Ecuador, Part 3 (Sept. 19th-23rd)

I woke up at 6am on the 19th (Friday) and watched the sunrise from one of the hot springs at Termas (unknown to us at the time, the stock market would lose 26% of its value over the next 3 weeks). Papallacta is high in the mountains and it had rained the night before, so the air was nice and cold. We got breakfast in the hotel after Daniela woke up and checked out by noon. An indigenous guy played us a song using a plastic bag full of holes on the bus ride back to Quito. It sounded like you would expect a plastic bag full of holes to sound when you mash your face into it and hum.

Our last destination in Ecuador was Mindo but buses there don't depart from the Terminal Terrestre (Quito's main bus station). We had to take a $6 cab ride way into the northern part of the city to catch a bus from La Ofelia Station. The bus to Mindo was full of tourists, mostly Americans. A pair of experienced travelers sitting in front of us were talking about accommodations in Mindo and said they had reserved a room days ago. The other pair mentioned they were headed to the same hotel that Daniela and I were, and they were just going to hope it wasn't full. So Daniela and I started to panic. We never imagined Mindo would be busy. We took out our Lonely Planet photocopies and checked the hotel's address again, realizing we would have to get off the bus running. When we finally arrived in Mindo the couple headed to our hotel had a fight with the bus driver -- something about their tickets -- so I pushed past them and Daniela got directions from a passerby to the Cabañas Armonia. Any foreign city looks terrifying at night but as many of the side streets lacked lighting, this was especially true in Mindo. As we passed a fully-lit soccer field we heard quick steps behind us. Daniela looked back and the two Americans from the bus were right behind us and almost jogging. So we, nonchalantly, matched their pace and kept our lead. We raced them to our hotel but when we got there it seemed almost empty. Cabañas Armonia has a few private cabins on a small piece of land, which is overrun by trees and an orchid garden. The trees have grown into the path so you have to duck and dodge, and it's hard to see because the motion-sensitive lights don't come on reliably. The cabins are the only things well lit, so naturally all of Ecuador's bugs hang out there. We decided to stay at least one night and dropped off our bags. Then we went looking around and got dinner at CasKaffeSu, a nicer-looking restaurant with a full menu not too far from the bus station. We asked the owners about their room rates and had a huge meal since we hadn't eaten anything since Quito. The Americans we were racing against also came in and got dinner. They were college kids from North Carolina and Iowa. Daniela did most of the talking while I put out the tough guy vibe. I got more talkative after a beer or two.

Mindo has a few things to do, but two competing zipline courses (called "canopy tours") are the main attraction. One of the courses is run by Costa Ricans and everyone in town bills it as the safer course. The newer one, run by Ecuadorians, was recommended to us by Daniela's brother David because while it has fewer ziplines, they are on average longer and more fun. We bought tickets to the course run by the Costa Ricans from a tour operator in town the following morning. We also paid for passes into a national park that is popular with bird watchers. The national park is farther outside of town and uphill from the canopy tour places, so we decided to take a taxi there and walk back, doing the canopy tour if there was time. We split a ride in a motorcycle-pulled cart with a weirdo from British Columbia (almost fully pictured above). A bird-watcher and obviously an only child, this guy was on a *very* tight budget, and we would eventually come to hate him. On the ride up the mountain he was only weird and quiet. The sun was shining that day and we were more worried about getting sunburns than say, getting caught in a torrential downpour for hours. Funny how that works. Our motorcycle taxi broke down halfway to the park and we had to be picked up another driver 10 minutes later. We eventually arrived and took an awesome cable car ride across a ravine to the park. We agreed to meet up with the weird Canadian guy in 3 hours to share a ride back to town. Mindo is known for its wildlife and it's the bird watching capital of Ecuador. We saw a few birds, a lot of butterflies, some orchids, and bugs fucking (pictured above). D and I took our time and got to the waterfall in about 45 minutes. We took off our shoes and walked right up to it, but I didn't go under the falls because I didn't want to be wet the rest of the day. We turned around and about 5 minutes later it started to rain. Then it really started to rain. The dirt path we had been hiking on turned into squishy mud in places and Daniela's glasses kept fogging up, preventing her from seeing anything. I tried to stay calm but couldn't help myself from getting angry. I was wet, uncomfortable, my wallet and camera were getting ruined, and I was short with Daniela while we marched in the rain. I tried to remember that there isn't a difference between being wet or dry because both are conditions of the mind. I tried to convince myself that being cold is no different than being warm but I couldn't do it. I would calm down for seconds and then get angry again. I think I would really benefit from joining a Buddhist monastery but I doubt I'll make it anytime soon.

