Ecuador

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Ecuador

Hi there,

My name is Jay and have been travelling around the world for 11months or so. This next instalment is about Ecuador and hopefully this blog will be a little different than some of my others i will let you be the judge. So if we back track a bit and discuss the arrival into Quito the capital of Ecuador we were supposed to have a flight which i thought was at 8.40pm but turned out to be 8.40am and we missed our flight oh my god panic stations.

These flights were all pre-booked through an All American pass done through Oz and well we thought getting on another fight that day could be difficult so after much nail bitting and what not at the airport we managed to get an afternoon flight into Quito hoorah. The main reason we came to Ecuador was to learn Spanish and well check out another country of course. We arrived in Quito on Saturday night and planned to go down to the coastal fishing town of Canoa the next night so we had the Sunday to look around and like many towns and cities in South America it is very sleepy on Sundays a time for church and the family.

The city itself is set in a valley with large mountains rising either side up and above 4000m. It runs North South and the International airport is in the middle of the city landing at night was way cool. Well one thing didnt change from Colombia the drivers are just as impatient here you get 2 sec to move or you get the horn. Overall the people seem friendly.

Okay should give a little history on Ecuador in brief form apparently there is evidence of civilisation dating back 9000bc thats the stone age. By the 11th Century Ad two main cultures formed the Quita in the highlands and the Cara on the coast they became known as the Quita-Caras and ruled until the 1300s. The incan empire expanded from Peru north and defeated the Quita-Caras ruling until Pizarro and the Spanish pushed north in 1535. Pizarro formed Lima 3 years before and made his brother governor of Quito. It wasn’t until Simon Bolivar ( Venezuelan freedom fighter) freed Colombia and pushed southwards joining the people of Guyaquil(most populated city in Ecuador).

Ecuador got its true independence in 1830 and formed borders with Peru in the south. In 1941 Peru tried to take half of Ecuadors land and war broke out a treaty was formed but there is still some underlying bad blood between the two countries. Currently the country is a dictatorship. In 2000 the government made a decision to convert all of its currency to us dollars as inflation was out of control this affected Ecuadorians and made more of a divide between the rich and the poor.
So there you go a brief history of Ecuador back to whats i have been doing. So things look relatively cheap well of course they do i just spent a lot of time in Europe and Canada it will seem cheap. You can get a beer for about a dollar buy a decent meal for about 4 to 5 travel for 8 hrs on a bus for 9 thats pretty cheap. Taxis for a 10-15 min journey are about 3 always negotiate the price before getting in. There are lots of dangers at night we were warned especially n the Mariscal area where the chances of getting mugged are very high we didnt go down there at night so no problems. I think this is a product of 70% of the country being poor.

We took a cable car up to Teleferiqo aprox 4100m above sea level Quito sits at 2800m with great views over the city and wandered around the old town thee is a great Basillica there newly built but made to look old in the Gothic style. There is a park about 15 min walk from the hostel which which has local artists showing their works. Jo and i after much looking bought two pieces for 150 they are in the same series so will match nicely. My opinion of big cities has not changed much the more i travel the less I like them.
So we decided on a night bus from Quito to Bahia and then on to Canoa. Well the bus was the ride from hell we had a mad man for a driver who wound his way down the mountain at break neck speeds over tasking on blind corners whilst on the phone it was very difficult to get any sleep and the journey took 2 hrs less than it was supposed to i say no more other than being glad we made it in one piece.

We arrived in Bahia took a cycle taxi to pier and got on a small boat across the straight at 5.30am to San Vicente then got a taxi to our accommodation luckily we shared a taxi with some people who spoke Spanish as the accommodation was 2.5 km out of town. This is the place the Sundown In we had organised to learn Spanish for a month with room and bored included. Set right on the beach very quite it looked great so we got settled caught up on some sleep and prepared for our first encounter with Spanish.

Initially the plan was for Jo and I to learn it together but after a couple of lessons we separated and had our own teachers which in the long run worked out better. I had no pre conceptions about the Spanish other than it would be difficult. That would be an understatement we were thrown in and told to start learning grammar straight off now i had enough trouble with English let alone another language but we tried. Looking back we should have been taught lots of words before the grammar.

As the lessons went on it became painfully obvious why it was cheap the school is run by a family and in my opinion they are not very professional with lots of distractions and unwillingness to adapt to the needs of individual students. My enjoyment decreased and became a chore. The day consisted of 8.30 breakfast usually frid something or other we resorted to Granola to steem the flo class fro 9-11 break lunch at 1.00 again rice and some fried dish usually seafood then class from 4-6 not that this was always the case sometimes it earlier sometimes later depending on what they had on like I said unprofessional. Luckily there was an awesome American girl Dana who lives in Quito and was staying down there and improving her Spanish not that i think it needed it. I think i would have gone nuts if it wasn’t for her positive attitude and giving nature. Dana , Jo and i had fun hanging out telling stories doing day trips etc. Our room was fine big double room with a balcony and a hammock hot water a bonus and usually only for a minute. I went for a swim every day and some boogie boarding. The beach stretches for 17km from Canoa to San Vicente.

