The Coast

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I apologize ahead of time for the long time between blogs. Susan and I have been very busy with work and with traveling around with my cousin Shelly. Last week we made our first trip to the beach. As you’ll remember, the three of us were in Otavalo a couple weeks ago. Shelly and Sue returned to Quito (Sue had a work-shop and Shelly was going to plan a trip into the jungle with a tour company). I returned to Puyo on Monday night - for work, of course. Late on Tuesday night I called the ladies to check in with them. They were enjoying themselves at an all-you-can-drink wine bar. Leave to Sue and Shelly to discover the only one of its kind in South America. For $20/person they drank a ton of wine and ate appetizers. Sounds like it was fun - meanwhile, I was drinking Coke Zero and eating a ham sandwich in Puyo.

Shelly found a trip to the jungle and would be heading out on Thursday and returning Tuesday. We set our plans. After Sue’s workshop, she would return to Puyo for the weekend before heading back to Quito for a second workshop. Shelly and Sue would meet up on Tuesday night and then head to the coast on Wednesday. I would join them on the coast on Thursday. I love plans - especially when they go well - which is rare here.

The weekend came. . .we did a lot of reading and relaxing as we were both very tired. I did attempt to run on Saturday. I got 5 minutes into the run and had shooting pains through my left hip. I stopped and stretched, then started up again. More pain. I ran through the pain for 15 minutes and it did ease up a bit. I was not happy though - one of my New Year’s resolutions is to start running again. That along with the other three resolutions I made lasted all of about 2-3 days. Oh well, you can’t keep them all I suppose.

Sunday, Susan headed back to Quito for her workshop and I chose to ride my bike that afternoon instead of running. I had a delightful ride into the town of Tarqui and around Puyo. All told, I think I rode for about an hour. Not the best exercise, but it was nice to get out and not have my hip hurt again.

Monday morning, I went with Bolivar to Tarqui to start my surveys of the local farmers and sugar producers. He dropped me off at the Junta Parroquial (which is the equivalent of a county government I suppose - though MUCH smaller). The president of the parroquial was supposed to take me to the different farms around town. He forgot I was coming apparently, but did tell one of the gardeners in town to take me around. So, Marcelo and I walked around for about an hour visiting a few farmers. I did some surveys and then we walked back into town. Marcelo said that the other farms were muy lejos - very far away and that we would need a car. I said ok and he said we don’t have a car. Hmmmmmm…..I’ve been to a couple of these farms that he was talking about and just told him and the president that I would walk there by myself. They looked at me with knowing eyes, as if to say, silly gringo you have no idea how far they are.

I started walking and all of 10 minutes later I reached the first of the farms. This particular one is the big panela (brown sugar) producer in Tarqui. CODEAMA has worked with them in the past and I recently hooked them up with the US Embassy store in Quito, where they are marketing their sugar. Anyhow, I gave the interview and then continued walking to the next panelera (sugar farm). 10 minutes later I reached it and gave the survey. Yeah, muy lejos. 20 minutes of walking is nothing around here. That farmer told me there was another panelera around the corner from his so I started walking again - though I had never been to this one so I had no idea where I was going. I walked for about 15 more minutes and decided to stop when I was attacked by a flock of domestic geese. Damn, geese can get mean when they want to. Luckily I had my automatic open umbrella with me - the geese had never seen a device like this and they didn’t know what to make of it. We were at a stale-mate until they started encircling me. I decided to make a break towards the weakest link in the circle - I busted free and headed back towards town.

When I reached town I told the president that I would be back tomorrow to do more encuestas (surveys). I also asked when the bus would be passing through town and he said 1:00pm. It was 11:00 and I didn’t feel like waiting so I started walking back to Puyo. The walk back took about 45 minutes. A few buses running Puyo routes passed me at the half-way point, but I opted to keep walking - it was a nice day and I like to walk. All told, I walked for about 4 hours that day.

In the afternoon, I started work on the kid’s page for the paper. Katie was out of town this week as well, so I had the responsibility of doing the whole page. No worries, I am quite talented at this type of activity - or at least I am getting better at it. Katie can do a page in ½ a day - it takes me at least a day.

