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Typical morning
Three days a week of yoga...good for meSitting here back at Bahia Caraquez. It's been a week since we came back from our moutain excursion inland. It didn't start out as I had planned, geeze....really....
We had gotten our bags packed, and brought along a big plastic garbage bag to put them in for extra protection. They were going to be put under the bus, with our smaller bags in our laps.
As we got to the dingy dock, Robin simply threw the bags onto the dock, we picked them up and headed for the bus terminal. My plastic bag was in the front of my big backpack attached for easy application upon reaching the bus. As we reached the bus, I pulled out the bag and proceeded to cover my pack. As I attempt to put in on, I get some gicky stuff on my hands, then it's all over the bag and on my pack and hands. It was BIRD SHIT!! GREAT! When the bags were thrown onto the dock it landed in a great big goop of shit....I didn't know it at the time. The poor driver looked at me and my pack, and said , No! So I took the yukky bag
Our morning walk
Hiking in the hills by Bahia off my pack, then had to wash my hands that were covered in SHIT! Great way to start the trip, huh... Oh, well...the fun of travel on a bus.
We arrived about 8 hours later into Quito. I remember it from before, and the ride was simply gorgeous, over-powering green-ness everywhere. The bus drivers are quite the road warriors though. Lots of passing big trucks as we are winding up these huge cliffs on the way over the Andes. As I looked down over the edge of the precipices (sp?) I just figured if it was my TIME , it was my TIME. I had my IPOD to pass the time. Robin read most of the trip. A cruiser friend of ours told us where to sit in the bus so we wouldn't miss all the fantastic waterfalls. So, most of the trip my eyes were in the search mode looking for waterfalls. Went through a patch of clouds, and as we came up into the moutain valleys, I thought, surely, those waterfalls must have been there in that patch of clouds we went through. Yeah, right. On the way back we couldn't get the same side of the
Boats at achor
Yatistas on the River Chone, Bahia Caraquez bus, so I thought, oh, well, I guess we just missed those waterfalls. but nooo. They were on the hill side of the ride. I saw about 8 beautiful waterfalls coming down off the hillsides. My friend and I must have miscommunicated, or something...but I'm glad I got to see them anyhow.
So we entered the great city valley of Quito. The town runs lengthwise through a high mountain valley. The altitude was a little over 9,000 feet. I had a headache for two days, but good old aspirin helped immensely, thank goodness. We arrived in the afternoon and hopped a taxi to our hotel. Hotel Raices, which was inbetween old town (the colonial area) and the new town, called Mariscol. We heard all the horrow stories about watching for pickpockets in busses, and not walking around after dark in new town, where all the tourists would be hanging out and being targets. It wasn't as relaxing as it is here in Bahia for safety issues. We spent the first day in the Colonial area traipsing (sp?) around cathedrals and museums. We wanted to go visit the Presidential Palace, but it was the day for the students, so we
Malecon
Nice place to walk, Bahia Caraquez couldn't go in. As we were standing on the veranda looking out at the Plaza de Indepencia, we see all these riot police standing infront of the Palace. The Presidente was coming, and there was going to be some protesting today. It was pretty interesting. Quito is a very active country. As we left that area we ran into a huge crowd in almost a parade formation heading towards the Plaza we had just left. We could hear the megaphones going. The President wants to change the constitution so he can be re-elected over and over again without limit.
We saw many churches and cathedrals, so were pretty burnt by the end of the day. We also got cajoled into looking at some paintings from some little guy on the street, who was his brother's promoter. We followed him into a little apartment right down town, he did pretty nice artwork, but too expensive for us. I had to explain to the guy that we had just arrived and would be looking at a lot of things, and didn't want to buy right at this time. He was a little forceful for me, but I finally said, No, not
Father's Day Tree
Never seen a Pointsetta Tree before. ...beautiful! now, and we walked out. We pretty much just hung out in our room that evening, as we didn't want to get robbed walking around, a little caution goes a long way, as you will learn as our story unfolds.
The next day we headed for La Mitad del Mundo. It's a government monument that denotes where exactly the equator crosses through Ecuador. I had visited this place close to 30 years previously. Boy, has it changed, very touristy, lots of shopes and little eateries with this huge monument. When I had gone, it was a little dirt area with a few shacks around it, and a simple monument. There's been a lot of tourist interest in this place since then. You'll see in the photos what I mean.
We didn't stay there too long, and walked about 1/4 mile down the road to another placed called the Museo Solar. The Solar museum. It was great, and they claim that their area is the true equator. We got into a little group and had a gui (guide), and it was lots of fun, well worth the time and money ($3 each) Other monument was $2 each and not
Cool clothes in Quito
Nice change of pace of the humidity on the coast to my liking for sure, but we didn't know.
Just to get to the bus to take us to Mitad del Mundo was a fiasco. Our Ecuador book is four years old, and lots have remained the same, but then again lots have changed too, like how to get to this Mitad del Mundo. We took one bus, got off, and got on another bus, etc,. until finally we reached the northern end of Quito, and took THE bus finally.
