Cultural Change

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#1- First 10 in Ecuador- Wednesday, August 17, 2005

I suppose I have quite a bit to catch up on. Not much happened in the first five days here in Quito, but I’ll give you a quick description…

Upon arriving from Canada on the plane I went to straight to bed, as it was quite early in the morning (about 6 am), and I hadn’t been able to fall asleep on the way over.

At first glance, the hostel looked like a nice place to meet people; when I got up a few hours later, that proved to be a correct assumption. Hoping to find people headed in the same direction as I was, I leisurely perused the hostel for a couple days. Upon the passing of those two mellow days, I hooked up with a beautiful, blonde French girl named Oriane who could only speak French and Spanish. I also hooked up with Joe from France as well- he could speak English.

For the next couple of days we hung out and participated in the Rum and Coke Nights (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). One night after a short shopping trip to a local market, I introduced everyone to my Famous Guacamole. It was extra hot because I used a pepper that I was unfamiliar with; however, it did help out by inducing more drinking of rum and Coke.

Within those first few days, I believe it was Saturday, Joe and I went to Otavalo for the oldest and most famous market in South America. Apparently the market predates the Incas, so at least 600 years old. It was only a short visit, as Joe was quite ill and we left shortly after I purchased a local Otavaleño men’s poncho. I put it on as soon as I bought it and the reaction from the locals, especially the women, was quite humourous.

My friendship with Oriane was short lived as she left a day or so after. A bummer, for she was a great girl regardless of the lack of communication. That aside, I made many friends from all parts of the world at the hostel, El Centro Del Mundo. As a matter of fact, I ran into another beautiful European girl shortly after. Not surprising as this hostel had more women backpackers in it than I’ve seen anywhere else. Things have certainly changed in the last couple of years since my last trip. Or maybe it’s just the time and place. Anyways, I found myself talking to a petite English girl with the looks of a local Ecuadorian. I found her very intriguing as she told me of her experiences volunteering in shanty towns in Peru. Natasha introduced me to her travelling partner and university friend Helen also from England. After chatting over a beer, I accepted an invitation to visit the old city (Historical Center) with them the next day.

The historical center in Quito is like all the others. Government building, cathedral, plazas and countless shoe shine boys. We basically just walked around the area chatting and found ourselves wandering towards the Basilica. We paid a couple of dollars (oddly enough they use American cash here in Ecuador) and entered the large church to climb the towers. There were many photo opportunities of the surrounding city as the Basilica was huge and on top of a hill in the middle of Quito. One cool addition was at the very top of the tower you could crawl out a small hole and sit on the edge of the tower- very unsafe but really cool.

My two new English friends and I then proceeded to the main square for a cocktail. As we were leaving the café I was approached by a couple of very persistent shoe shine boys and managed to trade them a Canadian tattoo for a picture. It didn’t take long after I applied the first tattoo that there were about six more interested boys. I applied all my tattoos and got a cool picture. The whole time the children were calling me "Lassie", as in “the dog”, because of my long hair.

I believe that night was a Rum and Coke Night, but I was too tired to get too involved.

The following day I hooked up with Natasha and Helen again as well as another Canadian they met the night before and we headed off to the best hot springs in the country- Papallacta was the name (or something like that). The info we received was that it would take about two hours to get there but it ended up taking about three or more- typical for this side of the world. On top of that we missed our stop and ended up driving ten minutes past the hot springs. We got out right away and waited for the next bus headed back up the hill. We must have stood out there, in the middle of nowhere for about 20 minutes, but we managed to get to our stop. Then it was a short walk to a small village surrounded by beautiful forested mountains and in the middle was a posh spa and cabins. It was soo worth the hassle of getting there; we spent a good 2 hours or more making sure we were soggy and pruned up- the high pressure showers were an extra bonus.

Back to Quito we went, and I was having such a great time with Helen and Natasha that I hopped on a bus that night and went with them for four days in the jungle. They had set up a tour, and I decided that my time in Quito was enough so I followed them- it was definitely worth it.