We got back to the entrance to the park and the kid from BC was there. Being soaked and freezing cold wasn't enough to convince him we all needed to leave, and only after we told him he could just get his own ride back down did he reconsider. As soon as we got back across the ravine, a bus pulled up (charging $2 for a ride back to town instead of the $3 it would cost on our motorcycle taxi) that had room for only one more person, so our friend abandoned us for it. I wanted to wait until the rain let up a little bit before riding in the uncovered taxi, but after forcing Daniela to stand in a cold tent with me for a while, I agreed to leave. Two other people showed up at the last minute and split the ride with us, making it even cheaper than the ride up. When we got back to our cabin, we threw our sopping wet clothes in a pile and turned on -- what we thought would be -- a piping hot shower. The hot water came in 15 second bursts and was broken up by 2 minute long periods of ice water. Very disappointing. We warmed up in bed and then hanged our clothes around the room. It was 3:30 when we got back to our room and while we were hungry, we were sure the rain would stop soon and we could eat. Daniela fell asleep while I moved stuff in the room around to avoid the leaks in the roof. 7pm rolled around and we were famished. We only had one other set of clothes (Daniela had a white skirt left that was way too nice to wear anywhere in Mindo) and if it rained again we wouldn't have anything left. We were too hungry so we chanced it. We got some pizza and made it back before it rained again.

Ugh. OK, I'm done writing right now so there will have to be a part 4. Good night.

Ecuador, Part 2 (Sept. 16th-19th)

Daniela's family (except for Max who stayed in Manta) left Ecuador on the 16th. We all tipped out the hotel's staff, said our goodbyes to Emilia's parents and brother, and went to the airport to catch our flight back to Quito. After a 15 minute drive to the airport, we discovered that we had left our tickets behind at the hotel. We were already running late, but since I have never missed a flight before and consider it impossible, I wasn't stressed out. Emilia, her dad, and our driver rushed back to the hotel to grab the tickets while we waited around in the airport lobby. We were flying Icaro (like Icarus), which we all agreed was a terrible name for something that you don't want to crash into the ocean. Emilia got back in time with the tickets so we checked in, got through security, and on to a shuttle that took us to our flight. They actually had to call ahead from the ticket counter to get our flight to wait for us on the tarmac. All of this really stressed Emilia out (especially because we didn't hurry up, even after being told they were holding our flight for us), but only proves my theory that missing flights is something that happens to other people only.

We got back to Quito and waited with Marty, Yvonne, Matt, and David as they checked in at the airport. Max had warned us about a ridiculous departure tax but I didn't believe it until I saw signs posted for the $40.80 tax per person at the airport. That's not particularly interesting, but it will be important later in my story. After we said our goodbyes to D's family, we took a $5 cab ride to the bus station. After much consulting with Emilia's family during our stay in Manta, we decided to go to Los Baños, Otavalo, Papallacta, and Mindo. They're all on the backpacker's circuit, they're all in the Andes region, and they're all reached by short bus rides from Quito. We didn't want to spend a ton of money to get to the Galápagos, we didn't want to do all the traveling necessary to get to the Amazon, and it seemed silly to travel all the way to Peru when there was so much to do in Ecuador. Plus, we will undoubtedly take more trips to Ecuador in the future, giving us plenty of opportunities to do all the rest of it. So we took a bus from Quito to Baños, which played exactly half of Drillbit Taylor (starring Owen Wilson) and then switched to a movie about a secret agent monkey called Spymate. The creators of Spymate are also responsible for MVP, a movie about a monkey who plays hockey, and Air Bud, a film about a dog who plays basketball. Pretty one note, these geniuses.

In Baños, we stayed at the Posada del Arte, which Daniela found through Trip Advisor while we were still in Manta. The only room left when we got there was one with a fireplace, overlooking a waterfall. I remember grumbling in the lobby that it happened to be the most expensive room in the hotel, but for $42 a night it was totally worth it. We had a great view of the waterfall and access to the second floor patio, where we played cards at night and had coffee and hot chocolate in the morning. The fireplace was a nice touch too. After checking in to our hotel sometime after 2pm, we took a stroll around the town and got lunch at a Swiss bistro. It had been drizzling for most of the day, so we decided to return to our hotel and lounge. I wrote in my journal, we read, we played cards, and we did competitive Sudoku puzzles (called Horaku in Ecuador). I went to the lobby to get some newspaper and matches for a fire and the owner (an American) told me to use a candle instead. He wanted me to light a candle under the wood instead of using paper, but he warned me I would need to be patient. That's an understatement. And if there's a trick to this, I didn't figure it out in time because as the wood started to burn, the extra heat melted the candle in just a few minutes. I eventually used newspaper and D was fast asleep by then.

