My tour has certainly lived up to its description so far. It said it was "active", and active it has been! In true South American style, we began the tour with a bit of excitement when our public bus to Cotopaxi was stopped and searched by about 12 armed policemen. Apparently they'd recieved information that there might have been an armed and dangerous man on our bus. Fortunately, it seemed to be incorrect and we were allowed to continue. The Canadians and yanks in the group were a little perturbed!
First up was two days of mountain biking. Having never actually been mountain biking before, this was a pretty extreme introduction! Day one began at the car park of the refuge from which we had begun our climb attempt a few weeks before. Only this time we were going DOWN the mountain side, and it's bloody steep! My fear of heights, and sharp rocky/sandy corners at high speed, returned and I soon got sore hands from over-using my breaks! But having effectively been training at altitude for about a month meant that I easily overtook the others on the uphills. The next day we took a route in the province of Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador at over 6000m. The tracks were even steeper, rockier and narrower - my hands were in agony! I was glad of the oxygen-sapping uphills to give my hands a break! It was great fun though. Our mountain biking guide, Edison, was a really interesting guy too. Also a vegetarian, I walmed to him instantly! With his athletic physique, long flowing dark hair and beautifully intense eyes, he could have walked right out of a movie about the Amazon - or the native American Indians, I'm not sure which - as the wise and benevolent indigenous hero. Wish we could have had more than 2 days with him!
In comparison to the almost jurassic scenery of the Cotopaxi National Park, the countryside in Chimborazo is just beautiful - rolling hills covered in a patchwork of fields, small woods, and babbling streams, with sheep, cattle and horses everywhere. Chimborazo has the highest percentage of indigenous people, and along every road we cycled we passed classic examples of the people of the Andes. I hadn't really believed that people really still dressed in bright green thick pleated skirts, thick blue stockings, purple ponchos and black pudding-shaped hats, but they really do. And how cute the little girls look in their miniature versions! They looked as they do in the postcards, with their pleated dark hair and red-flushed cheeks, often struggling up a hillside carrying a bale of guinea-pig feed.
Some of the group, having flown into Quito only a day or 2 earlier, really struggled with the altitude. Adrian, a Canadian in his mid-30s, had it the worst, despite seeming the most prepared one could possibly be for this trip. He'd been using altitude sickness medicine (as well as a special water filter, a padded saddle, padded cycling shorts, technical sports wear, a saddle bag...) yet even now, a week later, is still struggling to regain his appetite. But he's shown incredible determination (or maybe, given his diminuitive stature, the symptoms of short-man syndrome?) not to let it stop him from proving how strong and fit he is, and has insisted on fighting his way to the front of the group during the biking and hiking. Definitely a competitor! Most of the others have had a few headaches and coughs, as well as general fatigue, but are doing ok now.
In Chimborazo we stayed in a lower refuge of the Chimborazo volcano, the station house of a now barely used railway line built in the early 1900s by an Englishman. It's an amazing place, a little traditionally-decorated haven of coziness in a cold and bleak environment. Through the windows you just can't miss the snow-capped peak of the volcano, dominating the horizon. Yet inside the log fires and soft lighting make the retreat feel very homely. Outside, I got my first sighting of llamas and alpacas, loosesly tied up like sheep to graze in the grass in the station grounds. So cool! The station is run by the most amazing guy I think I've ever met. Rodrigo is about 50, and has only one and a half lungs after a football accident, but has more fitness, energy and dynamism than any 20-year old I've ever met. He never sits down for more than a minute, and every day goes hiking (if not running) in the mountains. He often climbs Chimborazo more than 2 times a week, ran a marathon a few months ago, and is hoping to go to the Himalayas in the summer. He knows everything there is to know about his local area, and about all of Ecuador for that matter, and has the most fascinating stories - of finding the remains of a passenger plane that had crashed in the glacier of the volcano 23 years earlier, of losing tourists to the various mountains of South America, of an expedition of Belgian doctors conducting a trial of Viagra at altitude... Just an incredible guy.
He was our guide for a little hike up to the glaciers of Chimborazo (I say little, but it proved too much for Adrian, despite his best efforts), as well as for our 3-day trek along the Inca trail to a site of Inca ruins called Ingapirca. It's Ecuador's answer to the Inca trail in Peru and Macchu Pichu. But the best thing about this trek was that we had it entirely to ourselves, with the exception of a smattering of indigenous people and their donkeys we passed along the way. The scenery was just incredible. In fact the road to the starting point was enough to give us all white knuckles. It traversed, with the sharpest of corners, the steepest of mountainsides, affording views not altogether welcome of a deep green pasture-covered valley beneath. It really was spectacular. Our hiking territory was as beautiful. We often followed the path of a river, crossing over stones and waterfalls, bridges and passes. We saw butterflies, hummingbirds, falcons and an incredible array of wild flowers and orchids - all of which Rodrigo could name and describe, naturally. I got to practise my Spanish with the guides a little too. It was hard going at times, but easy by Cotopaxi standards. Not for the unaccalimatised, though, some of whom found it very tough. It was well worth it though, and the Inca site at the end of our long trek was really interesting. The camping was less fun. Although, with the strong ecuatorial sun, the days were warm despite the altitude, the nights were definitely not. Even with 2 sleeping bags, and three girls to one tent, I was too cold to get more than a few minutes sleep at a time in either of the two nights. Plus, despite the remoteness of our camps, whether for the chattering of our little pack of donkeys or from the howling wind, it was anything but quiet. It's amazing what they can rustle up for dinner without a kitchen though; the soups were perfect, especially when chilled to the bone!
I'm now in Baños, a charming town nestled in the mountains a little closer to the Amazon bason. We're at about 1,800m here, so breathing is a lot easier! The stairs up to my (unbelievably luxurious... at least by camping standards) hotel room are a doddle, even with my great big backpack! I really want to try and run a marathon or something now, because after all this exercise at 4000m plus, I must be super-fit at sea level! Sadly, it's raining here, but I think that's typical of the cloud forest. Still, it doesn't really matter for the most common leisure activities here - visiting the hot spring baths! Sunday, it seems, is the day when half of Ecuador descends on the hot spring baths of Baños, so at our guide Carlos's recommendation, we went to the thermal spa instead. For $3, I was treated to a bizarre "therapeutic" process. I was shut in a little box of hot steam infused with a sprig of Eucalyptus(with only my head out of the box) for 20 minutes or so, released briefly to be doused with freezing cold water, only to be returned to the steamy inferno for another session. This was repeated for an hour or so, before I was hosed down with more freezing cold water. The guy in charge of the cold water seemed to take great pleasure in making the women scream! After all that sweating, I was pretty dehydrated afterwards, but I felt so relaxed I just wanted a siesta, so it must have worked!
We've got until tomorrow afternoon in Baños. Maybe the hot springs will be less busy tomorrow morning. Though, glutton for punishment, I kind of want to go hiking tomorrow. I also need to replace that jumper I lost last Tuesday night... Tomorrow afternoon, we leave for Tena, a jungle town where we begin our 3 days of rafting on Tuesday morning. It's going to be a pretty sharp contrast to move from the cold, bleak, oxygen deprived heights of 4,000m to the stifling humidity and dense vegetation of the Amazon at less than 1,000m. Not really relishing the prospect of all those mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies...!
Tonight, we're finally getting a night out. We'll be a strange group. There's: Peter, the retired English chemistry professor who studied at Cambridge but has lived most of his life in Canada; Neville, the crazy socialist grandfather from Colorado; 6-feet tall Lisa, a 42 year old boy-scout from Toronto; Tamara, a lovely athletic 29-year old German Swiss; 33 year old Yanna from Denmark (yep, another Dane) who works on a Scandinavian cruise ship; Adrian, the small Canadian dude; and Ki (33, car insurance) and Kati (25, medical student), avid mountain-bikers from Germany on their pre-wedding honeymoon since they can't take the time off after their wedding in May. Add some beer, or 80% proof local sugar cane liquor, and it should be an interesting night...
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Carnaval! Goodbye to Good Friends, and Hello to Adventures New
If Carnaval in Ecuador is tame, I'm almost glad I wasn't in Rio!
Ambato was really fun. I was totally knackered, since I managed to grab only 2 hours sleep on Friday night before getting up at some stupid hour to get the bus in the morning. Despite advertising that every room had a private bathroom and TV, our hostel rooms were about as basic as they came. Marilyn, Aldis and I had to share a double bed, and the only bathroom on our floor was disgusting. Still, it did the job I guess.
On Saturday, the 8 of us (Brad, Guido and three newer girls came too) went for a typical 2-course Ecuadorean lunch for $2 each, and wandered round the town, gawping at the quantity of people in the little town. There was lots going on. Brad really wanted to go see a real bull-fight, so he, Guido and the other girls went along to that whilst squeamish Marilyn, Aldis and I opted out. Instead, for some odd reason, we were persuaded by some girl from the tourist information team to go and visit a bull "show" in a suburb of the town, so we hopped in a taxi (actually it was a lot more difficult than that, with so many people wanting taxis, but it just sounded good).
The place felt miles away from the bustling, modern, touristic centre of Ambato. It was more like a quaint rural village, with a really ramshackle bull ring! The specatator stands, if you can call them that, were being erected by the locals when we arrived, and the van carrying the bulls was just pulling up. The locals were so friendly, it was if they felt honoured to have us there. We were the only tourists around. I really wasn't very confident about the stability of these homemade stands, but we settled down to watch, made welcome by one of the local men who was very keen to explain everything that was happening. It actually wasn't too bad, they seemed to respect the animals and although they did taunt them with their wafting of the capes none of the bulls got hurt. Marilyn and Aldis were even persuaded to have a go in the ring with a female cow! I watched from the dubious security of the stands. Someone had to take the photos, right?!
That night we rejoined the others for dinner. The girls were still pretty shaken up after having to watch several bulls fight to the death. (We made the right choice.) We wandered the town for a while soaking up the atmosphere and getting lost in the crowds. Brad had some friends of his host family that he'd promised to meet up with, so the same group went to some club to meet them. Marilyn, Aldis and I opted to stay with the throngs of Ecuadoreans in the streets. There were hot air balloons (most of which got caught in streetlights and set themselves alight, falling back into the streets ablaze), lots of alcohol, exciting food and crazy crowds squirting lots of carioca. Think a mixture of silly string and hair mousse, and you've got it. After getting absolutely covered by the stuff, we decided it was time to get our own back, so we invested in a few cans. The war began. Such fun! Why don't we have Carnaval?
The next morning there was a procession in the streets, so we had to get up early AGAIN. It was really fun, with lots of interesting and colourful floats, and streams of dancing, singing and instrument-playing locals in colourful costumes. But it was sooo long. I would have fallen asleep had the floor not been so damn uncomfortable to sit on for 5 hours. The rest of the day was spent wandering around and eating lots of ice-cream and cakes, the only way I could discover of staying awake, since there are no coffee shops. Finally, I had to return to Quito in preparation for my tour.
The journey was long and uncomfortable. I managed to hop on a full bus just before it left, so I had to sit in the space reserved for the bus conductor, as did a mother and her 3 small children, who decided that I made a great pillow. But I was so tired that I missed my stop, ended up right in the south of Quito, and had to pay $13 for the taxi to my hotel. Oops. I have also discovered that, somewhere in the journey, I lost my camera. Sooooooo disappointed. I would say that I had it stolen, but I think the likelihood is that it fell out of my bag. Dammit, I was doing so well!
That night and the next morning I met my tour group. I was very excited at the prospect of meeting a bunch of sporty young things, (like me!?) particularly some fit sporty men. I was even a little concerned that they'd be annoying know-it-all pre-uni gappers. So I was disappointed that I was the youngest by a long way. Two of the men are at least 60 and retired! Oh well. In fairness, after getting to know them a bit, they're all good fun and really interesting. Some real characters, not least Neville, a US-hating, factiod-spouting, ponytail-sporting 65 (?) year old yank with the worst-attempted Spanish you've ever heard! Hope I'm not that bad!
Mountain biking first, eek!
Ambato was really fun. I was totally knackered, since I managed to grab only 2 hours sleep on Friday night before getting up at some stupid hour to get the bus in the morning. Despite advertising that every room had a private bathroom and TV, our hostel rooms were about as basic as they came. Marilyn, Aldis and I had to share a double bed, and the only bathroom on our floor was disgusting. Still, it did the job I guess.