Our overnight bus to the jungle town of Lago Agrio was as terrible as any other that I’ve been on. Once we arrived we met our tour guide who just so happened to be sitting nearly next to us the whole trip. We had to wait for two others that were arriving by plane which gave us a couple of hours to catch up on sleep unattained on the bus. At first we attempted to rent a room with a large bed to crash in, but there were none available so they let us crash upstairs in a common room with four tiny love seats. This was fine for the girls but my six foot plus frame would not fit, so I threw the cushions on the floor and past out for a couple of hours.

We got up around 10am and had breakfast and a chat with our tour guide. We found out the plane was delayed and our wait ended up taking quite a bit more time. It got to the point of restlessness, so we jumped into our arranged transport and went to the airport to wait. We waited there for at least an hour only to find out that the plane couldn’t land and turned back to Quito.

There was a bit of speculation as to whether or not we would still have time to make it to our accommodation in the jungle but we ended up leaving in the early afternoon. The ride was long and bumpy down the jungle road. Along side the road ran a pipeline for the area’s oil industry (the greatest threat in the area we were headed to) and it seemed to me a little unsafe. If any vehicle happened to loose control and crash into the pipeline, there would be little chance of survival. At dusk we arrived at our entry point and boarded our dug out canoe. Apparently we were not supposed to be entering the jungle at night but with a little persuasion from our guide the rangers let us go.

The boat ride up felt a little sketchy, as it was pitch black and the boatman only had a flash light to see where he was going. The river couldn’t have been more than 30 feet across with the occasional tree fallen in and many corners but some how we had no problems. On top of trying not to crash the boat, our boatman was pointing out “caiman” (gators), snakes and other wildlife as we blasted down the river. After about two hours of cruising we arrived at our jungle destination.

The next few days were fantastic. I’ve had other jungle tours but this one was by far the best. First off there were nearly no mosquitoes. Apparently the water in this area has a higher Ph level as the result of some tree. Anyways it’s not good breading ground for malaria carriers- good thing because I’m not taking any anti-malarials.

There were many things involved on the tour- day hikes, night hikes, piranha fishing, swimming in the lagoon, bird watching from the canoe, and hanging out with my new good friends Natasha and Helen.

We got to see many things and more than I expected. The highlights were the anaconda (largest snake in the world), the pocket monkeys (smallest in the world), river dolphins, a close up of a massive black caiman, tarantulas, many strange insects and birds, and great, sunny weather to go with it.

I had many good laughs, especially watching Natasha screaming and swinging her freshly caught piranha around like she was waving a flag. Shortly after I caught the largest one in the group and had it fried up for dinner that night. Freaky looking fish but very delicious. For most of the trip I found myself out numbered by women. I think I was one of two guys there outside of the guides and most of the women were both young and beautiful. Unexpected, but I dealt with it. Ha Ha.

The trip back to Quito was long and involved another night bus. This one not nearly as nice as the way there. I managed to luck out and have a large woman with her young child sit next to me. There was no possible way for the child to fit comfortably and try to sleep. His mother was too large for him to fit in the seat next to her and she was too round for him to sleep on her chest without sliding off. I finally got fed up with her trying to position him that I told her to just lay him out across both of our laps. I could not imagine that position being comfortable, but the child had no problem sleeping. As for me, I got very little.

We arrived at El Centro Del Mundo Hostel quite early in the morning only to find that there were no dorm rooms left so we took the best room in the place. An apartment style room with its own kitchen, bathroom and enough room to sleep the three of us. A little pricey but definitely worth it for the great shower the room had.


Well that’s all I can remember at this time. I’m still behind a few days but this is certainly a long letter, and I need to send it off. I’ll fill you in on my trip from this point on in the next couple of days, as I’ve ran out of things to do around Quito. I have to wait until Sunday before I leave for the Galapagos Islands, so I’ll be back soon. Besides I’m sure you all have been looking for the end of this letter a few paragraphs ago. Hope you all enjoyed and take care.

Matthew Goldrup, Global Vagabond

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Comments

[Prof]

Enjoyed!
Nice blog. Have been to 70 countries but not Ecuador. Want to go there and Galapagos soon. Your blog made me anxious to start planning.

[kelly dyck]

i love my cuz!!!!
So proud of you bro. can't wait to see you! hope your home for gramma + papa's 80th. take good care of yourself. lotsa love and happy holidays...