Didn't do any exercise walking those days, but we walked our dogs off for sure each day on our trip. The next day we were heading for Otovalo, the famous indian market north of Quito. I had been there before but I wanted Robin to see it. The big market day was Sat. so we got a hotel room (cruiser recommended) for Fri. and Sat. night and took a taxi to the bus terminal. Before we even got to the terminal, the taxi driver pulled over and said..."This is the Otovalo bus, right here, right now!" So we got out of the taxi and had our packs put below the bus, then jumped on the bus. This was
Colonial Quito
Narrow cobbled streets on the side of a very busy street. It was a little on the hectic side, for sure. As we entered the bus, a man was telling us to take "this" seat, relax, good trip to Otovalo, etc. (in spanish) I sat down and held my small pack in my lap. As Robin went to sit down, then man told Robin to put his pack on the floor between his legs, more comfortable for him. He told me to do the same (we had heard of this scam before) I said, NO. my pack is just right and comfortable where it is, in my lap. I didn't say anything to Robin, coz as a loving married couple, I get tired of being the NAG, so I thought, he knows as well as I do that our bags need to be on our lap. This "HELPFUL" man was conversing with us, mostly me, in spanish about where we are from and about how beautiful Ecuador is, etc,. etc. Robin bent over and pulled his backpack up between his legs and grabbed the grip on the top and held on to it. Soon the was bus was getting ready to leave (This
Plaza de Independencia
Old Town Quito, lots of activity that day all took place within 5 minutes at the most). The talker got up and wished us a good trip and walked off the bus. Robin opened his top of his little pack, and said" oh, god, my camera's been stolen!" I look out the window and the man (the talker) was right outside, but he didn't take the camera, it was his accomplish sitting behind us! We never looked behind us, totally distracted. Robin said he felt his pack being moved, that's why he pulled it up between his legs, but too late!! I kept my mouth shut but dang.....we knew better. Oh, well, we aren't alone in that scam, and for sure, it won't be the last time for the scamers, but hopefully it will be out last scam.
The market was overwhelming. Lots, and lots of stuff. Robin and I split up for the first hour just to wander and look, then we got back together and came to an agreement on what to buy as gifts for our families Boy, it was hard to decide and not spend, spend, spend, but I was a good girl. I know we have more countries to visit, so I'll
Guards from the Palace
Looks like the guards from Toyland, huh? wait patiently. Robin bought a hat, that supposedly he can fold and unfold, but NOT. He folded it up and took it out after a few hours bus ride back to Quito, and yuck,, no more nice, cool hat for him. Oh, well. To buy one of those really nice hats, you need to spend about $100 and can spend up to $1000 for one down here. We are actually located very close to a town that makes the panama hats, a place called Monticristo, so we may hop a bus there one day.
On Sunday, we left for a town called Cotacachi and a nearby Lagoon in the mountains. Cotacachi is known for leather goods. But the market we went to look for (which is supposed to be on Sunday) was only a small splattering of stalls with some leather goods, but most of the really nice leather goods were in shops along one main street. We took a taxi out to the lagoon, where we were heard you can get some great "cui" (guinea pig) which is a national food. There was a celebration going on there, with the local people going around and around in small
circles. some patron saint of the caballeros, you can see that with their chaps and big cowboy hats they had on. Really interesting. We walked down to the resturants, but no "cui", except at a resturant up the hill, which we proceeded to climb. We sat overlooking the beautiful lagoon and waited for our "cui" to be deep fried...hmmm The food arrived I took a photo, then they took off the head and split it between us for a meal. It wasn't that great, honestly I like chicken much better. Not much meat anyhow, but the flavor wasn't very good, I thought. Robin agreed., but heh, we did it...add it to the adventure. Then the rain came and it poured. We had only umbrellas (which I had a good big poncho), so we walked back the long way and had to wait for a taxi heading back to town (along with lots of other people waiting too). No bus service there to the lagoon. From the town of Cotacachi we had to wait for a bus back to Otovalo to get our big packs then catch a bus to Quito
We left Otovalo and had planned on spending another
Archbishops Place
Not too shabby of a home, eh? Quito, Ecuador day in Quito, but changed our mind when we came back,. spend Sunday night in Quito, then took off around noon for the coast. The boat was OK, no problems. We have moved off the mooring and have double anchored (in tandem) and it seems to be holding well. Have done a few more boat projects, but am getting antsy and want to travel some more. Robin may be coming back to SD to work on a big boat project, we'll find out soon. If he goes back, I may try to get a job at an American school here in Bahia. I heard they need a teacher, but if Robin doesn't leave, we are going on the big trip south.
Not much else here, just some yoga, walking everyday, cooking, eating, checking the internet, and lots of reading and some DVD's. Gets pretty routine for sure. Many cruisers head home for a month or so, and do some traveling.
Will give updates in a few weeks, depending on our activities. Take care to all our friends and familes, love and hugs. Jean & Robin
Oh yeah, we are heading home from Oct. 26th to Nov. 30th,
Riot Police on the watch
Getting ready for the Presidential arrival splitting our time down in SD and other half up north with Robin's family, hope to get together with some of you all. Until later, Chao, Jean
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