Here is our sweet bus!
Throughout the day we chatted about anything and everything. She is a mid-wife so I was able to pepper her with questions. I was really interested to hear her point of view on immunizations (did you know we give newborns 28 in the first year?!?!?!), circumcision (unnecessary, I totally agree), scheduled inducement, and about traveling alone as a woman. She has traveled all over the world, including spending a month in Nepal, I just loved all of her stories. Despite the age difference we had quite a lot in common and I really enjoyed spending the day with her.
On the bus ride there the driver rode the brakes the WHOLE way and we had the pungent joy of burning brakes wafting through our windows. We also had the joy of watching "True Lies" dubbed in Spanish. I cannot look at Arnold without thinking about what he did to his wife and family. Also thought on an American bus not so sure if they would show that movie...
Otavalo was chaos as usual. Tons of tourists, including one woman who was from South Carolina who yelled down the aisle at us "AMERICANS! Where are y'all from?" I totally should have tried to act like we were Canadian.
We tried "jugo de coconut" which was coconut juice with a lot of sugar, it was amazing!
After we bought it from a street vendor I realized it had ice in it! Oh well, it tasted good at the time.
I also bought the most expensive stamps, $2.00 for one stamp to the US! So sorry, but only a VERY limited number of people are receiving postcards.
We also made a stop at the local pharmacia. At this point I should invest stock in hydrocortisone cream. I have 60+ bugs bites on my body. Yes I counted.
Once again I had to put my bargaining skills to use in the market, and boy did I.
Still I was left with this sense of it not being right, even though I know it is expected. After 4 hours of men, women, and children trying to get us to buy their wares we headed back to Quito.
My hostal for the night was a different one than I had previously stayed, was nice, and had fantastic wifi. (Note: nice is no bugs, a roof, wifi, and private bathroom!) I know some people would have been bothered by the peeling paint and noise from the neighborhood (read: party central) but it was fine for me.
Lylaine and I met up for dinner in a very lively square, more vegetarian pizza and great conversation.
During dinner we had the lovely background music of a man on a guitar accompanied by a man playing the bongos, I really enjoyed them.
We bid each other adieu and I was off to find my way back to my hostal.
I did get a bit lost and who did I run into but two Polish people! Of course I had to say my requisite phrase in Polish and tell them that I am Polish. We bonded for 5 minutes and they helped me figure out where I was going.
Back at the hostal it was all about Ecuadorean TV and wifi.
Ahhh wifi how I missed thee. Wifi was so good that I was able to skype with a couple of family members, was nice to connect with loved ones, but seriously glad I am not in the country right now as this debt business has gotten out of control and I might have had to put Obama on blast.
Uploaded 4 blog posts whilst watching various shows post skyping. Earplugs in and it was time for sleep.
Sunday I had a pleasant breakfast at the hostal, eggs, bread, fruit and tea. Also I was surprised to notice that the proprietor greeted me by name. Always nice to feel like you aren't another face in the crowd, if even for a moment. During breakfast I took the time to update Trip Advisor on all of the places I have stayed whilst here. Post review writing I set out to explore the neighborhood for a bit before heading back to the reserve.
The neighborhood is known for crime against tourists at night, but during the day it does have a bit of charm to it.
Cobblestone tree lined streets with shops scattered here and there, the majority of buildings being hotels. Most of the shops and bars were shuttered, it was quiet for the most part.
Tried to ignore the local homeless man drinking cerveza at 10 a.m. and the sunglasses sellers that pick your pockets while you are looking at their wares. (Proprietor at the hotel warned me.) To put it in perspective, I know both of those things happen in big US cities as well.
Something to note about Ecuador: when you are white every taxi driver honks and/or flashes their lights at you to inquire as to whether you need a ride. It is not as if I even had my map out, I was just exploring the neighborhood and kept getting honked or having lights flashed at.
It was nice to see that the city closed off a major boulevard and left it open to bicycle traffic.
Families and single riders were out en masse just enjoying the beautiful morning, it was lovely.
After a bit I headed to a main square and enjoyed a lunch of french fries and Coke, how American can I be?
I also enjoyed more WIFI! I was able to upload a lot of pictures and try to catch up a bit on what my friends have been up to. It was a bit surreal, sitting in this outside cafe in Ecuador, American music blaring from the speakers, reading friends emails as if they were just around the corner.
Post lunch it was time for my two hour bus ride back to the reserve. I braved the Quito buses once again, and this time I found one to take me straight to the correct station! Score for Jessica! How much was said bus? A mere 25 cents.
On the bus there were a lot of families, and their children must have been at a fair as they all had face paint on while eating popsicles, it was pretty damn cute.
The next bus, my two hour excursion was not crowded at all which was nice so what did I do? Fell asleep of course. Woke up just in time as it was stopped in the town I was supposed to get off at. Ran off the bus !
I found a camioneta driver to bring me back to the reserve, once he realized I spoke a bit of Spanish and was volunteering here, he was non-stop chatty! He told me all about his son's girlfriend, she is American, and works for a tourist company here. She has her doctoral degree in plants and is very intelligent. He showed me her picture, told me what her parents did for a living, stated her name, then asked if I knew her? Sorry but no. (:
He was quite friendly which was nice as I have not met a ton of friendly locals here outside of the reserve.
Upon my return I was met with 3 huge spiders in my room! YIKES! Had to do major spider clearance, thank goodness no killing was required.
Looking forward to my LAST WEEK HERE!!!! Then it is time for two weeks with monkeys! Hooray!
1 comment:
Just need to say that it's a good thing we can protect kids from so many diseases! All of these vaccines today put together have fewer antigens than one dose of polio did when we were kids. These are smarter, more efficient vaccines. I'm in favor of shots than a kid unnecessarily getting measles, pertussis, or mumps.
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