Ready for the Next Adventure

Hint: Argentina is the new Ecuador.

I've got a line on a Rosetta Stone set of Latin America Spanish lessons and intend to follow through on my language quest.

Thanks for enjoying my voyage with me, more to come down the road!

Major Fiesta in Montañita

Yes, it was definitely heard. Even a quarter mile away, across the road; if I got two hours sleep total that was a lot. I´ve never been to a Carnaval celebration anywhere but this has to be a reasonable facsimile. Dancing, drinking, maybe some food was consumed too, but it was all about dancing, drinking and dancing some more. The main venue was ¨Cocktail Alley¨ a stretch of sidewalk/street that leads from town to the beach. Probably thirty or so impromptu outdoor bar shacks were set up, some quite involved with custom bottle holders, etc. They all pretty much served the same cocktails, usually a menu of 25 or 35 concoctions, many rum and fruit based - not my usual fare but you gotta get with the program. Each bar shack had its own music blasting out of a boom box, various combinations of salsa, merengue, south american hip hop (much more appreciated by this critic than most of what I hear at home.) It should have been cacophony but somehow it all worked together. Each shack also had a series of 4 or 6 resin chairs set up in front of the structure for the comfort of the customer. But often, a group of 5 or 6 partiers would take up the space, order drinks and then just dance in place. It was loud, there was a very cool energy, the bartenders were vying mightily for clients and the average age of the celebrants was probably 25. Then there was Canadian Bob and me, two grayhairs just watching, sipping umbrella drinks and just drinking the whole scene in. We were so aberrant but nobody seemed to notice. Way too much fun was being had.

After Bill and I had our first drink at Cocktail Alley, our host bartender insisted we sit in his ¨lounge¨ - I think he was so thrilled that he had the old guys that he wanted to show us off. He came out from behind his open air bar, shook our hands, did a fist bump and laughed out loud. Post cocktail we wandered over to our former hotel to watch a few innings of the World Series game with Charro´s husband, a huge baseball fan from Cuba. Bill insisted on buying a round back at our haunt on Cocktail Alley since I had covered the first one and when our host barkeep saw us again he literally jumped out from behind the bar to welcome us back. The music had gotten louder, the dancing more sensual and rhythmic, and the place was hopping hot. Did I mention that it was raining the entire time?

Two young couples joined us in the ¨lounge¨ and ordered their drinks. They were all from Germany and though they were not traveling together this was the third time they had bumped into each other since beginning travel in Ecuador. I was struck by how interested they were in what we were doing there and how friendly and warm they seemed. When they heard Atlanta, I learned that one of the couples had gotten stranded for five nights at Hartsfield Jackson on the way down here because of a document problem. Five nights I said, where did you stay? In the airport they said, what a nice airport. Yeah, as a place to fly out of not to live in, I said. I gave them a card and said next time you´re stuck in Atlanta give me a call.

We finally called it a night and headed across the road to our rooms at the language school. Just when we retired, around 11 pm, the music suddenly got much louder and was being driven by this bass line that would pound out for 15 minutes or so with a melody forming around it and then transform to the next iteration. This DID NOT STOP until after 7 am this morning. At one point in the night, probably around 3 but I didn´t bother to look at my watch, the entire gathered party started singing a song around the pounding audio - whether it was a known tune or something that they made up as they went along, I can´t say, but I could only imagine what it looked like to be there at that point and how loud it was given what we were hearing a quarter mile away.

Not much sleep, but a fine, fine memory. This morning the town was littered with pàrty detrius and the occasional shirtless young man spread eagled across a car or on an outdoor restaurant table. And here´s the thing - last night was a celebration of All Saints´Eve, and by 10 am this morning, the partying had already started for tonight´s celebration of All Souls´Eve. They´re all back at it even as I write this from Quito! Youth...

At about 5 am this morning, it dawned on me that I have awakened before dawn on every single day of this trip. Long days but full ones, even when I didn´t do all that much. They can easily get filled up just from being away, a wonderful side effect of travel

So, back in Quito, at the airport, a final time, waiting for a redeye to Atlanta. I have never felt so confident in my willingness to throw myself into my pidgin Spanish than on this trip and I have never communicated so well (relatively speaking) just by trying and maintaining confidence that I CAN communicate if I put my mind to it. I leave South America with a hardened aspiration to get my arms around that skill and once and for all and actually speak Spanish. I don´t have any allusions around fluency, but I know if I make a plan (maybe a plan to do it intensively here!?!??), I can get much better than I am and this is the first time I´ve felt this real possibility.

