The Trek Begins in a Generally Southern Direction

We finally started the long trek south toward the bottom of the continent. Baños had the honor of being the first city along the way. While it is only a few hours south of Quito, it seems like an entirely different country. The setting is gorgeous and the town is nestled at the base of an active volcano. Cliffs rose for thousands of feet above the town and waterfalls poured right into town!






While the setting was perfect, the town failed to live up to its surroundings. The mountains unbelievable and largely unspoilt, the town, well... Picture Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Now give it a good shelling. Not destroy it, just drop in a few well placed artillery rounds. Now you have the town of Baños, Ecuador. However, Baños did have the best souvenir shop in the world. It is simply called "We Aren´t Chinese."







We still had fun and spent a day hiking and biking through the area. Drew and I spend a half a day biking 22 km through the mountains. Our guidebook assured us that it was all downhill. Okay, parts of it were downhill, the uphills were brutal, and I threw out the guidebook. We did see a bunch of waterfalls though, so many in fact that we just started skipping the smaller ones. Typically, tourists pedal out to see the falls and then pedal back to town. Forget that. We are Americans, we buy our way out of trouble. We hired a truck to take us back.





(NOTE: The next section is adapted from an email Drew sent out. I apologize if you already saw the email. If you didn´t and want to be included on Drew´s email list just make a note in the comments section.)

The next day we decided to take the trail south from Riobamba, Ecuador to a small town a few hours south. This is about the only functioning train in Ecuador and it runs down the side of the Andes Mountains. When we inquired about the train on Thursday night, the tracks were under repair, so they weren´t sure if the train was going to run on Friday or not. The station told us to come back at 6:15 the next morning. The picture to the right is the view from the train station.

The next morning the track still wasn´t completely repaired, but they assured us that a smaller train could make the trip. By smaller train they really mean a school bus jacked up onto the rails. On top were about 20 plastic seats bolted onto the roof. Everyone waiting at the station swarmed onto that bus and completely filled it. We were not sure if we would make it onto the train despite having a ticket, but a second small train(i.e. school bus) arrived. Our bus made the first one look like a Cadillac. Instead of plastic seats on top, we had a luggage rack. Well, the point of this trip was to ride on top of a train so up we went.

Our little train left first and we cruised right through downtown Riobamba on top of a train, freezing to death and waving at everyone we passed on the street. There is just something about gringos riding around on the top of things. Everyone stops, stares, and then waves. Right in the middle of waving to everyone we saw, it happened. We hit a truck. If Ecuadorians don´t stop for red lights there is no way they are going to stop for a train. Some moron in a pick up tried to speed in front of the train and BAM! Our driver rammed him. We heard the end of the truck crumple, saw glass flying up into the air, and looked down to see a white truck sliding across the street at a jaunty angle. Of course, this being Ecuador, we didn´t stop. The conductor didn´t even slow down.

An hour later, the next hiccup happened. We were just rounding a curve through some farming villages when we heard a screeching sound, and our train ground to a halt. The conductors hopped out and started poking at the wheels with a stick. How a stick is going to help a train I really don´t know, but we just assumed that the train derailed. That happens a lot in Ecuador, its normal. It turns out that our brake system failed. We waited for the second train to come along, hook up to ours, and then drag us back to the nearest farm town. The conductors maneuvered us onto a rail siding that last saw use in 1950, and we all climbed onto the other train. People were literally hanging off the roof now. Off we went.

Finally, we reached the town of Gromote, where we met up with the regular train. By regular we mean a bunch of boxcars attached to an engine. We threw our backpacks into a boxcar, grabbed a ladder, and climbed up on top Then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. The engine needed to be fueled. In any normal country they might hook up a fuel line and get to it. In Ecuador, you don´t use hoses. Apparently, its just easier to have a guy stand on top of the engine and another guy stand on top of a fuel truck. These two pass a 5-gallon bucket back and forth, filling it up and then pouring it into the engine. Then repeat about a thousand times. Very efficient.

Eventually, we take off. In the space of five or ten kilometers we stopped four times. First, somebody´s hat flew off. Stop the train, conductor gets out, walks back along the track to find it. Stopped time: 5 minutes. Three hundred meters later we stop again. The conductor gets out, finds an irrigation hose running alongside the track, and cracks it open. (Actually he did this twice. The first hose didn´t have enough water flow.) Then he filled the engine with water and reconnects the hose with what looks like duct tape. Stopped time: 10 minutes. Less than a mile later there is a man standing in the middle of the rails waving at the train to stop. We all stand up, and that´s when we see a crew of 8 guys working on the rails with pickaxes 30 feet in front of the stopped engine. The track is out. One guy is using a measuring tape to make sure the rail is the proper distance apart. He´s measuring every 2 feet. The conductors then unload what is apparently a temporary section of track, then decide they´d just rather wait it out. So we do. Finally they finish putting the rail back in place, and we continue on. Stopped time: 1 hour. The very next turn(less than 200 meters after starting again) we hear this awful grinding sound. The train stops and pitches slightly to the side. We have finally derailed. The crew gets out and holds a quick conference around a second of track. I don´t know what the accepted method of putting a train back on the tracks is in the US, but in Ecuador it is pretty simple. You just keep going. The conductor backed the engine up slightly until it was back into position, and then just took off. Apparently, you just go as fast as you can and hope that the engine drags all the other cars back onto the track. Amazingly it work!! Stopped time: 20 minutes.

