Thursday, March 26, 2009

We're Home

We arrived home yesterday afternoon, and immediately, we were swamped with all this stuff to do that had accumulated while we were gone. And it is far from over. I still need to go pick up our mail and go through that, the living room looks like a bomb hit it [not all our fault - Samuel and Ben are also home for spring break], etc.

However, all things considered, it was a wonderful trip. Despite the 7.5 hour flight from Bogota, Columbia to LAX, and two more hours on Southwest to Albuquerque yesterday, there was only an hour of time zone difference for us, from Ecuador to home, now that we are on Daylight time, so jet lag is really not an issue. However, last night at home in our own bed, we really slept well. On the other hand, some things about being home are not so fun. I only realized this morning that while in Ecuador, I sneezed no more than once a day, on average. I have already sneezed more times since I got home than I did all our time in Ecuador.

And while I think of it, let me mention that, annoying as airport security is in the US, it is worse in Columbia, where we had a connecting flight. It went like this: We arrived in Bogota on the flight from Quito, walk down a long concourse, where we have no contact with the outside world whatever, and immediately we are faced with a security checkpoint. Shed anything with metal in it, and then reassemble yourself on the far side, belts, shoes, pockets, etc. Then up the stairs or escalator, and there is another checkpoint, this time for drugs, I guess, where people in army uniforms paw through your bags and you are frisked down in a rather intimate fashion. Then hurry on down the concourse, where, when you arrive at the boarding gate, you have to go through another security checkpoint, where once again you have to shed shoes, belt, and all other metal, and then reassemble yourself on the far side. And we could see that as we went through this checkpoint that they were already boarding the plane for our flight to LAX. The logic of taking airline passengers who had to clear security to get on the arriving plane, and then running them through all these additional screenings escapes me, although the drug screening may be prudent, given Columbia's issues with the cocaine trade, but regardless, I will avoid the Bogota airport in the future, if possible.

I will probably not add more to this blog, now that we are home, although if reflections or recollections from the trip float to the surface, I may add them. I hope that all who have followed our adventures have enjoyed this account. I surely enjoyed writing it, and I am very glad to have it as a record of the trip. If you have questions, please e-mail me at gpforeman@gmail.com and I will try to answer them.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Quito airport

We are in the Quito airport, and I am amazed that they have FREE wireless internet here. The will probably call for us to start boarding our plane soon, but we have made it this far. We will be on the ground in Bogota, Columbia for 1.5 hours, then on to Los Angeles.

I better post this and get the laptop shut down.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The end is in sight

We are back in Quito this evening, and will head to the airport tomorrow morning for our flight back to Los Angeles. We will arrive there about 7:40 tomorrow evening, and have a room there for the night, as there are no flights back to Albuquerque that leave after we will be available. I am assuming that by the time we pick up our luggage and clear customs, it will be at least 9:00 p.m. Instead, we will come on home on Wednesday, arriving in Albuquerque on Wednesday afternoon.

Susan is back to normal health, and we are both looking forward to being home. It has been a great trip, and I have taken close to 1500 photos. I will probably not post again here until after we are home, although I might post something from Los Angeles tomorrow evening. Right now, I need to go up and finish arranging our luggage so we avoid any overweight penalties.

One note of interest: today as we traveled back to Quito we crossed the equator, so I watched on my GPS and took pictures showing the latitude at fractions of a minute both north and south of the equator. I haven't looked yet to see if they are clear, but I hope so.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sunday in Otovalo

This morning we got up, fixed and ate a leisurely breakfast, and took a taxi to church. Here in Otovalo there are three wards, with meetings starting at 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00, so we decided to attend the one that started at 11:00. We had been told that some of the meeting would be conducted in Quichua, the native Indian language in this area, and sure enough, the parts in Spanish I could follow fairly well, and other parts were completely unintelligible. We still enjoyed it. Supposedly the ward that started at 7:00 conducted everything in Spanish, but we agreed that we just wouldn´t be in the right frame of mind at that hour.

Given the language, it should be no surprise that everyone there had jet-black hair, and everyone wore it long, men and women. The missionaries had the standard missionary haircuts, but everyone else, without exception, had either a braid or a ponytail down the back, except the babies whose hair was not yet long enough to braid. They all appeared to speak Spanish, and quite a few spoke to us and made us feel welcome. Susan was even asked to play the piano, since apparently there was no one else who could. That has been true two of the three weeks we have attended church here. The singing was in Spanish, at least.

And of course, I stood out like a giant here. I looked around when they had us stand for the rest hymn, and I was the tallest person there by probably six inches. And other than the missionaries and myself, no one wore a tie. The men all wore white shirts, but open-neck, and nearly all wore dress ponchos over their shirts. The women all wore similar outfits as well. Black skirts, white blouses, with cream-colored wool wrap of some sort over that. Smaller than ponchos, but similar. The women mostly wound their hair with a narrow strap that we had observed earlier. Since Susan also has long hair, I bought a strap for her yesterday, but how to apply it was a mystery to us, although we tried. So we asked for help before church this morning, and one of the sisters there had her all fixed up in less than two minutes. I watched, and I think we can manage it again.

After church, we came back to our hostel, and ate some food we had stored there. Later we went for a walk, since Susan has seen very little of Otovalo. She is feeling much better, and appears to be completely over her bug, although she is still a little weak. Much better, however, than even yesterday.

Tomorrow morning we will finish packing up here and catch a bus back to Quito. I asked today, and apparently buses leave every half hour or so, although not on a fixed schedule. We may do some more shopping before we go, as I loaded the suitcases this afternoon, and we are not full yet, either by weight or volume. At this point, I am pretty sure that volume will be our limiting factor. In particular, we are going to look for one of the black skirts that the women here wear, but long enough to fit Susan.

