Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Chile

Chile was great, expencive, with bad food. I had a lot of fun but since I'm behind on postings I'm going to cheat and give you the blog addresses of my friends Doug and Mario who I traveled with the whole time and you can get filled in from them.

Cheers,
Rasa

www.boyonabigblueboat.blogspot.com - Doug's

www.marioandthesea.blogspot.com - Mario's

Best Port Ever: Ecuador

I’m behind. So Ecuador…best port yet!

As you know, I decided to go to Banos. I was very apprehensive b/c I don’t speak Spanish and no one could go with me b/c they had other plans. It actually worked out great that I went alone. So I get up, and with some drama was a bit delayed, but got to the bus stations just fine. I purchased my ticket and headed to the bus…which wasn’t there yet. I helpful man told me to just wait and the bus to Ambato would be coming shortly. “Great” I thought, sit and wait next but that says “AMBATO” on the front hop on and go. So I did. About a half hour into the trip the ticket guy comes around and collects tickets…I hand him mine and he doesn’t look happy. I then realize that everyone else has a green ticket I have a white ticket. So he gives me some big schpiel and of course I don’t catch a word of it. So I hand him 6 bucks (price of my first ticket) and now I have a greet ticket…joy.

So the ‘ticket guy’ actually has many responsibilities. He’s also the recruiter when we stopped at various villages and hollers out where we’re headed…Ambato. He also lets different villagers hop on and sell drinks and food…which is a far better service then ANY airline to date. The food is super-fresh and very good mind you it is Ecuadorian food so if you don’t have an adventurous palate then you might not be a fan…I was thrilled. Finally this man is also in charge of providing the entertainment either some crappy Spanish-dubbed DVD or some local music. Apparently on a different bus (this is an account by another American I met) that the movie/ticket/recruiter got his bootleg DVD’s mixed up and put in a porno…oops. It took 10 to 15 minutes for someone to notify him of the mistake…thank goodness no children on board.

I get to Ambato 6 hours later..right about 5:30 and it’s going to be dusk soon. I get off the bus and run smack in to a wonderful Canadian woman Judy. She was heading to Banos as well so we figured out together what bus to take and chit chatted for the next hour or so it took to get to Banos. Judy, recently retired, is volunteering at an orphanage in Quito and was traveling to Banos for the weekend as a little getaway. We agreed to meet the next day to go hiking. I found my hostel and bedded down to read for a while b/c the trip kinda took it out of me stress-wise.

The next day, Saturday, Judy and I met up after breakfast to plan the hike. She was having some problems with her blood pressure and decided not to make the hike rather meet me at the top and hike down. So off I set to hike this mountain. Which was great…I didn’t wear the right shoes or clothes but whatever. The first kinda goal was to this huge cross at the top of the ridge overlooking Banos, then to a very schwanky hotel at the tipy top. The whole thing took less then two hours but it was like two hours on the Stairmaster. (Ashley or my sister insert joke here). Judy met me at the top and we started down and there was a very friendly Ecuadorian family going down as well and they let us go ahead…which I think they regretted b/c we were going much slower then they could have. Luckily for them we split off not too far down so we didn’t have them tailing us and they didn’t have us holding them up. Once we made it to the bottom we consulted our Lonely Planet guide books and picked the closest restaurant with the best review! Spot on too…it was a great meal and lovely chat and all around wonderful afternoon. Judy wanted to do some reading and was going to leave the next day. I had to change hostels in the event on of my shipmates came into town that night to do the bike ride with me. Sow Judy and I parted ways exchanged email addresses and wished each other luck.

Enter new hostel. My room was much smaller then the first and the make-shift bathroom inside my room was even smaller. Whatever I was only there to sleep. I dumped my stuff and headed up to the rooftop terrace to meet some folks. I brought my book and got about 3 pages into it when I over heard the two people next to me talking about bike riding the next day. So I pardoned myself for eavesdropping and said that I was planning on biking to Puyo the next day and it was suppose to be great. Volia, they’re in and we’re a team. So I joined them for a beer and learned a new card game…Shit head…kind of like the international version of Asshole each country has different rules but everyone knows how to play…except the Americans…how’d we miss that!!!! Our little group grew as more people came back from their daily adventures and I met a great bunch of folks. The dinner crew simmered down to on Irishman, two Americans, two Germans, an Englishman and a woman from Holland. After some Australians showed up, then the next day a man from Israel…I was about to commence a UN conference in Banos. Dinner was lovely and we all headed out for a beer. I had one beer and headed to bed b/c I had a 61K bike ride the next morning.

