daily-blogs

27 Hours and 1000+ Miles Later

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:48:10 +0100

Metaphorically speaking, we entered Peru´s mouth yesterday via the border crossing at Mácara, Ecuador around 1pm (Friday). Since then, we have been digested and passed through multiple bowels of northern Peru and upon our arrival in Lima on the southern end of that system, we found ourselves, dirty, slimy, and smelly.- This is where your thoughts turn when you have more time to think than is good for your sanity... Let me begin...

We left Loja in southern Ecuador yesterday morning at 6am, 5am if you count the time we needed to get up, pack, and get to the bus terminal. We purchased tickets in Loja that were supposed to get us to Piura, some three hours south of the Ecuador-Peru fronterà. We made the 7 hour journey by bus south from Loja to Màcara. I should explain that while it takes seven hours to get from Loja to Macàra, the distance is only about 114miles (190km). It just takes that long because we were traveling roads in even worse condition than previous days´ journeys- and by worse, I mean 9-12ft wide dirt paths winding along 1000ft cliffs through the northern parts of the Andes Mountains... in a 10 foot wide MOTORCOACH!

We knew that we would need to disembark from the bus and take a taxi to the actual point of exit/entry and then most likely would need to take another taxi to where we would reunite with the bus on the other side. Our guide books did little to explain the process except that the crossing at Màcara was ´´infinitely easier and safer´´ than the alternative at Huaquillas on the coast. To cross at Huaquillas, travelers must traverse the thief and con-artist ridden gauntlet between the two customs stations which are located 2km from the border on each side, so we thought we were making the better choice- and probably did... This lack of information was not made any easier by the less than ample information provided by the bus company and their glass-eyed representative named Julio, who was supposed to be our ´´guide´´. Julio and an unnamed bus driver simply pulled into Màcara and everyone started getting off.

For most of the other bus passengers, Màcara was their destination so we couldn´t even follow them. I had asked Julio where we needed to go, at which time he proceeded to get somewhat irate before motioning with one hand towards the border which was 3km away before making a B-line in the direction of what appeared to be a tavern. That was the last time we saw Julio or the bus.

So we got a cab to the border and just as the books said, we made it across almost effortlessly. Once across and through controls, we thought we needed to take another taxi to what we assumed was the bus terminal a few km down the road. We hired a taxi for 24 soles ($8) which seemed steep at the time, but when you have 5 short men shouting in your face, competing for your business with monopolistically fixed prices, you don´t even feel like negotiating. The ¨taxi¨ turned out to be a collectivo, or shared cab. The vehicle which was to be our collectivo was a 1987 Toyota hatchback which we didn't give a second thought to because we were still under the assumption that it would be a short trip to the bus terminal. We piled in with two women who between them, had approximately 180 years of age and 12, maybe 15 teeth. Then we started driving, and driving, and driving.. It started as an interesting drive, first with stunning vistas of more green mountains, our driver occasionally swerving to miss iguanas and goats crossing the road. Conversation was upbeat. Our elderly companions were very friendly, asking about where we came from and proudly informing us on the significance of every building whizzing past our windows in each dusty settlement we passed through. Then about 20 minutes into the drive we were stopped by the Policia Nacional. They wanted to see our passports and one gave Taylor´s backpack a quick poke. In hindsight, the locals accompanying us probably ensured our safety during the inspection. They all became vigilant with our Peruvian grandmothers almost exerting a maternal protection over their gringo grandsons. Shortly after that, I noticed a sharp change in scenery to a flat, desert landscape. Forty more minutes of driving down the straight road with no turnoffs, I asked the driver where the terminal was. He said ¨en Sullana¨. Sullana turned out to be almost 2 hours from the border, about 40 miles short of our final destination in Piura.