On Saturday, the 8 of us (Brad, Guido and three newer girls came too) went for a typical 2-course Ecuadorean lunch for $2 each, and wandered round the town, gawping at the quantity of people in the little town. There was lots going on. Brad really wanted to go see a real bull-fight, so he, Guido and the other girls went along to that whilst squeamish Marilyn, Aldis and I opted out. Instead, for some odd reason, we were persuaded by some girl from the tourist information team to go and visit a bull "show" in a suburb of the town, so we hopped in a taxi (actually it was a lot more difficult than that, with so many people wanting taxis, but it just sounded good).
The place felt miles away from the bustling, modern, touristic centre of Ambato. It was more like a quaint rural village, with a really ramshackle bull ring! The specatator stands, if you can call them that, were being erected by the locals when we arrived, and the van carrying the bulls was just pulling up. The locals were so friendly, it was if they felt honoured to have us there. We were the only tourists around. I really wasn't very confident about the stability of these homemade stands, but we settled down to watch, made welcome by one of the local men who was very keen to explain everything that was happening. It actually wasn't too bad, they seemed to respect the animals and although they did taunt them with their wafting of the capes none of the bulls got hurt. Marilyn and Aldis were even persuaded to have a go in the ring with a female cow! I watched from the dubious security of the stands. Someone had to take the photos, right?!
That night we rejoined the others for dinner. The girls were still pretty shaken up after having to watch several bulls fight to the death. (We made the right choice.) We wandered the town for a while soaking up the atmosphere and getting lost in the crowds. Brad had some friends of his host family that he'd promised to meet up with, so the same group went to some club to meet them. Marilyn, Aldis and I opted to stay with the throngs of Ecuadoreans in the streets. There were hot air balloons (most of which got caught in streetlights and set themselves alight, falling back into the streets ablaze), lots of alcohol, exciting food and crazy crowds squirting lots of carioca. Think a mixture of silly string and hair mousse, and you've got it. After getting absolutely covered by the stuff, we decided it was time to get our own back, so we invested in a few cans. The war began. Such fun! Why don't we have Carnaval?
The next morning there was a procession in the streets, so we had to get up early AGAIN. It was really fun, with lots of interesting and colourful floats, and streams of dancing, singing and instrument-playing locals in colourful costumes. But it was sooo long. I would have fallen asleep had the floor not been so damn uncomfortable to sit on for 5 hours. The rest of the day was spent wandering around and eating lots of ice-cream and cakes, the only way I could discover of staying awake, since there are no coffee shops. Finally, I had to return to Quito in preparation for my tour.
The journey was long and uncomfortable. I managed to hop on a full bus just before it left, so I had to sit in the space reserved for the bus conductor, as did a mother and her 3 small children, who decided that I made a great pillow. But I was so tired that I missed my stop, ended up right in the south of Quito, and had to pay $13 for the taxi to my hotel. Oops. I have also discovered that, somewhere in the journey, I lost my camera. Sooooooo disappointed. I would say that I had it stolen, but I think the likelihood is that it fell out of my bag. Dammit, I was doing so well!
That night and the next morning I met my tour group. I was very excited at the prospect of meeting a bunch of sporty young things, (like me!?) particularly some fit sporty men. I was even a little concerned that they'd be annoying know-it-all pre-uni gappers. So I was disappointed that I was the youngest by a long way. Two of the men are at least 60 and retired! Oh well. In fairness, after getting to know them a bit, they're all good fun and really interesting. Some real characters, not least Neville, a US-hating, factiod-spouting, ponytail-sporting 65 (?) year old yank with the worst-attempted Spanish you've ever heard! Hope I'm not that bad!
Mountain biking first, eek!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Beer Pong, Football and the Women's Prison
Had to say goodbye to everyone at the Academy this weekend. It was really sad, I've had such a good time there and I'm not sure I'll meet such good friends again. But not too sad, because I've got so so much to look forward to, and at the moment I'm definitely a traveller at heart - have to keep moving!
The last week was really fun. The night of beer pong was crazy - we got through a lot of beer and a lot of pong, thanks to Brad's military rule. Obviously, we had to go out afterwards. Jared bought several fishbowls, which were about 3 times the size of the ones I've encountered before. We went to a very gringo bar, and danced very gringo (Marilyn would have been ashamed, but fortunately she wasn't there to endure the spectacle). We even played the ice game. Shameful! I really didn't think I was that drunk, but I realised when I got out of the taxi that walking was a real challenge. I found my scarf halfway up the stairs to my apartment the next day, and I never did find my sweater. Good night! Needless to say, I didn't make it into the school the next morning. I missed the little exchange of paper hearts that had been organised for Valentine's Day - and I even had a Valentine, after Jared asked me to be his Valentine the day before. Whatever that means, exactly, I'm not too sure. Yep, it's stupidly commercialised over here too!
I dragged myself, hungover, into school for 2pm for the visit to La Carcel de Mujeres (the women's prison). I am very glad I did. It was truly bizarre. I've never visited a prison in England, but I'm sure it they're nothing like this one. In the main area of the prison, inmates and visitors mingled together in a crazy mele. As in the central city streets, people wandered round selling plastic roses, sweets and drinks. There were telefone cabins and vending machines. People were chatting and laughing. Children played. After people-watching in awe for a while, we were eventually introduced to the lady who would tell us something of life in the prison from a westerner's point of view. Zoe Savage was a journalist with the BBC coming to Ecuador to make a documentary, 4 years ago to the day, when she was arrested and ultimately sentenced to 8 years behind bars. She claims that 2 cameramen from her team, contracted by the BBC, had asked her to carry something through customs, and when the bags were checked they disappeared. I believe her story. She seems genuine. She tries to put on a brave and cheerful face, and suggests that life isn't so bad in the prison. It's true that her cell, although cramped (she shares a tiny room, smaller than the worst university room, with 2 or 3 other women), did seem almost homely, with fairy lights, photos and various trinkets and drapes. Yet she explained that, as a prisoner, unless you have a steady stream of income from family or friends you cannot afford niceties such as we saw. Such cells as hers require rent. If you can't afford it, you are thrown into the most basic of cells, which even in her words are "not nice". Zoe then went on to say that she barely gets to see any of her friends and family. Her two children still believe that she is away working. For 4 years! The British Embassy, it seems, can't do anything for her. Oprah Winfrey has heard of her case, apparently, and sends her a little money. It became clear, as she fought back tears, that every day is a struggle for her. One of the girls in our group (some wierdo Brummy hippy, it has to be said), was pretty inconsolable.
