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Published: August 22nd 2011
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Finished with our preschool job, we had a week before Chris started Spanish school and Justin started teaching at a short summer school program. The beach is overcast and cold this time of year, so we headed out to the other direction…to the Amazon basin jungle. Most of Ecuador’s jungle tourist spots are farther north, accessible from Quito or Baños, but we stayed closer to Cuenca into the country’s southern Oriente. It was like a road trip without a car... each day we spent a couple of hours on a bus, explored a new little town, and searched for someplace to have dinner, usually ending up with the ubiquotous roasted chicken.
First stop was Mendez, an extremely small town. In about an hour we found a room in the one hotel, walked through the center of town, ate our daily chicken dinner, and realized quickly why tourists have not invaded the place. However, the empty town had a totally full hotel, housing the construction workers working on the highway and other projects that are going on everywhere in the Southern Oriente. Except for a few people playing three-person volleyball, everyone went to bed early, leaving the sleepy town first thing
in the morning.
After breakfast, we left town with the construction workers. We stopped in Limón, beautifully set along the river. We quite weren’t sure what to do after the grilled chicken lunch (one of the best chicken meals of the trip). We hung out at the little riverfront park and then a little longer at the bus “station” (little more than a stop sign on the highway) before moving on.
So far, the drives through mountainside jungle were spectacular – lush greenery, small towns, people going about life. Much of the highway is new or under construction. At one point, the bus actually forded part of the river to get across (the bridge is in progress, but no one is working on it). However, our stops thus far had been sleepy at best. People were lovely, and it was rather refreshing how little they cared that there were visitors around. We wanted off the beaten path, and we got it, for better or for worse.
Our next stop, Gualaquiza, is a much bigger town that obviously would like to attract more tourists, but doesn’t quite know how to do it. We honestly liked walking around this
beautiful place – there was a charming central plaza, kids and families running around, and even a carnival in town for the evening (who doesn’t love run down rides and rigged carney games). We did have chicken once (fried this time), but we also found a Chinese place for some variety. Posters around town show happy people river rafting and hiking and little tags mark businesses that are tourist friendly. However, information on how to get to this rafting and hiking was scarce – no guides or agencies, even the official tourist office seems to have closed or moved to an unknown location. There could be an opportunity for this place or the town might just be too far off the map. We wish the best for Gualaquiza – A for effort and publicity.
After three nights in dive hotels, we upgraded a bit at our next stop of Zamorra. We stayed outside of town at a birding resort run by a Belgian family called Copalinga. Neither of us are really into bird watching, but the place was awesome. We did a little hiking and a little relaxing…oh yeah, and we walked into town for the necessary chicken dinner
(seriously, we found only three open restaurants, all roast chicken joints).
The way back home, we circled through Loja. We liked the place last time we passed through, so we thought we would spend Saturday night there. It didn’t disappoint. Loja is known for it’s food, and not all of it is made of chicken. We also found a dive bar, or at least as close to a dive bar as we’ve found in Ecuador. Good music and good drinks = happy Justin.
For the next two weeks, Justin taught (i.e. babysat) some kids at the Canadian House Center, and Chris took intensive Spanish classes at San Pere. We moved into a new apartment near the California Kitchen (not far from where we were living before). We took this past week off, and enjoyed the cloudy weather. Today was our seven-year anniversary... unfortunately, like Chris' birthday, it falls on Sunday, so everything is pretty much closed.
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