Ecuador: Last Weeks

[posted by Kizzy]

We arrived to Auckland, New Zealand on 24th October a bit tired and with a cold that is still lingering. We are renting a flat in beach town of Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and we're planning to stay here until 3rd December. We have a bit of planning to do and this beautiful coast provides the right setting. A bit behind on the blog are we not? Picking up on our last days in Ecuador...

Riobamba

We said our goodbyes in the farm and then took a ride with Bagha to the Terminal Terrerstre (bus station) where we took the bus to Rio Bamba. We were leaving something really special behind.

The bus journey took approximately 6 hours. I slept through most of it, Col I suspect, was keeping an eye on our bags. Still on the bus and just before our arrival to Rio Bamba the gentleman who was sat in front of us approached us. He was curious about us as a couple and where we'd come from. Upon hearing that I was from Angola he enthusiastically congratulated me on the crowing of Miss Angola as this year's Miss Universe. Funny, I'd first read about it on Facebook the day before.

We had hoped to just hop in a taxi and get straight to the hotel but the taxi driver didn't seem aware of this place and we didn't have the full address for it. A bit annoying. So we spent a while in an internet cafe sorting out  our accommodation arrangements. This was in a small shopping centre, where we had lunch whilst waiting for the owner of the internet station to return from his lunch. I would probably not mention this bit, were it not for the fact that lunches here usually go from 1300-1500, if not longer.

Our spirits were a bit down, we were tired, grumpy and upset with this minor set back. We just wanted to put our bags down and settle. I might have said this before, there is a certain tension in the air when we travel to a new location and it seems that dealing with uncertainty doesn't get easier with time, sure we recognise the signs early on but it still gets to us every time.

After a few calls and internet action we confirmed our reservation at the Mansion Santa Isabella boutique hotel.  After the week on the farm we decided to splash out for a few days  and spend $50 per night for some guaranteed luxury ! The hotel owner, Ben, runs the place with his wife and he is also from London. We exchanged happy greetings on arrival whilst acknowledging a fellow Londoner. I confess we were in a state of ecstasy upon returning to modern pleasures: hot shower, clean clothes, washed, dried and ironed, warm duvet internet connection...

with Ben

We have to give it to Ben, he purchased a decrepit colonial building and returned it to its glory. This beautiful manor houses a restaurant, a meeting room and a bookshop that is run by his sister-in-law.

Riobamba was once a major trading centre. You can see the vestiges of what must have once been a great place. Still pleasant enough but it's more a stop in between destinations. For many a base from where to explore the Chimborazovolcano or take the Devil's Nose train ride.  The tracks are being repaired at the moment and the service runs from the nearby town of Alausi. We heard it would not be long before it would be leaving from Riobanmba again

A colonial building, Rio Bamba

Col loves this shot. Note that this hotel is in operation

A brief history on the Devil's Nose ride, sometime in 1895 they started building a railway from Guayaquil to Quito (two major cities in Ecuador), building this was very difficult because of its location in the Highlands. They got to a point where they encountered "an almost perpendicular wall of rock" which is now called "Nariz del Diablo" (Devils Nose). So they carved the track in a zig-zag form and the train had to advance and back up in order to get to Alausi (a small town higher up in the mountains)!! A lot of lives were lost in the process, but they finally arrived to Quito in 1908!

And guess what? Col and I didn't do any of that! - sorry to disappoint you. We just wanted a few days of doing nothing. We didn't realise how tired we really were and I can tell you now that it took us a total of 5 days to get back to full form.

Oh, I almost forgot. We had one of the best meals ever, here in Riobamba. Following Ben's advice we went to a traditional Argentinian steakhouse. This meal was as close as we got to heaven. A selection of meat cuts served with a salad and a few home fried potatoes. Not more than $18 for the two of us. Best value for money! The atmosphere in the restaurant was great, not too many people, very quiet, pleasant staff and a themed décor of a cattle ranch. Now, I wish I could remember the name of this restaurant but I can't, and I tried and tried to find it online, it's not even in Tripadvisor. It's a gem!

