast. I don´t know how these guys even made a profit. The food was great and the owners very, very accomodating. I stayed there two nights and probably would have stayed longer but there was no internet and I was worried you guys (okay, Queenie) would be freaking out and calling the national guard if I was MIA too long. There I met a really nice couple from Sweeden. They invited me horseback riding yesterday. Four hours for $12.00, with a guide. Wow! That was my third time ever on a horse. The other two times at Westfield were pretty treacherous, but maybe the third time is a charm. We were all horse newbies so we took it easy the first hour or so. We stopped and visited a cheese factory and bought a giant block of cheese. The horses were great, although they had a bad habbit of walking on the edge of the road..WTF?! I learned real fast how to make mine stay in the middle of the road.

We sat in a meadow surrounded by wildlflowers and enjoyed our cheese with our guide as the clouds blew in. Our guide showed us where the Incas had buried their gold. Plus there was a giant circular, swirly trench, probably 30 -40 long at the widest. He was trying to explain to us in Spanish that it was used as some form of a communication tool. So we weren´t sure if they at one time had been buildings on top of it. According to the guide they Incas could communicate with other tribes 50 -75 miles away. Definitely the explanation was lost in translation, but nevertheless it was cool to sit where the Incas sat. I´m sore and bruised today. My calfs kept getting pinched from the stirrups, but it was a really cool way to see the mountainside.

I´m heading back to the town of Banos tomorrow, gotta say hello again to a new friend. I LOVE Latin America!

Oh one last thing, in case you haven´t noticed, gentle readers my spelling is awful. The spell checks here are in Spanish and it only makes things worse. So, you´ll need to bare with me.