Happy Holloween!

So it is Holloween in Ecuador. This is a holiday in as much as Cinco de Mayo is a holiday in the US; it is simply and excuse for a party. It is a major holiday weekend here anyway with All Saints Day on Sunday and a minor independence day (there are several here) on Monday, so one more party is fine.

So what greeted me on Halloween here in Ecuador? Well the tides changed yesterday and now the beach is littered with dead stuff - turtles, birds, fish, and thousands of jellyfish heaped into piles. That really wasn´t a good sigh. So instead of swimming I settled in to read the daily paper (while I cannot speak a lot of spanish, I can read it) and was met with a story about the CIA infiltrating the Ecuadorian armed forces. Here is the link to the CNN version.

No one really cares about that down here. Correra, the President, seems to be pushing any possible story forward to distract attention from the poorly managed changes mandated under the new consitution. Yesterday Correra declared that the country needed to move away from using the US dollar as the official currency and called for a common pan-american currency called the Sucre. Only Venezula and Bolivia commented on this. Everyone else just ignored Correra.

Well enjoy your weekend. I will try to push through a few wrap-up posts about my time in Canoa. Next week Drew and I leave for the mountains and make our way down to Peru.

The Final Week of School

This is the last week of school for Drew and I. It can´t come soon enough, it is time to start traveling again.

Overall, the school at the Sundown Inn has been great. My days here begin early, around 6:30, and I am starting to study by 7 or 7:30. After an hour of review we grab a bit of breakfast and then start two hours of class. At 11:30 we take a break and nap, surf, or swim until lunchtime. After lunch it is back to studying and class picks back up for two more hours in the afternoon. In all, I spend about four hours a day actually in school and several more hours studying vocabulary and conjugation. It´s a great vacation, really.

It gets dark here on the equator around 7:30 and by the time we finish dinner its pitch black out. Typically we spend our evenings playing cards or having bonfires out on the beach. At a $1 a bottle, we drink a lot of beer too. It is a simple existence, and it is driving me nuts.

Luckily, next week we are taking off for Banos, Ecuador. It is a little town (named for a bathroom) tucked up on the side of a volcano. A few years ago it was evacuated for an eruption, but the town was spared. Apparently it is a great spot for hiking, biking, and hot springs so we are looking forward to arriving there.

The final week here in school will not be without its entertainment. I am planning on going parasailing sometime this week (if the weather cooperates) and Drew and I are hiking out to some sea caves and a Blue-footed Boobie nesting site next weekend. Finally, Drew stupidly bet the owner of our hotel. For the next week Drew must eat all of his vegetables and the owner cannot smoke. Lucky me. Drew has to eat food he doesn´t like and our host is going without her smokes. Everyone should be in a great mood.

Danger -- Dancing Ahead!

Violence in Ecuador

Yesterday some awful news came out of Ecuador. Two Americans were attacked; the man was stabbed twenty-four times and the woman was raped. Fortunately neither were killed and both are back in the States, but the guy´s wounds are still life-threatening. Here is the story.

Esmeraldas is considerably north of the little town of were Drew and I are staying, so we don´t feel particularly worried about the attack. However, we purposely avoided the area around Esmeraldas because of the crime in the northern parts of Ecuador.

Sadly, there is always the threat of some crime. A few weeks before we arrived in Canoa, a surfer was shot four times outside a local bar. Luckily, he didn´t die, but there was little the police could do when they arrived. The gunman changed his shirt and walked back into the bar to finish his drink. There are only three policemen in this little town, and they were significantly out numbered by the gunman and his friends. The police simply concluded that they aren´t paid enough to be shot at. We suspect that the gunman was arrested the next day, but no one seems to know for sure.

The full story of what happened in Esmeraldas is still unknown and I will probably be in Peru before it starts to emerge. However, it is a tragic reminder that traveling requires common sense and luck. Hopefully, the common sense kicks in when the luck runs out.

Globalism Strikes Back

Globalism has its ups and downs, but no other economic system produces such hilarious results.

Many Ecuadorians lend credibility to their businesses by associating themselves with anything popular. For example, on a single street in Quito I saw the Scooby Doo Hot Doggery Snack Shop and the Homer Simpson Bar. Sometimes this goes to extremes, like the Stephen Hawkings Pre-Universary Tudoring Center.

But it gets even better.