I have to say that this comes at a time where we were still impressed with our vegan experience in the Wisdom Forest and wondering how best to change our eating habits in support of a more conscious living. After this Argentinian sin, we decided to put this on hold for a while.

We were happy leaving Riobamba, we didn't take on any of the main attractions and there was not much happening otherwise. Also, we prefer smaller places and this was already too big for us. Col did enjoy the fact that there was some graffiti on display...

Graffiti, Rio Bamba

Grafitti, Rio Bamba

Graffiti, Rio Bamba

Cuenca

We were keen to get to Cuenca, the capital of the Azuay province, as we'd heard loads about it from fellow travelers. And it didn't disappoint in that respect. It is located in the highlands of Ecuador at about 2500m above sea level. The centre of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site because of its many historical buildings.

Nueva Catedral, Cuenca

Central Bank Museum, Cuenca

Church of Santo Domingo

I would like to tell you that we went in and saw the inside of these churches and that they were beautiful. But I can't because we didn't, for a couple of reasons, one of them being that churches here are not open all the time, they are very particular about that, the other being that we didn't have much time in Cuenca, and the day we picked to do our sightseeing - one that was not rainy - was the day most of them were closed. 

We extended our 'resting period' in Cuenca. Not much of a choice really, because the rain here would not stop. For most we stayed indoors preparing our next move to Vilcabamba. In all we stayed 2 nights, our accommodation was just between the new town and old town, overlooking the Tomebamba river. Here we met a really nice Canadian couple who left us with an invitation to visit them if ever we ventured that way.

One of the bridges that crosses the river

Tomebamba river

When the rain stopped we had the chance to do some walking. There's a big outdoor cafe culture, beautiful plazas and very clean streets. We could easily wander off in the old town and loose ourselves in the narrow cobbled streets.

The famous Panama hat

Archways, Catedral Nueva

Street vending cars

Lady taking a nap

Milling about, notice v. clean streets

Overall we found Cuenca too westernised! The things we came to love about Ecuador were here in only a small measure. We missed the chaos, dust and hustle of the small towns we got to know. All the teens here were sporting the latest fashion gear, people jogging in the park, walking their dogs... A big contrast to the traditional outfits we'd seen women and children wearing, and the, definitely not so much of the stray, hungry and bruised dogs we'd seen. To that I'd like to add that our outlook on Ecuador was impressed with this view that pets have a hard time. People like them when they are small and cute, and when they grow up they are often abandoned, abused or killed. We heard some grim tales about animal cruelty. Here, PETA would have its days filled. Where we stayed in Banos - The Magic Stone - Ove and Ulse had three dogs, all of which they rescued from an ill fate.

Colin had his day filled with taking graffiti shots, which seems to be a problem here. We read and article expressing a general complaint about the graffiti in town defacing private property and UNESCO sites. The local borough, tired of repainting the walls white, was organising to dedicate spaces for such artists to expose their works and recognise their talents whilst also agreeing that public spaces were not to be used for their art expression. A good initiative, we thought. 

A regular artist, we saw lots of this one

This one is mixed material graffiti including paper mache

I don't know if we mentioned but our original plan was to cross to Peru by bus. And this would tie in nicely with a trip to Vilcabamba or Loja, from where we could get the connection. After a bit more research we decided against this option and booked a connecting flight from Guayaquil.

Flights are expensive. To fly anywhere from Ecuador direct to Peru would cost at least $400 per person. We got a better deal through an american company Col found online, Exito Travel, but it meant we had to take connecting flights to get to our destination and include an additional connection for our flight from Chile. A messy affair but cheaper option. The overall itinerary looked something like this:

Sun, Oct 02, 2011 - 7:55am depart Guayaquil, Ecuador - 9:45am arrive Lima, Peru
Thu, Oct 20, 2011 - 11:00am depart Lima, Peru - 2:45pm arrive Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Thu, Oct 20, 2011 - 5:05pm depart Santa Cruz, Bolivia - 11:00pm arrive Santiago, Chile

Can I just point out that there are direct flights to Santiago, Chile if you want to pay $400 per person. The path was set, we'd head to Vilcabamba for a couple days then to the coast in Guayaquil for our final destination.