Sunday, I get up head to the terrace for breakfast, which was lovely. Meet up with Paul and Bregtie and got the plans squared away…i.e. we’re off at 9. So we meet out front, rent the bikes, one quick errand for Bregtie and we head down the road to Puyo. It starts to rain. I am soaked through to my underwear by 10am…and stay that way until I make it back to my hostel at 4. Whatever we had a blast…the scenery was amazing. We followed a river through these mountains and there were waterfalls everywhere. On the other side of the canyon, on our side of the canyon it was stunning. The clouds were really low and hovering between the mountains and at some points it felt like I was in some sort of fairy tale I’ve never really seen anything quite like it. About 25K into the trip there is a town that sprung up by this crazy waterfall. So we chain up the bikes hike down (15-20 minute hike) to the base of the waterfall. Pay a dollar (the lady asked us if we wanted rain jackets…riiiight. Then up around a rock and smack right into the most powerful waterfall I’ve ever seen, not counting Niagara. I have pictures but really you have to see this in person and hear it my goodness the sound and the shear force of the water was jaw-dropping. We took pictures and hung out then took of to see the falls from a suspension bridge back a bit. The bridge had signs clearly posted…NO MORE THEN 5 PEOPLE AT A TIME. This bridge made me nervous, it had patches, cracked and broken boards call me crazy and maybe I’ve seen one to many Indian Jones flicks but that damn thing was not going to hold. I got on over and off of it as soon as possible…and if there had been a better way to get back I would have done it but there wasn’t so I booked it a crossed and thanked my lucky stars safe on the other side. The other two probably thought I was nuts…hey we all have our quirks.

Newton said “what goes up must come down” well what goes down must haul her ass back up the trail to get back to her bike. At which point my body quit. When I got back on the bike I almost fell off. The other two still had it in them and be in a bit better shape then I were getting ahead a regular intervals. I finally told them just go and I would see them back at the hostel or in Puyo, either way don’t worry about me. I toughed it out until I got to this cute restaurant with an amazing overlook. It was probably about 2:30 in the afternoon. There was a sweet family there to greet me and asked if I wanted food…hell I hadn’t eaten since 7:30 so that was a big YES. I was so hungry and not one part of my body wasn’t throbbing. I asked the very nice lady who brought me my super-fresh fruit smoothing…how much further to Puyo. She responded 20K. I then asked how do I get a bus back to Banos. I was done. I eat a wonderful meal of fired plantains, fried tilapia, some roasted corn something and a tomato-onion salad. YUMMY. After I paid I asked again about getting the bus back to Banos…which I understood was basically stand on the side of the road until a bus comes that says’ Banos on the front…wave it down….hop on….done. So someone from the family was delegated to stand with me and she had a whole mountain of questions for me about of which I understood 15% and gave the best answers I could. When the bus came I got on no problems…got off in Banos, returned the bike, got out of my wet clothes and then took the best shower ever. I went upstairs to see who was around the other two had not made it back yet, which I figured but there were other folks there. I called home and talked to my mom!!!!

The terrace at our hostel is very much a meeting place for people so when I got off the phone I headed up there to hang out. A few folks hadn’t eaten dinner so we headed out and everyone else hung back and played cards and what not. When I got back from dinner a bunch of us went out for drinks and had a blast!

Sunday I wanted to get up early to go to Ambato to see their market…which was huge. One of my new friends Bregtie came with and we had a great time. Right as we walked in to the market there were two women in traditional dress drinking gigantic beers in little glasses…at 10am. So funny. It was marvelous to wander through the commerce and see what foods and goods were available. We grabbed lunch at a cute restaurant and I had to head out b/c I had a 6 hour bus ride and a 30 minute taxi ride and I had to be on the ship in 8 hours at this point. So off I went to the bus station. The first guy selling tickets back to Guayaquil spoke English and had lived in the States for some time! He takes me down to where the bus is going to pick me up and says sit here…ok. Then I noticed the barking…yes barking. And I suppose it was more yelping. I see 3 cages stuffed full of puppies. I start spazzing but I also know there is not a damn thing I can do about it. The bus pulls up and we all pile on. The puppies get tied to the roof and bark and whine for the next 6 hours of driving through the Andes. I would too if my seat was in a cage on the roof in the wind. I felt terrible but there was nothing I could do…the dogs in Guinea had a much worse fate and I had to confront that too.

I cut it kinda close getting back to the ship…well closer then I’d like. The bus didn’t make it into the station until 7 or so. I was about to pee my pants so I had to haul ass to the other side of the station to get to a bathroom. Once out of the station I got a cab and it took about 30-40 minutes to get to the port, another 15 minutes to get through security and actually walk to the ship. Where my good (and worried) friend Doug was standing very happy to see I was in one piece…and back with 30 minutes to spare.

This was seriously one of my best trips ever. I love Ecuador, I love traveling independently and I’m even starting to love learning Spanish!!! The best thing, was I found out about some volunteer opportunities in Ecuador for this fall!!! I’m not holding my breath but I’m very interested to see what happens.