A lot of people ask(ed) me why Ecuador, and one reason I´ve not really talked a lot about is the incredible geographic diversity here. You have the High Sierra, the Galapagos Islands, the Oriente (rain forest) and an incredible Pacific coastline all in a country the size of North Carolina. I haven´t seen it all on this trip, but it has whet my appetite for more.

More Ecuador? Of course, but it is fair at this point to pose the question if not completely answer it - have I gotten it out of my system or have I gotten Ecuador more into my system? While that needs more reflection, I know this - I am keenly interested in continuing my exploration of more of South America. It is a culture and a place it took me too long to discover and one that I don´t want to ignore in the future.

I´m guessing there´s one more post in me when I get back home and get some real rest, so look for a bit more soon. For now, however, my deep thanks to Sam, Emily and especially Ann for allowing me this incredible opportunity to try on a new set of clothes for 10 days or so - it has meant a lot to me.

Rain Rain Rain

Alas, no horses today. Rain all day which doesn´t seem to dampen the spirits of the All Saints´/All Souls´revelers. The party has been simmering all day and is just now starting to gather momentum. Many people, mostly young, aiming to be up and going until dawn. For me, dinner with Canadian Bill and then the world series game, across the road blissfully away from the party, although we´re told it will definitely be heard.

Tomorow, Montañita to Guayaquil, Guyaquil to Quito, Quito to Atlanta, I´ll be waking up the birds at Hartsfield/Jackson Monday at 5:20 a.m. End of voyage thoughts forthcoming.

Whoa, possible Saturday adventure?

Booked the new room this afternoon for Saturday night and was invited to the Spanish language school barbeque this evening. Decided to check out la escuela por gringos for some ingles connection. The fellow who founded the school, Wallace from New Zealand, who had showed me a room earlier in the day, was there and I cornered him. Wallace, I ask, the guide book is fruitless and I´m dying for a daytrip tomorrow to get out of global hippy land.

Wallace coms through in spades. Take the bus south, get off and wait for the camonieta to take you to the village where you can hire a guide and horse to take you on a 6 hour trip to the summit of Cerro del Encanto with killer views of the mountain range as well as the coast. BTW, camonieta is an open pick up truck with back supports and benches. They will only leave when they are completo (full) but Saturday is pony day for Tomas...

I´ll report back.

My Passport Seem To Be Curling Up

Well, it´s not hot in Montañita but it surely is humid. Woke up this morning way too early because I apparently mistakenly set the rooster for 4:30 a.m. My passport was on the table, having been bathed in oceanfront breezes all night at the open window and was essentially the shape of a mini-burrito.

Never thought I could but I fell back asleep in spite of the fowl audio and managed to sleep until 7:oo. I am at Hotel Charro and believe it or not the proprietress could pass for her cousin. Decent place with DirectTV which gets me CNN and more. Ocean front, ocean view, simple but sufficient. However Charro told me that while the originally quoted (from previous email traffic several weeks ago) $20.00 per night would hold for Thursday and Friday, the holiday (All Saints´/All Souls´) on Saturday would put the room at $50.00. Yeesh, that´s a 250% increase. What happens on Saturday, I ask. Lots of people come to town, she says. But why double and a half, I ask? Because we can is the answer.

Came back to the hotel last night after my first dinner in Montañita (do not tell Ann that I fed two puppies pappas fritas under the table) and watched the Phillies and the Yankees on the lobby tv and met a Canadian guy somewhere near my age who´s exploring becoming an ex pat in Ecuador. (This guy´s had the luck - he met a local woman in Guyaquil who took a fancy to him and I assume he to her. He decided to go to Manta and she said I´ll go too! They get a place to stay, next thing he knows he wakes up with a severe headache in the morning and he´s out a brand new camera he had never even snapped the shutter on, and $225 in cash. No sign of Señorita. She slipped him a mickey. Apparently it´s a profession down here in certain circles. No worries here as I am on the total straight and narrow, but do ask me some time about the fraulein I met on the Portugese coast twenty five years ago who asked me for "fire.")