This would probably also be a good time to tell a little bit about the place we are staying, the Hostal Doña Esther. It apparently caters to foreigners, partly evidenced by the fact that they do have a website, which is how I found them. Our room initially was booked at $36 per night, but after one night, given Susan´s need to fix her own food, we moved up to the "suite" on the top floor. It has a small kitchen, which has probably saved us more in preparation costs than the additional cost on the room, and for Susan it has been a lifesaver. For her, one of the worst parts of traveling is eating out, but here she can completely control her ingredients and mode of cooking. And the vegetables and such that she wants just don´t cost very much.

We also have a fireplace that is very pleasant in the evening, when things cool off even more. It draws very well, so we get essentially no smoke in the room, but a pleasant amount of warmth. The wood for the fireplace is included in the cost of the room. The bed is comfortable, and the hot water heaters for the whole place are just behind the kitchen wall, which means that we have virtually instant hot water, which is a real novelty here. The only drawback is that it is up three flights of stairs, 46 steps to be precise, and I am sure that I am in better shape, as I have been climbing them on average 8-10 times a day while here. Actually, the stairs should probably be classified as a feature, not a drawback. Anyhow, it has been a very comfortable place, especially given the bug that Susan suffered from when we arrived here. The people who work there are also very helpful and friendly.

The owners are a Dutch couple who speak fluent English, but they are around only a few hours per day, so it is largely their staff that we have interacted with. Regardless, all are pleasant people. There is also good security, as the front gate is locked, and to get in you ring a bell, and one of the staff will open the gate remotely, and then verify that you have a reason to be there.

I should be posting from Quito tomorrow evening, and then we catch the plane back to Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Mercado

For those with no Spanish at all, that means, "The Market". I don´t know how far it extends, as we never reached the far side, and we may well have not even been halfway in, which is, by definition, the point at which you start coming out again, but we started coming out by turning around and roughly retracing our steps. We did not buy nearly as much as people invited us to. Just slowing down to case out the inventory in a particular booth invited offers of great deals, most of which could be purchased for half or less of the initial offer if you really wanted to bargain.

On the other hand, our hands were full, and we really didn´t feel able to cope with anything more by the time we headed out. And yes, Susan felt up to leaving the room today, although she collapsed on the bed when we returned and just read for a couple of hours. However, she is feeling much better. I may make another run here shortly as they will be shutting down in an hour or two, and tend to become more willing to bargain rather than take their goods home again. (end note, just before finishing up - I don´t think so. It is raining again, fairly hard, at least for here, and I am tired.)

I won´t tell you what we bought, as we don´t want to influence expectations, but we are pleased with our purchases. Some things that we really liked we still didn´t get, simply because of size or weight considerations. There are pieces of carved rock that are beautiful, but the idea of having to lug them home dissuades me. Also, I am starting to worry that the extra suitcase we brought may be approaching capacity. I will have to pack it tomorrow afternoon in preparation for our return to Quito, and we do have a good place close to our hotel in Quito to fill in any cracks there before we board the plane on Tuesday.

One of the things that you need to watch in Ecuador is the money. They use the US Dollar as their currency, which means we don´t think about currency conversion, but because this is not the USA, there is more counterfeit currency in circulation. In the bus station in Ambato there was a warning that fake bills would be punched (as with a paper hole punch) before being returned to the person who offered them, and there was a $5 bill taped to the window to demonstrate. It had 6-8 holes in it. And when you offer people here a bill, even a one or a five, but even more with larger denominations, they will carefully look it over and feel of it before they accept it.

So last night I was in a cafe where they sell rotisserie chicken, whole or by the piece, and the guy in front of me, an apparent native, was trying to pay with a $50 bill. This is very rare here, mostly because most places will simply not accept such, but the proprietor asked if I had change. I looked in my wallet, and I did, just barely, but before I made the change I felt of his bill, and compared it to my two twenties and ten. The appearance visually was quite good, but the feel of the paper was considerably lighter and thinner, so I declined to make the change. The proprietor then spoke to one of her assistants, and said to her that I didn´t think it was good, to which I simply replied, "No sé," which means "I don´t know." I was certainly not prepared to say that it wasn´t good, but without being certain that it was good, I was not prepared to make change. The guy with the $50 and the proprietor were still discussing the issue when I got my chicken and left.

And that brings me to another point, one that I have probably mentioned before. My Spanish has improved a great deal over the last 2 1/2 weeks, although it still has a LONG way to go, but to come to Ecuador without speaking any Spanish would be foolish, unless you simply hire a guide and translator to go everywhere with you. Apparently, everyone studies English in school, but very few speak it, at least not more than a few words.

What I really need at this point is some formal study to help me tie some things together, along with continued immersion to force me to continue working and developing my skill. My knowledge of Italian really helps, but on the other hand, my Italian is being sacrificed to learn Spanish. I am sure that if I become competent or better in Spanish, that I could then go back to Italy and regain my Italian much faster than the first time, but keeping both Italian and Spanish conversant would require ongoing practice in both languages. That doesn´t look likely from here. I´m really not too worried about it at this point. I can do what I need to do.

Well, I´ll sign out for now. With tomorrow being Sunday, I´m not sure how many of these Internet cafes will be open, so I may not post again until Monday. It´ll sure be nice to get back to a hotel where my laptop can connect to the wireless Internet.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Another quiet day

Susan is still recovering, feeling much better, but still not wanting to stray too far from a toilet until Immodium does its job. Thus, she stays in our room and I run errands and go shopping, and post to this blog. In a way, it is really frustrating that she is not feeling well enough to go out, but on the other hand, we have a pleasant place to stay, and the weather has been more rainy here than at any other part of our trip.

We are hoping that she will feel enough better to go out tomorrow, because that is the big market day here in Otovalo, and we have been saving up on shopping. However, if it doesn´t work out, we do have a market in Quito that we can visit on our last afternoon in Ecuador on Monday, to fill things out. We have bought a few small items so far, but now we have split out our large suitcases, so we have room to pack more in.

