So I am back. I sent out one email and not sure if you got it or not, since I didn't have everyone's email. Anyhoo, here is the recap trip report:
Flew in to Guayaquil. Not the nicest place, so grabbed a local bus the next day and headed to Cuenca. Goofed off there, ate some guinea pig and headed out to go hiking in Cajas National Park, which was absolutely beautiful.
Took a bus to Riobamba where all the tourists get on a train, but decided to just goof off in town and sit in the park to practice my non-existent Spanish with the locals. Met a nice family and helped them translate paperwork that was in English and they tried (to no avail) to teach me Spanish. Hung out with them for a few days as they bribed me with helado (ICE CREAM!). They have already sent me a few emails, all addressed to Patty since no one seems to be able to pronounce my name when I tell them it is Betsy... others called me Pepsi. The emails are a bit hard to read since they are in Spanish, but I have tried to respond, thanks to internet translation pages. Took the bus to Quito and stayed for the night before heading to Coca, an oil town in the Amazon rainforest.
Took a two hour motor boat ride and then switched to a dugout canoe for another two hours to get out to a beautiful lodge in the middle of the rainforest. Spent several days getting woken up at 4:30 AM to hike (after staying up until one or two in the morning drinking rum and some kind of moonshine-esque sugar cane alcohol out of a jug with the tour guides and the crew at the lodge). Saw tons of monkeys, parrots, parakeets, toucans, caymins and bugs. But NO GIANT RIVER OTTERS OR PINK DOLPHINS (Joe...now I am back to being a non-believer)! Headed back to Quito for a few days, which is where my last email left off.
So I spent three days in the old city of Quito. I went to some of the churches and climbed a bagazillion ladder stairs to the top of the Bascillica, high enough up to make me shaky. But the views were spectacular and it was well worth the two dollars. Found an artist named Guayasamin that I had seen a few paintings of in Riobamba, and found out that he was a local from Quito and died in 1999. His family ran a beautiful museum in Quito with his a bunch of his work that I went to visit. It was amazing! They also had an exhibit with photography of the effects of the oil industry on the local rainforest tribes that actually made me cry. Pictures with children that swam in the polluted waters with skin peeling off their bodies, rivers that ran full of sludge, and patients dying of cancer caused by contamination. Before leaving, I bought a signed seriograph of Guayasimin's work as a treat to myself (more info on the artist at http://www.ecuador-travel-guide.org/art&culture/Guayasamin.htm).That afternoon, I was getting prepared for my flight to the Galapagos and knew I had to get my $100 entry fee in cash so I set off to find an ATM. They were all in horrible locations such as the trolley station, the bus stop and other heavily crowded areas that I didn't want to pull money out. The one place I could find was on the side of the bank on a narrow sidewalk on the street. I pulled out the cash, put it in my pocket and was getting my ATM card out to put back in my bag when four guys were suddenly behind me. They kept saying something to me in Spanish and I kept saying "Que? No entiende" which agitated them even more, as they pointed to my bag. They finally snatched the bag and took off. All I could think was "Man, that must have been frustrating to rob someone that doesn't know what the heck you are saying!" and "Oh well, at $0.25 cents a cone, I still have enough for ice cream". Since I didn't know enough Spanish to tell the cops, and they were all busy with some political protests that had been going on all day (some kind of swearing in of a bunch of political folks), I ran back to the hotel and canceled my card.
The Galapagos were incredible. The boat was small with 15 people and the food was wonderful. It was as close to clean as a boat with a kitchen could be. There were several roaches in my small cabin and the cabin was loud below deck. Also, there were no locks on the door and I kept finding the crew milling about it my room asking me about husbands/boyfriends and such (like after I got out of the shower). They seemed pretty harmless, but I ended up sleeping on the deck with my sleep sack on the lawn chairs every night. There were two guys from Belgium and a guy from Switzerland that saw that the crew was making me a bit uncomfortable and they helped me out by having one of the slept on the deck each night to keep me company. It was actually really nice to fall asleep under the incredible southern hemisphere stars every night. Oh... and no diving, since apparently two days before I got there, a new law was passed that no diving could be made outside of full dive boats that did not make land hikes. But I did get to snorkel once or twice a day. After our guide miscounted the number of people and actually left someone's husband stranded after snorkeling, I guess it was probably for the best.