Quito is the capital of Eucador and therefore all of the major parties have headquarters there. The Communist Party of Ecuador is no exception and it looks pretty much like you would expect a third-world Communist Party building to look like. It is a sickly green color and has giant banners hanging off of it. Except in Ecuador it´s the Communist Party/Chinese Restaurant.

Things I Learned In Ecuador, But Wish I Hadn´t

Ecuador is a great country, but somethings take a little getting used to. These are the hardest lessons to learn, so far.

Lesson 1 - Toilet paper does NOT go in the toilet. In Ecuador (and many other South American countries) the sanitation system isn´t robust enough to handle toilet paper. So in most restrooms (both private and public) there is a little trash can or box to toss the used toilet paper into. This is sort of disgusting, but aparently you can get used to anything.

Lesson 2 - Bugs and geckos are a fact of life. The bugs are plentiful and often blood-thirsty, but it´s the geckos that surprise you. I share my hotel room with Drew and a family of suicidal geckos. The geckos keep the bug levels down, but they also throw themselves off the ceiling with frightening regularity. Usually, they land on Drew right before he falls asleep.

The mosquitos aren´t too bad right now, but the sand flies are a problem. However, South American sand flies have nothing on New Jersey sand flies. Down here they just turn your legs into swiss cheese. In Jersey they do that and then take your wallet. So really it isn´t too bad.

Lesson 3 - Hot water is the world´s greatest luxury. Whoever invented the hot water heater should have been awarded the Nobel prize. You don´t realize how nice a hot shower is until you go two weeks withough one. Supposedly, our hotel has hot water, but there has been a mysterious lack of it over the last two weeks. It turns out that the hotel´s neighbor/local drug dealer was using all of it every morning to wash his dog.

Lesson 4 - Instant coffee is a sin. Ecuador produces some of the best coffee in the world. You just can´t get it down here. Ecuadorians drink instant coffee (usually with milk) and will actively shun the real stuff if its available. So if you ever want to give up coffee just come down to Ecuador. Finding real coffee is a challenge and it requires great sacrifice. The nearest good cup of coffee is about two miles away, so every few days I walk to the restaurant just to remind myself what it tastes like.

The First Aid Kit Was A Good Idea

This was the first full weekend that Drew and I spent in Canoa, so we decided to expand our horizons a bit and visit Bahia, which is sort of the county seat around here. After a surprisingly good and hearty (i ate Drew´s) breakfast we grabbed the bus to San Vicente. It is only about a twenty or thirty minute bus ride depending on how many stops it makes. This is always an open question on Ecuadorian buses since there aren´t really any stops. You just flag down the busy you want and then yell at the driver when you want to get off.

From San Vicente we hoped on the ferry over to Bahia. The ferries are really just oversized row boats that, according to the warning sign, claim to seat twenty people. Ours packed on thrity-five. The trip over was uneventful until we got to the Bahia port. Three Ecuadorians jumped up and quickly hopped off the boat. Now, a quick word about Ecuadorians and weight displacement. Ecuadorian aren´t exactly big people. Drew and I are four to six inches taller than the average Ecuadorian man and quite a bit heavier. So when three Ecuadorians jumped up from opposite Drew and I, you can imagine what direction the boat lurched.

Drew and I flung ourselves forward and an attempt to stop the boat from swamping. Drew shot the three idiots who jumped up a nasty look, which just eccouraged them to move faster. So now we have thirty Ecuadorians with paniced faces sitting in a boat, three Ecuadorians running off the boat, and two gringos sprawled out across the boat. We are making a great impression down here.

Luckily nothing else of interest happened in Bahia and we made it back to the hotel in time to catch some afternoon waves. The surfing conditions have improved dramatically over the last few days and yesterday was my first attempt to surf in Ecuador. (My single previous experience was in Hawaii a few years ago.) The waves were a little brutal and I spent an hour furiously paddling in and out of waves. I had a great time and didn´t even notice the jellyfish sting across my arm until I was getting out.

Today, I decided to repeat my fine surfing performance. That was probably a mistake. I was a little sore from yesterday´s workout and had difficulty controlling the board. I floundered around for a while until a large wave tossed me off my board and sent it spinning away. In the spinning process I managed to get my arm tangled in the rear fins of the board and sliced up my right arm. Amazingly, my new wound is perfectly parallel with my jellyfish sting.