On a brighter note, that evening I went with Marilyn, Jared, Brad, Sam and another girl I hadn't met before to a football match at one of the Quito stadiums. We got a bit confused about what stadium it was at, so we missed the first 30 minutes, but for $8 it didn't matter too much! It was great fun. One end of the stand was full of the supporters of both teams, the home team on the ground level and the away team above. They were drinking, dancing, singing and setting off fireworks inside the stand all night long; I wish we had been in that bit! It was a little odd to see 20 foot high fencing separating the pitch from the stands, and also to see a little golf buggy driven onto the pitch to collect injured players (what's wrong with a good old stretcher?). But the football was pretty good. Hadn't been to a game in ages! Less aggressive and definitely more beautifully played than in England.
I went out Thursday and Friday nights too, to spend my last nights with friends from the school who were going to the beach at the weekend for Carnaval. Friday was my last night with my host family, as well as being my last night in Quito. We'd arranged with some of the guys at the school to watch "Robin Hood, Man in Tights" before going out. I'd been wanting to watch it for ages and I think the other guys were looking forward to the prospect of taking the piss out of the English in the presence of an English girl. But my host family had arranged a special dinner for my last night, and Belen didn't get home till 8.30, so the plans didn't quite work out. My "special meal" turned out to be a quiche, which would have been lovely, but for the fact that Mercedes had been unable to find a vegetarian quiche. So I forced myself to eat a mediocre slab of ham and cheese quiche and pretend to be unbelievably grateful. It was a nice gesture! I'd got them flowers and chocolates, and they'd got me a lovely red bracelet. I will miss them! Especially Mercedes' food!
Had a few options this weekend. I could potentially have popped across to Columbia to visit a friend, Carlos, who I met when travelling in Africa. I could have gone to the beach, where a load of the students from the school are heading. I could have stuck around Quito and taken in the sights that I've not yet seen. But instead I'm going to Ambato, which apparently is one of the best and most traditional towns during Carnaval. We're leaving tomorrow morning at some ridiculously early hour. I have to be back for Sunday night to check in to a hotel for the start of my two-week tour of Ecuador, so I didn't really have enough time to make the beach or Columbia. After talking to Carlos I think I'm gonna spend a week in Columbia later. Yay!
The last week was really fun. The night of beer pong was crazy - we got through a lot of beer and a lot of pong, thanks to Brad's military rule. Obviously, we had to go out afterwards. Jared bought several fishbowls, which were about 3 times the size of the ones I've encountered before. We went to a very gringo bar, and danced very gringo (Marilyn would have been ashamed, but fortunately she wasn't there to endure the spectacle). We even played the ice game. Shameful! I really didn't think I was that drunk, but I realised when I got out of the taxi that walking was a real challenge. I found my scarf halfway up the stairs to my apartment the next day, and I never did find my sweater. Good night! Needless to say, I didn't make it into the school the next morning. I missed the little exchange of paper hearts that had been organised for Valentine's Day - and I even had a Valentine, after Jared asked me to be his Valentine the day before. Whatever that means, exactly, I'm not too sure. Yep, it's stupidly commercialised over here too!
I dragged myself, hungover, into school for 2pm for the visit to La Carcel de Mujeres (the women's prison). I am very glad I did. It was truly bizarre. I've never visited a prison in England, but I'm sure it they're nothing like this one. In the main area of the prison, inmates and visitors mingled together in a crazy mele. As in the central city streets, people wandered round selling plastic roses, sweets and drinks. There were telefone cabins and vending machines. People were chatting and laughing. Children played. After people-watching in awe for a while, we were eventually introduced to the lady who would tell us something of life in the prison from a westerner's point of view. Zoe Savage was a journalist with the BBC coming to Ecuador to make a documentary, 4 years ago to the day, when she was arrested and ultimately sentenced to 8 years behind bars. She claims that 2 cameramen from her team, contracted by the BBC, had asked her to carry something through customs, and when the bags were checked they disappeared. I believe her story. She seems genuine. She tries to put on a brave and cheerful face, and suggests that life isn't so bad in the prison. It's true that her cell, although cramped (she shares a tiny room, smaller than the worst university room, with 2 or 3 other women), did seem almost homely, with fairy lights, photos and various trinkets and drapes. Yet she explained that, as a prisoner, unless you have a steady stream of income from family or friends you cannot afford niceties such as we saw. Such cells as hers require rent. If you can't afford it, you are thrown into the most basic of cells, which even in her words are "not nice". Zoe then went on to say that she barely gets to see any of her friends and family. Her two children still believe that she is away working. For 4 years! The British Embassy, it seems, can't do anything for her. Oprah Winfrey has heard of her case, apparently, and sends her a little money. It became clear, as she fought back tears, that every day is a struggle for her. One of the girls in our group (some wierdo Brummy hippy, it has to be said), was pretty inconsolable.
On a brighter note, that evening I went with Marilyn, Jared, Brad, Sam and another girl I hadn't met before to a football match at one of the Quito stadiums. We got a bit confused about what stadium it was at, so we missed the first 30 minutes, but for $8 it didn't matter too much! It was great fun. One end of the stand was full of the supporters of both teams, the home team on the ground level and the away team above. They were drinking, dancing, singing and setting off fireworks inside the stand all night long; I wish we had been in that bit! It was a little odd to see 20 foot high fencing separating the pitch from the stands, and also to see a little golf buggy driven onto the pitch to collect injured players (what's wrong with a good old stretcher?). But the football was pretty good. Hadn't been to a game in ages! Less aggressive and definitely more beautifully played than in England.
I went out Thursday and Friday nights too, to spend my last nights with friends from the school who were going to the beach at the weekend for Carnaval. Friday was my last night with my host family, as well as being my last night in Quito. We'd arranged with some of the guys at the school to watch "Robin Hood, Man in Tights" before going out. I'd been wanting to watch it for ages and I think the other guys were looking forward to the prospect of taking the piss out of the English in the presence of an English girl. But my host family had arranged a special dinner for my last night, and Belen didn't get home till 8.30, so the plans didn't quite work out. My "special meal" turned out to be a quiche, which would have been lovely, but for the fact that Mercedes had been unable to find a vegetarian quiche. So I forced myself to eat a mediocre slab of ham and cheese quiche and pretend to be unbelievably grateful. It was a nice gesture! I'd got them flowers and chocolates, and they'd got me a lovely red bracelet. I will miss them! Especially Mercedes' food!