I feel very lucky to have been able to experience something that I think in the years to come will not be as accessible. It is so unfortunate that the people that want to visit such a place (me included) are really contributing to the ruin of the islands. Tourism has lead many illegals to come live there to find work and they bring animals and things that end up changing and harming the environment. I saw huge cruise ships pulling up to the small islands, tourists touching the giant tortoises, people walking around with their video cameras through the bird breeding areas and accidentally stepping on nests, and other hugely idiotic things.
Then back to Quito where I knew I had a cash shortage and no ATM card. I decided to leave the city and find somewhere cheaper since I calculated out that I had about $8/day in order to buy a few souvenirs and pay the departure tax. I looked at a map and randomly chose either Nanagelito or Mindo since they had fun names and sounded somewhat non-touristy, close and relatively cheap to get to, so I headed off to the bus station. After much confusion, they got me on a bus that I was told would get me to there. Two and a half hours later, the bus driver tells me "Mindo" and unloads my backpack on the side of a highway. It is now dark and there is no town in sight. 
The bus pulls off, leaving me and my backpack alone on the highway in the pitch dark. A guy in an unmarked, beat up car with no windows pulls up and says "taxi?". He tells me it is 8 km down a dark windy road to the actual town of Mindo. So I get to make the decision of whether or not to walk alone in the dark for 8 km or trust that this guy really a taxi driver and will get me there safely. I decide that either way is slightly risky, but at least trusting the guy does not involve lugging my heavy backpack around before getting kidnapped :) Turns out he was super nice and found me a great hotel that I was the only guest and I talked them into a $5 a night room. Several relaxing days in the small town of Mindo where the people were super friendly, spent hiking and visiting waterfalls, watching birds and butterflies, and taking the hotel owners' son (who I think had Down Syndrome) to town for ice cream. Perfect end to my trip. I never got to take my dancing lessons and I didn't get to visit everywhere I planned, but all the places I visited were beautiful.Some things I learned on this trip:
- Ecuadorians eat LOTS of potatoes and we all know I LOVE potatoes!!!!
- Graffiti about Nazi skinheads (which was in many towns I visited) and swastika patches in stores is still extremely baffling to me, especially in a country full of Ecuadorians. Not sure if it is a religion thing or if it is a misunderstanding with what appeared to be a prevelant punk culture?
- Some buses in Ecuador come complete with a "anti-parasite vitamin salesman" who will educate the entire bus with a lengthy lecture on parasites (complete with gross pictures of tapeworms and things) and then try to sell you a cure to parasites that comes in a packet that looks like Pop-Rocks or Fizz-Whiz for a dollar. Or if you are really smart...you can get THREE packets for two dollars.
- Travelling solo means no one to watch your back at an ATM and robbing someone in a language they don't speak must be pretty frustrating for the robbers.
- Just because a hotel says is has hot water, do not believe it unless you actually test it out.
- Electric showers may have hot water, but when all your guide book says is "wear rubber-soled shoes in the shower to avoid accidents and ask someone to show you how to work them" does not bode well if you do not speak the language. And REALLY?!?!? Does mixing electricity and water sound like a good idea to you?!?!? I mean, I am no rocket scientist but.....
- No one in Ecuador speaks much English, and yet there was a full flight home of English-speaking people. Made me want to ask "where the heck were you when I only had my backpack to talk to for weeks on end?" (Most people I talked to just head to the Galapagos or doing missionary work)
- Just knowing how to say the word "ice cream" in multiple different languages does not help you get a bus ticket, order food, ask for change, or any other daily task.
So for those of you that read all of this mess (or even if you cheated and just scrolled down), here is a link to my pictures or the slideshow. I had a new camera and I am still getting used to it.
This trip wore me out, so I do not foresee another trip for a while. Although another day like today of meetings and sorting through 380 work emails may accelerate the travel bug. We will see. Hopefully Africa will be the next up?
Glad to be home, and if I haven't seen you yet... hope to see you soon!
Love,
Betsy
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