Hello again! I have returned to
Quito and I’m ready to share the 2 week long saga of my post-Christmas
adventures!
Adrianna, Mysha, and I have spent
the days since Christmas travelling around Ecuador and enjoying the ease with
which a group a young college kids can go places in this country.
Our adventures started late
Christmas night when we caught the 10 hour bus to Cuenca, a southern sierra
colonial city. Mysha has an amazing ability to sleep, but Adrianna and I were
awake for most of the ride. Which meant that when we got to Cuenca (at 6 AM)
and had to wait until noon for our room to be available we ended up wandering
the city in a daze. Nothing was open for a couple hours, being the day after
Christmas, so we were wandering empty streets with nothing to do. After a good
nap we ventured back out into the much more lively streets to actually get an
idea of what the city is like.
Turns out, Cuenca is a pretty quiet
place. At least in the colonial part where all the touristy stuff is. Our time
was filled with museums, restaurants, and wandering. We took a page out of
Katie, Michelle, and Emily’s book (they were in Cuenca before us and overlapped
our trip a little) and stuck to a 2 meal a day routine. We would get up late,
go get a huge breakfast, wander around until we were hungry again, and get a
big dinner. In our wanderings we discovered that the parks in Cuenca are
equipped with speakers and play music at just about every hour of the day. It
was kind of nice. We also had a great time one day playing around on a cluster
of rocks in the river that runs through Cuenca.
One of our saving graces was a used
bookstore we found with a number of cheap books in English. I picked up two
Ellis Peters mysteries and a science-fiction novel. I’m almost done with the
last one now.
The first of the two museums we went
to was a museum of modern art. Almost all of the displays were short films.
Adrianna, Mysha, and I had a good time laughing at the strangeness of some of
the pieces and laughing and our interpretations of the rest of them. Some of
the pieces were actually pretty good, but most of them made no sense
whatsoever.
The second museum was a more of a
cultural museum, with a historical part on the Incan ruins in the museum’s back
yard and a huge ethnographic section on the different regions of Ecuador. The
museum closed pretty early, but we stayed and wandered around the ruins for
quite a while. At the end, we were surprised to find a bunch of cages full of
tropical birds, including a number of parrots who said “Hola” repeatedly and
didn’t know how to say goodbye.
We also visited the giant Cathedral
in the middle of the city and an overlook up on one of the neighboring hills.
The overlook was beautiful. We went at night and looked out over all of the
city lights. Cuenca is actually a big city, even though we only really spent
time in the historical center of it. The Cathedral was gigantic. We walked in
and the walls seemed to go on forever before they reached the ceiling. It was
beautiful. The Cathedral has two large bell towers in the front that look
really short compared to the rest of it. Apparently a mistake in the design
caused the towers to be built considerably shorter than they were supposed to
be because if they had been built to their intended height they would have
caused the entire thing to collapse.
A lot of our time in Cuenca was
focused around meals. Cuenca is sort of known for having good restaurants and
we took advantage of that. After our first day, we found a delicious breakfast
place that we returned to later. We ate at a Brazilian café, an Ecuadorian
equivalent of an apple bees (with Ecuadorian food of course, not American
food), and the top pick of the guidebook where we groaned about having to pay
$10 for our dinners. That’s expensive!
The big exciting thing we did in
Cuenca actually involved leaving the city. One morning we caught the bus out to
Ingapirca, an old ruined Incan town. We got in for half price with our student
IDs and wandered around for a few hours before catching the bus back. The big
attraction of Ingapirca is the temple to the sun-god Inti. It’s a good-sized
structure oriented to the solstices and with a much better construction than
the rest of the buildings and walls in the complex. The Incans took great care
in their important constructions, carving down the rocks they used in the walls
to make them fit together perfectly without putting any mortar in between. The
temple was constructed that way, but the rest of the buildings and walls
weren’t. We climbed around on everything, took a bunch of pictures, and
generally enjoyed a sunny vacation day in a beautiful place with good friends.
When we’d had our fill of Cuenca,
and with the New Year approaching, we got on another bus towards the coast. We
had to go through Guayaquil first, and the bus ride to Guayaquil from Cuenca
was the most beautiful bus ride I have ever taken in my life. Possibly the most
beautiful ride, period. It started out with cloud-capped mountains jutting out
of the valley we were travelling through. When we broke out to the other side
of the range, we found ourselves high up on the sunny edge of the Andes looking
out over the top of a coastal cloud-bank that was hugging the sides of the
mountains below us. It was like being in a plane above the clouds, but with our
feet still on solid ground and surrounded by the greenery of the Ecuadorian
Jungle.
When we got to Guayaquil, a man came
up to me and asked if we were going to Montañita (we were) and then proceeded
to move us to the front of the line, get us our tickets, and send us on our
way. With a payment. Apparently that’s his job, snagging lost-looking tourists,
getting them tickets, and making sure they get to where they want to go. It was
actually pretty handy.
It seems that all of the tourists in
Ecuador were headed to Montañita for the New Year. We had to catch a third bus
to get us to our hotel in Manglaralto (the town next to Montañita) and met a
Canadian girl who was on vacation from teaching Science in a school in
Colombia. Throughout our trip, we met more American, European, and Canadian
tourists everywhere we went, though the vast majority were in Montañita for New
Years. We also met a number of Chilean and Argentinian travelers.
Montañita was an experience. The
town is basically a hippie tourist haven. There are little artisan tables set
up along the sides of the streets selling all manner of trinkets and jewelry,
intermingled with the street-food stands where a person can easily fill up on
pinchos (skewered meat) and choclo (their version of corn-on-the-cob, it had
giant white kernels and is a lot hardier than our yellow sweet corn). There
were no cars on the streets, just crowds and crowds of people. One of our first
stops was a little convenience store with a dress shop hanging out front where
Adrianna and I each bought a piece of more coast-appropriate clothing (ie. Something
that is light-weight and easily worn over a bathing suit). Not only do little
stands for food and trinkets exist all along the streets, but there were also
drink stands. Some of these stands sold Batidos (delicious smoothie-like drinks
of every flavor tropical flavor you can imagine made from the fruit, milk,
sugar, and ice), but others sold cocktails instead. There were a couple streets
that were basically lined with mini-bars where you could just walk up and ask
for a coco loco or a piña colada or anything else you so desire. And only pay
$2.50 for it.
However, we didn’t actually go to
Montañita first. Our hostel was in Manglaralto, so we stopped there to clean up
and drop off our stuff. And to admire the three iguanas that lived in the tree
outside our window. Manglaralto is a world apart from Montañita. It’s just a
quiet little costal town without much to speak of. It has one cluster of
restaurants that all serve the same thing, and a nice beach. And that’s about
it. We actually went to those restaurants twice for breakfast and it was a
yummy and filling experience. Batido, bolón, and a fried egg. Deeeeelicious. (A
bolón is a ball, made from boiled and crushed green plantains mixed with egg,
encasing a small piece of cheese and fried.)
From Monglaralto, Montañita is
really just a nice walk on the beach away. The two towns have rock banks on
their ocean sides, protecting them from the waves, but the stretch of beach in
between is mostly empty. On our first walk along the stretch, we found a dead
puffer fish (I’d never seen a real one up close before) and a dead eel-like
fish of some sort. Not to mention all the little crabs and snails that live in
the sand (crabs in the dry, snails in the wet). We generally walked to Montañita
in the morning and took a cab home at night, though New Year’s night we walked
back on the beach because we couldn’t find a taxi.
Montañita (and to a smaller extent
Manglaralto) is known for its surfing waves. Surfers from all over come to the
town to ride the waves. We just had a good time swimming in them. There’s
something really satisfying about rising up on the crest of a giant wave just before
it breaks, or diving into a wall of water as it starts crashing down over your
head. Water is really powerful, but it’s not just a scary thing, it’s also a
FUN thing.
We had some good times in Montañita.
A guy playing music and chatting on the street (there were a lot of musicians
about), who lived in Montañita, decided to take a liking to me and would try to
talk to me and get me to dance to the music every time he saw me. This led to
him being dubbed my “boyfriend” for the weekend (by the other girls I was with)
and me avoiding him at all costs. At one point I didn’t see him in time and he
roped me into a conversation with him and his friend which ended in one of them
giving me a “wish bracelet.” Apparently, when the bracelet falls off, my wish
will come true.
Not only did I meet new people, I
saw all sorts of people I knew from before. Some of the USFQ exchange students
who were still in the country were in Montañita, and I saw 3 of the girls I
volunteer with at la Caleta, the two German girls and one of the Ecuadorian educators.
New Year’s Eve was a blast. Montañita,
already full to bursting, seemed to double its population in the hours leading
up to midnight. As it got later, the town got busier, and Adrianna and Mysha
and I escaped to the edge of the rocks, where we were able to hang out and
laugh without being surrounded by people. We decided to run back along the
beach, instead of going up to the top of the rocks, even though the waves were
reaching the bottom. Every time a big wave came, we had to stop running and
jump up onto a rock to avoid getting drenched.
