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