Sorry for the back and forward between past and present just writing what comes into my head. Okay so Doing the Spanish progressing okay not well just okay i just think i was not built to be a student i don’t concentrate well and homework forget it. Canoa itself a sleepy little town admittedly we were there in the low season but it was sleepy. We discovered there are lots of gringos( foreigners) who live in town mainly Americans who have businesses or are retired. So i will chat about them for a bit.

Pete and Maja own what became our local hangout the Surf Shack with good coffee and a basic but tasty menu that didnt involve fried fish and rice. They had been there a year and had moved from Colorado i got on well with Pete he would give me shit and i would give him shit. On Monday nights they would have poker night i don’t normally bother with cards ond money but it was a boys thing to do so after a week or so jumped in. I met some of the locals Greg the larger than life Man from Kentucky who has been in Canoa 5 years runs paragliding, is building 2 houses for different clients owns a hotel just out of town and has something to do with fishing boats in Bahia.

There is Canadian mike who rocked up one day and decided to stay and has been in Canoa for a year because he loves to paraglide and some other people i will get to. So poker was fun didnt win any money but had a good night. In between the lessons are just painful and i am over it the distractions all of it the learning structure, thank goodness for the beach and the tranquillity i don’t have patience at the best of times but this was pushing me. I decided that i would change my routine and my lessons which helped grammar was gone and learning words and phrases was in which helped.

One night after poker Greg asked me to come by one of the houses he was building, so the next day i went there to what i thought was give him some advice but turned out that he wanted me to consult with the owners who had arrived a few days before. The house he designed in his head and he freely admits he is no architect but has designed a great house well actually 3 main house , guest house and staff quarters. The work is quality and the design is interesting with the main house about 100m from beach. The 3 buildings open at the back to a common area that needed transforming also there is an alfresco kitchen.

So i told Greg i would come back the next day and talk with the owners Scott and Sheryl. This i did initially i thought i would just go down and throw some ideas with them and then they could work it with Greg after i was gone. Scott and Sheryl turned out to be really nice people very easy going and receptive to what i had to say. So my mind was going a million miles an hour coming up with ideas and suggestions. I really felt like it was something i could get my teach into and that i was familiar with unlike the Spanish.

It was about this time i decided to cut my classes short by 10 hrs even though they owed me and it would carry past the 4 weeks. So the days counting down to the last week were great i felt like i was learning some Spanish and doing a bit more consulting in the following days. One day Jo Dana and I built a large sandcastle in the shape of a sea turtle mainly as a result of our friend Vix who said she wanted one done as we were spending all that time on the beach. So we built it and it turned out amazing very life like i say. We also managed to get very burnet especially Jo who is only peeling now 2 weeks later.

So with a bit over a week left we were planning on staying at the Sundown until leaving and wanted to trade some owed hours of lessons for accommodation well in the end it all became to hard and they were not prepared to trade tight arses. So i talked to Greg and arranged to stay at his Hotel for the remainder of out stay which turned out to be the best decision. There was a really good group of people down there some i already knew others not. Canadian Mike, Mike and his wife Needa from Kentucky, Franz and his girlfiend and Henry and Anna and their 2 kids Dj and Brianna who had moved down for a sea change from the hustle of LA and all its excess.

You know sometimes you wish you had have met these people earlier especially Henry who was a really inspirational person very chilled and philisofical about life also very knowledgeable i had lots of good chats with him as did Jo. To tell his story would be wrong but he has lived a rich life with lots of demons from the past as a soldier and a firefighter. The landscaping with Scott and Sheryl was getting more involved and almost felt like i was working but i was loving it i guess no more Spanish to worry about and being in my element making friends etc. I ended up drawing a landscape design for Scott and Sheryl and they seemed really pleased as i was. I look forward to seeing the final product in a few months well maybe more it is Ecuador after all.

Speaking of Ecuadorians i would be remiss not to give them a mention after all we did spend a mnth in their country. The best way to describe them on the coast is play the music really loud, drive like a maniac and explain everything 3 times and you might get it done half the way you expected. They are a bit more laid back than inland and have been accussed of laziness which you do see a lot of guys just hanging around not doing much apart from Gregs workers on the 2 houses who seem to work pretty hard amazing what money can do for the motivation.

So our time was coming to an end but that didnt stop myself contemplating in serious terms what it would be like to live in this place. Running ideas in my head both financially and what i could do to make a living out here i mean possibly there is enough work landscaping to sustain it, living costs would be cheap and it doesn’t get much more relaxed. The downside i guess is the family and friends and the creature comforts which really are only material anyway. Food for thought the longer i am away the more i will have an idea.

On our last night we were invited to a thanksgiving dinner celebrated on the 26th Nov and an important day of celebration for Americans so it was nice to share that tradition with people i called my friends even for that moment in time. It is a time for family and thanks in the American culture and feels like Christmas day in Oz. So thanks to all the people along the way who made the stay great who knows if our paths cross again it was meant to be i guess. Signing off from Ecuador.

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