Had a few options this weekend. I could potentially have popped across to Columbia to visit a friend, Carlos, who I met when travelling in Africa. I could have gone to the beach, where a load of the students from the school are heading. I could have stuck around Quito and taken in the sights that I've not yet seen. But instead I'm going to Ambato, which apparently is one of the best and most traditional towns during Carnaval. We're leaving tomorrow morning at some ridiculously early hour. I have to be back for Sunday night to check in to a hotel for the start of my two-week tour of Ecuador, so I didn't really have enough time to make the beach or Columbia. After talking to Carlos I think I'm gonna spend a week in Columbia later. Yay!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Cotopaxi!!
I finally managed to attempt Cotopaxi this weekend! It was a hastily arranged trip. Marilyn talked to the company on Thursday afternoon, on Friday afternoon we went to get kitted out with all our stuff (crampons, boots, fleeces and waterproofs, ice-picks, sun-goggles, head torches...), and we left early on Saturday morning.
I swear the hardest part of the whole adventure was the hour-long hike to the refuge, which looked about 10 minutes up from the car park. I thought I was going to die, and that I should just turn round and go back there and then! The guides were shaking their heads at the sight of us struggling at the first piddly little hurdle. Although, in my defense, I had brought a ridiculously heavy load in my giant rucksack. I wanted to make sure that being too cold didn't stop me getting to the top, as it had on Kilimanjaro, so I'd brought so many clothes it was stupid. Plus the refuge is at an altitude of about 4,700m, which seriously limits your physical capabilities. After stowing some of our stuff in the lockers, and getting kitted out in our cold-weather gear, we hiked up to the glacier to practice climbing with our crampons and ice-picks, in preparation for the night ascent. The main climb starts in the middle of the night, with the intention of reaching the summit just after dawn, because when the sun rises, the ice melts and it becomes dangerous. So after dinner (which no-one ate much of due to the appetite-supressant effects of altitude), we were despatched to bed at about 7pm. I felt ready for it! However, the refuge was like a giant dormitory, with loads of iron bunks and no soft furnishing to absorb the sounds of people snoring, coughing, and getting up every 20 minutes to put their heavy snow boots on and go to the toilet. Plus I had a banging headache and felt a little queasy. So I got absolutely no sleep before the guides told us it was time to get up at midnight. It took us ages to actually leave the refuge, we took ages over breakfast (can you still call it breakfast if you eat at 12.30am??!!) and we took it in turns to try and persuade Brad (26 year old guy in the US army who's served in Iraq and such places) to try and come with us. But he was too ill; he had a huge headache and felt really sick.
We climbed tied together in teams of 3. I was with Jared (23 year old US "soccer" player) and our solely-Spanish-speaking guide Gustavo. It was bloody difficult. With the exception of the snow, crampons and ice-picks, it was pretty similar to Kili. At the beginning it wasn't too bad, but there was no respite from the steep ice-covered mountainsides and the ferocious, snow-laden winds. Once more, it was a matter of determination and mind over body. We didn't too too badly; we were one of the last groups to leave and we passed a fair few teams. A lot of climbers succombed to the effects of alitude or the difficulty of the task and turned back. We passed Marilyn and her fellow hiker, Martin (a really cool German cameraman, about 30) on their way down, after Marily felt too ill to continue. Our guide kept telling us that we were only 30 minutes from a sheltered place where we could have tea and chocolate, but he was definately lying! We finally got to a slightly less exposed place in a kind of ice-cave, and collapsed there for a while. I just wanted to go to sleep! We tried to keep warm by huddling, but I lost all feeling in my fingers after taking my gloves off to try and open my energy drink, which didn't work anyway. My Camelpack had frozen in the tube. A few minutes after we'd sat down, at about 6am, the complete darkness of the night was becoming less complete. Dawn was on the way. This meant two things: first, that it might get a bit warmer and more pleasant (yay), but second, that we had very little time to try for the summit (uh-oh). Jared clearly had enough in the tank to keep going, but I wasn't sure I did. We decided to go for it, and the first hurdle was a scramble up a really steep and horribly exposed section of the mountain. It was a hurdle too high for me. The wind was vicious, and hurled hard-frozen snow into our faces, making it impossible to see or breathe. My calves burned with every step. Being able to see the deep crevasses, blue beneath the surface, made me panic. When the guide told us that it was another two and a half hours to the top, two and a half hours which we didn't have, I decided that I'd done enough. With retrospect, I feel guilty because I think Jared could have made it. I offered to join another group going down and let him continue, but he said he was happy to come down.
When we returned to our semi-sheltered resting spot, dawn was breaking. It was amazing, and even though we didn't make it it was worth the climb to be there at that moment. Now, rather than only being able to make out, in the beam of our torches, the bit of snow immediately ahead of where we walked, we were gradually able to see the magical environment we had climbed into. An expanse of perfect whiteness loomed above and below us, and beautiful ice formations surrounded us. In the brief moments when the clouds cleared a little, we were treated to incredible views of the sierra stretching out beneath us, and we saw for the first time just how steep and scary was Cotopaxi. I took a fair few photos; it was too fantastic to think about how cold my fingers would get. I'm glad I did, because when we returned to the edge of the snow-cap, the clouds had engulfed the mountain again. The descent was like walking down a black diamond ski run, but with Jared leading carefully, with the aid of crampons and the ice-pick, and with the rope to secure us together, I wasn't too petrified. It took forever to get down though. We got back to the refuge at about 9.
The rest was pretty boring - we had a bit of food, met up with Brad and Marilyn, packed up our stuff and hiked back down the mountain to take our minibus back to Quito. Had a bit of lunch (in a very gringo Mongolian cafe), said goodbye to Martin, and went home for a much-needed shower. I was knackered. Still am - 10 hours of sleep isn't enough to recover from missing a whole night's sleep and climbing for 8 hours up a snow-capped mountain. I also have another cold, which maybe isn't too suprising after my weekend.
