ECUADOR

4 - 7 April 2008, Guayaquil

GUAYAQUIL

Guayaquil is the biggest city in Ecuador and yes you feel it. The Lonely Planet guide describes it as a place you either hate or love. I disagree. Yes, it does not have the beauty of the North of Ecuador, it does not have the native culture as seen in Quito. It is the financial centre of Ecuador, things are more expensive and people seem more affluent. Guayaquil has colonial buildings and the water front. It is famous for the night life and is indeed a happening party place. It is what you make of it. We opted to relax and get organised for our jump to Peru soon.
We have come to the end of our tour of Ecuador. We are left with a keeness to come back to see more places such as Baños, Vilcabamba, Tena, Mindoro, ride the train from Riobamba to the Devil´s Nose and to see the Galapagos again.
Ecuador is also a great base for learning Spanish, it is cheap and the clearest Spanish spoken in South America. We loved it here.

Our adventure continues on to Peru...

31 March - 4 April 2008, Galapagos

THE GALAGAPAGOS ISLANDS

Andrea (Stanley) was right, this place does BLOW YOUR MIND.

We had a 1,5 hours flight from Guayaquil to San Cristobal island in the Galapagos.
The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador but is 1000 km away from main land Ecuador. This is the place where Charles Darwin developed his theory of THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
The Galapagos consist of several islands and only five of these are inhabited with a total population of 18, 650 . When the Galapagos were formed, they were barren volcanic islands, devoid of all life. Because the islands were never connected to the mainland, all the species present must have somehow crossed the 1000 km of open ocean. The Galapagos wildlife is dominated by birds (especially sea birds), reptiles including the only marine iguanas in the world, sea mammals, tropical fish and marine invertebrates. The Galapagos are unique because of the fearlessness the wild life possess. There are no large predators to fear and therefore you can get very up, close and personal to the wild life. You can swim with sea lions, marine iguanas and turtles. You can stand next to the blue footed booby and the lizards and iguanas and they won´t move. They don´t fear you. It is like a different world. Quite a surreal experience.
Our 5 days cruise on the Galapagos allowed us to visit Isla San Cristobal (558 sq km), Isla Española (61 sq km), Isla Santa Fe (24 sq km), Floreana island (also known as Santa Maria, 173 sq km), Isla Santa Cruz (986 sq km) and Isla Tortuga. Every island was different in terms of its flora, fauna and inhabitants of wild life. We went for treks on the islands, snorkelled in amazing clear water where we saw sharks, giant sting rays, sea turtles, marine iguanas, giant fish in bright green/yellow/purple colours, star fish in yellow, red, blue, black and bright green colours, little penguins and a lot of funny looking urchins. Of course there were the mini jelly fish (non-poisonous of course) that kept stinging all over. I got stung right above my lips. Auwww!
I cannot describe how beautiful and surreal it is at the Galapagos. It is like the real World is left behind. I had sea lions swimming right at me just looking at me and a baby sea lion sniffing mine and Amit´s legs. Some of the sea lions would imitate the way you swim or move in the water. Hilarious.
Floreana island, which is today uninhabited (used to be inhabited) has the famous post office bay. There used to be a barrel where whalers left mail. Any captain of a boat that was heading to where the mail was addressed would deliver it by hand. Today, tourist who visit the island post their cards (no stamps as no postal services are involved) there, hoping that someone from the destination they are sending their mail to, will arrive to pick it up and hand deliver it. We checked the box and there is a lot of mail, some dated 2007. I picked up a card addressed to a family in Copenhagen. I will take it with me and hand deliver it to the address. Let´s see if the card I posted to my parents will ever get to them by hand delivery.

On our last day, we visited the Charles Darwin centre on Isla Santa Cruz, a turtle breeding centre. It is inhabited by 90 year old Lonesome George, a giant turtle, and the only one of its kind in the world. They have tried for years to get him to mate with other turtles from around the world, but is has never succeeded. There are fears that when Lonesome George goes his specie will die with him.

We saw many sun sets, beautiful star filled skies, stunning sea life, breathtaking sceneries and were lucky to be on a great boat that served excellent food.

A lot can be said about the Galapagos and to get the true impressions, you must go there and see for yourself.

