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Published: March 8th 2008
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Salsa
Dancing is like breathing in South America.....I guess I should be dead because my moves are worse than terrible. I don´t have a whole lot to say about good old Canoa. It´s just a village on the beach, not much going on. I just wanted one last chance to do some surfing before heading inland so Jaakko and I stayed 5 days and hit the water as much as possible. I guess the most memorable part was the full day journey it took to get there when we estimated to be about 3 hours. We took a bus (they told us direct to Canoa) which stopped in some random town. They tole us to get off and that we´d have to change busses sometime within the next 2 hours. Turns out our next bus broke down before it even got to the bus station for us to get on it. So we had to get a ride to a mechanic´s shop to get the bus, and luckily the company got us a free taxi to go with a package which they needed to get on that bus. The garage was actually really great so I didn´t mind waiting there until the repairs were finished. They had an air conditioned room with free internet and coffee. They also had an
Coke-aholic
You can still get Coca Cola in glass bottles and it´s cheaper than bottled water. I´m a bit addicted. armed guard with a shotgun. The strangest part was that they had girls working there. Now these girls didn´t do any dirty work...or any work at all really. I think their job was to look good. They had these sexy little coveralls on and I just dind´t get what the point was. It was pretty hilarious.
So the bus finally departs and we wind up in some other town which we didn´t even know the name of. Luckily a nice young guy who lived in the area from the bus helped us out. We had to walk with all our gear across town and get a boat to another town near Canoa. It reminded me a lot of some of the boats I took in Asia. The kind that makes you wonder, ''when it tips because the maximum capacity has been exceeded by 200%, what do I want to hold on to and what do I let sink?´´ So thankfully this wooden atrocity held out and we made it to the next town, San Vicente. I wasn´t sure how much longer this journey would drag on but it was just a 25 cent bus ride away, and we arrived
Freakin boat.
This sucker was so crowded and I had a little kid whose job was to sing his lungs out...right next to my ear. in Canoa before dark.
Finding a place is always a joke because you have guys yelling at you in the streets and trying to get you to come to their hostal, or a hostal where the owner will pay the deliverer a comission. We ended up getting a great place with a jolly owner named Juan Carlos. He knew 2 words in English : ''looking´´ and his own name, ''Johnny Charlie´´. Nice enough guy, but you could tell whenever he got some money because he was drunk. One morning I was about to go out looking for breakfast and Juan Carlos yells at me to come dancing. I had to go check out his little hut where he sleeps and sure enough he had some friends and some beers in there. This guy had the hook-ups for sure. He was hanging out with the mayor and 2 cops. So I got to meet them and had to have a drink. The trick if you´re not in the mood to get drunk is to try to escape without offending anyone, which I did at last and made it in time for brunch.
One day I heard there was a
cool cave at the north end of the beach which is accessible at low tide so I decided to hike out and see that. Luckily I bumped into a Dutch girl who had been staying in town for a few months or I would have missed out on a great meal. I had met the girl before and she wanted to come along for the walk. We walked by a secluded beach house and it turned out to be inhabited by a family whom she knew (and it was lunch time). Wow I had roast beef and mashed potatoes! After a solid diet of grease and rice this was such a saviour! The family was quite wealthy so they had just been renting this house on a cliff near the beach for a couple weeks. They owned their own ranch (hence the delicious roast beef). I missed out on the cave because the tide was coming in and it´s too dangerous to walk any further at that point, but for that meal it was worth it.
Jaakko and I had had enough of the beach so we decided we´d stick together and head inland to the capital city, Quito.
Ahhh the colour green
The beach gets a bit monotaneous and it really felt nice to finally see some vegetation. We wanted to be sure to get an early start after that last journey. The evening before we paid Juan Carlos the $50 dollars we owed him for the room and said our thanks and goodbyes. What do you think Jaun Carlos did as soon as he got that money? I saw him just drunk as hell on the street at about 10pm and he wanted to share his whiskey with me. I kindly declined, but I asked if it was the good stuff. The crazy bastard went out and spent $40 dollars on a bottle! $40 dollars for an Ecuadorian!? That´s nuts. You can buy a bottle in a shop for 3 bucks. Haha so I had to chuckle at bit at old Johnny Charlie but at least he seemed happy.
So yes, now I´m in the big city of Quito. This place is amazing....just so much to see! I hope I can snap some photos for y´all without getting mugged and losing my camera. Everyone seems to get mugged here. So today I bought myself a butterfly knife and tomorrow is picture taking day! Wish me luck!
Next blog: More quito, the middle of the world!,
super adventure (I´m talkin´crazy shit!), and heading south, then north to........Columbia (currently a war zone)!
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what up
From time to time I check this site to see how you are doing. You should stop in L.A. on your way home. Give me some lead time if it is do-able. Take care til then. Love dad.