At some point before the craziness
really started, we were down on the beach and another guy decided to take a
liking to me. I liked him better though, and even consented to hold his hand
and be dragged back and forth in the waves. That’s because he was about 5 years
old. I only understood about half of what he was saying, but it didn’t matter,
because he didn’t really need me to respond. I just looked amazed whenever his
eyes got big and said a lot of variations on “No, really?” People had long since
started setting off fireworks, and he seemed to really love that. I think we
played together for about half an hour before I finally was able to make an
excuse and get away.
The actual New Year celebrations
started about half an hour before midnight. People started crowding down to the
beach until there was barely any free space, even with the tide way down from
its previous height. Fireworks were going off everywhere, big ones, small ones,
and ones that we kept a good distance from in case something went wrong were
exploding over our heads and shooting fountains of sparks into the air. The
beach dogs (instead of street dogs) were going nuts and some of them were
snapping at the fireworks, but none got close enough to hurt themselves. I
think they were just having a good time.
At one point, about 20 minutes
before midnight, a horde of surfers came running out onto the beach and went
out into the water to surf in the new year, and brought all the people on the
beach into one big group.
Big circles started to form around a
number of raging bonfires on which everyone was putting these big dolls. It’s
tradition in Ecuador to burn a big doll, I assume made of papier mache or
clothing stuffed with straw, to burn away all the bad from the old year. These dolls
have small fire-crackers in them that pop as the dolls burn. Once the fire has
stopped popping and it’s down to the wood frames of the doll, someone else
would throw on the next one. As soon as the fire was small enough, and
sometimes before, people would jump over it. Most of the time they made it, but
occasionally someone would forget to jump and basically just run through the
fire, or they would slip and fall and have to roll out. I was amazed that no
one got hurt.
Thinking about it now, I think this
year was the most dangerous New Year I’ve ever had, but we all made it through
and we had a blast doing it.
Out last day in Montañita, the first
of January, Adrianna and I went out and explored the tide pools surrounding the
big rocky peninsula that juts out from the coast by Montañita. The rock was all
volcanic and very rough on our feet, but we suffered through the pain and were
rewarded by the sights of barnacles, anemones, sea urchins, crabs, hermit
crabs, and other small forms of marine life. The waves had carved out some
awesome shapes in the rocks, and we explored everything we could reach.
Of course, every vacation has its
ups and downs. Our first night in Montañita, I lost my phone. I had put it in
the pocket of my new clothing and it had fallen out. All was not lost however!
Someone picked it up (apparently out of the ocean!) and called us the next
morning. We were supposed to meet them just after the New Year, but the calls
didn’t go through, and we just went back to our hostel. The people who found it
were staying in Puerto Lopez though, and we finally managed to meet up with
them while we were there. So I have my phone back and it still works, despite
spending some time in the Ocean. Que suerte! (How lucky!)
The trip to Puerto López was
uneventful. We just caught the bus north, paid the fare, and hopped off when we
arrived. We were staying at Hostal Maxima, which, it turns out, is named after
its owner, Maxima. Maxima was a character. She’s married to a man from New
York, and lived in the states for more than 30 years. The last few though, she’s
been in Ecuador, so her English has gone a little downhill. We talked to her in
Spanish, but she talked to us in the best Spanglish I have ever heard. Every
other sentence, if not every other word on occasion, she switched languages. At
first it was confusing, but it was fun to listen to. We spent a good amount of
time having our ears talked off about who-knows-what by Maxima. It was fun. One
of her favorite subjects was her pets. She has a bunny, some tropical birds, a
cat, a couple dogs (I think Spike, the biggest and youngest, was actually her
husband’s dog), and a monkey like creature named Kish (or Quiche, not sure). He’s
NOT a monkey, Maxima was very insistent about that, but I can’t remember what
he actually is. They’re illegal to own, but Maxima has special permission because
she rescued him from a family that had him illegally and was going to kill him,
and because she keeps him in a good-sized cage and takes good care of him. We
got to scratch his back.
Puerto López is a small city, not
just a town like Montañita and Manglaralto. The beach was considerably rockier
and the harbor was full of old fishing boats. Some were huge ocean-going
vessels for big-time fishing, others were smaller boats that were likely taken
out for day-long fishing trips. Our first couple days we spent wandering the
beach and drinking batidos (I think they were even better in Puerto López than
in Montañita). Here the batidos and alcoholic drinks were sold at the same
little beach-side huts, bigger than the stands from before, and accompanied by
beach chairs to sit in. in one of our wanderings, we ran into a group of
Argentinian girls playing with poi. Of course I had to show off, but I also
taught one of the girls a new trick. Circus people around the world are all
friendly, all share their knowledge, and are ALL awesome. I love having a
connection to a community like that.
