Chick´n´Mix

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After my high-altitude mountain adventures, I decided to hit sea level for some "normality" and sunshine. I had three delightful bus journeys to look forward to before I reached the coast. When changing buses in one town, I saw a man selling crates of multicoloured chicks! He had used food colouring on the poor little things. There were brown chicks, blue chicks, green chicks and orange chicks. He was picking them up by the handful and throwing them into paper bags to sell. (Pick´n´mix) The poor chicks were piled up "two storeys" high, and the ones on top were quite happily walking over the ones underneath. Meanwhile the ones underneath were desperately battling to get on top (the underdogs? the underchickens?). I thought to myself "this is cruel. This isn´t a humane way to treat chickens" Then I thought, is it possible to treat chickens humanely? Surely that term applies to humans only. "Chickenly" just didn´t sound right. I couldn´t imagine myself shouting at the guy "hey, treat them chickenly!" I was struggling to find an analogy, and briefly toyed with "equal rights for chickens". But that would involve giving chickens the right to vote, and before you know it, the chckens are in government, making all kinds of changes. Anyway, I digress. It was very cruel, although it didn´t stop me tucking into a nice plate of chicken and rice that evening. This is not unfeeling and insensitive on my part, but merely shows my dedication to food.

After leaving the technicolour chicks behind, I reached the small and infinitely dull farming town of Jilijapa. Here I was informed that there were no more onward buses at night due to recent armed robberies on that stretch of road. This came as a suprise for Ecuador, which is generally one of the safer South American countries. This town was not a tourist destination, and not an ideal overnight stop. In fact, the name Jilijapa means "arse end of nowhere" in Spanish. There was only one hotel in town, which also served as the town garage. An unusual and unique combination! I entered through a rusty mesh gate, and saw assorted car parts, ripped armchairs and bric-a-brac littered around a small murky swimming pool. There was something distictly seedy and sinister about the place, and I was thinking they could easily film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre here (or Wolf Creek - have you seen that film?) Anyway, I survived the night without being chopped into tiny pieces.

The next day I reached Puerto Lopez where there were two things of note. Firstly it was the Fiesta De Pescadores, the annual Fisherman´s Festival! A huge deep-sea fishing vessel was cruising off the coast with a full brass band playing on deck. Following it on convoy was every single boat in the village, adorned with balloons and streamers, each boat packed with locals.

Secondly, it was the mating season for humpback whales, and they gather in the shallow waters near Puerto Lopez for two months every year. And so I did a whalewatching tour which was very cool. Despite their immense bulk, they launch themselves out of the water and flop on their backs. (Showing off for the ladies or just playing?) The males also sing for the lady whales as courtship. It made me think what songs would a whale actually know? Do they compose their own music, or just sing the latest hits from "Whale FM"? And does this mean that tone-deaf whales never get laid?

The town of Puerto Lopez itself is quite unremarkable. It´s kind of shabby, and has dirt roads running throughout, which turn into muddy rivers when it rains (which it did most days). And for some unknown reason, we kept having powercuts which plunged the whole town into darkness and left the locals searching for candles. The town gets top marks for it´s whales, but not much else

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Photos

Punk Chicks
pick your favourite colour, or just buy an assortment!

Welcome to "Hotel Dodgy"
you might not leave in one piece...

the annual Festival of the Fishermen
a brass band playing on deck in grim weather

Blue Footed Boobies
These are the bizarre local birds. This looks like a black-and-white photo that has been doctored with blue, but it´s real!

having a whale of a time
a humpback whale makes an appearance

Comments

[Dogstar]

Bunting
It's the way forward mate. Bunting for chickens! No longer should bunting be the domain of the eccentric English fete, just imagine how happy even the most bored battery hen would be with just a little bunting. Maybe some morris dancers......