30 March, 08, Guayaquil
MONTAÑITA

You just never know how your luck changes. There we were watching crabs coming out of sand holes, pelicans flying close to the sea waves and wild dogs running on the beach. It was all so peaceful.

We were going to watch the sun set at 6.15PM (29 March) when Amit dislocated his left shoulder. (The second dislocation of his left shoulder in 11 years). He was in the hut and was sleeping on his tummy. He decided to jump up rather than stand up and twisted his body and lost balance, while the left arm was resting and suddenly I heard him saying "Meera, I have dislocated my shoulder". I panicked, while he was holding his left arm and clearly in a lot of pain. I called for help and luckily our hostal owners - Eduardo and Veronica were in the vicinity. Eduardo got the car out and Amit into the car with some difficulty. He felt like fainting. Eduardo took us to the nearest hospital - 10 minutes on a bumpy road into Manglaralto. The hospital was a room with a man in a doctor`s coat, looking 16! I was shocked and said to Amit "that boy is not touching you". Amit was put on a stretcher and in our basic Spanish and with Eduardo acting as a translater, we had to explain what had happened. We asked for an x-ray before doing anything, but it was a small village hospital with no x-ray facilities or gas. We gathered that the shoulder had to be put in without an x-ray, as the next big hospital was 1 hour away on bumpy roads. Another doctor appeared, a bit older, so we relaxed. They doctors asked us to purchase injections - Eduardo kindly helped. We were trying to find out what it the injections were, but no one knew the English translation, and Amit and I were debating whether he should let them inject this lime green liquid. We just did not know. I guess in some situations you just have to trust that they know what they are doing, and Amit was getting to the point where he said "just tell them to put it back in, I have no other choice". One of the doctors asked me to step aside and 6 people surrounded Amit. They injected him with the lime green tranquilizer and started cutting his t-shirt. Amit looked up and said in loud clear Spanish "Este camisa me gusto mucho" = I like this t-shirt a lot. It was hilarious, everyone laughed. I could only see his left hand and someone pulling it. Suddenly, there was cheering and clapping. The shoulder was back in! Eduardo came up to me and said "it is all done". I looked at Amit and he seemed to be in less pain. He was given another injection for pain relief and then Eduardo helped us get a taxi to go to the next big hospital in Libertad. It was an hour`s drive away. We reached Hospital Alcivar, a private hospital, a lot bigger and cleaner. Amit was taken for x-rays which showed the shoulder was perfectly in the socket and again no one spoke English so we could not get any after-care advice.

The next day, on Amit´s birthday, we left Montañita for Guayaquil. It was too risky to take a local bus, so we got the same taxi to take us for the 3 hour`s journey. Eric, our driver, took us straight to another Hospital Alcivar in Guayaquil. It took 3 hours for the doctors to look at the shoulder and to make up the medical reports. Luckily, there was an English-speaking nurse who explained how to keep the arm. The doctor gave us the all-clear to go on our booked Galapagos trip today, as long as Amit keeps his left arm strapped in the sling for 2 weeks.

Sometimes, we don`t appreciate what we have until we start missing it. We often talk about how bad the health system is in our countries, but when you are met with an incident like ours, you really appreciate how easy it is in Europe, if something goes wrong.

29 March 2008, Montañita

MONTAÑITA

It has been nice being up in the mountains and breathing fresh air, but it was time to head to the coast, to the beaches and some summer weather.
We said goodbye to our wonderful hostal family and our new made friends, big hugs and email exhanges. We took a flight from Quito to Guayaquil (the financial city in Ecuador and the largest) and from here a 3 hours bus journey to Montañita. (Price US$5.50 per person by bus or US$120 by taxi!). The drive was all along the coast so it was just beach sites for about 2 hours.

Montañita does not have a bus station. You are dropped off in the middle of a high way and from there you can walk into the village which is very small. At first we only noticed the locals while walking to our hut at the end of the beach. Later in the day when we went for our swim, the beach was packed with foreign surfers. Montañita is a surfer`s hangout and very much a hippi place. You see all sorts of people. Hippis travelling around making money by playing music, or spitting fire/fire joggling, making jewellery from beans and other natural products. At night time, the village comes alive with it´s 3 strips of bars and restaurants. It gets very lively and the bars/restaurants sell great food - especially the sea food is good. The beach has nice sand and ends at the Point = La Punta. At the wet sand on the beach, you can see tiny light yellow/green worms crawling up. I have never seen these before and there are so many of them!