The wave also broke the leash on my surfboard and sent it floating down the beach. So I waded out of the surf in search of my board, bleeding and humming the Jaws theme along the way. Next, I had find Drew. He is always interested in the new and oringal ways that I hurt myself, and I knew he would love this.

He took one look at my arm and said, "You are going to need stitches. Or you can live with a nice little scar." The following is pretty much my thought process:

1) It´s Ecuador. In the middle of nowhere. On a Sunday. Of a holiday weekend. The nearest medical clinic that MIGHT be open was in Bahia. So to get stitches requires me to bleed my way through a bus ride and a boat ride just to bleed in the waiting room of an Ecuadorian Hospital that may or may not be open...

2) The insurance paperwork doesn´t sound at all fun...

3) If scars are sexy then surfing scars have got to be the El Dorado of scars....

Drew patched me up and I thanked God that I packed that first aid kit.

Canoa Grows on You...

Originally, Canoa was a very depressing place. Our hotel is the Sundown Inn and is generally refered to as the Letdown. I wasn´t really sure I wanted to stay here at all. Slowly I am changing my mind.

First, the town and hotel sort of grow on you. You get used to the shower that is either scalding hot or freezing cold. Eventually you figure out that it takes six turns of the hot water handled and one-third of a turn of the cold to get an okay shower. You get used to the mattress that is only 2 inches thick. (Actually, you never get used to it. You steal a thicker, nicer mattress from the room next door.) Besides, the language instruction is pretty good and the family that owns the place is nice.

In the end, Canoa sort of becomes like a bad soap opera. I am talking Twin Peaks bad. For example, a few days ago a water pipe burst in the main dining room/class room. No one saw any need to turn off the water (except the 2 Americans and 2 Canadians that make up the entire paying population). The plumber has been out three times and still hasn´t fixed the problem. Every day we wonder if today is the day the pipe is repaired. No. Today is the day we put a pots under the drips.

Or yesterday for example. Drew and I were sitting on our patio looking at the ocean when two hundred cattle and four horses walked by on the beach. You can imagine what that many cows did the beach. It is a disgusting mess, and all this happened the day before a national holiday when everyone heads to the beach.

So I think we will stay for a while just to see what happens next. Besides I am down two games of Pescadar (Go Fish) to a six year old.

In Canoa...

Drew and I made it to Canoa, Ecuador. This is a little surfing town nestled in between the jungle and the ocean. The trip out deserves it own post, so that will be coming shortly. Originally, I envisioned studying Spanish a few hours a day and surfing for a few hours, but that hasn´t
panned out yet. The weather is a bit stormy and there are lots of jellyfish in the water right now. It would be okay if I had a full wetsuit, but I neglected to pack that.
The town itself is very sleepy. The roads are dirt and none of them have names. This was originally an Ecuadorian vacation spot, but Americans and Europeans discovered it a few years ago and came trickling in. Their presence is beginning to show too. The main street of the town looks like a polynesian knock-off, but if you walk back a few blocks the typical wood or cinder block homes start poping up again.

With the lousy surfing and weather over the last few weeks Canoa´s surf seekers don´t have anything to do. The full surf season doesn´t start until late November and many of the bars aren´t open yet, so folks just sit around on the beach and wait.














I am still forming my opinions about this little stretch of paradise, but my initial reaction is a bit depressing. Drew and I are staying a few kilometers outside of the town in an area that makes Canoa look like Manhattan. We study most of the day, but by early evening there isn´t much to do. There are only two other people in the school at the moment, but a few more are due to arrive later this week. Hopefully, things will pick up.

Drew is currently sick and spends most of his time in bed. Once he moving again perhaps things will pick up. There are some sea caves nearby and the jungle is less than a kilometer inland so there is plenty to explore should be get the chance.

A Nate is Equal To...

In Ecuador everything is for sale.

Last Friday, Drew, George (a Winconsinite we ran into), and I were in the Old Town of Quito. We cut around a corner and entered a little plaza with people milling around and a few vendors scattered along the side. I was bringing up the rear of our troop when an old man approached me holding out a tape measure. The tape was extended out about three feet and he was shouting "Un Metro, Un Metro! Una dollar!"

I always wanted my own unit of measurement so I jumped at the opportunity to buy the meter. Actually, I bought two. I smashed my two meters together to form a "Nate". Unfortunately, one of my meters was a little shorter then the other. Consequently, the Nate is slightly shorter than two meters, but still longer than a smoot.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

We saw the equator today. Maybe. Probably.