The next morning it was back to Tarqui. Bolivar was not going to be able to give me a ride - which is fine. The office is 20 minutes from my apartment in the opposite direction of Tarqui - so I opted to walk back to Tarqui. I figured that I would catch a bus when it passed. Well, no bus passed, so I walked the whole way. When I got to town, the president made some excuse for why they didn’t have a car to take me around and that the guy who was supposed to help me was in Puyo. So, Marcelo was told to take me around again. This time, we walked to the farms - muy lejos - and I was able to finish most of the surveys. On our way back into town we found the panelera I was looking for yesterday. It just happened to be the one with the geese. Luckily the geese were in better spirits to day - so no confrontation ensued.

We caught a ride back into Tarqui - the farmer was headed that way - and I thanked Marcelo and the president for their help. I then proceeded to walk back into Puyo. That afternoon, I finished the page I was working on.

Wednesday, I went to FRATES with Karina and Bolivar. We were going to have a meeting about the carpentry shop out there. The idea being that the communities would have access to the tools and to Don Marcelo who is the carpenter. We set up a plan of use and a plan of payment for maintaining equipment and paying Don Marcelo for his time. Bolivar seems to think that people will jump all over the opportunity to use the carpentry shop, I think it is pie in the sky. These people don’t have a lot of money and would need to pay for the wood, pay $10/day for the use of the facility and Marcelo’s help, and need to buy any other materials they would need (nails, screws, finish, etc.). They just don’t have the resources for this. Oh well, it is available to them and that is what is important at this point - the idea that FRATES is being inclusive, not exclusive.

That afternoon, I packed my bag for the coast and worked my tail off at the office to get my work to a point that I could take a few days off. At 6:00 I went to the Casa de Cultura to show Erin Brockovich as part of our video series. Nobody showed up, so I spent 30 minutes talking to the director and then decided that I would try to catch the 8:00pm bus to the coast. I’m not a fan of night buses, because I don’t sleep, however, this would get me to the coast and to Sue and Shelly by 8:00 or 9:00 the next morning - instead of leaving early on Thursday and getting there Thursday night. In other words, I gain a day of coast time.

I got a ticket, and was on my way at 8:00. Recently, there was a big bus crash on the road near Puyo. 6 people were killed and the accident was caused by the driver going to fast. So, my bus driver decided to side on caution and drove slowly than possible - I respect his concern for safety, but we were headed up hill, not down, and I could have ridden my bike faster. Other than a lack of speed, the trip was going well enough. The bus was not crowded so I had two seats to myself. About 15 minutes from Santo Domingo (a city where I would be changing buses), the bus stopped to let people eat at a restaurant. I was pissed, it was 3am and we were 15 minutes from the station, why stop now? Anyhow, we finally reached the station and I hopped on a bus to Pedernales (a town on the coast). The trip from Santo Domingo to Pedernales was 3.5 hours and it rained the whole way, so I couldn’t even enjoy a sunrise. When I reached Pedernales, I had to find a bus headed south. My goal was a hostel about 25 minutes south of Pedernales near the town of Tabuga (where our PC friend Andrea’s site is). I have never been in this area and there is no cell service so I was flying blind so to speak. I found a bus, and managed to find the road to the hostel. It was 9:00am at this point and still raining.

I hopped off the bus and started down the road to the hostel. I then realized that there was a river between me and the hostel and that I would have to wade across. Sue and Andrea had warned me about this, but said it was just a shallow creek and that you can walk across the stones. After a day of rain, the shallow creek was a little higher so I took off my shoes, hiked up my pant legs and walked across. I got to the hostel and asked where Sue and Shelly were staying. They had a cabin and I wandered over to it. I walked in and immediately noticed the 4 empty wine bottles on the counter. I did math on my fingers and counted 2 bottles a piece. Then I noticed that there were four wine glasses….hmmm….1 bottle a piece but who were the two others, men????

Shelly called down from the second floor. She was still in bed. Susan was with Andrea, her brother, and Pablo Reed (from Peace Corps) who was on a work-related trip. The mystery was solved, Shelly and Sue had been drinking with Andrea and her brother Alex. Shelly was still sleeping while the rest were checking new PC sites - they would return at 3:00ish. Since it was raining and I had not slept in over 24 hours, I decided to crawl into Sue’s bed and sleep a little. Those of you who know me, know that I don’t usually nap during daylight hours. I lay in bed, trying to sleep, and then just decided to read a little. Eventually, I did fall asleep, but only after reading two magazines and having an hour conversation with Shelly.

By 2:00pm, the skies cleared. Shelly and I decided to head down to the beach for a walk and get out of the cabin. It was a 20 minute walk to the beach. This particular stretch of beach was not touristy at all. We walked through a small community and basically had the beach to ourselves. Shelly is an avid shell collector so she was delighted to look for sea wares to take back with her. I just enjoyed moving around (12+hours on a bus and another 5 in bed will do that to you). When we returned, Sue was back at the cabin.

