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1st to 25th May 2006
Traveling up from Lima to Quito in time to meet Sarah was one of those journeys. Serves me right for not shelling out for the airfare the whole way I suppose (that'll be the Scots blood at work again)!
After a typically delayed flight north, I turned up at Tumbes airport (northern Peru) which is a three-room, two-bit terminal that was, on this particular night, full of four inch long, flying Crickets. The heat, even at midnight, was opressive and the Crickets irratating but, not as much as the taxi drivers with their "you walk then" attitude. Walk I did not and after a short but, expensive cab ride I was at the bus station chancing my arm at trying to get directly to Guayaquil in Ecuador that night.
"Chancing it!" is an understatement you may think, and you'd be right if I was at home. The chances would be slim to thinner, if not anorrhexic! But, I'm not at home. Me and a pair of Polish chancers got the bus station unlocked, purchased our passage and spent the two hours until departure (at 3.30am) sending a young lad out to get us
Sarahkin Skywalker and Obi-Wian
Assess the situation in their Jedi cloaksbeers. These we sat and drank with a confident air of normality about us while the few locals present looked on with furrowed brows. Why they were so perplexed I don't know- they're the ones that have cross-border buses leaving at 3.30 in the morning for christ's sake! I'm not complaining, in fact I was chuffed to bits that my chancing it had paid off and, as an added bonus, it means that my passport entry stamp for Ecuador was timed at 5am ish which makes for a good travel story.
In Guayaquil for a few short hours I somehow managed to have a kind of fish broth for breakfast (when I'd ordered Empañadas- a pastry with ham and cheese in it), a MacDonalds for lunch (sad, I know but, it was the only food I could find in the, supposedly, safe part of the city for tourists) and watched Chelsea lose to Blackburn in a hotel where I was viewed with deep suspicion and was asked to pay for every drink as I ordered it rather than having a tab like everyone else in the place. Do I look dodgy or what??? Don't answer that! I also killed
time before catching my bus that night by watching Iguanas going about thieir business off, well... being Iguanas in a city centre plaza while all of humanity buzzed around them. Just another surreal south American day then, really.
Leaving the city and hoping for sleep to come quickly on the overnight bus to Quito, I found myself slightly apprenhensive at the thought of closing my eyes. Before departure from the terminal, which isn't one of the nicest places to spend the hours approaching midnight as a lone gringo, a woman boarded the bus and proceeded to video everyone while they sat in their seats. At first I, niaively, thought there was a tour group on the bus and she was an over-zealous guide. Then, realising that we could be passing through some of the less secure parts of the country, it dawned on me that the taping of faces was for identification purposes in the event of...whatever, rather than for prosperity. Not the sort of thoughts that makes you condusive to sleeping on an already hot, stuffy bus that spends the next eight hours bouncing over roads that have more craters than the dark side of the moon!
Crabtastic!!
Sally Lighfoots galore Suffice to say, I arrived in the country's capital a wee bit bleary-eyed. I jumped in another "con cab" and checked in to a flee-pit of a hostel. Grabbing a couple of hour's, much needed z's, I got myself up and out and in to some decent digs. However, I still spent the next couple of days feeling like a tired, ripped-off gringo. I had been jolted by the journey and was, perhaps, a jot jaded at some South American's attitudes towards travellers. Sarah's much anticipated arrival could not have come at a better time.
Following a few days exploring Quito we headed out of town for a couple of day trips. The first was to Mitad del Mundo, a town re-named "Middle of the World" due to it's proximity to the Equator. Having the line that cuts the planet in half running through their country is something that Ecuadorians are very proud of. Hence the name of the nation. What they are not so proud of, though, is the fact that when they erected a splendid monument to mark the exact location, they plonked it in the wrong place. It's about 150 meters too far south! I bet
the guy that drew the cross on the ground and said "stick it there" got the push for that one.
At a museum nearby that does have the "actual" Equator running through it you can witness some really strange stuff. You can watch water whirlpool down a plug-hole in different directions on either side and go straight down in the middle. The magnetic forces at play actually make you weaker on the Equator and gravity is also reduced so you actually wheigh less (beat that Atkins)! And, due to the latter, if you run fast enough and jump against the Earth's rotation you will actually take off and go in to orbit. Okay, so I made that one up but, it is a fascinating place. Perhaps more interesting though is the fact that seven hundred years before modern man put his dot on the map marking the spot incorrectly, the locals made their mark acrest a nearby hill and got it spot on. So much for progress, eh?