The fruit and vegetable markets here are just amazing. Hmm... the shift key doesn´t seem to be working for any of the uppercase characters over the numbers, so no exclamation points. Oh, well. You will just have to imagine them where they belong. I don´t tend to use a lot of them anyway. Back to the markets - walking through them is a feast for the senses. The colors are diverse and brilliant, which I can photograph, but the smells and other things require that you be here. Today I bought a pound of fresh green beans, a pineapple, and a large head of broccoli, each for 50 cents. I was tempted to buy more, but space, time, and our capacity to eat them up are all limited.

So, not a lot else to say. It has been a quiet day, with rain, and even some thunder this afternoon.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A quiet day

Susan is feeling better, but her system is still clearing out whatever it was that bothered her. She did not go out today, except to move up one floor to the "suite" at Hostel Doña Esther. It costs a little more, but it includes a kitchenette, with a stove, sink, and a small fridge, as well as a small dining/living room with a FIREPLACE. As soon as I am done posting this entry, I will go back up and light it up.

It has been cloudy and cool most of the day, with about an hour of sunshine this afternoon, but it is raining now, and the temperature is probably in the low 50s. Considering that we are about a quarter of a degree north of the equator, the weather is not what you would expect. On the other hand, I knew before we came that this is probably the worst time of the year with regard to weather here, so are seeing the worst that it has to offer. And in another way it is quite good. As I was walking the 100 feet or so to this Internet cafe, I passed a small shop that had grapes, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, kiwi fruit, oranges, and several other types of fruit, all grown locally within a hundred miles or so. I didn´t see them in that shop, but we also have pineapples, bananas, avocados, etc., readily available, also grown here in Ecuador. I went shopping about noon today for supplies for our kitchen, and bought about 12 pounds of produce for $3.40. This included a pineapple, bananas, carrots, onions, beets, chard, broccoli, and a couple of lemons (Susan gave me a list). It´s going to be hard to go back to Smiths.

Another thing about a climate like they have here, construction standards are not so high when it comes to fit and finish. I noticed that we can see light between the window frame and the wall on several of our windows in our suite, which is also the penthouse, so we have views in most directions.

Well, the fireplace is calling, so I´ll try to post again tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Trip to Otovalo

We left Loja at 6:00 this morning in order to catch our flight at the airport over the mountain in the next valley. It turned out to be about a 40-minute drive in the taxi, but we got there in time, and because the 7:20 plane was not full, they switched us from the 8:20 flight, and we took off an hour earlier than planned. We could have left the hotel later, except that there were two other women also traveling from Loja to the airport via the same taxi, and they WERE on the 7:20 flight. Anyhow, it all worked out well.

Last night we went out for dinner with Sandra, who we met earlier that day, and she brought along Elsa, her colleague, and a native of Loja. They are working together on a translation project, the nature of which I never asked about. However, we learned a lot about Loja and they helped order vegetables and such for Susan in a way that we could never have managed on our own. They also showed up at the hotel as I was in the process of settling up our bill, and wound up saving me $25 or so on the bill, so I gladly paid for their dinner.

Loja is a town with very few foreigners, so meeting Sandra was somewhat of a fluke. However, it is a very pleasant place, perhaps a little more expensive to live in than Ambato, but comparable to Cuenca, and certainly cheaper than Otovalo, where we are now. It is also lower in elevation, about 6800 feet, and a few degrees warmer, with highs most days close to 80 degrees. If we go back, however, it will be by plane, as the plane trip is about 45 minutes, versus 15 hours or more by bus. Of course, the bus covers at least twice the distance because of the winding terrain. We have done that once, and that is probably enough.

Once we reached Quito, it took two taxi rides to catch a bus to Otovalo, as the first one dropped us off at a bus station where the next bus was not due to leave for hours, and the second one dropped us off on a sidewalk in front of a supermarket, where he assured us, a bus to Otovalo would soon come by, and he even asked a policeman standing there to help us make sure we caught the next one by. We had seen the buses stopping for passengers before, so this was not entirely weird, but still, sitting on the curb in front of a grocery store, waiting for a bus to stop felt a little strange. In any case, it was not more than 15 minutes before a bus showed up, loaded in our suitcases, and we were on our way.

Here in Otovalo, a taxi brought us straight to the Hostel Dona Esther, where we were about ready to collapse. Early morning flights with no breakfast left us worn out, plus Susan is suffering from a little stomach bug, probably from something yesterday. I think she is getting better, but she won´t be sure until she actually is better. The owners of the hostel are American or Canadian, and thus speak fluent English, and I have arranged for her to get vegetables the way she likes them this evening. We hope that will help, along with time.

I would try to post a picture, but once again, I am reduced to using an internet cafe, and transferring pictures will have to wait for another day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A day in Loja

Although the day is not over, I though I should go ahead and get this posted. Loja is much longer north/south than east/west, because of the shape of the valley it sits in, so this morning after breakfast we went out and got on a city bus headed north, and rode it until it came to the end of the line. It was a beautiful day, and I took a few pictures at a local school ground, where the children were apparently out for recess. We then got on another bus and rode it all the way to the south end of town, where we walked through the campus of a local university.

Finally, we caught a third bus [at 25 cents per person per ride, this was not painfully expensive], and went back to a shopping center that we had noted earlier. After looking around a few minutes, and getting ready to leave, we noticed a couple that did not appear to be Ecuadorian. I asked the woman in Spanish if she spoke English, and it turned out that they are Christian missionaries from Australia who are largely working with people who suffer from addictions and such. We visited while they ate lunch [they were moving apartments today, and were thus unable to eat at home], and we learned that they have been living and working in Loja for 20 years. Then as we were about to conclude our discussion so they could get back to moving, another woman, this time from the US, stopped and asked if she could join us.