Col found that the Hosteria Izhcayluma operates a direct transfer service from Cuenca old town to Vilcabamba. It was perfect for us, the original journey with the normal bus was 9 hours and included one change, the transfer service was only 4 hours. We paid a bit more for comfort and piece of mind and it was worth it. I'm glad to add that we shared this journey with two people that would become good friends of ours in Vilcabamba, Boyd from the Netherlands and Anja from Basel, Switzerland.

The steps are for real, not painted or something

Vilcabamba

Vilcabamba is a small town located in a historical and scenic valley, it is a common destination for tourists, in part because it is widely believed that its inhabitants grow to a very old age, 120 years old not being uncommon. Also known in some circuits as a mecca for conspiracy theorists. Our travel guide labelled it 'Gringoville'.

From this we were half-expecting a place ran solely by foreigners, not the case. This quiet town does have its share of Gringos but for most it still holds its Ecuadorian charm. The life of this town revolves around the main square, from where you can enjoy beautiful views of the mountains that surrounded it. We could spend a whole day just looking at it.

Main square, Vilcabamba

View from our room

view from our street

Here, we finally woke up from our 'beauty sleep' and ventured on to nice hikes to get the blood pumping again. On way to our first trek we bumped into Boyd and Anja, who joined us for the remainder of the trek. Col was in his element and in no time took leadership of the trek, guiding us all the way to the top, even if at times through questionable paths.

View of Vilcabamba

Me and Anja

Trek view

with Boyd and Anja

Free range chickens?

It was a nice and easy trek, not more than 2 hours. We had a good laugh. For lunch we all headed to Shanta's restaurant. There are not many places to eat in Vilcabama and this one certainly makes for an interesting stop. Amongst other things, there was a display of hats all lined up in a row, and we came up with a theory that the owners came here for a meal and never left and the hats were all that remained of them.

The owner, looked like a cowboy out of a John Wayne western. The place was pretty much a memorabilia to that epoch. One of the things that caught our eye in the drink menu was the snake liquor. Col asked to try it, and was soon put off by the idea when he saw that there was actually a snake inside the bottle. 

Snake liquor

We enjoyed our lunch. As we were leaving we saw a single boot carefully placed as if it was a sculpture. Another reminder that maybe we were lucky and we were washed with a feeling of relief. We left alive and untouched!

The remainder afternoon was a lazy affair of movie watching and reading, until a brisk knock on our door made us jump to our feet. It was Boyd inviting us to join them for dinner.

Our bedroom

The hammock

Col checking emails

Accommodation at Rendez-Vous hostel

We joined the group around 7:30pm. They were accompanied by room-mates James (Ireland), Jamie (Australia) and Valentino (Ireland). Led by Valentino, we ended up going for drinks after dinner and the night went on. Probably the latest we've been out so far. There was plenty of laughter and alcohol, and when we were all high in spirits Valentino presented himself as a conspiracy theorist and shared his views with us on 9/11, pharmaceuticals and I can't remember what else. Before we parted ways we agreed to all meet up in the morning and together do the Waterfall trek (La Cascata tour) - a half-day trek.

The whole group!

The pace was set by Jamie, closely followed by Col and James. Myself, Boyd and Anja lagged remarkably behind. The trek was like nothing we've done before. It had a bit of everything: crossing rivers, climbing mountains, bathing at the mouth of the waterfall. Col, Jamie and James were brave enough to strip down and take a photo under the water fall. 

Jamie

James

Col

The waterfall

We finally shook off the wave of laziness that was bestowed upon us after leaving Tena! That same night we joined the group for our final meal at their lodge, Izcayluma. Always the bon vivant, Boyd introduced us to yet more people: Sabrina from Switzerland and someone else from the U.S.A, the name fails me.

