Ecuador
Sunday the 19th of June, the day of my flight to
Ecuador. Had breakfast, and then caught a cab to the airport. There
wasn't an official booth in which to change money, so I looked for the
shiftiest looking fellow lurking outside the terminal, and sure enough,
he was the money changer. I changed what Lempiras I had left back to
u.s. dollars, which was just as well, as there was a hefty 25 dollar
departure tax to be paid. There wasn't a great deal to do at the
airport, and my only entertainment came from the expressions of a plane
load of American Christian Mission types, who were told that their
plane had been cancelled. Some of them were having great difficulty in
reconciling helping out their fellow man in a poorer country and being
stuck there for longer than they wanted to be. Once on the plane, we
flew to Costa Rica, and then on to Panama. There, I changed flights,
and flew on to Quito. I had pre-booked a cab along with my hostel, so
everything went smoothly, and as it was late, I went straight to bed.
Monday
20th. It was my first time at staying in a 'backpackers' place on this
trip, and the people staying there were all pretty sound.
Went for a walk around the old city, which is very nice. I was
expecting Quito to be some sort of shanty town, maybe on the lines of Delhi,
but it isn't like that at all. The city is divided into two sections.
The old city, which has the original colonial buildings and several
plazas, and the new city, which is home to more modern buildings.
The
whole place is quite orderly and vibrant, and contrary to many
guidebooks, I found it to be extremely safe. Now, I'm not going to say
that Quito doesn't have its fair share of social problems, because I'm
sure it has, but it's image of a den of iniquity inhabited by thieves
is so wrong it's unbelievable. Really, it could be any city in Europe,
particularly Spain. There are some beautiful churches, and I stopped in
the grand plaza to watch what appeared to be some sort of baton
twirling contest. After this display, the action then swapped to the
front of a government building, where a military band started playing.
The baton twirling girls walked over and lined the sides, whilst some
sort of presentation was made to someone who kept being referred to as
Senior El General. A couple of speeches were made, the last one by
Senior El General. The words revolution, progress, Quito, and forwards
were mentioned, but other than that, I'm not sure what he was on about,
but he was certainly saying it very loudly. At the end he released a
speckled coloured pigeon. I wonder if it's name was speckled Jim?
(watch blackadder folks!) Had a meal at the hostel at night, and got
talking to the other guests over a couple of beers.
Tuesday
21st Didn't have a good nights sleep. I only had three beers the
previous night, but maybe that and a combination of the altitude didn't
help. Had breakfast, and then spent an hour trying to sort out
what room I was going to be in as there was some initial confusion
because I was staying an extra night. It wasn't really resolved, so I
left it in limbo, and went with an Irish couple I had met the previous
night to catch a taxi to where we needed to catch a bus to the equator.
Arrived
at the equator an hour later, and got the obligatory cheesy tourist
photo which is essential in such places! Whenever there is a line
drawn, there is always some dispute as to if it's in the right place or
not, and this was no exception. The official marker, monument and
museum is 200 metres off, whilst the unofficial museum actually
straddles the line as measured by GPS. I'm sure that in another 10
years, this line will be redrawn somewhere else! The unofficial museum
was by far the best one. We got to see water falling through the
plughole in three different ways. Spinning anti clockwise, (one
hemisphere), spinning clockwise (the other hemisphere) and with no spin
(right on the line). We also got to see an egg balanced on a nail...
Thrilling stuff! Seriously, it was very interesting, although I found
the difference in human strength whilst standing on the line and off it
to be the most curious. For whatever reason, human strength becomes
weaker when standing on the line of the equator. Strange but true. The
next highlight was seeing the shrunken head. Not sure if it's the
genuine article, but it looked cool anyway.
To shrink the heads, they
first of all removed it from the body, and then somehow extracted the
brains and then the skull before sewing up the mouth and boiling it in
a pot with an assortment of herbs which then reduced it in size. This
particular head was believed to have been fifty years old. The blowpipe
demonstration was a bit of a disappointment, as the dart got stuck in
the pipe, thus cancelling the display.. there's always next time! Had
the evening meal in the hostel again. A lot of people were going to the
Galapagos Islands, which I had to sacrifice to do Easter
Island
instead.
The next day, I paid off the bill at the
hostel, and leapt into a cab for the bus station. Got straight on the
bus for Riabamba, and stared at the scenery for four hours, which
reminded me of Wales except minus the sheep. On arrival, there was a
hotel opposite the station, so I booked in for the night, and phoned
home.
On Thursday, I swapped hotels for the Hotel Metro, which
was $6 a night, and right next to the train station in the centre of
the town. It was a nice enough town, but there was nothing outstanding
to report, and my only reason for being there was to buy a ticket for
the Devils Nose train ride. Had a couple of good meals and an early
night. Got up stupidly early the following day, and wandered over to
the train station at 5.45, where i rented a cushion for one dollar, and
climbed up onto the train to stake out my place at the right and at the
back.