Her name is Sandra, and she is down here working at the university teaching English as a second language [ESL]. She stayed with us as we ate lunch, and then left to go back to work, but we will be meeting again for dinner, this time along with one of her students that she says is quite advanced in English. She also referred us to Las Puertas de la Ciudad or "the gates of the city", which is what we visited this afternoon. Here is a picture taken from the top floor, looking to the north.


We fly out of Loja early tomorrow morning to return to Quito, and thence to Otovalo, a couple of hours north of Quito, so my next post should be from there. Now I have to go rebalance our bags, as the airline allows us 20 kg apiece of checked luggage, and 5 kg apiece of carry-on. I am sure that our total baggage weight will fall under this combined limit, but I will need to spend some time portioning it out so as to avoid overweight penalties. Fortunately, I brought a little scale that will help with this task!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Trip to Loja

Our nominal four-hour trip to Loja took about 5.5 hours, due to repairs and construction. All the way from Quito we have traveled down Highway 35, which is part of the Pan-American highway, as is I-25, running through Santa Fe etc., in the US. In theory we could have just driven down here, and maybe even in practice, but that's more spirit of adventure than I can dredge up.

In any case, down here it is a two-lane highway, except where construction narrows it to one or less. I say less, because the last 70 km or so into Loja we followed an alternate route, consisting of a dirt road, mostly well graded, in the midst of some of the most majestic mountains I have ever seen. It seems that there is no end to the mountains down here. We crossed the continental divide at least twice today, and possibly four times, and if I figured it right, the highway actually followed the ridge for several miles that is the continental divide in that area. There were tremendous views off both sides. My camera says that I took over 500 pictures on the way here, although I am sure that some of them will not turn out.

Loja is at a lower elevation than our previous stops, and sits at about 6800 feet of elevation. It is not quite so cool here, although a jacket still feels good after dark.

We got in about 3:30 this afternoon, and in addition to the taxi ride to our hotel, we have walked around the streets a bit. I suspect that we will go to bed rather early tonight, as we are both tired.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Reflections on Cuenca

Tonight is our last night in Cuenca, and tomorrow morning we head for Loja, which is supposed to be about a four-hour bus ride south of here, and about 2000 feet lower, at around 6500 feet. However, before we leave, I thought I should record my impressions of Cuenca.

Before we arrived here, people told us that Cuenca would be a little colder than Quito, and it has been. We have seen temperatures in the mid 70's here, but today I don't think it got much above 60, and the sun barely came out. It rained last night for a good part of the night, just a slow drizzle, but still, it was chilly. We are certainly glad that we brought jackets with us to Ecuador, as we have worn them sometime almost every day we have been here.

Other than cooler, Cuenca is an old city, at least in the part where we are staying. It reminds me very much of the old parts of towns in Italy, with narrow cobble-stone streets, with frequent buses and taxis, and cars parked wherever they can get away with it, although they don't park on the sidewalks here.

And the sidewalks. They vary from barely a foot or two wide to more than ten feet wide, often in the same block. The curbs tend to be fairly straight, but the fronts of the houses do NOT form a straight line, and the sidewalk makes up the difference. They often have potholes, cracks, and other uneven features, so it is important to watch where you are going and where you put your feet. They also feature inclines cut into the curbs wherever cars need access to inside parking [i.e., behind doors], and these can be hazardous if you are not looking, especially when wet. Many of the sidewalks are paved with tile, very nice when dry, but almost like ice when wet.

The people of Cuenca are mostly quite nice and willing to be helpful if asked, but the social standards and expectations are not the same here as in the US. When meeting people on the sidewalk, you should not expect them to look ahead and defer to you if one or the other of you needs to yield for a narrow space. Actually, all the rules of the road, whether on foot, or in a car, are different here, and I have not been in Ecuador long enough to have any confidence that I can predict what others may do. I can cope with this on foot, but I would have to be here a lot longer than I have been to even think about getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Like most third-world countries, there is a lot more impromptu commerce than we would expect or tolerate at home. There are people selling grapes, strawberries, and other fruit out of wheelbarrows on the street corners, and others who seem to just set up impromptu merchandise stands wherever they can find a place. On the other hand, they don't appear to be desperately poor, or desperate to make a sale. There was a woman selling grapes by the large bunch, at a dollar a bunch. They looked good, but I didn't want a large bunch, so I asked her how much I could get for a quarter, and she wasn't willing to sell any less than a dollar's worth.

They do a lot more repairing of things here, though. There are at least two shoe repair shops within six blocks of the Hostal Macondo, as well as a few shops that perform sewing repairs on pants, shirts, and who knows what else. I have also passed at least three shops selling coffins, and we passed a building in Ambato, where people appeared to be carrying out the body of someone who had died. In the US that would be handled by ambulance or medical crew, but here it appears to be the responsibility of family members or friends.

As I have mentioned earlier, there are numerous Internet cafes here, where you can access the Internet for 50 cents to a dollar an hour, and most of them also provide phone booths where you can make local, national, or international calls for various rates. Calling the United States can cost anywhere from 5-25 cents per minute, and we surprised my dad with a call this afternoon. And some others of you may also receive calls if we feel so moved, but don't count on it!

Old and new are also superimposed in many instances here. There is a shop just down the street from Hostal Macondo where they have high-tech computer-driven sewing machines that can stitch on patterns of sports teams, family names, or any other graphic designs that they have in their computers, onto any fabric, baseball cap, etc., that you may want. The storefront looks as old as any others around it, but the technology inside is quite current.

And the medical technology appears to be quite good. One of the other guests here, named Peter, had an appendectomy yesterday. He had been suffering abdominal pain since Thursday evening, and finally went to a doctor on Saturday. They immediately diagnosed his appendicitis, and had him in the hospital and removed it within the hour. They told him after the surgery that it was good that he had not waited any longer to come in, as it was close to bursting, and that would have made it far worse. He was already back to the hostal this afternoon, and once again had a smile on his face. I asked him his impression of the hospital, and he said that it was first rate, fully equal to hospitals in the United States. And the cost for everything, testing, surgery, a night in the hospital, etc., came to about $1400.

