Advertisement
Published: April 25th 2013
Edit Blog Post
After the excitement of my organised tour which took me through the south of Peru, Machu Pichu and the Amazon and eventually to Lima, I had a couple of weeks to see Ecuador and Mexico before I headed home.
I flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador not really sure of what to expect. It's mainly a big industrial town where not many tourists go to, however there are still some very impressive monuments there near the river and one particular park where many iguanas live. I also met up with an Ecuadorian who I had met on a language who showed me some of these sites.
The main highlights of Ecuador were the nice little town of Cuenca in the south and an even smaller town further north called Baños in the north, just off the road to Quito.
In Cuenca I spent most of my time walking around the centre where there is an impressive cathedral and a lot of nice restaurants and cafes. I wasn't expecting there to be a town like this in Ecuador. Outside of the town were some Inca ruins which I went on a tour to see.
The more action packed part was
in Baños, where I went on a massive zip line and also went canyon swinging. Pretty scarey stuff! But what Baños is more famous for is its hot springs. To be honest, they were a bit of a disappointment. The water was lukewarm, and there was quite a lot of wind, so the part of me that wasn't underwater was pretty cold! I didn't stay there too long.
The other main things to see in Baños are the waterfalls, and the volcanoes in the surrounding areas. And I couldn't resist going for one more massage. This was my fourth on the trip!
I then said farewell to Baños and headed to the capital city Quito for a few days. There was just enough time for me to see the 'Mitad del Mundo' monument which is the monument precisely where the ecuator lies. So I made sure I got a photo of myself standing in both hemispheres at the same time. After this I went up onto the cable car which gives you an amazing view of the entire city from up high. I noticed that quite a lot of the South American capitals are surrounded by hills or
mountains, perhaps for protection in the days when they were under attack. It makes for fantastic scenery.
This was the end of my time in South America. I then headed to Mexico, but I had to fly via Miami in order to get there. I think there have been a few problems with flights in the USA recently, and unfortunatley my flight happened to be the day after the Boston bombings.
There was a computer malfunction which meant upon landing in Miami, we had to sit on the tarmac for about an hour before we could get out which made me a bit worried that I would miss my connecting flight. After this I went through passport control. Maybe the USA's stategy for stopping terrorists coming into the country is to be so rude and obnoxious to everyone who comes in, that it stops anyone at all wanting to go to the USA. The difference between the USA and the other countries I'd been to was stark. Even at passport patrol the Latin Americans are friendly and welcome you into the country. The USA must feel that this would be counter-productive to stopping unwanted people from enter their
country, and I suppose I can't blame them for being a bit paranoid.
I then went through security on three separate occasions, and eventually found that my flight was delayed. Then it was delayed again, and again, until eventually they said it was cancelled. As were ALL American Airline flights. So everyone had to go down to try and find our bags, try and arrange accomodation for the night and arrange a new flight. Thankfully I arranged my flight fairly quickly for the afternoon of the next day, but unfortunatley there were no more hotels. They said I could sleep in the auditorium upstairs where about 300 makeshift beds were being set up. That was the least worst option at this point.
It was 2am at this point, and I just felt like sleeping. The last thing I wanted or expected was to see a TV crew filming the unfortunate people caught up in this. I'm probably on some USA television channel looking very tired and grumpy!
Anyway, I eventually got to Mexico City and I was really pleasently surprised by it. Considering it is one of the most populated cities in the world, the centre of it, named 'Reformas' is very clean. It's a little bit like Canary Wharf in London, but with more character and historical monuments.
I then met up with a Mexican called Alex. He showed me around the city before he took me to his town, San Luis Potosí which is about a 4-5 hour drive to the north west of Mexico City. He had also arranged a hotel for me to stay in, and he dropped me off there.
San Luis Potosí is a much smaller city with a very traditional centre. However, most of what I did was outside of the centre. Me, Alex, and another friend, Tani, went out to the surrounding areas where we saw a famous church which has nothing other than desert in around it, and we saw an event called Charreada which is some Mexican men on horses chasing either a bull or a horse around a in circle, and a guy with a lasso trying to trip the bull or horse up. It was a fun day, I had some tequila and some beer with chilli in it whilst I was watching. I couldn't finish it though!
I spent more time with the friends and family of my friend Tani, and they showed me some of the museums of the town. We went to a market where there was a lot of typical produce from the area. One of the things that stuck me was just how nice the Mexican people are. It once again made me glad that I had learned Spanish well enough to be able to converse.
There was a man from one of the stalls. He was telling me how important it is the take some typical food home with me to show everyone what it's like. My first reaction was that he was just trying to sell me it. But then he took some, put it in abag and gave it to me as a gift!
I also recieved gifts from the family I was with. I got a huge sombrero, which despite being a pain to carry home, I thought was very generous and they also bought me many other types of Mexican food to try. So it was with some sadness that I left SLP, and headed towards Cancun, where I got my flight home.
I'm now in my house in Kinross, contemplating the next step, which will hopefully be to secure a job. I've enjoyed writing these blogs, I'll probably look back at them in years to come to remind me of those exciting days back in 2013. I hope anyone who has read what I've had to say has enjoyed it too. If any body has any questions about South America, then feel free to contact me, I'm more than happy to pass on my wisdom.
Adios amigos!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0328s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb