Monday, June 21, 2004
Border Crossing
Our final week of Spanish study was spent in the Amazon jungle combining study with fun excursions every day. We stayed down the Rio Napa from Coca in a great lodge in the middle of the jungle echoing with the sounds of monkeys, parrots, macaws, frogs etc. The Spanish has come along just fine, but the excursions were clearly the highlight. We did some walking through the jungle, a few trips on rowing boats down little tributaries and through lagoons. The wildlife was fascinating. A lot of birdlife..parrots, parokeets, macaws, vultures, eagles, kites etc, but also monkeys, tapir, capybura, caiman (small crocs), tortoises, frogs, snakes (We saw a coral snake - one of the most venomous in the world - this was swimming in the water where the guide has told me was fine to swim in the day before). However, after a week in the sticky heat of the jungle we headed south for cooler climes of the centre of Ecuador.
The southern third of Ecuador is sublimely beautiful. We have managed to spend a decent amount of time here making the most of the wonderful scenery. We were in Banos for a couple of days for the very picturesque waterfalls and surrounding mountains and volcanoes. Banos itself is a small spa town situated just under an active volcano, which last erupted in 2000 when the town was evacuated. It is still gurgling away, but fairly peacefully now. We walked around the mountains overlooking the volcano but failed to spot it once due to cloud. The cycling around Banos is great. There is a trail along which we cycled through, under, over, past many spactacular waterfalls...the best of which was the Devil's Cauldron with the mist ferociously circling around the cauldron-like base.
We moved onto Riobamba which is a bit of a gringo trail stopping off point - the only reason anyone seems to go to Riobamba is to get the Devil's Nose train (Nariz del Diablo). This is one of the few train services that runs in Ecuador (everything else is buses) and is solely for gringoes. Having said that - it really was worth stopping there. You have a 4-5 hour ride atop the train through some great countryside. Starting with the awesome view of Mount Chimborazo standing proudly through the low clouds covered in snow, you pass through indiginous farmland, pine forests, beautiful green mountains and patchwork fields with the smell of cilantro and eucalyptus growing alongside the tracks. Some of the track runs right on the edge of the steep mountains making for an even more breathtaking ride, especially with a slight side-to-side wobble.
Next stop was to get off the gringo trail for a breather..one of the advantages of travelling for such a long time is that it is possible to stop somewhere more unusual. We stayed in a funny town called Canar for the sole reason of trekking to Ingapirca - the most important Inca ruins in Ecuador. We had a 20k trek at around 3,000 - so not too far, but we need to practise before hitting the big Andes in Peru. Again - the countryside was superb - fields of all shades of green from pea green to the dusty olive green of the eucalyptus trees. The mountains were dotted with little white houses, farm animals grazing and the indiginous people going out their business..the women dressed in dazzling bright colours or fushia pinks, peacock blues, turquiose, amber yellows.
We celebrated my 30th birthday in Cuenca - a colonial city in the south of the country. Very chilled out, atractive city with a good selection of bars and restaurants to sample. But the highlight was undoubtedly the Friday night fiesta in the main plaza. Absolute carnage with fireworks being set of at ground level into crowds of people, men holding lifesize plastic donkeys above their heads and charging around the plaza shooting fireworks at people causing the crowds (us included) to run about the plaza like a bunch of mad things. Top fun! We were supplied with some gratis local firewater...totally grim, but seemed to have a good effect on the local pyromaniacs who not only set off even more fireworks but started a game of chicken in front of a device that was firing off flares and catherwine wheels, dancing around in right in the path of several fireworks...all great for a series of casualty - but strangely no one was hurt at all.
We´re now in Peru, our second country of the trip. The border crossing was very pain free as Ecuador and Peru have now established a new crossing that is more efficient than the single crossing they had previously. Ecuador has only recently recognised the border with Peru and only conceeded to set up this new crossing in the last five years. I hadn´t been aware that the problems between Ecuador and Peru were so recent with the last war between the two countries being in 1995 when Peru made another big and successful land grab. In the 1940´s Ecuador used to be about twice it´s current size. The war in 1941 meant Peru took a big chunk of this, and in 1981 and 1995 they came back for more of Ecuador´s oil-rich jungle territory. The current border between the two countries was only agreed upon in 1999. The difference between the countries was surprisingly marked either side of the border, with lush green mountains one the Ecuadorian side, and a desert for miles and miles on the Peruvian side, complete with houses made of sticks. Another instantly noticeable thing about Peru is the bus quality has improved - am praying this is not just Peru showing off at the border.