Dinner was followed by some happy time at the bar, where we joined Valentino. Col had a good time playing a few games of table tennis. There was a big grin on his face, he looked so happy. And I spent my last minutes with Anja who would leave the next day. Tracy Chapman songs playing in the background, how appropriate.

Vilcabamba was great, we could have easily stayed longer. We were coming to our last days in Ecuador and we just wanted a kind of 'Pura Vida' environment and this was it. We had good weather, great company and surroundings. And plenty to do to keep us out of boredom's way.

All in all we stayed four nights. The next bit was a bit more tricky – getting to Guyaquil. After some consideration we took the same transfer from Izcalluma to Cuenca – 4 hours. And from there we took a transfer from Cuenca to Guyaquil with a private company - 3 hours.

Logistics was a bit off because we didn't know the exact location of the agency from where we'd pick up the next transfer and ended up with a 30minutes walk up calle Remigio Crespo with our backpacks in tow. Needless to say tempers were flaring, it was hot and probably for the first time we were properly moving with our backpacks, which couldn't be more heavy. We missed our 1pm transfer and got put on the 2pm service. Safe!

On this transfer the crowd was different. Not our usual backpackers. We talked to a businessman from Cuenca who lived for 10 years in Brazil and 1 year in Italy and was now sharing jobs between Guyaquil and Cuenca; a Peruvian contractor raised in New York who's family lived in Guyaquil and he alternated lifestyles between N.Y and Guyaquil; with the driver there was not much of a conversation to be had, he talked non-stop all journey long. Col was convinced he was having a monologue but I think he was talking with the guy sat the next to him, he just didn't have much of a chance to talk.

The drive was beautiful, we crossed the Cajas National Park before descending to sea level Guayaquil. 

You can visit this park if you're based in Cuenca. Words cannot describe it. We snapped a few photos from the van, and even these were beautiful. Half-way in our journey, we had a breakdown, the van had a problem with the suspension system, so the driver contacted his agency and organised a change of car. As we were waiting a few Guanacos approached the car. We were told by one of our fellow travelers that these were Guanacos and not Lamas.

Just to remind you, we're up in the mountains, 4000m at the highest point. And you get all kinds of weather up here. We went through this foggy patch, you could not see ahead, but our Ecuadorian driver, unfazed by the lack of visibility kept going as if God had given him some x-ray vision that other drivers did not have. Ai mae! Every now and then we'd see the lights of drivers ahead just seconds away before we veered off. Unseen!

Things like this make me understand why Ecuadorians are so religious! Even I found myself praying many a times and thanking God for the lucky escape or safe delivery to our destinations.

As we approached Guyaquil the landscape changed dramatically, we're now at sea level, a flat surface populated with various plantations and we could feel the temperature rise dramatically. It reminded us of Costa Rica!

Guyaquil

We arrived to Tabuba Guesthouse, a family run accommodation, in Sauces 2. A suburban neighbourhood in Guyaquil. After tranquil Vilcabamba, the environment here felt a bit hostile. First impressions, it was actually ok.

We had a quick lunch in a restaurant nearby where we were served by a proud Colombian lady. She spent most of our meal time sharing the many reasons why we should visit Colombia, and best time she said was December. She spoke passionately and longingly of Colombians as happy people, full of joy for life. She was not the first one to share this view of Colombia, which we didn't visit because it seemed to be a place with more chance of encountering problems. Although many people on the trip said it was the place to be !

We had a full day to explore Guayaquil. We took a taxi to Malecon 2000, a board walk revival development that hugs the coastline, and walked the whole length of it. It was a really hot day and probably not the best for such venture but we only had one day. I was upset with Col over a disagreement we had on the taxi on our way here. That ill feeling was there over most of the walk - sorry guys - so we probably didn't enjoy it as much we could.