This
is the best place, as you avoid most of the smog from the struggling
diesel engine, and the scenery is better on that side. it was very cold
sitting on the train roof at that time in the morning, but fortunately,
I'd planned ahead by wearing several layers and my hat. The hat will
play an important part later on. At seven, with the train roof full of
western tourists and the odd sweet and drinks seller, we pulled off. I
had high hopes that the train would go straight on it's journey,
without any of the customary stop/starts associated with the buses, but
how wrong could I be! Obviously, as the train had been sitting in the
station for an hour whilst the passengers boarded, everything would be
ready to go... Well, not quite. As the train pulled off, instead of
chugging along the normal track, it deviated into the marshaling yard,
so that they could swap the engine truck over for another one. It only
took half an hour, and gave everybody on our section of the roof a
chance to know each other, and then we were off!!... For 50 metres,
where we reversed direction, so that they could swap the engine truck
back over for the original one. An incredible effort! After that, we
were officially underway. It was good fun sitting up on the roof, if a
little arse numbing, and the people who tried to stand up and take
photos as the train was moving were a constant source of amusement. The
same people, over and over again, managed to get to their feet and line
up their camera shot, only to be really, really surprised each time as
the train jolted and almost threw them off. As kids they must have had
great fun putting their hands into the fire time and time again, and
wondering what was causing the burning sensation. Almost as clever as
these, were the ones which managed to get to their feet and take the
shot, but then nearly get decapitated by the low hanging power lines
which everybody else could see, but of which they were blissfully
unaware. However, kama has a way of smacking you on the nose, and I got
my just deserts later on.
A few local women were wandering
around on the roof, selling sweets to throw to the kids as we went
through their villages. It was good to see the smiles on their faces,
and it's always fun to see people, even in the far distance, waving as
a train goes by.
I wonder where that started,
because it's a cross-country phenomenon to wave at trains. We pulled
into Alhuasi, where a group of American tourists boarded, and were then
shocked that people who had been sitting in the same spot for six hours
were unprepared to give up any room for them. After half an hour, we
were off again, this time on to the section known as the Devils Nose.
This was where karma decided to teach me a valuable lesson for
sniggering at the other passengers. We rounded a corner, and a sudden
gust of wind blew my hat off and far away. Not a complete disaster, I
thought. Somebody would pick it up, so they could have it as a present,
and i'd only be two hours in the sun without it, and it wasn't THAT
hot, was it? So, i settled down to enjoy the scenery, which was
spectacular. Lots of mountains, and the train had to use several
switchbacks to make the descent. Found out that one of the other guys
on our section of the roof was from Lings in Northampton... Small
world! We reached the bottom of a valley, which marked the point where
the train would turn around and go back, and that's where another delay
kicked in, whilst the engine drivers stood with their hands on their
hips, occasionally taking their hats off to scratch their heads. Never
a good sign. I figured that it would add an extra hour to our journey,
so that would be three hours in the sun. No problem, right? Eventually,
a cry of 'Has anybody got any duct tape' went up, and several minutes
later, gallons of water were poured into the engine.
Then
we were off!, which was just as well, because the chilled beer was
starting to look tempting, and I would have been willing to pay $10 a
bottle for it! Anyway, we eventually ended up back in Alhuasi, where we
alighted, and joined a huge queue for the toilets. Then, it was onto a
bus and back to Riabamba. Got talking to an American girl, who's face
looked very red. I felt a bit flush too, but i'd be fine, right? from
the bus station, i walked to a Chinese restaurant and had a huge chop
suey, and then went back to the hotel room. I'd intended to meet up
with the lad from Northampton and go out for a couple of beers, so i
went into the bathroom for a shower and looked in the mirror. Oh dear.
I had caught the sun just a touch after all. Didn't go out, and spent
the rest of the evening with a cold, wet towel wrapped around my head.
marvelous.
Saturday 25th, I got up early and strolled over to
a random hat seller, who sold me a baseball cap for $1, and then kindly
pointed out to me in broken English that I might have caught the sun a
bit. I had to thank him, and replied in equally broken Spanish that
until he'd mentioned it, I hadn't noticed. Had breakfast, and walked
over to the bus station. Had quite a while to wait for the bus,
so wrote in my diary. When I got on the bus, every other
person seemed to be carrying a sack of squeaking guinea pigs.
Sunday,
I woke up in my plush, completely out of my budget, but palace like
hotel room in Cuenca, and had the inclusive breakfast. Being Sunday,
not a great deal was open, so I strolled around the market place, which
was full of local women dressed in traditional costume selling all
manner of fruits and vegetables, found out about bus times for my
onward journeys, and then settled down in front of the tv in my room.
The
next day, I got up early, and after eating breakfast, walked to the bus
station where I caught a bus to Ingapirca.The journey to the site,
which is the only major surviving Inca site in Ecuador, took two hours
through some pretty countryside. The site itself was spectacularly
underwhelming. It mostly consisted of a series of boundary walls only
knee high, and the one structure of any size had been heavily
reconstructed, so in my opinion, its unlikely that it ever looked like
that in the first place. There was a little walk around the area which
was quite pleasant, but on the whole, I wouldn't recommend that anyone
make a special trip here.
Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Easter Island, Bolivia, Peru (again!)