Cuenca is cleaner than many cities I have visited, although I am not sure whether that is because the inhabitants are careful with their waste, or if the occasional street sweepers that we see are able to keep up. We try to be very careful to place our waste in the garbage cans that are fairly common on street corners and such, as behavior that may be common in locals may nonetheless arouse ire when tourists are casual with their trash. Besides, we really do appreciate the cleanliness, and want to do our part to keep it that way. It is far from perfect, but still pretty good.

The rate of violent crime here is very low, at least according to reports, and we certainly have not felt unsafe at any time during our visit. However, there are reports of pickpockets, and sometimes there are people who will spill something on you, in an apparent accident, and then as they attempt to help clean you up, they clean you out instead. We have not seen this, much less had it happen to us, but the hotel staff did warn us to be careful.

They also have a very good symphonic orchestra here, and performances are free. We found out about a performance that started at 8:00 p.m. on Friday [from a guest here who attended the same performance on Thursday], so we went. It was very good, fully as proficient and good as we would expect from a similar orchestra in a college town of half a million or more people in the US. They were more casual about allowing people to enter after the performance arrived than we would consider usual, but it was not our place to try to correct or educate them. We just focused on the music and tried to ignore the people coming in late.

In conclusion, we have really enjoyed our time in Cuenca, and would recommend that anyone visiting Ecuador plan to make a stop here. There are a lot of things to do that we have not yet gotten to, including visits to the nearby hot springs, and the nearby national park, with hundreds of lakes, local weavers, potters, makers of Panama hats, and such. So, we may have to return another time.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Hostal Macondo, Cuenca

Since we arrived in Cuenca on Monday night, we have stayed at the Hostal Macondo. In some ways it might be considered similar to a large bed and breakfast operation in the US, but rather than make comparisons, I will just describe it.

When the taxi driver brought us here, I didn't realize we were "here" until he insisted that this was the place. The entrance is just one more door along a street with lots of doors, although it does have a small sign over the top identifying it as "Hostal Macondo". The outside door is closed at night, and has a buzzer that you ring with a microphone for you to identify yourself to the person at the desk. They will then buzz the door open for you, allowing you to walk the 30 feet or so to the interior door, which is also locked, and which the person at the desk will open. During the day, only the inner door remains locked.

Upon entrance, the first thing that strikes the eye is the foyer: it is sunken three feet or so below the main level, and has a profusion of plants growing there. By day it becomes apparent that this used to be a courtyard open to the air, but a clear skylight has been placed over the whole yard, making it effectively indoors. There are wooden floors throughout, except in the bathrooms which all have a nice tile finish.

When we first arrived, we had to settle for a room with a shared bathroom, but this was not as inconvenient as we feared. It was right next door, and rarely if ever was it occupied when either of us needed it. After three nights, a room with a private bath opened up, and we moved in there. It costs us an extra $7 per night, but we decided it was worth the difference. Even with the bath, we are paying only $30 per night.

Despite the fact that it is located in the old part of town, where streets are narrow, and buses, trucks, taxis, and a variety of other traffic contribute to the noise level, the rooms in Hostal Macondo are very quiet. The first night we were here, I woke up in the middle of the night, and the loudest sound I could hear was my wife breathing. Finally after a few minutes, I heard a car engine faintly in the distance, and then I was quickly off to sleep again.

All of the people who work at the front desk speak some English, and some of them quite well. This is necessary because the clientele seems to consist of mostly people from outside of Ecuador. We have met people here from the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, and Finland. Some of them are fluent in Spanish, and some speak even less than we do. When we first arrived, we were shown to our room, so we could drop off our luggage [not much, in our case, since the bus company had left it in Ambato], and showed us out to the back courtyard and the kitchen. They serve a free continental breakfast there, with the provision that you can order a variety of items to supplement it, at a modest additional cost. In addition to bread, some kind of fresh fruit juice, hot chocolate, coffee, etc., you can also order two eggs, fried, boiled, scrambled, etc., for $1, or a large individual bowl of "fruit salad" where you specify the fruits, for $1.50. They also serve omlettes, pancakes, and other things as well.

From 1:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. the kitchen is available for the guests to use, and they include a refrigerator for them to store their food, as well as a stove, microwave, bottled drinking water, and a sink. The only stipulation is that they expect you to clean up after yourself, which is something that we all should have learned in kindergarten. Many people don't want anything to do with cooking while on vacation, but others, such as my wife, really do like to fix things for themselves where they control the ingredients, so for us, this has been a wonderful feature.

In both rooms that we have used, the beds have been comfortable, although barely long enough for me [I am about 6' 1" tall]. All are made up with sheets, two blankets, and a quilted bedspread, but at night, one blanket seems to be about right. Each room includes a locking drawer where you can stash money, passports, etc., that you don't want to carry with you when out and about. I have felt quite secure here, and have no reservations about storing items in those drawers, except that I fear I may forget to retrieve them before leaving.

The rooms are all posted as non-smoking, and the two we have been in have smelled clean. However, a number of the guests here do smoke, so the usual gathering place for them is on the back porch. If the back door is left open, then some of the odor may waft down the hall, but closing the door can alleviate even this issue. Even for non-smokers, the back porch is a very pleasant place to sit, as this guest discovered.

Hostal Macondo also includes free wireless internet in the services that they provide, but I have had trouble getting it to connect unless I am within a few feet of the wireless router, which sits just inside the room behind the front desk. However, they are perfectly willing to allow me to take my laptop in to their desk and sit here and read mail and post to this blog to my heart's content. They also have an iMac here that guests can use free for up to a half-hour per day to check e-mail. There are also lots of internet cafes around, which charge 50 cents to a dollar an hour, if you need more time. If I were returning for another visit, I don't know whether I would bring my laptop or not. Probably, but I'm not sure.

