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Published: September 13th 2005
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Chimborazo ... most of it, anyway
You can see the top through the break in the clouds - honest! This was the view for bus passengers arriving and leaving Riobamba. We´re back in Quito, ready for our 8-day cruise in the Galapagos. We just picked up our tickets, etc. and found out that, although our flight is now very early in the morning (we leave the hotel at 6 AM), we have been upgraded to a bigger, nicer sailboat for our cruise! The Diamante is having mechanical problems, so we were upgraded, for free, to the company´s flagship, Sagitta (see
http://www.angermeyercruises.com/. I suspect it will be the most luxurious experience of my life, but I´m more interested in the wildlife. It should be good times! Mike friends Nick & Sarah just got back from theirs (thier blog is on this site, too) and said it was "the best impulse buy of thier lives". Definitely excited.
I was worried about running out of memory on my digital camera, so I´ve been looking for the Belkin accessory so that I can dump photos onto my iPod. The lady at the one Mac store in Quito said there were none in Ecuador, so I broke down and bought a 512MB memory card for my camera, effectively quadrupling my memory, for about the same price. The Belkin thingy is definitely more efficient, but oh
Doggie Bag
Dog in a bag. Not one of the strangest sights on the buses, but very cute. In a sadistic kind of way. well. One of those things I wish I´d thought of before leaving! On the other hand, the description of our boat online does claim that it has "one computer" along with 2 TVs and a video library, so I´m hoping it will work for me and let me transfer photos to my iPod, thus releaving a lot of stress and allowing me to take more awesome pictures! Or, I will be too busy enjoying the experience to take pictures, anyway. I´d be okay with that.
I just finished uploading photos for the last 3 blog entries, so this journal is pretty busy today. However, since I´ll be cruisin´ for the next 8 days, don´t expect to hear from me again until the 22nd.
Riobamba was kinda gross, being sick & all, but I managed to help wash a whole 6 bags of artifacts for Mike, cruise the local market, and even got a look at the local volcano, Chimborazo, when the clouds finally parted one night.
I noticed that in this city, as in everywhere in Ecuador, there are some noticeable differences in public infrastructure, compared to Canada. The house mIke is renting for the project is in the "well-off" part of town, although the streets look very 3rd-world (most are not paved). The building are basically brick construction, covered in nice-looking plaster. A lot of Ecuadorian construction is like this: it looks great from about 10 feet away, just don´t look too closely at the workmanship. That explains why the room next to the bathroom in the house has warped floorboards from water damage.
Shedules are also a very loose concet around here. Most services don´t really bother with them, they just announce their presence and you have to react as you need to get them. Most days, you will hear several different songs emanating from trucks: one for the garbage truck, one for dry cleaning, one for the water guy, and a different tune for the gas guy. They usually come on certain days, but you have to listen for when they go by so you can get what you need.
Seatbelts are also totally optional, and in most cabs, totally inaccessible.
The inter-city bus rides are also interesting. Most people don´t actually go into the terminal, to avoid the 10 cent surcharge. The bus just slows down as staff yell out the destination loud and fast. People jump on while the bus rolls by and you pay whenever. On the ride to Riobamba, there was also the bonus seat when they ran out of actual seats: a cushion on the dashboard. Then there are the people trying to sell you food and newspapers who periodically jump on the bus and walk the aisle before disembarking, and other people relating sad tales of their lives and asking for donations or selling chocolate bars.
The drivers also treat most traffic rules as optional. Like the lines on the road, for example. Drivers don´t really expect others to follow established traffic rules, they just react to whatever comes along, and try to weave their own way through the traffic. Horns are constantly honking, but not in anger as I´m used to in North America. The horns are also not nearly as loud, but are constantly used pro-actively, to warn pedestrians of the apporaching car, announce their presence before a blind intersection, or to ask buses to move out of the way so they can pass.
Basically, people seem to live their lives assuming you can´t see them and if they want you attention, will do something to get it.
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