By the time we reached Sullana, it was eminately clear we missed the bus (if it ever went to that depot in the first place). For those readers who have seen the movie Blood Diamond which takes place in war-torn Africa, Sullana´s bus depot was located in a run-down town that resembled just about every city depicted in that movie (see pictures). Also, if you are ever feeling starved for attention I highly recommend you pay a visit to this little desert oasis because from the moment we got out of the taxi, all eyes were on us.

We were in no mood to spend the night anywhere near Sullana or Piura for that matter, so we bought the next ticket we could for the small coastal fishing and surf village of Huanchaco near Trujillo which we hadn´t planned on visiting until the next day. To get there, one must take a bus bound for Lima so we double-checked with the booking agent at the terminal to make sure it would pass through Trujillo. Trujillo is about 8 hrs from Sullana on the way to Lima so we knew when we left at 3:55 (it was supposed to leave at 3) we would need to look for our stop around midnight.

Around 11:30, Taylor woke me up. We could see Trujillo in the distance, but we weren´t getting closer to it, in fact we seemed to be going around it. We asked a man sitting near us if we were near Trujillo and he started pointing behind the bus. We ran downstairs (double decker bus) and started knocking on the driver´s door and asking other passengers what to do. One lady informed us that after dark, the bus doesn´t make stops for safety reasons and that it becomes a ¨servico directo¨. We were unable to get the driver´s attention, though even if we could, neither one of us would have wanted to get off where we were, we decided it was onward to Lima. We spent nine more hours on a humid, cold bus until finally, at 9am Saturday morning, we were arriving in Lima.

The guidebooks said there was little to do in Lima and that it wasn´t a very impressive capital... At first, they appeared to be right. After fearing for our safety at what would be presumably the safest possible time (Saturday, mid-morning) in San Isidro where the bus station was, we made our way to the swanky suburb of Miraflores on the coast where we found a very nice and reasonable hostel called the EuroBackpacker.

Today has been a recovery day as Taylor is feeling slightly under the weather with a headache, presumably from 27 consecutive hours of travel. I have been doing research about the area and Cusco and attempting to formulate a plan for the next part of our journey. While searching for our first real meal in a day and a half, we noticed a sports bar across from the hostel. We plan on watching the NBA playoffs tonight before seeing what nightlife Miraflores has to offer.

Old Town Quito and Banos

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:59:08 +0100

Today was a day of changes. We started by having breakfast sandwiches of huevos (eggs) and quite possibly the most unique cheese either one of us has seen (we thought the cheese was the eggs...). Not to worry, as it was very tasty. After breakfast, meandered our way though La Mariscal taking in the sight of Ecuadorians going about their daily routines.

We found our way to the South American Explorers´Club- A helpful resource that I recommend to anyone planning to journey through the continent. They have clubhouses in Quito, Lima, Cuzco, Santiago and Buenos Aires. They provide maps, guidebooks, traveler reports, internet access, and just about anything else that backpackers may need, including English speaking clubhouse managers.

We had checked out of Hostal Galeria, and not wanting to carry our huge packs through the very congested Plaza de Libertad, we were able to store them at the SAE. We caught a cab from the clubhouse to Old Town Quito which is much more scenic than La Mariscal (New Town) where we were staying.

Shopping was also very abundant, which was helpful because me being the obsessive compulsive/occasionally absent-minded chap that I am, I left my jacket sitting on my bed in Arizona. I managed to find a nice store right off the plaza that sold either severely discounted American brand clothing, or the best knock-off´s ever. I bought an Abercrombie track jacket for $26 brand new, with the original Abercrombie sales tags still attached.
After snapping photos of the Plaza, the streets scenes, and a protest of Quito´s bus drivers (they wanted a raise of 15 cents per hour) we started making our way back to the SAE clubhouse.