While a number of the guests we have visited with are on their first visit to Cuenca, others have been coming here for years, and the fact that they return over and over again to Hostel Macondo says a lot about the pleasant feel of the place.

If you are planning a visit to Cuenca, and want a quiet, pleasant, low-key place to stay, I recommend them. If you want to learn more about Hostal Macondo or reserve a room, you can e-mail them at info@hostalmacondo.com.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ingapirca

Today we were picked up at 8:30 by our driver and guide, and driven to Ingapirca, an Inca fortress that was established at the northern limits of their empire, shortly before the Spaniards arrived and conquered them. The Cunari, who were there before the Inca, had inhabited that area for over 2000 years, according to the guide and museum, and built much of what we saw. It was a really interesting visit, and I took a lot of pictures, one of which is posted here.






Here is a picture that we took on the way to Ingapirca, when we stopped at a Catholic church poised high up on the side of the mountain, where it looked as though it was about to fall off. However, the view from the church was spectacular, as shown in this picture.













Our guide, Braulio Prado, spoke quite good English, and was an excellent guide for the trip. I wish we could have made contact with him directly, rather than through the travel agency, as he is a freelance contractor with his own SUV, and the travel agency took a hefty cut for linking us up. I recommend him highly if you are in Cuenca looking for a bi-lingual driver and guide. His e-mail is braurojo@hotmail.com, or he can be reached in Ecuador at 098481382.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Taxis, and other things

Today is kind of a catch-up day, before we head out to visit the Inca ruins at Ingapirca tomorrow. We made the reservations this morning, and a driver [bi-lingual] is scheduled to pick us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning here at our hotel.

Taxis are very common here in Ecuador, and very cheap. A ten-minute taxi ride is usually around $2, although that is subject to negotiation, and in Quito, you can usually get them to do it according to the meter, which is usually cheaper than what they offer. The distances covered are not very great, 1-3 miles or so, but the streets are narrow, the traffic dense, and I would be terrified to try to drive here.

Some taxi drivers actually seem to be sane drivers, albeit in an insane environment, but others are positively crazy. In Quito, when we caught a taxi up to the Teleferico [tram up to the mountain top], and he just said the meter was broken and the ride would be $4. We were already in the taxi and out in traffic, so we just said OK. You would think that since the price was already set, and getting there any sooner would not help, he would have driven in a normal fashion, but no. Taxi drivers here never consider a stop sign to be more than a suggestion, and sometimes not even that, but at one point this guy pulled over in the oncoming lane to pass a bus stopped at a red light and honked and ran through the red light, in order to save a few seconds and get ahead of the bus. There were no other vehicles going through the intersection [so I'm here to tell about it], and possibly there was some way he could tell that, but I couldn't tell, and he sure scared me!

Drivers always seem to be pushing the limit, whether taxis or private vehicles, but I haven't actually seen any accidents yet. I have noticed that they tend to treat a two-lane highway as if the center stripe is a passing lane, and everyone seems cool with that. Given that I have observed this behavior when riding in a big bus, it is not quite as scary as it would be in a car, but it is still different.

Visiting Ecuador without knowing any Spanish would not be a good idea. More is better, but a little is essential. If, for whatever reason, you decided to come here without knowing any Spanish, you should resign yourself to hiring a bilingual guide/assistant to interface for you wherever you go. We have met a few people who speak a little English, and a handful who are actually pretty good, but the vast majority do not understand or speak any English. We have enough, between us, to generally get around, and it helps that nearly all the people are friendly and try to be helpful. Actually, the immersion, urgency, and desire on our part, combine to help us make quite a bit of progress in speaking and understanding Spanish.

I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. The weather here is marvelous! We have spent quite a bit of time sitting in parks because it just feels like perfect weather for sitting in parks. Sunshine, temperatures in the mid-70's, perhaps a light breeze, and lots of beautiful trees, grass, and flowers. In the evenings, a light jacket feels good, and a blanket is nice at night, but according to what we are told, the weather really changes very little, all year round. Down on the coast it is much hotter, with temperatures commonly up in the 90's, and even over 100, with high humidity, but we are not planning any trips down there, so that doesn't impact us.

Yesterday when we visited the market, there were lots of fruits that we know nothing about, but there were also at least 20 different kinds of potatoes. We don't have the means to try all of them for now, but it would be interesting. They also raise almost every kind of grain that is raised anywhere in the world, and more kinds of beans than we can count. A trip through the market is an adventure, and pretty well overwhelms our senses. However, wherever you go here, you need to watch where you step, whether for broken tiles or just things you don't want to step in. So far this hasn't been a problem for us, but there is a lot of potential for problems.

Well, I think I will end for now. Hasta luego!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Museum, inside and out

At breakfast today, another couple here from Canada recommended a museum about a mile from here as well worth the visit. So, after breakfast we set out to find it. Of course, there were distractions along the way, including a market that we had to come back by on our way home this evening to buy some more fresh avocados and other goodies.

Anyhow, we found the museum, and it was good, but not up to what we expected. It covered a lot of the natural history of Ecuador, as well as the life and traditions of many of the native tribes here. Then, as we were leaving, the guard told us we should also go around the outside of the building to their outdoor section. We decided to go eat lunch first, and went back to a restaurant we had passed a couple of hundred yards before arriving at the museum. The lunch was not cheap, $16.40 total, but Susan said that it was the best meal she had eaten in Ecuador, and possibly for quite a while before. Thus fortified, we returned to the museum.

It is a good thing we had lunch first, as it turned out that the outside portion was an old Inca fort and settlement, now somewhat restored. Down at the base of the battlements, they had recreated a garden, much as they think it existed when the Incas farmed it, with corn, beans, squash, quinoa, and a variety of other crops that we didn't recognize. They also had a botanical garden with many of the other crops and trees that were used by the Inca or by modern Indians here. The last part of the tour was the section with birds. I don't know how many species they had there, but with the parrots and macaws they had some very spectacular ones.