The next day we got breakfast in the hotel (the pancakes came with a jam/syrup made from passionfruit, we had to water down D's hot chocolate because it was so thick, and the fresh juices were slammin') and hiked up to Bellavista, overlooking the city of Baños. The only problem with our hike was that it had rained the day before and the path was mud that you could sink 6 inches into. D's shoes didn't have any traction either, so even going as slowly as we were she kept sliding down the path. The view was nice and we met a high school gym class that was out running that day. We got pizza for lunch when we got back down to town and made some photocopies of the hotel's Lonely Planet guide. The town of Baños is typical backpacker fare. There are a million tour operators in town all offering the same 6 packages. The hotel rooms are cheap and there are plenty of restaurants to eat something from home. There is a massive volcano overshadowing the town (difficult to see for the clouds), some trails to hike up the sides of the valley and a path on which you can bike all the way to Puyo. On our second night there, I was doing handstand push-ups in our room and for the first time ever, pulled a muscle in my neck. I was unable to turn my head to the right or look down. Eating dinner was a trick and I probably woke up every half hour that night because of the pain. The next day we took a bus to Papallacta, requiring a switch in Quito. Papallacta is a small, unassuming town but there is a luxury hot springs resort there called Termas. The bus from Quito lets you out on the side of the road but you can find a ride to the resort for $2. We stayed at the hotel for about $120 (split between us) but we could have stayed in a much cheaper place nearby and paid $15 to get access to the hot springs for a day. I would recommend spending the $120 because using the springs late at night and just before dawn are awesome. Plus, they're 10 feet from your bed.

Going to Papallacta right after I hurt my neck was a good decision. As long as I was in the water, my neck felt 100%. Coming out for a while and cooling down made the pain come back slightly, but I considered myself cured when we checked out the following day. Daniela put the resort on her credit card and even after subtracting $81.60 from the cash we had left, we thought we would have enough money to get back to Miami without taking out more.

Ecuador, Part 1 (Sept. 8th-15th)

Daniela and I took a 6 week vacation back in August and September. The plan was to attend three weddings back in Boston and Philadelphia but we also managed a two-week trip down to Ecuador. Daniela's brother Max started dating an Ecuadorian girl named Emilia while studying abroad in Quito in 2005. They have been doing the long-distance thing since, with Max in Las Vegas and Emilia in Manta. Emilia's family owns the Hotel Balandra in Manta, and since Max had been planning a trip to see her, we thought we could tag along during our vacation and maybe stay at her family's hotel. Joni gave us green passes on Southwest Airlines so we were able to book one-way tickets from the Boston area to Ft. Lauderdale and tickets from Ft. Lauderdale to Las Vegas. Then we bought our own flights to the Boston area from Las Vegas and super cheap tickets to Quito from Miami on Copa Airlines. I think we spent about $600 each on all the flights, but that was thanks to the green passes from Joni.

Our friend Jeff got married on the 7th of September in Sharon, MA and the next day Daniela and I packed up everything we own and took a bus down to Providence. A direct flight from Boston to Miami would have been awesome, but Southwest rarely flies out of the major hubs. We took the Tri-Rail from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, where Daniela had booked us a hotel room through Priceline.com. Our flight left Miami at 8:30am on the 9th, giving us just enough time to wake up, shower, get to the airport, and take out some cash at the ATM. Ecuador has used US Dollars as its official currency since 2000, replacing the cumbersome alpaca. Alpacas are still used as money in the rural areas, but you hardly ever see them in Quito anymore.

We landed in Quito at 1:40pm and Daniela's family met us at the airport. Max, David, her parents, and her cousin Matt arrived the day before and had already found two rooms at the Hotel Akros (a $5 cab ride from the airport). We took two cabs to Emilia's aunt's house for lunch and to meet some of her family. So D and I had our first taste of Ecuadorian food about 20 minutes off the plane. The only things that I distinctly remember were the 5 different kinds of sherbets. From Emilia's aunt's house we could see clear across the valley to the Pichincha volcano. Quito lies in a valley about 25 miles long and 3 miles wide, bordered on the west by a massive volcano that last erupted in 1999. Quito has expanded right up its slope and there are going to be a lot of surprised people when it erupts again (or when another massive earthquake sucks Quito into the ground). After freshening up at the hotel, we met Max's former host mother for dinner. First we stopped at the Megamaxi, an Ecuadorian supermarket chain, to pick up some fruit, tea, and cake to bring. Max's host mother, Susana, reminisced with Max for awhile as Daniela's dad and I tried to keep up with the conversation. Daniela's dad doesn't speak any Spanish so her mom had to translate for him. Yvonne speaks it quite well and even lived in Mexico City when she was younger. Everyone else in our group, beside me, speaks it quite well. After dinner we met up with Emilia's family again to walk through the old city. We followed La Ronda for a while, stopping in the little shops and cafes along the way. We caught glimpses of the giant Virgen de Quito up the narrow alleyways of the old city. Some of us split a churro, and then we all stopped in this little bar run by indigenous women and got a local drink of juice and liquor, warmed up. I told everyone how awesome it was while I tried to suppress my gag reflex. Yvonne and some of Emilia's family danced in the bar and we got home around midnight.

