A Journey South of the Equator

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discover. -Mark Twain

And so Dennis and I are off again, on another trip of a lifetime. This time we are headed south of the equator, to Ecuador and Peru. We namely plan to visit the Galapagos and Machu Picchu, two places that we have both dreamt of visiting for many many years. The price and the amount of tourists in these two areas are skyrocketing by the year, so we decided better sooner than later.

We flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador last night, a 4 ½ hr. flight from Miami. As soon as we exited the airport, the humidity hit us. It felt like NJ in August, and I immediately remembered why I loved living in the desert, no bad hair days ever. Once you are south of the equator, the seasons are reverse of ours, so it is the equivalent of late June here.

We spent the night in a hostel called The Funky Monkey ($20/night). It is nestled in a walled compound in the industrial area less than five minutes from the airport. I noticed most of the neighboring compounds were surrounded by barbed wire, and the area seemed a bit sketchy, but once we were settled we took a quick walk around, and realized there was nothing much to see. Guayaquil is not known to be any kind of tourist destination, but merely a convenient launching point on the coast to the Galapagos.

Parked outside the Funky Monkey was an orange VW van plastered with surfing stickers. Inside was a quaint tropical courtyard with a palm tree and some other flowering vegetation that must have been home to some tree frogs that kept us awake for a while with their question and answer to one another, “EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW?….eeeeewwwwww.” Before we dozed off to the sound of frogs, barking dogs, drunk backpackers and traffic, Dennis asked if he needed to set the alarm. I laughed and told him that even though this is a commercial and industrial area, in Latin America without a doubt there will be at least one rooster within 100 feet to wake us up at some ungodly hour. Not to disappoint, at 0430 “COCKADOODLEDOO!!!!” in the pitch darkness. I laid there and fantasized about making chicken nuggets out of Mr. Rooster. Welcome to South America.

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