While walking through the governmental section of the district, we took some pictures of Ecuador´s national bank and the Vice President´s office (see pics). Out of nowhere, we saw the same huge motorcade we saw a day earlier in La Mariscal, only this time, it was going much slower due to traffic and it was about to pass right by us. I asked a vendor who´s motorcade it was and with a look that said ¨how can you not know?¨she said it was El Presidente! Sure enough, they rolled right by. It took me a moment to notice since I was fumbling with my camera, but I looked straight ahead, and there was a sharp-dressed man waving out the window AT ME!

I accidentally let the dumb tourist side of me slip out a bit, when I asked him (yes, I was that close) if he was the president. He smiled and nodded and made his driver stop long enough for me to take the picture. Talk about timing!

Re-energized by our spur of the moment diplomatic encounter, we hiked back up one of the city´s many hills on our way back to the clubhouse to take in one last nice view of the city. Upon our return, we told Marcello, the clubhouse manager about our experience to which he replied ¨You should have given him the finger!¨Apparently, he wasn´t a big fan of El Presidente.
We gathered some last minute info from travelers in the clubhouse, collected our bags and headed for Quito´s bus station. We paid $2 for the cab to take us about 15 km to the station which by American standards, is very cheap. When compared to the $3.40 we each paid for the four hour (330 km) bus ride down to Baños however, one cannot help but feel slightly ripped off.

By far, the most helpful piece of advice we took from the SAE clubhouse was their recommendation on where to stay when we reached Baños. We arrived at about 7pm in total darkness. If not for Marcello´s advice, we probably would have jumped into one of the first hostels we saw. Instead, we got into a cab and requested he take us to ¨La Hostel Chimnea¨, which is on the outskirts of the tiny mountain town. What a great decision that turned out to be, as this hostel is by far, the best hostel I have stayed at anywhere in the world. Spotless from floor to ceiling, it has multiple computers for internet access and huge rooms with balconies to take in the GORGEOUS mountain views.

Coupled with the fact that they have a rooftop terrace serving breakfast til 11:30am which includes a front row seat to waterfalls trickling down a 5000 ft mountain right outside the window, this hostel would be a top-notch B&B anywhere else. Did I mention that for this jungle oasis, each of us only paid $7.50 per night?!

We found an excellent little Mexican restaurant in town for dinner where we gorged ourselves on fajitas and burritos, washed down with margaritas and Pilsener (Ecuador´s version of Budweiser, but much better).

After dinner we were walking back to La Chimnea when we noticed a community gymnasium that was packed with a cheering crowd. We decided to check it out and found a basketball game in progress. As soon as we walked in, we noticed many people were no longer watching the game because all eyes seemed to be fixed on me and the gentle giant with whom I entered. When one of the teams called timeout, the referees started shooting some hoops. All of a sudden, on ref rolled the ball directly at Taylor and motioned for him to come take a few shots. Apparently he didn´t know that was Taylor´s kryptonite, because before the ball got to Taylor, he had his jacket off and was standing up... Needless to say, the town full of shorties and myself were all eager to see what he could do. A few minutes and dunks later, a raucous crowd was cheering him on and a few people started chanting ¨Gringo Grande, Gringo Grande!¨¨

In the morning, we plan to visit Los Baños (Volcano-heated hot springs from which the city takes its name) and possibly do a jungle tour to the top of Volcan Tungurahua (the volcano near town).

Mitad del Mundo and Quito, day 2

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:36:16 +0100

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For our first full day in Quito, we got much accomplished. No small task was getting our bearing in a city where streets are named after dates on the calendar. I asked our waiter at breakfast how to get to Avenida de Colon and he told me to go to El Seis de Diciembre before turning right on Avenida de America. I misunderstood and told him we were only in town until the 18th of May, assumed he didn´t know where to go and thanked him before proceeding to find someone else to ask for directions. Only after coming across Calle 6 de Diciembre, did the puzzled look the waiter gave me make sense.

We were somewhat creeped out by our hosts and accommodations at Hostal Titisee so we moved one street over to stay our second night at Hostal Galeria, a certain step up from last night. Our main objective of the day was to visit La Mitad Del Mundo, which translated means ¨The Middle of The Earth¨.