We once again found ourselves
spending time reading our books in the hostel. This time though, we also spent
time cooking in the hostel because it had a kitchen. Our first day, we got up
and went to the store to buy pancake makings and didn’t end up finishing
breakfast until 3 PM. It was delicious. By the time we left, I was able to mix
the pancake batter without looking at the recipe.
Puerto López actually has some
exciting this to do though. It’s the only town from which you can get to La
Isla de la Plata, a mini Galapagos-type island (much closer to shore) that has
a huge population of birds. Adrianna and I got a deal on our tour (through
Maxima, that lady is CONNECTED) and set out early one morning to the boats. The
ride is about 90 minutes to the island, and then we hiked around for a couple
hours looking at the birds. There was no need to look FOR them, they were
EVERYWHERE. The largest bird population on the island is of blue-footed boobies.
They would just stand in the path and squawk at you as you tried to walk by
them, trying to protect their babies. We saw babies in every stage of
development, from just hatched, to almost ready to fly. We also went through the
territory of the Nazca birds and saw all of THEIR babies. In among them was an
Albatross baby too, but we couldn’t get very close to him. He was HUGE! We also
saw a few different birds in flight, tropical birds (that’s the translation of
their name in Spanish, soooo descriptive), red-headed something-or-others that
were predators to the boobies, and frigate birds. The island was also home to a
bunch of little lizards, but really not much else. It’s basically a desert
island. Technically it is covered in “Dry Tropical Forest” but that consists of
a bunch of dead and dead-looking trees, with a few green leaves thrown in here
and there.
Our tour also included snorkeling,
but we were thwarted from enjoying that part of it much by the large number of tiny
jellyfish in the water. I managed to stay in for 15 minutes, despite the
stings, but I paid for it later. Fortunately jellyfish stings only hurt for a
few hours, then they itch a bit, then they go away. We may not have gotten to
snorkel much, but we definitely got a story out of it!
The other exciting thing we decided
to do was to go visit the beach “Los Frailes.” Supposedly it’s the best beach
in Ecuador. We took the bus up to the national park and, at the entrance, met a
lone German guy from Berlin. He ended up spending the rest of the day with us
in the park. It was Kind of fun to make a friend. We took the round-about path
to the main beach, which turned out to be a very good choice because it was
FULL of gorgeous views. The swimming itself wasn’t phenomenal, but it was
definitely different. The waves were big, and the beach was steep, so they
crashed very close to shore and as soon as you got past the break point, you
couldn’t touch the bottom. I think we were there at high tide though, so that
might have had something to do with it.
One of the things Adrianna and Mysha
and I noticed while on the coast was our ability to climb stairs, hike, and
run. Without running out of breath. Ever. Apparently the last 5 months spent
living at altitude has done our lungs some good! Adrianna and I actually had a
conversation while running on the beach without gasping in the middle of our
sentences, and my legs got tired before my lungs did while hiking around on
Isla de la Plata.
Finally, it was time to leave the
coast and make our way home to Quito. We caught another night bus from Puerto López
and started the trek home. Half way through the night, when I had finally
started to drift off and had made myself comfortable lying across three chairs
and the hallway, I was rudely awakened and almost thrown to the floor by the
bus stopping with a jerk. We had hit another car. No one on the bus was hurt,
but one of the men in the other car was knocked out and knocked up a bit. We
barely got the back corner of their car, but a bus does damage no matter how
much it hits. Our bus lost its front passenger-side window, shattered on
impact, and the door was jammed for a while. After a half hour or so, and
ambulance finally arrived and took the hurt guy to the hospital (at that point
he had managed to get up and walk around until he was sitting somewhere
comfortable). And finally, after an hour and a half, a new bus arrived and we
set off on the rest of our journey to Quito.
Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well
on the ride. I amended that by sleeping when I got home, only waking up when it
was nearly lunch time. My family was, it seems, determined to give me a good
old Ecuadorian lunch to welcome me home. We started out with chicken foot soup
again, but this time I actually managed to eat one of the feet! (I gave the
other one to my host-dad.) But that’s not the end of it. My host-mom then
pulled out some leftovers that they had saved for me. A leg and “breast” of a
guinea pig. I can now say, honestly, that I have eaten cuy (Ecuadorian name for
guinea pig). It wasn’t bad. I think it would have been better freshly cooked,
but it was still tasty.
It’s good to be back in Quito.