Next day, and due to my admission of equine exploits in the Pantanal, Sarah had me out on a horse-trekking trip. I told the tour agency the same thing about
being an inexperienced rider as I had to the guide in Brazil (when his full set of instructions was "get on and kick it in the ribs to go") and they assured me I would get a placid horse. Placid's an understatement, I've seen healthier nags leaving the knacker's yard! With me lagging behind and lolloping along we eventually complained that we thought the horse was lame. The guide, ever so matter of factly, stated that this was not the case and that my steed had just been born that way! What, With one leg shorter than the other three (greatly increasing his stumble factor and further reducing my chances of survival)? Following a change of horses (surprise, surprise), we had an impressive morning's ride through the mountains and then a locally farmed Trout for lunch in the company of hundreds of uncannilly loud, Humming Birds. A good day all round but nothing to compare to the next few in The Galapagos Islands
As with the salt flats in Bolivia, I know where my descriptive limits lie. I will not even attempt to do the islands a dis-service with innadequate words. Take a bit of time and have a
look at the pictures. Then take a bit more time to zoom in on some of the latter ones because I took them after I'd figured out how to get a half decent, close-up with my camera. Over five days of walks, boat rides and snorkelling trips etc we experienced so much but some of the highlights included; Multi-coloured Starfish in crystal clear water, the whistles and mating dance of Blue-Footed Boobies (no sniggering), the expanding , bright red sacks of the male Frigate Birds (don't be crude- they're are under their chins and anyway, I said no sniggering), swimming with Seals and Sea turtles and any encounters with Iguanas or Sally Lightfoot Crabs for which I make no apologies about the repetativeness of the photographs thereof... They were just too "Crabtastic" to resist!!
Besides all this, the defining moment for me (the one that makes you realise you are visiting a very special, unique part of the planet) came on the first night. Sarah and I were the only ones up on the deck of our boat and were watching, mesmerised as a Seal played in the shallows. It was darting in and out of the two patches
Leave me alone....
I'm asleep..... And far too cute! of water illuminated by our boats cabin lights. The rest of the ocean was black and seemingly lifeless, save from the sparkles of light from the perfectly full moon above, which cast a glitter point on each wave crest as they rose, giving the impression that there were more stars on the surface of the water than there were in the sky. Passing briefly out of this darkness and returning to it just as swiftly, with an infallable air of superiority- like stars of a West End show passing through the spotlight on stage- was a gliding pair of six-foot Galapagos Sharks. Although the whole trip was nothing short of amazing, watching two of the world's oldest predators cruising by a few feet from where we would later be sleeping was a different world. But, then again, I think that you can generally apply that statement to all of the Galapagos, it IS a different world.
Moving on to Montañita, a surfer's beach town full of bamboo buildings, boards and baggies, we intended on chilling out until Sarah went home a few days later. Chill we did but, mainly with hangovers thanks to one of "those" chance travel meetings
with another couple. Joining them at one of four bars at a crossroads showing the Champions league final we found out within five minutes that they live in the same town as Sarah! Berko....... Where the french markets are ever so quaint, the antique shops do a roaring trade and you take your life in your hands in the pubs at night!! (It's where I got the scar on my head for anyone that doesn't know and I'm only joking, it's a lovely place really). It was random enough that we should pick that bar out of the four, stranger still that it was them that we asked the score and got chatting to considering there had to be thirty people in the place and even more of a coincidence that both girls have friends called Lucy from Tring. But, the weirdest thing of all about them (and I know all the reasonable people reading this will appreciate it) is that one supports Norwich and the other is West Brom, freaky or what?? Only playin' guys. We had a great craic and I'm looking forward to a repeat performance in Berko when I get back. That said, you've got another
thing coming if you think I'm going in The Crown....... it's dangerous in there!
Due to the excesses of our Montañita days Sarah and I were feeling pretty awful on our journey back to Guayaquil. And I felt even worse when we got there because it's where Sarah left from. A different kind of hangover I suppose you could say but, it's going to take a bit more than a fry-up and a couple of paracetemaol to cure this one.
I'm now heading South again, albeit with a heavy heart due to the above and also at the prospect of leaving South America. Still, other continents and climates are calling. I'm going to do a round up entry for South America but, the one after that will be from somewhere completely different. I'll give you all a shout when I get there..............and when I've figured out where "there" is!!
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Mrs. P
non-member comment
Good luck
Great to hear your news. You're stirring up the travel bug in me again! Love the pic of you and Sarah in your Jedi cloaks. Let me know if you finish up in Uganda (I probably won't be there until Nov.) God Bless, "Mrs. P"