Canadian Bill told me about a tip he received about a cabaña down the road for $15 a night that he was probably going to check out. I went with him today to look at it and I´ll probably move over there tomorrow. It´s a lovely little thatched cabin arrangement that serves as housing for a Spanish language school. Apparently it gets pretty lively here in town on the holiday night and I don´t plan to bring in November in the local style.

What is Montañita? Well, over the last number of years it has become a surfing destination for people from all over the world and quite the backpacker magnet. Many, many young people here, really from all over the world. It has apparently gained more cachet than most of the fishing villages that dot this coast. Since I used to surf while in high school, I thought it would be fun to check it out and re-imagine old times, but don´t think for a moment I´m getting on a board again. Truth be told, I am probably also exploring my backpacker soul, likely for the last time in my life.

This is the Old West, South American style, beachfront. Dirt roads...rickety storefronts, often open air...lots of loose dogs...everything´s cool, man...civil order is likely kept by Sheriff Wyatt Gonzalez.

Took a long walk on the beach this morning and I have to admit, the peace and quiet I had hoped for was found. It was even peaceful and quiet when I got back to town since the electricity had gone out. But, then, this is the frontier.

Power´s back on, time to get some clothes cleaned at lavanderia...

The Coast It Is!

Montanita has won out over an additional day in Cuenca, much as I liked it there. I am waiting for my 1pm departure from the bus station here in Guyaquil, which by the way puts New York^s JFK terminal to shame. The cab drive who got me here from the airport (a simple 25 minute flight but they still serve a sandwich and juice!) offered to drive me to the coast for $100. Es muy mucho, I protest. He drops it to $80 which is still too much for Tomas the voyaging adventurer. True, I would have gotten there earlier, but I will have plenty of time there, so bus it is. Really looking forward to getting some laundry done when I get there.

Gotta run - hoping to score my usual shotgun seat on the bus so I can really absorb the trip.

Another remarkable S. american evening experience

Okay, how is the voting going, Cuenca or Montantilla on the Pacific Coast? Decided to explore this evening a restaurant recommended in Rough Guide (a great series, by the way)...Columbian food, muy typico. Quote: Moliendo Fantastic little Columbian eatery offering inexpensive authentic cuisine such as arepas (corn pancakes) with a variety of toppings like hogao (delicious slow-cooked tomato and onion gloop.) Wash it down with a refrajo.

Refrajo basically a strong lager with a soft drink mixed in. I passed.

Walked in with some reading material (an August copy of the New Yorker I purloined from the hotel) hoping I would not stand out too much. Me - the only non Columbian cat in the joint, but warmly welcomed by grand papa, who showed me a table and said Bien? Are you well. Instantly comfortable.

Menu arrives and the prices are so ridiculously low that I assume I must order multiple dishes to walk away sated. I choose a house specialty and a pollo dish on top of that and grand papa gently suggests that the first dish is good for now. I acquiesce, order a Columbian cerveza and quietly pull out my New Yorker and hope that this is not a breach of propriety in Columbia or Ecuador.

I am saved. In walk two sweet and cute chicas who have their fashion magazines in their faces before they even order, in fact probably before they even take their seats. Apparently, taking a magazine out for a dinner date is okay here. Then who walks in but the damned cutest little toddler girl you{ve ever seen with a lollipop in her mouth. She waltzes up and down the restaurant saying hola to all and then runs to grand papa and I realize there{s a reason he has that title. I wave, she waves back, she waves again and resumes the restaurant waltz.

Meal comes, and is devoured and it is quite enough, thank you very much. Thank you grand papa for good counsel. I am ready not for dessert, since the entree came with rice, beef and sweet plantains, but perhaps some Columbian brew. Cafe tinto (black) does the trick. I go to grand papa to resolve la cuenta, he pulls his calculator out and reveals the damages - $4.80 for cerveza, entree and coffee.

WTF?

Cuenca is the new Quito

I knew I had a good feeling about this city even before I arrived. I was right. Everything that I really had expected Quito to be, seems to be in Cuenca. Now, please understand that almost anywhere one goes travelling internationally has a good side to it and Quito is no exception. Big, diverse, physically in a stunning physical place, but it has its busy, crowded and above all smoggy side to it as well.

Cuenca, on the other hand is clean, just dense enough, very colonial and very manageable size- wise. It´s still a city, but one feels one can see a lot and not need to wear oneself out running from place to place. Absolutely the most gorgeous plaza I´ve seen the whole trip is Parque Calderon, in the middle of the colonial Old Town. Tall, beautiful, SHADE PRODUCING trees, beautifully manicured squares within the square, and all in front of the impressive Catedral Neuve.