We then came back by the market and picked up a few things, and came on home. I took a bunch of pictures, but do not yet have them downloaded to the laptop. I may add them at another time.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful day, and are pretty well worn out.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

We are in Cuenca

We arrived in Cuenca last night, only to find that the bus company had left our luggage in Ambato. Fortunately, we were able to communicate well enough to get them to call back to Ambato and confirm that indeed, our bags were still there, so they shipped them on the overnight bus and I picked them up this morning. It was an annoyance, but it could have been a lot worse.


Now let´s back up. We went to church on Sunday in Ambato, and wound up meeting a member there, Christine (Price) Salas, who is married to an Ecuadorian there. She invited us home for dinner after church, and we visited all afternoon, until they gave us a tour of Ambato, and then dropped us off at our hotel at almost 7:00 p.m. It really made for a wonderful day, and she told us, more than once, that it was wonderful for her to have some other Americans there to visit with in English. She is fluent in Spanish, but misses just visiting in English. She has been married for about 18 months, and has a little girl, Alison, who is 7 months old, and very cute. I took pictures, but since I am still having trouble with my laptop getting on the internet, I am posting this update in an internet cafe. The good part is that there is at least one internet cafe per block here, and the cost is only 60-80 cents per hour.



Yesterday was mostly a long bus ride, about 8 hours, although it was scheduled for 7. A flat tire caused some delay, as did the fact that over 100 miles of the trip was in the fog. We literally had our heads in the clouds, I guess! We did travel for a few miles a couple of times below 8,000 feet of elevation, but we probably covered at least as many miles where we were over 11,000 feet. The scenery was spectacular! At least until the fog set in, and then darkness.



Here in Cuenca we are staying at the Hostel Macondo. Unlike our previous places, it is very quiet. One time last night I listened for several minutes to Susan breathing, and that was the loudest sound. Then in the distance I heard a car or bus engine that was almost as loud. Then I guess I went back to sleep. This morning I woke up to birds chirping in the courtyard just outside our window. The only downside is that for the moment we have a shared bathroom, and will continue in this mode for another night or two, but then a room with a private bath will become available, and we will move there. There are quite a few Americans and others there, and the front-desk staff all speak better English than I speak Spanish. They are also friendly and willing to help me with my Spanish, as well as with a variety of other questions.


That´s all for tonight.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Waiting for the bus

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we are fine. We are currently waiting for the bus to Cuenca, which leaves in about an hour and 15 minutes. Given the wait, I found an Internet cafe to post an update. I was unable to post yesterday, and since it will probably 9:00 p.m. before we get to our hotel in Cuenca this evening, I might not post then.

We are doing very well, met some interesting people at church yesterday, and are greatly enjoying our trip.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

i am writing this in an internet cafe on a computer with a sticky spanish keyboard, since our hotel in ambato has no internet. the shift keys are especially annoying, so i am writing without using them, at least very much. ambato is about a 2.5 hour bus ride south of quito. i will say that ecuador is beautiful. mountains, with more green than i have seen in a long time. ambato is a little dryer than quito, but still very scenic. we are staying here tomorrow for church, and plan to then head on south to cuenca on monday.

given the keyboard hassles, i think i will close for today.

Friday, March 6, 2009

We completed our last day in Quito, for now. We plan to leave tomorrow for Ambato, a couple of hours south of Quito. We didn't have any plans for this day before arriving, but it turned out to be full of enjoyable experiences. After breakfast, and Susan got her hair washed, we headed up to the Teleferico, which is a tram that starts at about 10,350 feet, and carries passengers up to 12,940. Once we arrived there, we climbed on up to a lookout that was 13,185 according to my GPS. The picture was taken from up there, overlooking Quito.

We then rode back down and caught a taxi to Parque La Carolina, which also hosts the Botanical Gardens of Quito. It was beautiful, with a very wide variety of plants and flowers, including a building dedicated to orchids. We then stopped in a small fruit shop and bought a couple of avocados [Susan is eating 3-4 per day], a small papaya, four small bananas, and a fruit that we are not sure about. The lady who sold it to us told us its name, but we couldn't understand her clearly. Susan ate half the papaya, and said that it is one of the best pieces of fruit she has ever eaten. It makes a real difference to eat fruit that has ripened on the tree, and is eaten within a day or two of being picked.

We then visited an indigenous market a couple of blocks from here, where we scoped out all the offerings. We did not buy anything, as we will be back here our last afternoon in Ecuador, and we don't want to carry stuff around for two weeks if we don't need to. I am already concerned about being able to fit in everything that we need to carry on our bus trip tomorrow. Assuming I have an internet connection tomorrow evening, I will update you on how it went.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Day two in Quito



Wow! We feel a LOT better today. It is amazing what a good night's sleep can do, especially after not sleeping on the plane the night before. Susan went to bed at 8:40 and slept for a solid ten hours. I got to bed about an hour later, and woke up about 6:30 this morning, as daybreak brightened up our room. We do NOT have a quiet location here, with a major street passing perhaps 50 yards to the south, but when you are tired, you sleep, and the bed was/is very comfortable. We feel like we are already mostly adjusted to the time zone, which is two hours ahead of home.

And let me say a little about the weather. It is gorgeous! It was cool enough last night that a blanket felt good, but not cold. Then this afternoon we sat on a bench in a park for a while, and sitting in the shade, Susan finally decided to put on her jacket, but again, it wasn't really needed. We could easily have just moved to a bench in the sun instead.

This morning we took a taxi out to see Patty del Corral, who is the administrator for the University here in Quito that Samuel was put in contact with by NMSU. They have some sort of cooperative agreement. It is not a large facility, but it seems very personable. A large fraction of their students are here to study Spanish, while others are studying Administration or Ecological studies of some sort.