Specifically we´re in Chiclayo - up on the top left of Peru - and area which most tourists seem to miss off, but is called the Egypt of South America due to its abundance of pre Inca and Inca sites, some of which sound spectacular. We will spend some days exploring some of these sites around Chiclayo and Trujillo, further south. Then we intend to head down toward the Cordilera Blanca (the high Andes where Touching the Void occured) to do some hard core trekking. Will update the blog following this...
The southern third of Ecuador is sublimely beautiful. We have managed to spend a decent amount of time here making the most of the wonderful scenery. We were in Banos for a couple of days for the very picturesque waterfalls and surrounding mountains and volcanoes. Banos itself is a small spa town situated just under an active volcano, which last erupted in 2000 when the town was evacuated. It is still gurgling away, but fairly peacefully now. We walked around the mountains overlooking the volcano but failed to spot it once due to cloud. The cycling around Banos is great. There is a trail along which we cycled through, under, over, past many spactacular waterfalls...the best of which was the Devil's Cauldron with the mist ferociously circling around the cauldron-like base.
We moved onto Riobamba which is a bit of a gringo trail stopping off point - the only reason anyone seems to go to Riobamba is to get the Devil's Nose train (Nariz del Diablo). This is one of the few train services that runs in Ecuador (everything else is buses) and is solely for gringoes. Having said that - it really was worth stopping there. You have a 4-5 hour ride atop the train through some great countryside. Starting with the awesome view of Mount Chimborazo standing proudly through the low clouds covered in snow, you pass through indiginous farmland, pine forests, beautiful green mountains and patchwork fields with the smell of cilantro and eucalyptus growing alongside the tracks. Some of the track runs right on the edge of the steep mountains making for an even more breathtaking ride, especially with a slight side-to-side wobble.
Next stop was to get off the gringo trail for a breather..one of the advantages of travelling for such a long time is that it is possible to stop somewhere more unusual. We stayed in a funny town called Canar for the sole reason of trekking to Ingapirca - the most important Inca ruins in Ecuador. We had a 20k trek at around 3,000 - so not too far, but we need to practise before hitting the big Andes in Peru. Again - the countryside was superb - fields of all shades of green from pea green to the dusty olive green of the eucalyptus trees. The mountains were dotted with little white houses, farm animals grazing and the indiginous people going out their business..the women dressed in dazzling bright colours or fushia pinks, peacock blues, turquiose, amber yellows.
We celebrated my 30th birthday in Cuenca - a colonial city in the south of the country. Very chilled out, atractive city with a good selection of bars and restaurants to sample. But the highlight was undoubtedly the Friday night fiesta in the main plaza. Absolute carnage with fireworks being set of at ground level into crowds of people, men holding lifesize plastic donkeys above their heads and charging around the plaza shooting fireworks at people causing the crowds (us included) to run about the plaza like a bunch of mad things. Top fun! We were supplied with some gratis local firewater...totally grim, but seemed to have a good effect on the local pyromaniacs who not only set off even more fireworks but started a game of chicken in front of a device that was firing off flares and catherwine wheels, dancing around in right in the path of several fireworks...all great for a series of casualty - but strangely no one was hurt at all.
We´re now in Peru, our second country of the trip. The border crossing was very pain free as Ecuador and Peru have now established a new crossing that is more efficient than the single crossing they had previously. Ecuador has only recently recognised the border with Peru and only conceeded to set up this new crossing in the last five years. I hadn´t been aware that the problems between Ecuador and Peru were so recent with the last war between the two countries being in 1995 when Peru made another big and successful land grab. In the 1940´s Ecuador used to be about twice it´s current size. The war in 1941 meant Peru took a big chunk of this, and in 1981 and 1995 they came back for more of Ecuador´s oil-rich jungle territory. The current border between the two countries was only agreed upon in 1999. The difference between the countries was surprisingly marked either side of the border, with lush green mountains one the Ecuadorian side, and a desert for miles and miles on the Peruvian side, complete with houses made of sticks. Another instantly noticeable thing about Peru is the bus quality has improved - am praying this is not just Peru showing off at the border.
Specifically we´re in Chiclayo - up on the top left of Peru - and area which most tourists seem to miss off, but is called the Egypt of South America due to its abundance of pre Inca and Inca sites, some of which sound spectacular. We will spend some days exploring some of these sites around Chiclayo and Trujillo, further south. Then we intend to head down toward the Cordilera Blanca (the high Andes where Touching the Void occured) to do some hard core trekking. Will update the blog following this...
