Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 97

Hola amigos!! Well it's a logistical nightmare here in Ecuador at the moment!! The government are about to go into talks to sign a free trade agreement (TLC) with the US and the indigenous people are up in arms. They believe that they will lose their cultural heritage and will suffer even more financially as they'll be unable to compete. Hence they burn tyres or form human blocades to close the roads...as in MOST of the roads so you can't get anywhere! There has also been a recent protest about the rise in the price of cooking gas and the status of workers for a petroleum company. Leaving Quito last Monday morning my bus arrived just as they were finishing a mud blockade across the main Panamerican highway fortunately there was a bus waiting at the ... read more

Hola, Hello again everyone. Today I am in Cuenca in southern Ecuador enjoying a sunny day on the cobblestone streets of this small colonial city. Two days ago, in Baños, Tessa and I ended up doing a one-day horseback riding trip (because our 2 day was cancelled due to weather) and having an amazing time. Meeting our extreme-sports enthusiast of a guide, Jose, at about 12:00 noon we geared up and mounted our horses (mine's name was Pinto, don't remember the rest) at Jose's ranch just on the outskirts of town. The first thing we did was ride through the streets of Baños, sometimes trotting, getting ourselves positioned to start on the trail accross town. Soon, though, we were on the trails happily trotting and cantering along a slim, winding road which offered some fantastic views ... read more

First two bits of exciting news. The first is that Joe, my long awaited travel partner, is in fact coming to Ecuador on February 22nd for a long time (perhaps permanently). I am very excited that he is coming and that I will finally be able to do some real, hardcore camping. Rock on. We are talking about volunteering at a surf school in northern Peru, but as I have seen these things are destined to change. The second bit of news is that Lev-Co, my former employer, has given me a large-ish contract that I am going to be able to work on from here on my terms (to a certain extent). This means that I will for sure be going to the Galapagos pretty soon, although it also means that I am going to ... read more

While I was in Quito, I decided to visit the Museum of Natural History. It was pretty much a bust. The displays were falling apart, and were not very informative. I did use the library to look up what that little amarillo creature was. I think it was an Andean Porcupine, but there was no picture, so who knows? One interesting thing at the museum was that among many deserved slots, Walt Disney was featured on their wall of "Important Men of Science." He was honored for his great animation of animals and the natural world. Hmmm. And not one woman was among them. Well, after much indecision, I ultimately decided to head to Baños for a few days. Baños is a laidback vacation destination for gringos and Ecuadoreans alike. It was nice. The town gets ... read more

Riobamba probably deserves more investigation than I was willing to give it based on first impressions, so apologies to anyone who went there and loved it. Initially we'd planned to spend a couple of days there, we're not fond of turning up to a place and setting straight off the next day. Might be laziness but I prefer to think of it as giving every place a fair chance. Anyway we're on holiday!! Riobamba didn't capture either of our imaginations though, and as such we decided to take the much lauded train around the Devil's Nose (Nariz del Diablo) and carry on south directly. The train around Nariz del Diablo was apparently something of an engineering feat although these days is a tourist attraction and nothing more. You can't travel anywhere in Ecuador by train other ... read more