That was really the highlight of my week. I've been out a few times, played some "fuzball" at a bar with the worst table in the world ever, had a salsa class, and generally tried to improve my Spanish. It's definitely coming on! I've now got the future tenses, most of the past tenses, and some wierdo tense called the subjunctivo, as well as lots more of the little gramatical details. It's quite exciting! Other that that, erm... no mucho! One of the taxi's I took home one night was stopped by the police for an illegal u-turn, and the policeman took his licence. I had no idea what to do, but figured it was best to get out quick and find another taxi! Saw a fat old lady wearing an English hoodie with the word "HOTTIE" emblazoned across her chest. As I said, English isn't that widely understood over here. Have experienced some classic "carnaval" fun when I had a balloon of water thrown at me from a passing car.
This is my last week at the school, weird! Jared's been here since early January and has 3 months more or so, but said yesterday lunch time that he's really going to miss Marilyn and I. Which made me realise how much I'm going to miss my fellow students and host family. I never really factored in the fact that I wouldn't just be meeting people but actually making friends whilst I studied here. But a week is a long time! Jared has the DVD "Robin Hood, Man in Tights", which he's insisting on showing me before I leave. Brad and Jared have taken great delight in mocking me for my Englishness (something I never really thought about before), and apparently this movie is similar! I can't believe I'm the only Brit here. Getting ready for a game of beer pong later! Yay!
I swear the hardest part of the whole adventure was the hour-long hike to the refuge, which looked about 10 minutes up from the car park. I thought I was going to die, and that I should just turn round and go back there and then! The guides were shaking their heads at the sight of us struggling at the first piddly little hurdle. Although, in my defense, I had brought a ridiculously heavy load in my giant rucksack. I wanted to make sure that being too cold didn't stop me getting to the top, as it had on Kilimanjaro, so I'd brought so many clothes it was stupid. Plus the refuge is at an altitude of about 4,700m, which seriously limits your physical capabilities. After stowing some of our stuff in the lockers, and getting kitted out in our cold-weather gear, we hiked up to the glacier to practice climbing with our crampons and ice-picks, in preparation for the night ascent. The main climb starts in the middle of the night, with the intention of reaching the summit just after dawn, because when the sun rises, the ice melts and it becomes dangerous. So after dinner (which no-one ate much of due to the appetite-supressant effects of altitude), we were despatched to bed at about 7pm. I felt ready for it! However, the refuge was like a giant dormitory, with loads of iron bunks and no soft furnishing to absorb the sounds of people snoring, coughing, and getting up every 20 minutes to put their heavy snow boots on and go to the toilet. Plus I had a banging headache and felt a little queasy. So I got absolutely no sleep before the guides told us it was time to get up at midnight. It took us ages to actually leave the refuge, we took ages over breakfast (can you still call it breakfast if you eat at 12.30am??!!) and we took it in turns to try and persuade Brad (26 year old guy in the US army who's served in Iraq and such places) to try and come with us. But he was too ill; he had a huge headache and felt really sick.
We climbed tied together in teams of 3. I was with Jared (23 year old US "soccer" player) and our solely-Spanish-speaking guide Gustavo. It was bloody difficult. With the exception of the snow, crampons and ice-picks, it was pretty similar to Kili. At the beginning it wasn't too bad, but there was no respite from the steep ice-covered mountainsides and the ferocious, snow-laden winds. Once more, it was a matter of determination and mind over body. We didn't too too badly; we were one of the last groups to leave and we passed a fair few teams. A lot of climbers succombed to the effects of alitude or the difficulty of the task and turned back. We passed Marilyn and her fellow hiker, Martin (a really cool German cameraman, about 30) on their way down, after Marily felt too ill to continue. Our guide kept telling us that we were only 30 minutes from a sheltered place where we could have tea and chocolate, but he was definately lying! We finally got to a slightly less exposed place in a kind of ice-cave, and collapsed there for a while. I just wanted to go to sleep! We tried to keep warm by huddling, but I lost all feeling in my fingers after taking my gloves off to try and open my energy drink, which didn't work anyway. My Camelpack had frozen in the tube. A few minutes after we'd sat down, at about 6am, the complete darkness of the night was becoming less complete. Dawn was on the way. This meant two things: first, that it might get a bit warmer and more pleasant (yay), but second, that we had very little time to try for the summit (uh-oh). Jared clearly had enough in the tank to keep going, but I wasn't sure I did. We decided to go for it, and the first hurdle was a scramble up a really steep and horribly exposed section of the mountain. It was a hurdle too high for me. The wind was vicious, and hurled hard-frozen snow into our faces, making it impossible to see or breathe. My calves burned with every step. Being able to see the deep crevasses, blue beneath the surface, made me panic. When the guide told us that it was another two and a half hours to the top, two and a half hours which we didn't have, I decided that I'd done enough. With retrospect, I feel guilty because I think Jared could have made it. I offered to join another group going down and let him continue, but he said he was happy to come down.
When we returned to our semi-sheltered resting spot, dawn was breaking. It was amazing, and even though we didn't make it it was worth the climb to be there at that moment. Now, rather than only being able to make out, in the beam of our torches, the bit of snow immediately ahead of where we walked, we were gradually able to see the magical environment we had climbed into. An expanse of perfect whiteness loomed above and below us, and beautiful ice formations surrounded us. In the brief moments when the clouds cleared a little, we were treated to incredible views of the sierra stretching out beneath us, and we saw for the first time just how steep and scary was Cotopaxi. I took a fair few photos; it was too fantastic to think about how cold my fingers would get. I'm glad I did, because when we returned to the edge of the snow-cap, the clouds had engulfed the mountain again. The descent was like walking down a black diamond ski run, but with Jared leading carefully, with the aid of crampons and the ice-pick, and with the rope to secure us together, I wasn't too petrified. It took forever to get down though. We got back to the refuge at about 9.
The rest was pretty boring - we had a bit of food, met up with Brad and Marilyn, packed up our stuff and hiked back down the mountain to take our minibus back to Quito. Had a bit of lunch (in a very gringo Mongolian cafe), said goodbye to Martin, and went home for a much-needed shower. I was knackered. Still am - 10 hours of sleep isn't enough to recover from missing a whole night's sleep and climbing for 8 hours up a snow-capped mountain. I also have another cold, which maybe isn't too suprising after my weekend.