We uncorked a bottle of wine and sat around filling each other in on the last 24 hours of our lives. Andrea and her brother would be coming at 6:00 for dinner. When they arrived, we drank more wine and went to dinner. The hostal is run by an Italian guy and he is an excellent chef. We had seafood pasta, bruschetta, salad, and desert. It was a fine meal. Shelly picked at her plate and complained of an upset stomach. This was her first stomach issue since arriving and I told her that she was lucky that she lasted this long. She went back to the cabin to lay down.

The rest of us decided to finish off half a jaba (12-pack) of beer. We stood in a circle and passed around 2 bottles of beer at a time. Before you knew it, the beer was gone and we were acting goofy (wine and beer can do that to you at times). Sue and I decided it was time for bed so we retired to the cabin. Andrea and her brother wandered back into Tabuga (her town).

The next morning we checked out of the hostal and headed to Andrea’s place. We were going to attend a graduation ceremony in town. The school year had just ended and their was a ceremony for kindergartener’s graduating to 1st grade and for 7th graders making it to high school (yeah their system of grades is a little different than ours - they have no middle school). Andrea was serving as godmother (padrina) to a couple of boys and her brother was godfather (padrino) for a young girl from town. The graduation ceremony was religious if you didn’t already pick up on that.

About 1/3 of the way through, one of the boys came up to me and asked if I would be his padrino. I was confused at first, because I didn’t know that word, but Sue set me straight. I agreed and joined him during the ceremony. Luckily, Andrea was his godmother so she and I got to sit together. Basically, my job was to stand with him as he received his diploma - I did that and then gave him $5. He was pumped to get the money - I think he was happier about that than getting his diploma.

After the ceremony, all the parents and kids treated Andrea, Shelly, Susan, Alex, and I to food, champagne, and cake. Seriously, each family tried to offer us their food. I was like a competition to steal the gringos attention. We finally made it out of there, but only after eating 5-6 pieces of cake, two lunches, and various other drinks and candies.

Our plan was to leave Tabuga that afternoon, headed for Canoa. Canoa is one of Ecuador’s best known beaches. After taking a short hike into a cloud forest reserve, we gathered our things and walked to the main road to catch a bus to Canoa (an hour trip).

Luck was on our side. A guy pulled up and offered to drive us to Canoa. The five of us piled in the car and headed down the road. The guy was very nice and when offered money to pay for gas, he refused saying he picked us up out of the kindness of his heart. I bought him a water and a candy bar at the gas station anyhow as a token of our appreciation.

At one point on the trip we passed a guy training a horse. We stopped the car and our driver put in some Venezuelan music and rolled down the windows. Apparently the song he was playing is a famous song played in movies when people train horses. The horse trainer looked up and gave us a big smile - it was a cool experience.

We made it to Canoa around 5:00pm and checked into our hotel. We had some drinks and went for dinner. Later we went out dancing. Finally we ended up back at the hotel and had a few more drinks. Along the way, we met a French guy, Clemon, who joined us for drinks. He was nice enough and spoke a little English, but was fluent in Spanish.

The next morning, it was beach time. We had breakfast and stared out at the overcast sky, hoping to will away the clouds. After, breakfast, another PC friend, Ryan, showed up. We all took a long 2 hour walk on the beach. Shelly found a ton of shells. The rest of us just caught up on PC stories. By the time we got back to the hotel, the sun was out and we were ready to swim, catch some rays, and relax.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing beach stuff and a little shopping at some of the beachside jewelry stands.

By happy hour, we had returned to the hotel and ordered some drinks, 2 for 1 deals for an hour. We drank, joked, played speed scrabble and waited for the coming sunset over the ocean. The sunset came and it was fabulous. We wandered out on the beach and took some photos of the sunset and the group. After that, Andrea, Alex, and Ryan were headed out of town to a party in the town of Jama. Andrea has an Ecuanovio (Ecua boyfriend) and he had invited them to a party at a club. Us elders, decided that it was not our scene so we opted to stay in Canoa that night.

Shelly, Sue, and I enjoyed a nice dinner and then crashed early.

