Still alive and checking in from Ecuador. I am having lots of adventures here, but this has been my hardest traveling experience so far. Only because no one speaks any English and my Spanish is horrendous. I can understand about 1 in every 8 words and then attempt to decipher the rest through hand gestures, facial expressions, etc. But this country is absolutely, incredibly gorgeous.
Guayaquil was indeed awful. My flight was an hour and a half delayed in Houston so we got in really late. It is extremely easy to get from the touristy, safe areas to the bad areas. The flight attendant for the airline was all worried about me and made me take off my ring and my earrings. He said he has seen several people have their earrings ripped right out of their ears. So that freaked me out enough to get out of there the next morning. Took the bus to Cuenca which was a beautiful town with Colonial architecture and tons of churches. The buses here are actually nice (although sometimes crowded). They use real luxury buses instead of old school buses. I am getting the hang of how to get a ticket and how to get on without knowing Spanish, but the first couple of times were a bit confusing. The people on the bus to Cuenca were all very friendly and even played music in English for me. Too bad they seem to like the worst music (Rick Springfield, soundtrack to Grease, Michael Jackson, etc.)
From Cuenca, I went on some great hikes in Cajas National Park. The park is extremely pretty... lots of mountains, cool plants, lakes, and funky tree forests to look at. Also a couple rockslides! My guide seemed to not really like Americans, and he scolded me for using the term American, since he is also American (just South American). I guess he is right, but I don´t know of another term to replace it with. Oh well... after my hike I went and ate guinea pig. It was huge and pretty tasty. They roast it on a spit over fire.
From there I took off on the bus and headed to Riobamba. I was going to just stay the night and then catch the bus to Banos, but I liked the laid back vibe of the town and decided to skip Banos and just hang out. They had lots of parks and I just sat around, ate good street food, went to the local market, took pictures and had Span-glish conversations with townspeople. Eventually, I ran into a man who owned a store who sent me over to a cool, local art museum while I was on siesta. He told me to come back after, so I did. He spoke about as much Spanish as I speak English. Met his wife and kids and hung out with them for the afternoon. Turns out he wanted my help with some kind of issue with his Grandfather, who has since passed. Money he thought the EximBank had records of have disappeared and he had a huge book of correspondence dating back to 1946 that he wanted me to help him sort through. I figured, what the heck, I had nothing else to do. So I hung out there the next day, sorting through the paper trail. Turns out he didn't actually qualify for a loan and ended up getting scammed along with another company (they wanted to build a cement factory, which eventually they did, after losing the 2,000 to the scam artist). Since he couldn't understand what I was trying to tell him, we called his son-in-law and I told him what the papers said and then he translated to his father-in law. Anyhoo, then the wife tried to teach me Spanish using the kids' school books. They bought me ice cream (I do seem to know the word for ice cream for every country I visit) and then gave me a pair of huge plastic earrings with a crown on them from their store. Very sweet, but I doubt you will see me wearing them around Seattle. Hmm... they might make a lovely Christmas present for one of you ;). The family took me to the bus and I headed to Quito.
Just stayed in Quito for a few hours before catching my flight off to the Amazon rainforest. The lodge was beautiful (and very expensive), but there were tons of monkeys and a bagazillion birds. Unfortunately, my guide was very into birds and I kind of got tired of looking at birds and wanted to see more bugs and stuff. But seeing toucans, parrots, parakeets in the wild was kind of cool. The monkeys move too fast for most pictures, but I got some. Red howlers, capuchins, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, PYGMY MARMOSETS and several I still have to look up when I get home. Even though they were on the river, I didn't see giant river otters or the pink dolphins because it rained pretty hard in the afternoons. Mom, you would love all the bird-watching and orchids, and the lodge is as clean as can be in the wilderness. It was a bit foofy for me, but the wildlife was worth it. The only hard part was getting up at 4:30 AM to leave on our treks (I suppose it didn't help that I was drinking in the bar with the tour guides since they brought all kinds of local and Cuban rums along with them).
Got back from the rainforest yesterday and had a hotel mix-up where the girls who were in my room were suppose to check out and by 4:30 hadn't returned. Also, the ATM machines here don´t take Star... only Cirrus, so my ATM card doesn't work. Had to figure out my code to get money off my credit card, which I have never used for cash. But after a small panic and 14 dollars to my name, I got more cash and headed for the old city and grabbed a 7 hotel room which was pretty bad. This morning I switched since I couldn't figure out how the electric shower worked. Stopped and had an unidentifiable breakfast (rice, egg, potatoes, avocado...and some kind of boiled thing....could have been some kind of stomach lining based on the texture?) They really wanted me to like it, so I ate as much as I could. Now I am off to see the basillicas and things around the old town for today and tomorrow and then off to dive in the Galapagos. After that, I have a few days to goof off and then back home. So this will be my only email until I get home! But no worries...I am doing muy bueno (or something like that).I don´t have everyone´s email address, so please pass this along to anyone I left off (this keyboard is a bit wonky and I am having some difficulties figuring it out....not to mention there is a huge parade or protest or demonstration of some sort going down the street outside the internet place).
See you soon! I will send out pictures on my return.
Love,
Betsy
No comments:
Post a Comment