While walking to the strip we came across a sign-board saying "Tibetan massage". We followed the signs and knocked on the door. The door opened and we were greeted by a middle-aged man who probably looks older than he is. The strong smell of insense hit our noses immediately. The man was German, had a tatoo of the Hindu Aum on his forehead, about 6 rings on his fingers, beaded necklaces around his neck, looked wrinkly and like an old hippy. He grabbed our hands tightly and welcomed us and wished us peace. We asked about massages and he explained the various things he does such as not just massaging but working on our souls. Apparently he has spent 3 years in Tibet and learnt all sorts of remedies. He told us that we had to allow him at least 15 minutes between massages for him to meditate. We are intrigued and I might try him out later today. I am interested to know how he works with my soul.

Must add that our dinner yesterday was delicious at Casa Blanca.

26 March 2008, Quito

OTAVALO

I had long known about Otavalo. A small village set high at 2550 m and famous for its Saturday tmarket where the whole village comes alive including the cows and pigs for sale. We went on a Wednesday to avoid the crowds.
To get there from Quito, we took a 3 hour bus ride through beautiful sceneries, which cost US$2 per person. Now that is value for money.
Otavalo is a cute place with small narrow roads full of panaderias, cafes and restaurants leading to the main square Poncho Plaza which is attractive to the tourists, such as me, for handicrafts, ponchos, blankets, bags, jewellery, hammocks etc. With your barganing skills you can pick up good quality products at very reasonable prices. We only came for the day, but we could quite easily have spent two nights here. There is the nearby Cotacachi which has the leather market and the Laguna de Cuicocha - a lagune set in a crater by volcanic eruption. It is supposed to be stunning and has various treks around the crater. You will not be bored in Otavalo and had we had more time we would have stayed longer.

We reached back to our hostal at 6Pm just in time for our Spanish class. At 7Pm we were making plans to have a reunion with the Jungle group from our Amazon trip. At 7.30Pm we were in Alex and Judy`s balcony at the hostal having drinks and nuts with Alex, Judy, David, Helen, Luis (our Amazon guide) and his girlfriend Niela. Judy sure is an amazing host! It was great to meet so many people from the jungle again. We headed to a new local bar which has interesting colourful rooms. One had table football with magazine cuttings of pretty girls all over the wall, another room had records stuck all over its walls and handwritings all over. We had food and then continued to a fusion disco playing western music and salsa. After an hour`s of booging we decided to go to a traditional salsa place. We headed to Salsa Station. Outside the bar next door, a woman was doing yoga and stood on her hands (upside down) and looked disorientated - this was at midnight! She probably had something very strong.
The Salsa Station is tiny and has a small dance floor, 3 tables, a bar with high chairs and instruments that we could play on to add to the music. The dance floor was dominated by two couples dancing amazingly. It was soooo good! Turned out the men were salsa instructors. The speed in their steps and the moves were just so impressive. We made our way to the dance floor and probably looked completely inexperienced next to the other dancers. But it was fun! At 3am we had diffilculty dragging Alex and Helen out of the bar - was quite a heavy night of drinking for some of the jungle group members. We all reached home safely.

25 March 2008, Quito

PAPALLACTA

We opted to take it easy today so we visted the Papallacta hot springs. Just 60 km from Quito and a 2 hour´drive. We went to the Therma de Papallacta - an area set in the mountains, 4200 m above sea level with 10 pools with different temperatures. The water comes from the volcanos Cayambe and Antisana close-by. The water was very hot in some of the pools and extremely cold in others. A great place to relax and enjoy the nature around you and the sounds of the waters flowing in.

Recommendation if you have time and like to be pampered: Spend an overnight stay at the Termas Papallacta Spa & Resort hotel. You can get all-inklusive deals (massages, hydro pool, spa etc) at reasonable rates. Have a look at www.termaspapallacta.com or call +5193 6 232 0622.