Finally, we roll into the town of Alausi. We were supposed to be there at 11am, but we didn´t get there until about 2pm. There were a bunch of tourists waiting to get on for a trip down the Devil´s Nose, and they were really upset that the train was so late. Someone forget to tell them that they were traveling in South America. The Devil´s Nose is a series of steep switchbacks down the mountain, but it was a bit anti-climatic. The mountain is really steep so the train has to go down some of the switchbacks backwards. Fun, but the real fun was in the journey.

Election Views for the South

So Barack Obama is the next President of the United States. Ecuador is a little worried about this, but this is a little strange since Obama is relatively popular here. I guess it more accurate to say that Obama is popular and folks down here really want to like him, but they just don´t always know why. Ecuadorians have several rather odd concerns about an Obama administration that they like to talk about incessantly.

1) He is Black. Ecuadorians like Obama, but are a little concerned about him being black. When you really push, a few people will mention issues like race relations in the US, but none of them have any really understanding of what that means. In truth, their concern about race is mostly a reflections of the lingering racial issues here in Ecuador between indigenous groups, Latinos, and decedents of escaped slaves from the Caribbean.
2) He is a Muslim. Ecuadorians are really hung up on this issue. Numerous Ecuadorians tell me how shocked they are that America would let a Muslim run for the Presidency. Then I have to explain that he is Protestant, not Muslim. All that earns me is a blank look and then a wink and a nod. Then they launch right back into the Muslim thing. Somehow I am missing the joke.
3) The Neo-Nazi Assassination Plot. Seriously, Ecuadorians are really concerned about this. The papers down here have run several articles about various neo-nazi groups that are all arming against Obama.
4) The New Great Depression that is Destroying America. Ecuadorians seems to be really interested in the Great Depression and seem to think that they US has toppled over the abyss and finds itself right back in 1929. They average Ecuadorian doesn`t really know what caused the Depression or much about the US economic woes currently, but they are convinced that the US is on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the end, Ecuadorians are worried about stability. As one Ecuadorian mentioned to me, "When the US has problems, they rest of the world has them too." Most Ecuadorians that I speak with about politics just want a stable America.

As for Drew and I, we joined the ranks of expats and a smattering of Europeans who watched the election coverage from a small BBQ joint here in Quito. The beer was cheap, the cheers and boos were loud, and we got the distinct pleasure of explaining the Electoral College system over and over again.

Who Loves Ya Baby? Quito Does.

The first time Drew and I arrived in Quito , we were mobbed at the airport with cameras and reporters. It was a hero´s welcome. You get used to it after a while.

Yesterday, we unexpectedly returned to Quito. As we crested over the Andes and down into the valley where Quito sits, the city greeted us with rainbows and snow-capped mountains. The locals tell me this is a rare sight. Quito loves us. Unfortunately, the pictures didn´t come out very well so I can´t pass them on.

On Monday, Drew and I had to make a hasty departure from the beach. We had about 30 minutes to find all of our stuff, throw it in a bag, and get out the door. I shot the sheriff, but I didn´t shoot the deputy. Drew did. (That joke would probably work better in the Caribbean.) Actually, a Canadian we met offered us a lift back to Quito. I know that is can be a bit dangerous to accept rides through the jungle with people you don´t know real well, but in this topsy-turvy world if you can´t trust a Canuck then who can you trust? Besides, it beats taking an eight hour bus ride with a bunch of screaming kids at the end of a holiday weekend.

On the way back to Quito we drove through a large town and was met with an impromptu toll road. A guy with no legs was sitting in the middle of the road with a rope tied around his waist and the other end looped around a post on the far side of the road. Each time a car approached he raised the rope and demanded his fee. Apparently Canadians don´t pay tolls. Instead of stopping, we accelerated. Wisely, our Ecuadorian friend lowered the rope.

Drew and I will only be in Quito for a day to resupply, do some laundry, and relax. The city is a cooler and it is nice to enjoy a bit of fall weather after a month of 80 degrees. There are lots more police on the streets right now, so the government seems to be taking this crime wave seriously. Tomorrow, we hop a bus to Baños to check out the hot springs and volcano there.

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.