That was really the highlight of my week. I've been out a few times, played some "fuzball" at a bar with the worst table in the world ever, had a salsa class, and generally tried to improve my Spanish. It's definitely coming on! I've now got the future tenses, most of the past tenses, and some wierdo tense called the subjunctivo, as well as lots more of the little gramatical details. It's quite exciting! Other that that, erm... no mucho! One of the taxi's I took home one night was stopped by the police for an illegal u-turn, and the policeman took his licence. I had no idea what to do, but figured it was best to get out quick and find another taxi! Saw a fat old lady wearing an English hoodie with the word "HOTTIE" emblazoned across her chest. As I said, English isn't that widely understood over here. Have experienced some classic "carnaval" fun when I had a balloon of water thrown at me from a passing car.
This is my last week at the school, weird! Jared's been here since early January and has 3 months more or so, but said yesterday lunch time that he's really going to miss Marilyn and I. Which made me realise how much I'm going to miss my fellow students and host family. I never really factored in the fact that I wouldn't just be meeting people but actually making friends whilst I studied here. But a week is a long time! Jared has the DVD "Robin Hood, Man in Tights", which he's insisting on showing me before I leave. Brad and Jared have taken great delight in mocking me for my Englishness (something I never really thought about before), and apparently this movie is similar! I can't believe I'm the only Brit here. Getting ready for a game of beer pong later! Yay!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Mission Aborted
Well Dad, at least you'll be happy to learn that I didn't end up doing Cotopaxi this weekend. Though maybe the reason why isn't so reassuring!
Most of the group planning to climb Cotopaxi did an acclimatisation hike on Thursday afternoon on the volcano I climbed last weekend. My extra afternoon lessons meant that geeky me had to miss out. There were about 6 of them, but they got tired at different stages (or developed blisters, if you believe them) so they split up. Two of them (Sam and another American called Mary), it turned out, were robbed by a lone freak with a machete. From what I understand, but it's patchy and I forget exactly, they were separated, tied up, taken further up the mountain and robbed of everything they had - except their credit cards. I don't think he did them any physical harm, and they managed to get back okay in the end. But on Friday morning, when we met to depart for Cotopaxi, we didn't know what state they were in - all we'd heard, from the incredibly anxious director of the school, was that Mary was at her house and Sam had been found in a park on the other side of Quito really early in the morning by the police.
I thought I'd had a scary night - I went running into the posh housing estate in the north of the city, which I figured should be safe. But it seems that wealthy people have really aggressive dogs, and I ended up being chased by a pack of about 8 of them all barking at me all the way down the street. It was terrifying! And I thought it was just the men I had to be scared of in Ecuador! Anyway, hearing about what happened to Mary and Sam kind of put it into perspective. Meeting at breakfast, we were all really shaken up. I think the three others were feeling guilty for splitting up on the volcano - one of the girls was especially upset because she'd seen a guy hanging round suspiciously on the mountain and hadn't thought too much of it at the time. We weren't really in the right frame of mind to do the climb. Fortunately the company were great about it, and we promised that if we wanted to do it another time we'd use them. A few of us are hoping to do it in a fortnight or so.
People are, or a least were, really panicky at the school. Another one of the students was robbed twice this week, and one time she was floored in broad daylight. And there are riots going on in the centre of Quito about the political situation. It's a little scary I guess, but to be honest, although I'm definitely going to be more careful from now on (like by always using taxis at night, trying to do things in groups, and avoiding dangerous situations) I'm not going to let it stop me doing things. I don't think Quito's any more dangerous than normal, there has just been a spate of random incidents lately. In particular, everyone has said how safe the mountain usually is. I suppose Thursday night is a quiet time. I went up the volcano yesterday with Marlilyn again and there were loads of tourists so I felt totally safe. On a slightly more optimistic note, it was so much easier the second time. I was still wary of the steep bits but not petrified like last time, and I could feel that I was more acclimatised or fitter this time - we were much faster. I really do want to try Cotopaxi.
Once I heard that Sam and Mary were okay, I could enjoy the weekend. I bought a phone on Friday, and if anyone wants to send me a text or anything any time my number is 00 593 88571196. I feel a little more connected with people now. On Friday night one of the Danish girls was leaving, so the Danes cooked a Danish meal at the hostel in the school. It was great fun, we even had an exciting blackout for 10 minutes or so. Afterwards me, Marilyn and a guy called Brad (who was also part of the Cotopaxi group) went out to a salsa bar, mainly so Marilyn could practice her moves. Brad got lucky and attracted the advances of a 47 year old male tourist. Shame he's not gay. Apparently if a guy talks to another guy in a club in English, it's a sign they're gay. He knows this now! I practiced my Spanish chatting to some of the locals.
Yesterday, whilst I was out hiking, I acquired a new housemate. Alex is 28, pale-skinned, and Dutch, and arrived at 9 in the morning. By the evening he was as red as a lobster, underestimating the strenght of the sun at the ecuator. I invited him to come out with loads of the students last night. We went to a salsa party we heard about from the dance teacher at the school, held to raise money for a guy who broke his leg really badly and needs an operation. It was really fun, but the standard of dancing was way too high for me to risk embarrassing myself, so I just sat and chatted. There were a few performances too, which were very impressive. Really wish I knew some good moves! Alex is really nice, but I'm not going to get to speak as much Spanish at home since he's dependent on English at the moment. I'm not special any more! This morning we said goodbye to Alvaro, who left to go out into the jungle again. I'll miss him, he's been great to me and is really good fun. Hopefully he'll be back before I leave, but I don't know.
I'm at a bit of a loose end today. Some of the girls have gone to a little place with hot springs, but I wanted to say goodbye to Alvaro, spend some time on the internet, and study my verbs! I figure I've got six months over here, I should concentrate on learning the language first since I've got plenty of time to visit exciting places. I walked past the park, full of people being sporty, so I'll probably do some running myself later. It's the Superbowl later, is that American football? Most of the Americans are going to Gringolandia later to watch it. I'm not overly excited by the prospect, but maybe it'll be better than nothing. I shall see!
Most of the group planning to climb Cotopaxi did an acclimatisation hike on Thursday afternoon on the volcano I climbed last weekend. My extra afternoon lessons meant that geeky me had to miss out. There were about 6 of them, but they got tired at different stages (or developed blisters, if you believe them) so they split up. Two of them (Sam and another American called Mary), it turned out, were robbed by a lone freak with a machete. From what I understand, but it's patchy and I forget exactly, they were separated, tied up, taken further up the mountain and robbed of everything they had - except their credit cards. I don't think he did them any physical harm, and they managed to get back okay in the end. But on Friday morning, when we met to depart for Cotopaxi, we didn't know what state they were in - all we'd heard, from the incredibly anxious director of the school, was that Mary was at her house and Sam had been found in a park on the other side of Quito really early in the morning by the police.