24 March 2008, Quito

ECUADOR IN A NUTSHELL

Ecuador has it all! It has the biggest biodiversity per area in the world. It has the mountains, volcanoes, hotsprings, the Amazon, the beaches, adventure sports, the Galapagos Islands, the culture and wonderful people.
I wonder why we have not come here before now. It is easy travelling around Ecuador and with your broken Spanish you can come a long way. Being such a small country you can see a lot in 3 weeks. Buses are cheap and if you look around well you can get reasonable internal flight tickets.

Facts:
The population of Ecuador is 13.4 Million. The main language is Spanish, however, most of the indenginous people speak Quichua. There are 18 different languages among the native communities. It has a democratic government and currently run by President Rafael Correa Delgado. The currency is US $. The dollarisation happened in early 2000 when the Ecuadorian currency (Sucre) suffered badly. Many Ecuadorians are unhappy with this as they found that life became more expensive for them.
The main exports for Ecuador is 1) oil, 2) roses and 3) bananas.

21 March - 24 March, Quito

AMAZONAS

Going from a cold climate high up at 4800 m at the stunning Cotopaxi to a warm and pleasant rain forest is a bit of a surprise to the body. We have just spent 4 amazing days in the Amazon jungle. The lodge surroundings were beautifully set next to water running into the River Napo, about 1 hour`s boat journey from Coca. Our hut was fronted by a garden of pink, red and orange flowers occupied by stunning butterflies. Our veranda faced a huge lemon tree and the lodge dining area/hang out area had wooden carved furniture and hammocks. The lodge kept a Tapir as a pet (when I saw it at first, I thought it was an ant eater though she looks a bit like a pig - HAHAHAHA, ignorant maybe ) who was called Maria. She was amazing - she followed us everywhere - into the swamp and into the river. Then there was the pet parrot that could not fly named Rico Suave by our group.
The lodge kept two spider monkeys for rehabilitation (one of them viscious!). They had been rescued from being sold on the black market. A woolly-faced baby monkey called Dexter which we called Little Buddha (because his tummy was so round) was living outside the cage where the spider monkeys were kept. He was so cute and Amit befriended him. You could hold Dexter´s hands and he was particularly interested in arm bands and necklaces.
We had 3 daily activities at the lodge which included trekking in the jungle in deep svamp (not easy work), canoed in lagunes day and night, night walks, pirana fishing, a blow pipe session (it is a long blow pipe in which an arrow is inserted, and you blow from one end and the arrow hits your target - used by the natives to hunt/kill animals for their food), playing the lodge pets and a native cooking class. We prepared steamed fish in spices, fried yuca and banana and "Mayorge" = a light yellow worm with a black head. Yuck. They were alive moving around and one of the girls in our group had to help chopping slightly on the heads to kill them and then take their veins out. They did not have blood. Their inside was a yellow texture that looked like melted cheese. Oh my gosh! I could not eat that. Amit gladly took a bite and ate the whole thing. He said it was nice an crunchy.
We played football, Ecuador versus the World. I played on the Ecuadorian team as they were short and I looked the most Ecuadorian. Ten minutes into the game I got injured, sprained my toe. Typical. It is still healing. We also played baseball , I could only bat and a team player had to run for me.
We saw tarantulas, an anaconda, monkeys, tapirs, wild pigs, lots of beautiful and colourful birds , giant insects and rodents. We also visted a native community where Amit and I got married again. We had a native wedding ceremony. Haha ha it was fun. We were dressed in grass skirts and our faces painted. We had to do a dance with our chosen best man and maid of honour = Scottish Alex and Australian Judy. The Amazon experience was fantastic. But what made it even more memorable were the people. Our group of Alex and Judy, 17 year old David from Canada , 16 year old Brittany and her Dad from Canada, 62 year old Helen from the US, Swiss Hugo, Japanese Mayuko and our guides Luis and Ricardo made it super. All from very different backgrounds and yet we all got on so well. We never sat still. We were always inventing new things to do and making juice from the giant lemons of the lodge trees became a daily activity.
I felt sad leaving the Amazon.