After we left the University [and I didn't write down their name, and don't remember it], we caught a taxi and went to the LDS Institute in Quito. It is here to provide religious classes for college-age LDS students, but it also turned out to be a good place to get other information. We met a man there named Renzo Baquerizo whose English was quite good, and helped us figure out where and when to go for church meetings during the three Sundays we will be in Ecuador. It was a very pleasant visit.

Then this afternoon we decided to go walk through a park just south of our hotel. It is called Parco El Ejido, and it is wonderful. There are wood sculptures there that are carved from trees that died, plus numerous beautiful live trees. There was a clown or storyteller there, probably more of a stand-up comedian, who had probably 50 people standing or sitting around him, and with whom he interacted a lot. We came up and stood at the edge of the crowd, and after a moment, he asked where we were from. He actually spoke very clear Spanish, probably a necessity in his job, and every few minutes he would go around and hold out his hand to collect contributions. Most of the contributions appeared to be of the nickel and dime variety, but as we were about to leave, and he was windong down, I saw him transfer probably $20 into his backpack, so for an hour or so of performing in the park, he is doing quite well. He did ask if we had children, and then when I said we had two sons, he said "Too bad. If you had a daughter, I could marry her, and you could be my father-in-law," which drew a good laugh from the crowd.

He is standing in the center of the second picture posted above. I need to figure out how to get the pictures to land where I want them to, but I won't hold up this post on that account.

We then walked around and enjoyed the park, and I took quite a few pictures. The top picture is one. They have playground stuff here that kids would love, but that have almost entirely disappeared from the US.

There are a lot of birds here that I don't recognize, but one that I think I do are mourning doves. If they are not, then they are a very close double.

Other interesting notes. When taxis are looking for a fare, they will lightly tap their horns at pedestrians who look like they might be looking for a ride. A wave or a nod, and they pull over. And there are a LOT of taxis around, and they are very inexpensive. We rode in three taxis today, two of them for a pretty fair distance, and the total cost was $5.25. Even if I lived here, I would not own a car or drive. I like more margin of safety than is the norm here.

It is now time for supper, so I will post this entry and go on to other things. Hasta luego!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

We are in Quito

We arrived in Quito this morning, and are beginning to find our way around. The flight was a long one, leaving LAX at 8:00 their time, and arriving in Bogota, Columbia at about 6:00 a.m. eastern time. When I bought the tickets, they said that we would not need to change planes, but they lied. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to find out where to go.

Quito is very pleasant, although there are fewer people here who speak any English than I had expected. That just means that we have to work harder to make ourselves understood in Spanish, and to understand them. So far, they have been very patient and understanding.

Just after we arrived, we went looking for lunch, and found a Chinese place just down the street. Susan had stir-fried vegetables with rice, and I had fried rice with egg, and with a bottle of water and a soda, the total cost came to $6.10. After that, we met a young woman here at the hotel that does speak some bit of English, and she has helped us quite a bit. She told us how to take a taxi to go to a supermarket and pick up a few things. Then when we left the supermarket, I thought we could just walk back, but I got turned around, and so we caught another taxi and he brought us back here, and the cost was just $1.00. Since they use US currency here in Ecuador, there are no currency conversion issues either.

I have taken a few pictures so far, but my internet connection has had a few problems, so I think I will go ahead and post this, just so everyone can find out that we are fine. And other than being very tired [spending a night on a plane does not provide restful sleep, at least not for us], we are doing fine.

Monday, March 2, 2009


We plan to leave home around 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, getting to the airport no later than 1:00 for a 3:25 departure. Here is a picture of what we are taking with us. I am mostly posting this to make sure that I have everything I need to take pictures from my camera and post them on this blog. We will take one carry-on apiece, plus my laptop, and have one checked bag. The checked bag is actually two in one, with all our stuff packed in the inner suitcase. Then when we accumulate too much stuff in Ecuador [hopefully not until the last few days], we will separate the bags and use the larger one to carry the stuff that we get there.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Less than 48 hours now before we board the plane in Albuquerque on the first leg of our trip. It has come to my attention that a lot of people are a little vague on just where Ecuador is, and why anyone might want to go there, so I will here give a brief background.

Ecuador is the Spanish word for "equator", and so, as you might guess if you are really sharp, the country of Ecuador sits on the equator. It is on the west coast of South America, south of Columbia and north of Peru. The Andes mountains run from north to south through the country, with the highest peak, Cotopaxi, [oops, my bad. It is actually Chimborazo] sticking over 20,000 feet above sea level. Actually, due to the fact that the earth is not perfectly round, and a little fatter at the equator [like a few people I know/resemble?], the peak of Chimborazo has the distinction of being the point on the earth that is farthest from the center of the earth. We are NOT planning to climb it, although quite a few people do, I hear.

The east side of Ecuador slopes off into the headwaters of the Amazon River, while the west side very quickly ends when it runs into the Pacific Ocean. The Humboldt Current carries cold water north from the Antarctic regions, so even at the coast the temperature tends to be cooler than what you would normally consider to be tropical or equatorial, and daytime highs rarely exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or so I have read. In Quito, the capitol city, temperatures rarely reach 80 degrees, since it sits at an elevation of over 9000 feet. Nor do temperatures ever drop below 50 degrees, and since it is less than an hour's drive south of the equator, temperatures tend to be about the same all year round.

Given the variety of elevations and the tropical location, most crops, fruits, etc., that grow anywhere in the world, can be grown in Ecuador. We will take and post pictures of what we find there, but the pleasure of eating and enjoying them will be ours.

We speak of North and South America, but many people do not realize that South America also sits quite a lot farther east. The farthest west part of South America, which is part of Ecuador, is still to the east of Orlando, Florida. As a consequence, Ecuador is in the Eastern Time Zone, but because it is on the equator, the days are all the same length, twelve hours when the sun is up and twelve when it is down. Thus, they have no reason to mess around with Daylight Savings Time.

That's the quick introduction to Ecuador. More to follow.