Cheers,
Rasa

Friday, July 06, 2007

Viva Banos!!!!

i´m here i made it to banos...cutest place on earth quite touriesty but the getting here was the best part. its dark now so i can´t see the volcano behind me but i can see some of the lights on top..there´s so much to do here i have to come back. rafting and hiking and the bike ride i´m going to take on sunday just sounds great and now that i´m here it´s the best decision i´ve made yet. i was thinking of not coming b-c i do not know spanish and i didn´t have anyone to come with me. right i know mom you´re having a fit right now...but it´s the greatest i´ve learned some new spanish words and the country side is stunning and i made friends with a Canadian woman and we might go hikeing tomorrow or just drink coffee all day!!! a ship mate might meet me down here tomorrow but since we don´t have communication i won´t know untill he does or dosn´t come! Either way there are so many young tourists here i don´t think i´ll be hard pressed to find at least one other person to come with me on Sunday.

Anyway eventhough í didn´t do much today i´m exhausted right now. the mountains are great but not with evil knival as a bus driver so i white knuckled it the whole way here. i´ll give adventure updates as i can.

Cheers
Rasa

Big Adventure

I'm going to catch a bus and head 6 hours into the mountains to a very typical village-like town in the mountains/volcanos called Ambato. Then another 1 hour bus ride to a smaller town at the base of a beautiful volcano called Banos-yes bathroom in spanish. I think it's b/c they have tons of hot-springs. But also there is great hiking and things to see and do. THAN I'm going to bike this awsome volcano and waterfall lined road from Banos to Puyo (61K) but it's almost all down hill about 900m drop over 61K. Anyway I'll fill you in on the details when I get back!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Panama and Neptune Day





Happy 4th of July!!!!! Sooo much has happened!!! Panama is wonderful and I could absolutely live there…only problem I still don’t speak Spanish.

Ok we had to tender to port….what’s that you ask? We anchored in the bay and had to use the lifeboats to “ferry” in to the actual port. What a crazy experience. We were having enormous swells the first day, at the exact time we need to get people off the ship to go on various trips. The ship was rocking side to side thus making it damn near impossible to hop off the ship and into the little life boats. Eventually they called off the tendering b/c the ship would rock in one direction and the tender in the other…the platform would crash on top of the tender hard enough to knock people down on the platform…then the ship would rock back to the other direction and the platform would be submerged under the water 3 or so feet. The Captain called the whole thing off and we just hung out on the ship until it was safe to leave.

So I knew this tendering thing was going to be a pain in the butt…not that bad but whatever. So I slept in had lunch took a shower and caught the last tender to shore…as I was stepping on to the tender I was able to experience first hand the rock and collision of the ship and tender…whoa…crazy! I spent a very fine day with Taina parading around an artisan market and seeing some ruins from the 1500’s. Then to a tapas dinner!!!

Day two…ohmygoodness. Well it started out fairly benign shopping with friends and having a fabulous lunch. Then Doug and I wanted to go to the restaurant that over looked one set of locks on the Panama Canal. So we shower and get ready to go out. We take a cab which heads out to the middle of nowhere, left, then through a security gate, down a scary road and viola we’re at the canal and the restaurant….way under dressed. The meal was fabulous and Doug having taken the canal cruise the night before so he was just a mountain of information!!! OH I failed to mention, we had negotiated with our cab driver to come back and get us at 9:30 to take us back to the ship…b/c there is no one and nothing for miles near the canal the least of which cabs. So we finish are meal…and 9:30 passes, 9:45 passes and it’s apparent we are not getting back via cab. So we go to the upper level to talk to the security guard and see that there is a cab in the parking lot. We head over there to speak to him and he’s actually waiting for someone else so he cannot take us. The security guard informs us that we are best off walking to the street to catch a cab there. So he shows us the staircase to head out! Off we go following the road past a huge damn and a very muddy lake…past some kind of plant then towards the gate. A very nice security guard wishes us a good night and we’re still walking. There are two men in front of us and one is tip-toeing across the street towards a place in the woods where the other man was aiming the beam. Come to find out a few days later the animal they were after was a bush dog…whatever. So we make it down to the road say hello to the very sketchy guy waiting at the bus stop. I hop immediately on to the road and start flagging anything with headlights hoping for a cab. We got a bus. Whatever. We both hop in hand hope for the best. The bus at least is headed in the right direction. It takes us to the biggest bus/transit station I have seen…and it seems half of Panama City is there. The bus was free…score. We grab a cab and get it to take us back to the pier and only after we get out does Doug look and me and say “My heart rate is finally calming down”. I was laughing my ass off I had no idea he was so nervous. Too funny.

The next couple days were great but not nearly as eventful. Oh but I did take a day trip up-country and we were in this cute village in a crater of an extinct volcano. THEN we went on this canopy tour where we got to use zip lines and swing all over the forest!!! So fun.

The short sweet version of Neptune Day is the ritual everyone goes through when they pass the equator the first time. It involves getting stuff dumped on your head, jumping in the pool, kissing dead fish and King Neptune’s ring. Some people shave their heads. Hope you’re enjoying the summer.

Cheers,
Rasa