20 March 2008, Quito

COTOPAXI

What an amazing day! We left our hostal at 7.30am for a 3 hours drive to the Cotopaxi Volcano. To get there we had to drive on the Avenue of Volcanos where you can see about 10 volcanos on a clear day. The drive was beautiful on rugged muddy roads with volcanoes hidden in clouds and trees showing through. It had rained and some of the road was really bumpy. As we got to the museum at the entrance of the Parque National Cotopaxi, the temperature was feeling much much colder. We climbed the Cotopaxi which was already covered in a lot of snow. The start of the climb was in soft brown black sand, which later became rock and then just snow. The wind blew hard and the last few steps to the refuge at 4800m were happy steps of knowing that hot chocolate was waiting for us. My heart was pumping hard and the altitude was probably not that good for me. Our guide and owner of the Hostal had brought sandwiches, fruits and chocolate bars. And the hot chocolate was warming.We returned to Quito all a bit red. We thought we had been sun burnt but we were told it was wind burn.

19 March 2008, Quito

Though we had a huge warm room at the Military complex, we were glad to return to our hostal. We missed the homely feel. We spent a few hours finding a good deal for our Amazon trip and finalising our itinerary for the next 2 weeks in Ecuador. The excitement is rising!
We were about to test the Ecuadorian public transport to the Old Town, but as rain started pouring we opted to hang out at a funky eatery in the New Town and complete our homework for our second Spanish lesson.
Our second Spanish lesson was full of laughter and regular verbs and was just as enjoyable as yesterday.
We dined at Zocalo restaurant as it was recommended, but perhaps we chose the wrong dishes as we weren´t impressed. We continued on to Azucar bar at the Mariscal Fochs. Here is a lovely square full of funky, lively bars, restaurants and outdoor cafes. The night life was heaving and surrounded by police security with guns. Just shows what how safe it is here!

18 March 2008, Quito

Bright and early, we started our day with a Spanish lesson with our Ecuadorian tutor Vilma, followed by moving to another hotel for 1 night as our hostel was fully booked.
We were determined to book a Galapagos trip to compensate for the original trip we lost in February, and we got a super deal! - A 5 days cruise on a luxury boat at almost half price.
As it was the 1 year anniversary of the opening of our family run hostal and the birthday of one of the sons, we were invited to a party at the Hostal. It was great! A marquee had been set up with chairs, drinks and snacks. Pizza was delivered and some of us danced to the salsa music playing loud. All the backpackers of the hostal were present as well as local guests and family of the hostal owners. A brilliant evening. We met many interesting people with great travel stories.

17 March 2008, Quito

Although suffering from jetlag, we tagged along on the free complimentary Old Town city tour organised by our hostel. We were driven in a mini-van and taken to various churches and monuments. The sun was shining and the sky was blue and everything looked beautiful.Later in the day, we took a taxi with Alex - a Scottish traveller to the Teleferiqo/cable car that took us to a view top of 4100 meters above sea level. We had gorgeous views over Quito. We had not yet acclimatised to the altitude so a bit of difficulty in breathing at the top. But what a view!We took a mini-bus back to our hostal (US$1for tourist and US$0.25 for locals) which was an easy ap ride.In the evening, we enjoyed an Empanada evening at our hostal. The owners had cooked fresh empanadas (pastry dough filled with e.g. cheese or minced meat and peas, a bit similar to the English pasties or the Indian samosas) and brewed coffee and tea for all the guests. A great way of meeting other travellers.

16 March 2008, Quito

BACK ON THE ROAD

So we started our trip again. A flight from London to Paris to Sao Paolo. Overnight´s stay in a Sao Paolo airport hotel and early rise next morning for our flight to Quito, Ecuador via Bogota, Columbia which included a 4,5 hours wait in Bogota. Phew -what a journey.

We were greeted at the airport by Diego, the son of the owner of the hostal that we had booked. The Amazon Inn hostel is a family-run business. Carlos, his wife Pilar and their 3 sons Carlos, Diego and Daniel all help at the hostal and travel agency. The have a cute dog called Orso.The hostal is located in the Mariscal Sucre and just opposit the Spanish embassy (every day you see queues of at least 50 people on the road waiting to make visa applications) the new town and close to restaurants, bars and shops. Perfect for our purposes. The hostal has free internet, a hearty breakfast, free use of the laundry room, hot water shower, tv in each room and a travel agency. The room is very basic, but big and clean. We are very happy here. We have met some great people. The hosts are really friendly and helpful. You feel at home here and it is no doubt the best hostal I have ever stayed at.