Left the hotel around 8:30 after breakfast in the very homey but grand lobby, but returned by 10:00 am to shed my jacket. Next intended stop, a few blocks south of the hotel was the Sombrero Museum, where I was to study the illustrious history of the Panama Hat (a misnomer, of course, as it is completely Ecuadorian in origin and most people believe it got the name because so many workers on the canal wore one for shade) and maybe buy one as well.

On the way there bumped into an indoor market, huge as usual, all fruits, vegetables and meat. The meat is all just hanging in the market air, sometimes in slabs sometimes still on the carcass, with no real refrigeration that I could see. The carnes aisles were pretty aromatically intense.

On to headgear and mission accomplished. I got my tight weave hat in a brown shade (I know, not totally traditional but I liked the look.) The museum is just that, a museum of the process and examples of the product, but they also finish off hats there after the early work is done by mostly rural artisans in their homes.

So I got to choose my base piece and watch as it is further shaped, steamed and the band is applied - I even got to choose my band color! While waiting for the final work to be done, I was invited to go upstairs to another part of the museum which was a kind of re-creation of a craftsman´s work space at home, docented by a delightful young man who knew just enough English to answer my questions, of which I had many since I had done my due diligence on these things! We yakked away for about fifteen minutes as he described the way the straw pieces are kept properly moist during weaving (saliva!) and how long it can take to complete a really high quality product (up to 3 or 4 months.)

Finally tried the finished piece on, felt quite please with myself, walked outside and immediately loved the sun protection it offers over the baseball cap I had been wearing up until then. And it may have been my imagination but I did feel that people were paying just a little extra attention to the foppish gringo passing them on the street...

Headed to an indingenous peoples´museum which took me on a path along Rio Tomembamba, which meanders through the southern border of the Old Town, but also led me to discover a whole new neighborhood of cafes, craft stores, funky little side streets, and more. A great discovery which gets me to my latest dilemma.

Tomorrow, another day in Cuenca or head to the coast? My ticket to Guayaquil is for tomorrow at 10 am but it appears I can change it to Friday for free if I go to the AeroGal office (stands for Aero Galapagos - don´t you just love that name? Hi, I´m Aero gal, what´s your name?) across the river. I do like it here and there is undoubtedly more to see, but the trip to Montanita is considerable. Get to the Cuenca airport, fly for an hour, land at Guayaquil, get to the bus station from the airport and then a three and a half hour chicken bus to the Pacific. Don´t know if I want to cram that round trip into too few days.

I will do the right thing and go have a cerveza fria to figure it out. More to come!

Safe and Sound

The Quito Airport opened up a bit before three pm (naturally, while I was in the International Terminal posting to this blog) so I raced back to Domestic with my heavy bag, checked in and then waited until 5pm when the flight did take off. The video that was on the tv in the airport showed a marching band parade on the ground near the runway and a parade of helicopters flying overhead. Then, one of them started to falter in the air and fell diagonally, still under some power but clearly not enough and crashed not 100 meters from the marching band on the ground. Later there was video of one person being loaded into an ambulance, so let´s hope there was only the pilot and that was the gurney we saw.

Cuenca felt good from moment one and I love my hotel. It overlooks Plaza San Francisco and is in an old colonial building in Old Town. It´s grand and gracious at the same time it´s homey. Got some good pix of the lobby and will share when I return. Walked a bit to get dinner and began to really like this place. The scale, the intimacy all work well. Tired and bed came before 10pm.

BTW, helicopter,not fixed wing aircraft.

Best Laid Plans...

On The Road Again

Today began unable to sleep at 4a.m. due to roosters, so I plugged in my iPod and listened to a book on tape until dawn. No television at Hotel Ali Shungu. By the way, this hotel, listed in Rough Guide as one of the best hotels and best deals in Otavalo, is for sale. Owned by an ex/pat American couple who built it 17 years ago. Beautiful gardens and grounds inside an estate type setting, my room has a balcony and I overlook one of the two volcanoes here...a stunning site every morning, during the day and into the dusk. Anyway the hotel has 16 rooms double and single and two much larger penthouse type spreads on the third floor, all with balconies overlooking the garden. Asking price, $495,000, with an incredible indigenous staff who are wonderful to guests and keep the place humming. Do the math. I will miss my volcano view as I leave tomorrow morning for Cuenca via Quito.