The Mitad Del Mundo (Middle of the World) lies about 15 km north of Quito and is the supposed location of the equator based on a French survey in the 19th Century. In the 1930´s the Ecuadorian government built a large pedestal and globe on the site and declared it the middle of the world. Despite the governments claim, it probably isn´t.

New surveys, aided by the GPS system, suggest that the real equator lies about 300 meters north of the monument. Not to be outdone, a local family conducted another survey, sans GPS, and claimed the real equator is 700 meters south of the monument, conviently running right through their family-owned museum. To cover our bases we wandered around to all of them.

In the end it doesn´t seem to really matter. After the Mitad Del Mundo monument went up a entire fake village sprung up in order to ensure that no tourist went home empty handed. They compare their "village" to Disney World, but it falls a little short. It is a bit closer to something like the world´s largest ball of string. The fun part of the adventure was the lack of gringos present. A few showed up while we were they, but mostly the park was filled with Ecuadorians taking their kids out on a Saturday afternoon.

This is a good time to mention the "Gringo Tax" that is levied both official and unofficially throughout Ecuador and most of South America. Unofficially it shows occasionly when you purchase something on the street. Yesterday, while buying an avacado we noticed that it cost a dollar for gringos and fifty cents for locals. Ironically, this rarely upsets the Americans or Europeans since the tax is never more than a buck or two, but it really upsets a lot of locals. They think it gives their countrymen a bad name and I witnessed one Quitoian yelling at a merchant who over-charged a gringo.

The offical Gringo Tax is even more fun. At a lot of sites, including the Midal Del Mundo, the admission sign has to columns: one for Ecudorians and one for Foreigners. Today it was a dollar entrance fee for locals and two or three dollars for Foreigns. This doesn´t happen all the time, but often enough to be funny.

This is our last day in Quito. Tomorrow we head for the Ecudorian coast and a small town called Canoa. This is were Drew and I will be attempting to relearn any Spanish that we once knew.

Adios.

Quito

The Quito airport does not inspire confidence. There are two things that jump out as you land upon arriving. As you decend, you see planes line the runway and parking aprons that will never fly again. Welcome to Quito -- Where airplanes come to die! Nose cones, engines, and important sections of the wings are all missing from both civilian and military aircraft. As you disembark the airport looks like any other third world airport, including Washington Dulles. That is until you spy the large signs declaring that in Ecuador "using minors for prositution and pornography is illegal." Duly noted. To underscore the point, cardboard cut-outs of immagration officials point to the announcement. I tried to take a picture of it but the real immagration officials wandering around discouraged that.

I also want to thank whomever notified the Ecuadorians that we were coming. When Drew and emerged from the airport a mass of reporters swarmed us. Camramen, photographers, and reports all crowded around. Apparently there was a celebrity walking right behind us. He stopped and gave a quick interview on the virtues of not using Ecuador´s children for nefarious purposes. If you caught the Quito nightly news you probably saw Drew and me in the background waving to the crowds. I tried to ask who the guy was, but I never figured it out.

We are staying in a great hostel in the new town section of Quito. The cafe attached it is appears to be very popular and is always packed with Quitoians of all ages in for coffee, dinner, and drinks. There is a big fireplace in one corner which is handy since it get really cold here at night. The new town is where most of the hotels and restauarants are in Quito and it is the safer of the two sections. It is also loaded with elementry schools and a military academy is right around the corner from our hostel. This morning I awoke to mobs of militant cub scouts wandering up and down the street.

Today we walked down to the old section of town. It looks much like you would expect a former colonial capital to look like. Grandious architecture and baroque churches vying for your attention, but you dare not glance at them. If you do, smack! That diesel bus you just ignored gunned you down. However, Quitoians are very polite and they will honk before they run you over. Actually the Old Town is great. I will talk a bit more about it when I figure out how to post some pictures.

So welcome to Quito. The planes don´t fly, the children are ready to stage a revolution, and crossing the street requires olympian bursts of speed. Needless to say Drew loves the city.

The Mad Dash

Okay, the plane leaves in twelve hours and I still have parking tickets to pay...  

I wanted to get this blog all set up before leaving, but instead this will be a work in progress.  Any suggestions are welcome.  

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