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Estudiando Espanol
We have spent the last 2 weeks studying Spanish in Quito which has been great fun. Both Nick and I have stayed with families in Quito - separately in order to avoid the temptation of speaking English too much. This has been a bit odd, but has definitely helped with practising Spanish all the time. I was staying with Cecelia - a paediatrition, and her daughter. I initially thought it would just be the three of us, until the first evening when hundreds of people (well, 7 others) appeared for dinner - 2 Americans studying Spanish and 5 Ecuadorians at Uni in Quito. All a bit overwhelming to start with, but it got easier and easier to understand the local "bird-talk" and to communicate more fluently without soundly like a complete tourist. It is still difficult, but I really enjoy speaking to people. Before I came here I could get by in basic "hotel and bus ticket" Spanish, but now I can actually communicate and find out about the people and the country.
We visited Otavalo one weekend which is a market town 2 hours north of Quito. There is a really interesting food market with fruit and fantastic specimens of animal entrails, buckets of pigs heads glaring up at you, eyes, intestines etc. Lots of fruit that you don´t get in England, for example - tree tomatoes (lit.) - that are gorgeous. There is freshly made fruit juice wherever you go - passion fruit, blackberry, tree tomato, mango, papaya etc. Really yum. We also managed to get out walking in the local countryside through waterfalls, around the Lago de San Pablo, and via a few local indigenous villages which were great. Each household has a couple of cows, 10 chickens, some maize and may a pig or two, and everyone was very keen to say hello.
We have seen a lot more of Quito since we have been studying here and normally go out in the afternoon with a teacher to a local museum, market or other place of interest. I like Quito. It´s not the safest place, especially in the tourist places, but it is much better off that I thought it would be - not too different to a southern European city. The old city is great with beautiful squares and churches, and the new city is practical rather than beautiful. There are quite a number of decent cars on the roads and people seem fairly well off. This is in contrast to Ecuador which is a country where 70% of the population reportedly live below the poverty line. Just reading the local papers gives you an idea of the kind of problems facing Ecuador. Healthwise, there were warnings about visiting some parts of the country (e.g. Cotapaxi) as the bubonic plague is present - carried by the guinea pigs that the indigeneous peoples keep in their houses to eat. Two people have died of the plague so far! The gap between the indigenous and the Spanish-descended elite has grown even wider in recent years as any benefit to the economy from dolarisation, oil price rises and privatisation has all gone to the elite. The indigenous people have been promised much by the President, Lucio Gutierrez, but so far he has not fulfilled any of his promises and there has been much unrest in recent months with street protests and strikes. The strikes are just about to start again, so we'll see how that affects travel around the country.
The reason for the postponement of all political activity has been 3 crucial events for Ecuador. The first was that Ecuador hosted Miss Universe this year (the Donald Trump version of Miss World). The entire place has been obsessed with it and the newspapers and TV are plastered with pictures of various candidates. All Ecuadorians were 100% convinced that Miss Ecuador (Latino beauty with a very cosmetically enlarged mouth) would win, but after a very exciting 2 hour finalist programme - including the usual swimsuit and ballgown rounds, the winner was announced as Miss Australia - compulsive viewing (Kate - did you see any coverage in Oz?...very very cheesy).
The other 2 reasons were, of course, much more important - football and football. South America are playing "La Seleccion" at the moment which is the equivalent of the World Cup qualifiers. Ecuador played Colombia (a bit like England v France due to the historic rivalry) first, and Nick and I managed to get tickets to go. Amazingly exciting to go and see a match in SA - something I have wanted to do for ages. Impossible to compare with a game in England. Everyone get there about 3 hours before the game and the atmosphere then is superb with loads of drums and singing - everyone was wearing the team colours, which causes problems when the Ecuador and Colombian flags are incredibly similar, but great to look out on a stadium paked with 35,000 people dressed in yellow. Only 35,000 people but felt more like 70,000 with the atmosphere and noise they can create. We learnt some of the songs, and a bit more Spaish vocab - of a more crude footballing nature! Just like going to Upton Park really (except there was an atmosphere here!). Ecuador beat Colombia 2-1 which was a great result for them - they haven´t beat Colombia at home for 39 years. We then went onto watch the Brazil-Argentina qualifier in a bar, which Brazil won 3-1 with 3 goals from Ronaldo. Great stuff!
We missed the other Ecuador qualifier as we´ve been away for the weekend, but they won 3-2 against Bolivia so now sit 5th in the table for Germany 2006.
We´re just back from a weekend in Mindo (2.5 hours north-west of Quito) which has been top fun. Cloudforest and wildlife galore. Mindo is a minute village in the middle of the cloudforest. It really is very beautiful there and we spent the weekend walking in the forest, seeing more waterfalls, and spotting the wonderful butterflies in that area - some as big as 2 hand spans.
We´re off to the jungle proper now for a week of more Spanish lessons and exploration - maybe a bit of pirahna fishing! We going way into the Oriente (East) of Ecuador, near the Colombian border (but not too near). Got to get the night bus (yuk).