My last day in Otavalo today was spent touring artisan villages and beautiful Lake Cuicocha, a volcanic basin lake about 15 kilometres outside of town. Trucha, that is, trout lunch at Mirador Restaurant high above the lake. Great food and great view. Have spent just about the right amount of time here and looking forward to heading south and then to the coast. More tomorrow on the chicken bus ride back and on to Cuenca, purportedly the most beautiful colonial city in Ecuador.

The Largest Outdoor Market on the South American Continent...

...is in Otavalo, Ecuador, my stop after a couple of nights in Quito. I was very much looking forward to this market as on Saturdays, it features indigenous craftspeople, a food market and a livestock market. It is hard to convey just how big, how colorful, how near overwhelming Saturday market is. Every street and alley, every square, of central Otavalo is filled to within an inch of its life by foods of every description, weavings, tapestries, pottery, visual art, clothing, et.al. It truly boggles the mind. I had a beautiful sunny day, the equatorial sun just as intense as in Quito but the temperature truly is spring/like. Many, if not most of the vendors are indigenous Quichans, dressed /especially the women and children/ in traditional attire which one never gets tired of admiring and always wondering how they manage with so many layers of clothing.

While one section of the market is devoted to produce of infinie variety, prepared food stalls abound frying whole tilapia, simmering chicken and potato stews, roasting whole chickens and other carnes. You simply sit down at a long open table, point to your favorite and it's in front of you in no time, blissfully under a tent to protect you from that sun.

Don't miss this event if you ever get to Ecuador, it's like nothing I've ever seen before.

The first days...

I have been fascinated with Ecuador for several years now and after being told to get it out of my system or get it further in (by my family) I arrived in Quito Thursday evening 10/22. The ride at 10:30 pm from the airport to my hotel in New Town took me through some interesting light industrial areas that at that time of night appeared quite forbidding. But made it to the hotel without any incident an settled in for a couple of nights in Quito.

Friday found me leaving early for Old Town, filled with colonial and pre-colonial churches, government buildings and schools. Many plazas and man does the Equatorial sun shine brightly here. Explored throughout the day and came back to the hotel exhausted, but not so tired not to explore my neighborhood, La Mariscal, which had transformed from the morning of shuttered storefronts to a hopping hip place of restaurants, bars, retail and crowds of young people just gearing up for a Friday evening on the town. I had dinner in a small cafe that had just the mix of people you want to discover while traveling - at one table was a group of 3 Ecuadorian men, probably in their late 30s, all drinking grande Pilsners, and alll smoking one cigar! Boys night out. At another table was a pair of young backpacking women, sipping their beers, and conversing about who knows what, but smiling a lot. The maitre ´d was tapping on her laptop at another table, channeling Sandra Bullock, and then there was this fifty something guy from the states, who in his mind´s eye was re-living his last solo international voyage some 25 years ago, with his family´s blessing. Life was good that evening with a tall mojito and a flank steak dinner, with beautifully steamed local carrots and asparagus all for under $10.00 (the US dollar is the Ecuadorian currency.)

Saturday morning had me headed for the bus station to board the Chicken Bus (autobus de pollo) for an exhilarating and beautiful trip to Otavalo. The Chicken Bus is the main method of transport for people, produce and the occasional fauna. As it leaves the city it continues to pick people up from the side of the road often while still moving. Eventuallythe bus fills up with people, their belongings and even small livestock sprawled around every surface of the bus. But you can´t beat the deal - a 2 hour bus ride for $2. Quito sits in a basin among several volcanos so the views as you leave the city are amazing. The first 45 minutes of the trip to Otavalo is mostly downhill, twisting and turning through swithchbacks and hairpin turns. You are driving exactly on the edge of the Pan American Highway and below you is sheer canyon. I will confess to being terrified at times, especially when we would round a turn, come to a particularly vulnerable piece of the highway and I would be staring at one of those small white crosses on the lip of the cliff, indicating that someone didn´t make it.

Made it with no casualties save for the bruise I raised on my forearm from squeezing it with my hand during some of the more vulnerable maneuvers.

You are traversing through the high Sierra in the Andes and it is scenery like nothing I´ve ever seen before.

I was headed for Otavalo for the biggest Saturday market in South America. More on that next. I´m digging this trip!