Its a park and tourist complex about 23km north of Quito which at the time of construction, was believed to be marking a 200 meter line along the equator. Since the advent of GPS technology however, the monument has been discovered to be 240 meters south of the actual equator. After snapping dozens of pictures of us straddling the equator with the other tourists (surprisingly, we were only two in a handful of gringos sharing the day in the countryside with many local families), we strolled through the town of stores and restaurants that service the park.

We ate our first Ecuadorian lunch of empanadas and glass-bottled Sprites while we watched a band play some salsa music for a dancing crowd. We caught one of the blue buses back to Quito (30 mins and 20 km for 15cents!). We got back feeling tired, but since the sun was starting to set, we made a brisk walk up a hill (bad idea when you're still acclimatizing to a city above 9,000 feet) to see the Gothic Cathedral of Basilica de Voto Nacional.

Outside the cathedral we were approached by two little boys wearing school uniforms. They were doing an assignment for their English class and asked us a few questions in English while their dad recorded it.

Outside the cathedral we had panoramic views of the city and El Panecillo which is a mountain south of the city with a 40 meter high statue of The Virgin of Quito. We went inside the basilica and saw some cool stained glass.

After coming back down the hill we passed through a artists market that we had seen earlier in the day near Parque Ejido (Ejido Park). Taylor bought a cool hand-painted piece from an artist by the name of Jorge Gran Cuscoyo.

After that, the plan was to head back to the hostel to shower before going out for dinner. We made it back to Galeria, but the next thing I remembered was waking up at about 2:30am. We came back and both just passed out! This may have been a blessing in disguise however, as we both woke up at about 7am today and are ready to get a start on things.
We will check out the South American Explorers club today to get info, and then probably start our journey south.

Hello Quito!

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:46:24 +0100

After 18 hours in on planes and in airports, we are here! We left Phoenix at 5am yesterday, flew to Houston and after a rather enjoyable 7 hour layover spent mostly in the President´s Club, we caught the night flight to Quito. As we approached, the lights of Quito’s metropolis-covered hillsides turned the infinite black of the jungle at night into brightly glowing waves.

From the airport we caught a cab to La Mariscal which was supposed to be a lively downtown area. We arrived to find near-deserted streets lined with clubs and bars that were blasting their music as if they were packed. It was almost midnight so we couldn´t figure out why things were so empty for a Saturday night.

While driving down a narrow one-way street, we saw some hombres looking in the windows of the rows of tightly parked cars. This sent our already buzzing sense of culture shock into overdrive as the few people observing this did nothing to stop these blatant car thieves. Out of nowhere and certainly not near anything that resembled a place we would want to spend our first night in South America, the cab driver stopped and announced he could go no further due to traffic. We immediately went into "scared tourist in unfamiliar city survival mode". Not wanting to wander the dark streets of an unfamiliar city wearing backpacks that screamed “ROB US!”, we ducked into the first Hostal we saw- Hostal Titisee. I have nothing to compare the seven dollar cement slab that was my bed to yet, but let’s just say we hope South America has better to offer us. We just woke up and are off to to eat some breakfast, set an agenda and do some sightseeing.

Up and Rolling

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:20:46 +0100

For the past three years, I have been on track to graduate early from my undergrad and start law school. Recently however, I have been questioning the sanity of that decision because almost all law school admittance essays and interviews require me to highlight and discuss exceptional "life experiences" that I've had. This presents a bit of a conundrum though, because while I was busy being a full-time student, I had little time to go out and have these exceptional experiences. I have decided that this summer I will seek out those types of experiences and hopefully gain a more enlightened perspective in the process by traveling through South America. I believe that experiencing the everyday lifestyles that people of this part of the world lead in addition to seeing the many cultural and historic sights (touristy stuff) will help me gain a better vantage point from which I will orient and realign the path my life is currently taking.