The next morning (Sunday - for those who are losing track of the days) Sue headed back to Puyo. Shelly and I wanted to spend another day on the coast. We opted to head for Bahia - a more well-developed resort town. We hopped on a bus to the town of San Vincente and then caught a water taxi to take us across the estuary to Bahia. I splurged to put us up in the nicest hotel in town. A clean beachfront hotel that reminded us more of a traditional US hotel than an Ecuadorian one. We took another walk on the beach and then spent the afternoon wandering around Bahia. The town, like most in Ecuador, is rather dead on Sunday. We did, however, stumble across a small market. Shelly continued her marathon jewelry and craft shopping spree. She has not mastered the art of haggling for prices and has probably overpaid for everything she has purchased. This is not entirely bad though. It is hard to justify talking people down from $1 or $2 - they can use the money more than we can.

That night we had dinner on the outdoor terrace of the restaurant. The food was pricey and mediocre at best. All in all though, it was a nice stopover for us. A clean hotel with a great shower was just what we needed to prepare us for the long bus ride back to Puyo.

The next morning we went to check out of the hotel. Shelly got to witness first-hand one of the primary frustrations westerners face here in Ecuador. The front desk was without power (though the rest of the hotel had it). I told the receptionist that I wanted to pay our bill. She said that she had no power and that we would have to wait. We did, after 5 minutes, I said that we had a bus to catch at 9:00am (it was 8:40 now). She seemed a little concerned for us and kept trying to find someone to turn the power on. I saw our bill on the desk. It consisted of three papers, one for the room, one for lunch, and one for dinner. All three had the prices on them. All she needed to do was add them up and we could pay. But no, we kept waiting for power - it came on and then she went to boot up her computer. I told her that either I was paying right now or I was leaving. She then added up our bill using the calculator on her cell phone. Damn, this annoys me. She could have done that from the start and saved us 15 minutes of waiting. She made it seem like without her computer nothing was possible.

Shelly and I raced out of the hotel and looked for a taxi. All we could find was a bicycle taxi. I told the “driver” that we had to get to the bus station in 10 minutes and asked if that was possible. He replied, “es muy lejos, pero vamos a ver” meaning it’s very far but we’ll see. Our 60+year old “driver” pedaled as hard as he could, while I impatiently kept checking my watch and looking for the another taxi of the motorized version. Luckily, I purchased our tickets yesterday so we had seats, we just needed to get there before the bus left. Finally at 3 minutes until 9:00 I waved down another taxi and we hopped in and made it to the station just as the bus was pulling out. Our poor bicycle taxi never in a million years would have made it. I left him huffing, wheezing, and puffing with his $0.50 taxi fare and a thanks for the effort.

We boarded the bus, found our seats, and were off. This was a nice bus - air conditioned (my first in Ecuador) and complete with plush seats. The bus was scheduled to go from Bahia to Quito and it said that it would take 9 hours. We were only going as far as Santo Domingo, where we would pick up another bus. Santo Domingo to Quito is 3 hours, so again, by doing math with my fingers, I calculated a trip of 6 hours from Bahia to Santo Domingo. We left town and immediately started heading the wrong direction. I figured that this was just the route we had to take around the estuary. We ended up in Portoviejo two hours later where we picked up zero passengers. Then we headed to a town called Chone. Chone is only an hour from Bahia, but because we went to Portoviejo first it took us 3.5 hours to get there, netting us zero new passengers. I was frustrated to say the least. Had I known the bus would do that, we could have stayed in Bahia and enjoyed breakfast, taken a separate bus to Chone, and caught our bus 3.5 hours later in Chone. Oh well, live and learn. The ayudante came into the main cabin of the bus and put a movie in the DVD player. I was excited to have a movie, because it helps pass the time. Unfortunately, we got Littleman, this is perhaps the worst movie made in the last 5 years and the 5th time I have been on a bus or a plane and been subjected to this movie. Shelly tuned it out, I tried, but was drawn to it like a fly on shit. I couldn’t pull myself away - damn those Waylon brothers for making such a dumb movie. Better a crappy movie than looking out a rainstreaked window at a gloomy sky.

After 7.5 hours, the bus stopped for 20 minutes - yet again, 15 minutes short of the Santo Domingo bus station - this is a game I know all too well. I figured it out though, the buses have restaurants that they always stop at and the drivers and ayudantes get free meals. This explains WHY they stop, but not why they do it before the station. Pick a place next to the station or just after it.