Check out Nick´s site again for his comments and some photo links from our Galapagos trip.
Henmania lives in Ecuador...well done Timmy for getting to the semi´s of a clay court competition. Top stuff. Have been following his prgress on the BBC website.
Hasta luego amigos!
We visited Otavalo one weekend which is a market town 2 hours north of Quito. There is a really interesting food market with fruit and fantastic specimens of animal entrails, buckets of pigs heads glaring up at you, eyes, intestines etc. Lots of fruit that you don´t get in England, for example - tree tomatoes (lit.) - that are gorgeous. There is freshly made fruit juice wherever you go - passion fruit, blackberry, tree tomato, mango, papaya etc. Really yum. We also managed to get out walking in the local countryside through waterfalls, around the Lago de San Pablo, and via a few local indigenous villages which were great. Each household has a couple of cows, 10 chickens, some maize and may a pig or two, and everyone was very keen to say hello.
We have seen a lot more of Quito since we have been studying here and normally go out in the afternoon with a teacher to a local museum, market or other place of interest. I like Quito. It´s not the safest place, especially in the tourist places, but it is much better off that I thought it would be - not too different to a southern European city. The old city is great with beautiful squares and churches, and the new city is practical rather than beautiful. There are quite a number of decent cars on the roads and people seem fairly well off. This is in contrast to Ecuador which is a country where 70% of the population reportedly live below the poverty line. Just reading the local papers gives you an idea of the kind of problems facing Ecuador. Healthwise, there were warnings about visiting some parts of the country (e.g. Cotapaxi) as the bubonic plague is present - carried by the guinea pigs that the indigeneous peoples keep in their houses to eat. Two people have died of the plague so far! The gap between the indigenous and the Spanish-descended elite has grown even wider in recent years as any benefit to the economy from dolarisation, oil price rises and privatisation has all gone to the elite. The indigenous people have been promised much by the President, Lucio Gutierrez, but so far he has not fulfilled any of his promises and there has been much unrest in recent months with street protests and strikes. The strikes are just about to start again, so we'll see how that affects travel around the country.
The reason for the postponement of all political activity has been 3 crucial events for Ecuador. The first was that Ecuador hosted Miss Universe this year (the Donald Trump version of Miss World). The entire place has been obsessed with it and the newspapers and TV are plastered with pictures of various candidates. All Ecuadorians were 100% convinced that Miss Ecuador (Latino beauty with a very cosmetically enlarged mouth) would win, but after a very exciting 2 hour finalist programme - including the usual swimsuit and ballgown rounds, the winner was announced as Miss Australia - compulsive viewing (Kate - did you see any coverage in Oz?...very very cheesy).
The other 2 reasons were, of course, much more important - football and football. South America are playing "La Seleccion" at the moment which is the equivalent of the World Cup qualifiers. Ecuador played Colombia (a bit like England v France due to the historic rivalry) first, and Nick and I managed to get tickets to go. Amazingly exciting to go and see a match in SA - something I have wanted to do for ages. Impossible to compare with a game in England. Everyone get there about 3 hours before the game and the atmosphere then is superb with loads of drums and singing - everyone was wearing the team colours, which causes problems when the Ecuador and Colombian flags are incredibly similar, but great to look out on a stadium paked with 35,000 people dressed in yellow. Only 35,000 people but felt more like 70,000 with the atmosphere and noise they can create. We learnt some of the songs, and a bit more Spaish vocab - of a more crude footballing nature! Just like going to Upton Park really (except there was an atmosphere here!). Ecuador beat Colombia 2-1 which was a great result for them - they haven´t beat Colombia at home for 39 years. We then went onto watch the Brazil-Argentina qualifier in a bar, which Brazil won 3-1 with 3 goals from Ronaldo. Great stuff!
We missed the other Ecuador qualifier as we´ve been away for the weekend, but they won 3-2 against Bolivia so now sit 5th in the table for Germany 2006.
We´re just back from a weekend in Mindo (2.5 hours north-west of Quito) which has been top fun. Cloudforest and wildlife galore. Mindo is a minute village in the middle of the cloudforest. It really is very beautiful there and we spent the weekend walking in the forest, seeing more waterfalls, and spotting the wonderful butterflies in that area - some as big as 2 hand spans.
We´re off to the jungle proper now for a week of more Spanish lessons and exploration - maybe a bit of pirahna fishing! We going way into the Oriente (East) of Ecuador, near the Colombian border (but not too near). Got to get the night bus (yuk).
Check out Nick´s site again for his comments and some photo links from our Galapagos trip.
Henmania lives in Ecuador...well done Timmy for getting to the semi´s of a clay court competition. Top stuff. Have been following his prgress on the BBC website.
Hasta luego amigos!