The views though were quite something. It's a really pleasant place with loads happening and hotspot for families day out and flirting couples. At the end of the pier there was a pavilion animated with a live band and lots of people dancing and singing along. I think mid-way here my ice started to break and Col and I enjoyed more of the walk from here, under the blazing sun.

We made our way to Penas, a neighbourhood revival project, overlooking the Malecon. This ghetto turned cool hangout reminded me of Lisbon's Bairro Alto. You get some of the best views of Guyaquil from here. We walked up and down its narrow cobled streets, taking various staircases, little bars and restaurants popping every now and then on the ground floor of many houses. The streets often show casing a selection of photos illustrating the before.

View of Las Penas from Malecon

View from Las Penas

Las Penas at a distance

Another view from Las Penas

We were advised by our inkeeper not to eat at the Malecon, food was not very nice. He suggested we head to Mal El Sol to enjoy a decent and fairly priced meal. The place was packed with people. Col commented on the empty shops selling big brand names that the average Ecuadorian could not afford. Indeed the food court was where it was all happening.

We settled for a Burger King meal and watched amused the action unfold. Men dressed up in their best outfits watching the girls go by, teenagers giggling whilst chatting on their Iphones, boyfriend and girlfriends taking photos at the mall...

We had a walk around. Col, in his reflexive manner, would express dismay/shock at the price of things worth more than a month's salary for the average Ecuadorian. I surprised myself with my stern resignation at the situation. An all too familiar scenario for me in homeland Angola. We stopped at a bookshop to buy get somes books. Everything imported is more expensive, you pay an eye and a leg for English books. Col tried to refute the amount they were charging for the books, clearly not the marked price on the back cover. To no avail.

I can't really do a fair comment on Guyaquil. We only spent a full day here. One the cabbies we spoke to, originally from Cuenca, loves it here. He says there's nothing to do in Cuenca. Here stuff is happening all the time and you can take in on some of the action. I think Guyaqui is to the average Ecuadorian a land of opportunity where dreams can come true.

We left Ecuador feeling that we barely scratched the surface and longing to spend more time in its company. We promise to come back. Boyd, whom we met in Vilcabamba is committed to try life here for a while. And Anja left various queries for nursing positions. We wished them luck.

When we first arrived to Ecuador we had a transit stop in Lima where we experienced stringent security checks. Again the experience repeated in Guyaquil airport on our way to Peru with various security checks at various points. The final one was just before we boarded the flight, we were taken to the luggage control area where after identifying our bags we had to submit for a thorough search.

We were hoping we'd have time to chill at the VIP lounge and just as we were checking in we heard our names called on the speaker asking us to go to boot 6. We couldn't quite believe it, we were called to help translate and mediate a conversation between a flight assistant and a Bangladeshi passenger, whose travel itinerary to Bangladesh stopping at various locations raised his profile with the flight operator, I suppose, as a 'suspicious traveler'. We felt for this guy, we'd seen him earlier being retained at another passport check.

This incident plus the additional control of our checked-in bags left us with no time to enjoy our lounge benefits. Finally we took on the flight to Lima.

For Picasa Photo Album please click here

Final thoughts

Ecuador is a beautiful country. For most not explored, and changing rapidly to keep up with people's wants and needs for modern things. Col and I felt a certain sadness, I suppose, an acknowledgment that this country is fast westernising and the things that we love about it, its roughness and quaint character, may not survive long.

We also questioned our reasons and motivations, escaping the modern comforts of Western society and coming here to find comfort in the simple pleasures of life. Those that do not include expensive toys and modern technology.

As we peer into this world, that seems to have stopped in time, we find some answers. For one we realise that we don't need to travel to ends of the world to make a difference, to be a contribution to a better world. We can do that anywhere we are. The other was the acknowledgment that life can be simple and still enjoyable. The stresses that we grew accustomed to, do not need to be there.

The final good thing is to spend some time appreciating the things we have in life and being thankful for them. Saying thank you for our blessings of which we have so many, thank you for the love in our life, our friends and our families, the food on the table, the clothes that cover our bodies. And this amazing opportunity to be here!