We reached Santo Domingo and caught a bus to Ambato - another 4 hours. This part of the trip had me worried. The last bus out of Ambato to Puyo would leave at 8:30pm. We pulled out 15 minutes late at 4:45pm. Doing the math with my fingers, this puts us in Ambato at 8:45pm assuming the bus schedules are remotely close - which based on the previous 9 hour projection from Bahia to Quito (which is more like 12 hours) has come under some scrutiny. I spent the trip looking at my watch and counting away the towns we passed. By the time we reached Latacunga, it appeared as though we would be about 5 minutes late. Our only hope was for the bus to leave Ambato a little late. Luck was on our side and we arrived in Ambato at exactly 8:30pm and we got the last two seats on the bus passing through Puyo. By 11:00pm we were back in Puyo and happy that our 14 hour trip was completed. Susan greeted Shelly with a glass of wine and I made her a ham sandwich then went to bed.

Tuesday, I was up early to go to work and started the process of preparing a presentation on Global Warming for a local high school. I was roped into doing the presentation by Bolivar - I suppose this Env. Ed. thing is the reason I am here in Ecuador. I spent most of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday preparing the presentation. Things got complicated by the fact that our internet connection at the office has more or less died. We have it for 5 minutes, then it is out for and hour, then on for an hour, then out for the rest of the day. VERY FRUSTRATING. Normally, it would not be that big of a deal - this is Peace Corps after-all, however, the majority of my work with the schools and kid’s pages in the newspaper requires the internet to obtain data, info, and pictures. Luckily, Katie was able to do the kids page for this week so I didn’t have to worry about that at all.

Tuesday night, Shelly took us to our favorite restaurant El Jardin and we had a fabulous meal. I left a little early to go to the Casa de Cultura for the next video in our environmental video series. We had 25 people show up for this one and that is a reasonable number I suppose.

Wednesday, we went to get pizza at our favorite pizza place, which as of late, has not lived up to its billing. The last time we were there, they had no pizza - this time they only had enough stuff to make one pizza. The pizza is great, but the restaurant itself is falling into shambles. They have wireless so we SKYPED Sue’s parents and hoped that mine would get on so that we could chat with them.

Thursday, Shelly headed to Banos to spend three nights doing some R&R. This gave Sue and I some time to really dig in at work and get some things done. We are gearing up for CARNAVAL festivities in Ecuador. Puyo has a big celebration as does Ambato. We plan on spending the weekend in Puyo and then go to Ambato on Monday to catch some traditional Ecuadorian fiestas and parades.

Friday, I went to Colegio Deportiva - one of the local high schools - to give my presentation. The whole school and staff were there. Andrea, my counterpart, came with me to take some photos. All told, the presentation was 40 minutes long and my Spanish held up reasonably well. I had rehearsed most of it, and I certainly had my moments of stumbling, however, I did ok and the kids understood. I plan on modifying the presentation a little and then taking it to all of the high schools in town. I’ll change the focus from Global Warming to one of a more general environmental message (still including Global Warming). Being in front of 85 students was enjoyable, reminded me of being back home - though I think these students paid more attention than my former students at Circleville.

Last night, Sue and I were completely worn out, so we opted to stay home and watch a movie. She had to be at work Saturday morning at 7:30am to set up the artesenia booth at one of the fairs in town. We watched the new movie about Senator Charlie Wilson. It has Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it. It was great. Yes, we have an illegally dubbed version - don’t tell the FBI on us.

This morning, I typed this blog update and then went into to town to find Sue and to see the first of many Carnaval parades.

Happy Fiestas,
Jeremy

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Photos

Alex and Andrea
Andrea with her brother Alex. They are gearing up for the 7th grade graduation ceremony in Tabaga. Both of them were godparents.

My godson
My godson is the one crying. He was giving a speech about his parents and their support and just choked up. Next time, I´ll do a little coaching.

My Godson Paulo
Here is a picture of Andrea, my godson, myself, and his mother.

Graduating Class
The graduating class from 7th grade in Tabuga.

Horse Trainer
This guy was training the horse by the side of the road - we stopped to watch. Surreal I tell you.

Shelly at the Beach
This is taken from the bar area of Hotel Bambu in Canoa.

Drinks at Happy Hour
It was 2 for 1 with 5 minutes left, what are you going to do? We each ordered 2.

Ryan and Andrea
Ryan and Andrea at Hotel Bambu.

Sunset in Canoa
It was like paradise here.

Susan and Andrea
Best friends - Andrea even wants to be our friend in ¨real life¨ too.

The Group at Canoa
All of us on the beach in Canoa just after sunset.