Matt was the only one who had serious problems with the altitude. Matt was also the only person who got sick from the food every single day he was there. The next day we all had breakfast in the lobby of our hotel and it was slammin'. Typical fare at a hotel buffet, but the fruit was really juicy and the eggs had something in them. After breakfast we took a taxi to a large marketplace for some shopping. Someone wanted to buy something very specific but now I can't remember what the hell it was. There were some kids begging in typical third-world fashion but I was more concerned about pick-pocketing. Max and Emilia warned us it's a serious problem and if we ever found ourselves on a bus, it would be best to just hold your wallet and keep your bags in your lap. We took a two hour flight to Manta that afternoon. Manta is a city on the coast and an up-and-coming tourist destination. It already gets quite a bit of business from tourism but the money being sunk into development there is massive. The airport is being expanded to receive some international traffic and it's the main airport serving the Galapagos. So we were picked up in Manta by Emilia's parents and we had a nice drive along the coast to their hotel. Manta also has a large fishing industry (especially in tuna) and we saw the open air markets and ships coming in to port. We had lunch with Emilia's parents and Daniela's parents met them for the first time. Emilia's mom had several of the rooms at the hotel prepared for us, which was awesome. It was the slow season and they weren't even close to full capacity, so we all felt a little better about our accommodations. That night we had a few drinks with Emilia's family and gave them the presents that we brought. Yvonne and Marty gave Emilia's parents a digital camera and a Wii, and they gave Emilia's brother a watch (among other things). Daniela and I brought a bottle of 15-year-old Scotch but we weren't sure if it was good enough or if they would even like it. The focus of that night was for the parents to get to know each other and it seemed to go very well. Apparently Emilia's mom didn't know that Emilia and Max had kept dating even after he left Ecuador and she was just coming to terms with it. Max and Daniela's parents were also slightly apprehensive about the relationship and I think everyone felt better to know they all were having similar feelings. That's all I'll say about that.

The next day Emilia's parents arranged for us to take a tour of the nearby Isla de la Plata. A poor man's alternative to the Galapagos, the Isla de la Plata has many of the same species of wildlife as the Galapagos but can be reached by a short boat ride and for much less money. Daniela, Max, David, and I went on the trip, leaving Marty and Yvonne behind at the last minute because D's dad was having some stomach problems. We did some whale watching on the boat since the whales were returning from the Antarctic then. We got to the island and took a three-hour hike. The Nazca, Blue-Footed, and Red-Footed Boobies and Sea Lions were interesting but quickly bored us. Our guide was OK, but David is a marine biology student and studied on the Galapagos for a semester so he was more interesting than she was. Plus, he speaks English which was a plus for me. At the end of our hike we had a quick lunch on the boat and had the option of going snorkeling around the island. I didn't want to get covered in salt water and then wind up itchy for the rest of the day, so instead I fed some of our snacks to the fish at the surface and saw everything from my comfy seat.

Dinner was at the hotel that night and Emilia recommended a dish called 'Corvino Diablo.' Corvino is a white fish, similar to halibut but tastier, and it was the best thing I had in Ecuador. It was in a spicy sauce that had a lot of oil in it, and there was a ton of other seafood included in the dish. I also had the pleasure of meeting the Hotel Balandra's bartender, Anibel. He's a competitive bartender in Ecuador and wins competitions. He made a few drinks for the table that I got to try, but I stuck to Ecuador's beers: Club Verde, Brahma, and Pilsener.

The only other event from the first week that I want to mention is the party that Emilia's uncle threw for us at his house just outside of town. We met much of Emilia's extended family from her mother's side and had a ton of food. They hired a live band to play so we could all dance and Daniela's parents broke it down. Max was shanghaied by Emilia into getting a pedicure. I met Jose, her cousin who studied in Japan and can speak some Japanese. Daniela and I snuck away to the hammocks tied up just under the patio with our beers and watched the ocean for a bit. Emilia's family had a Wii set up on a projector so the screen was at least 5 feet wide. Matt, David, and Max raced on the beach and it turns out Max is actually really fast. We got back to the hotel stuffed, drunk, and tired. As G-d intended it.