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Published: August 11th 2011
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My Dad and I
Trying to find a bus to get to Ingapirca. My Dad and my sister came to visit me in the end of June and we visited a few different places. I showed them around the city I live in, Cuenca, and I also showed them a few places near by. We went to a small town called Banos to take a dip in the thermal pools. We also went to the ruins nearby in Ingapirca. Both of these were great day trips. The weather was not that great in Cuenca or in Banos, but the thermal pools definitely warmed us up. Before I came to Cuenca I did a lot of research and all of it said how beautiful the weather is in Cuenca and that it is always Spring. They are lying!!! I love Cuenca, it is a really beautiful city, but it can get really cold at night. And considering the lack of heating and fireplaces, it can be difficult to sleep sometimes. Anyway, the weather that we had when we went to Ingapirca was amazing. It was really warm and the ruins were great. We even took some time to relax in the sun before going back to Cuenca.
After I was finished teaching my class
on Saturday, we had tickets to fly from Cuenca to Guayaquil in order to get To Puerto Lopez beach. Well, in typical South America fashion, our flight was cancelled. When we asked why they said, “These flights get cancelled a lot.” Soo… one of the ladies in the airport was nice enough to help us find another way to get the beach. However, this involved renting a pretty expensive bus to drive about 6 hours to the beach. Our original travel time would have been a 30-minute flight and then a 2 ½ to 3-hour bus ride.
When the van got to the airport, we were actually surprised at how nice the van was and that the drive could speak a little bit of English. The English speaking of the driver is important because my Dad is a big believer in the fact that English spoke loudly, translates to Spanish. It turned out that the drive from Cuenca to Guayaquil was not that bad. I have been on the drive several times, but it was nice for my Dad and my sister to see more of the landscape. They got to see the National Park outside of Cuenca and
View from a cabana
I think that my dad and I hit-up every single cabana in Puerto Lopez. they got to see some of the really small towns between the two cities. The bad part about the drive was the traffic in Guayaquil and the fact that our driver took the longest route possible in order to get to Puerto Lopez. All-in-all it took us about eight hours to drive to Puerto Lopez. This was especially trying for my Dad that has really bad back problems.
After getting in Puerto Lopez it was a little bit difficult to find our hostal. We had to drive through the town, down a dirt road and over a dried up river in order to find it. Puerto Lopez is not a big town, I just didn’t expect to find our hostal in such a strange place. Once we did find our hostal, I was very happy that we decided to stay there. On that specific night there was a large party going on in Puerto Lopez because of the beginning of their whale season. In Puerto Lopez, “whale season” does not mean fishing whales, but it means the beginning of a long and lucrative tourist season. We probably would have joined the festivities, but after 8 or so hours in
a van, we were ready to go to sleep. Anyway, the location of our hostal (Hosteria Mandala) was perfect, because it was quiet enough for us to get some sleep.
In the morning, we woke up to experience the true beauty of the hostal we were staying at. The entire lot around the hostal was covered in beautiful tropical plants. After getting up the next morning we went down to the restaurant that is part of the hostal and the building was gorgeous. There is beautiful woodwork everywhere and on the huge wrap-around porch there are tables that you can eat at while looking at the ocean. The other major pro about this specific hostal were the four huge, very friendly and tranquilo dogs that they have. We enjoyed a few meals at this restaurant and everything was delicious, muy rico!
However, our stay was short lived. We had planned to stay two nights at this hostal and then two nights at a hotel with a pool. Well, the weather never really got warm enough for us to swim in the pool, and although the hostal was nice, it could not compare to Hoteria Mandala. The only perk
about the hotel was its closeness to town and by this I mean that it was in the town. We were able to easily find nearby restaurants and it was only a couple meters to about 20 different cabanas selling cocktails.
There were some experiences that we had within Puerto Lopez that are definity worth mentioning. One night at a restaurant my Dad decided to share his dinner with a stray dog. After he did this, the dog would not let anyone near my Dad. The dog became very protective and continued to follow my Dad and I the rest of the night.
During our time in Puerto Lopez, my sister and I wanted to get a massage. I had heard that they were really cheap, but they are also really good. I was actually really excited to do this, because I had never gotten a massage. Well, we paid for a massage at a boat tour company (interesting??) and then came back an hour later for our appointment. Jamie was going to get the massage first, so when the lady came, she got up and went with her. When Jamie got back she told me how good it
felt, but she also mentioned that the massage bed was in the lady’s house. I went to this lady’s house and she lead me to a room that had two sets of bunk beds, I am assuming that this was her children’s room. Then she told me to take off my clothes, but she just stood there and she didn’t even close the door. I think that she realized that I was a little uncomfortable, so she turned off the light. So, with the light off, the door open and her 15-year-old son in the next room, I started to get undressed for the massage. I was down to nothing but my bra and underwear when I started to walk towards the massage bed to lie down. Then the lady came up behind me and took off my bra and kind of pushed me down on the bed. After I got over the fact that I was nearly naked with this woman’s son in the next room, I started to relax. At about the same time, the massage started to really hurt. The woman had massaged one of my legs and then went to change the song that was playing
and then came back to massage my other leg, however, she started massaging the same leg again. I might of said something, but I didn’t want to make her mad and I also wasn’t sure how to get the point across in Spanish. Anyway, I am not sure that getting a massage will be something I do in the near future.
One of the most amazing things we got to do on our trip was go whale watching. Although we were out in the ocean, on the rough water for longer than most people would have liked (Many people got seasick and others were simply sick from drinking the night before. Either way, there were a lot of people leaning over the side of the boat.), seeing the whales was amazing. We were able to see a pod of four whales fairly close and they are enormous, very beautiful creatures. I definitely suggest doing this if you have the chance.
At the airport while I was saying good-bye to my family, I was doing really well at not getting sensitive, but it was really difficult. Then all of a sudden my sister my sister breaks down and almost starts begging
me to come home. She told me that I had been there long enough and that everybody missed me at home. It took everything in me not to start balling. So I hugged them both really quickly and then turned around and walked away. That was tough. It was so amazing having them here and we had such a great time, but it definitely caused some homesickness.
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