I thought I'd had a scary night - I went running into the posh housing estate in the north of the city, which I figured should be safe. But it seems that wealthy people have really aggressive dogs, and I ended up being chased by a pack of about 8 of them all barking at me all the way down the street. It was terrifying! And I thought it was just the men I had to be scared of in Ecuador! Anyway, hearing about what happened to Mary and Sam kind of put it into perspective. Meeting at breakfast, we were all really shaken up. I think the three others were feeling guilty for splitting up on the volcano - one of the girls was especially upset because she'd seen a guy hanging round suspiciously on the mountain and hadn't thought too much of it at the time. We weren't really in the right frame of mind to do the climb. Fortunately the company were great about it, and we promised that if we wanted to do it another time we'd use them. A few of us are hoping to do it in a fortnight or so.
People are, or a least were, really panicky at the school. Another one of the students was robbed twice this week, and one time she was floored in broad daylight. And there are riots going on in the centre of Quito about the political situation. It's a little scary I guess, but to be honest, although I'm definitely going to be more careful from now on (like by always using taxis at night, trying to do things in groups, and avoiding dangerous situations) I'm not going to let it stop me doing things. I don't think Quito's any more dangerous than normal, there has just been a spate of random incidents lately. In particular, everyone has said how safe the mountain usually is. I suppose Thursday night is a quiet time. I went up the volcano yesterday with Marlilyn again and there were loads of tourists so I felt totally safe. On a slightly more optimistic note, it was so much easier the second time. I was still wary of the steep bits but not petrified like last time, and I could feel that I was more acclimatised or fitter this time - we were much faster. I really do want to try Cotopaxi.
Once I heard that Sam and Mary were okay, I could enjoy the weekend. I bought a phone on Friday, and if anyone wants to send me a text or anything any time my number is 00 593 88571196. I feel a little more connected with people now. On Friday night one of the Danish girls was leaving, so the Danes cooked a Danish meal at the hostel in the school. It was great fun, we even had an exciting blackout for 10 minutes or so. Afterwards me, Marilyn and a guy called Brad (who was also part of the Cotopaxi group) went out to a salsa bar, mainly so Marilyn could practice her moves. Brad got lucky and attracted the advances of a 47 year old male tourist. Shame he's not gay. Apparently if a guy talks to another guy in a club in English, it's a sign they're gay. He knows this now! I practiced my Spanish chatting to some of the locals.
Yesterday, whilst I was out hiking, I acquired a new housemate. Alex is 28, pale-skinned, and Dutch, and arrived at 9 in the morning. By the evening he was as red as a lobster, underestimating the strenght of the sun at the ecuator. I invited him to come out with loads of the students last night. We went to a salsa party we heard about from the dance teacher at the school, held to raise money for a guy who broke his leg really badly and needs an operation. It was really fun, but the standard of dancing was way too high for me to risk embarrassing myself, so I just sat and chatted. There were a few performances too, which were very impressive. Really wish I knew some good moves! Alex is really nice, but I'm not going to get to speak as much Spanish at home since he's dependent on English at the moment. I'm not special any more! This morning we said goodbye to Alvaro, who left to go out into the jungle again. I'll miss him, he's been great to me and is really good fun. Hopefully he'll be back before I leave, but I don't know.
I'm at a bit of a loose end today. Some of the girls have gone to a little place with hot springs, but I wanted to say goodbye to Alvaro, spend some time on the internet, and study my verbs! I figure I've got six months over here, I should concentrate on learning the language first since I've got plenty of time to visit exciting places. I walked past the park, full of people being sporty, so I'll probably do some running myself later. It's the Superbowl later, is that American football? Most of the Americans are going to Gringolandia later to watch it. I'm not overly excited by the prospect, but maybe it'll be better than nothing. I shall see!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
New Heights?
I know the name of the maid! Mercedes. I'd heard Pilar say it before, but assumed she was talking about the car. I feel a lot better knowing the name of the person I spend every breakfast and dinner time chatting to. And chat we do. She still speaks too fast for me to understand everything, but it's much better, and I can talk to her back. I tell her all the stories from the school, and what I get up to, and we can even have a joke! Pilar, Belen and Alvaro (the cool son whose name I didn't know before either) seem quite impressed by my Spanish, but then going to anything from nothing is definitely progress.
I had SUCH a good weekend. Friday night out in "Gringolandia" was so much fun. We started off in a bar with loads of pool, ping-pong and table football tables. The music was a bit too English/American, but pool was great. I potted the black to bring victory for our team and beat a couple of guys, of which I was quite proud. Then we moved on to another, less game-based bar, and did a bit of dancing. After a mojito (at $2) or two, dancing was easy! And one of the guys from the school, Oliver, showed me a few moves. It was fun chatting to the other students and a few locals, and generally letting my hair down. Amazing how drunk you can get at this altitude though, I was seeing double by the end of the night. Though fortunately I think I managed to avoid standing on too many toes, so all was good!
The next day, slightly hungover, Marilyn (from Sweden), Sam (from New England), Aldis (from Iceland) and I went to the Mitad del Mundo. We got a few photos posing in front of the equator monument and the official line, had a traditional Ecuadorian lunch (minus the roasted whole guinea pig, thankfully), and browsed the touristy tiendas. I really wish I'd bought the llama finger-puppet! We were persuaded by a guy in the car park to take a trip to a nearby volcano caldera (impressed Tash?) for a bit of a hike. Sadly it was too cloudy up there to see much except a few metres of the path ahead, but it was really cool - more cloud-forest type scenery. The guide showed us various medicinal plants and persuaded us to try them. We sampled anis, rosemary, mint, some wierd plant that is supposed to help with period pain, and some hallucinogenic berries. It takes 40 to have hallucinations, we only had 1 each. Probably a good idea since the path was quite narrow and the drop quite steep!
On Sunday, having recovered from my hangover (but not from being continually teased about it by Mercedes), Marilyn and I took the Teleferico (a new cable car) a good way up the volcano that looms to the west of Quito, called Pichincha. From a height of 4,100m (at the top of the cable car), we hiked to the top of one of it's summits, at about 4,700m. It doesn't sound much, but it was so tiring at that altitude! It took us about 3 hours to get up to the top, and the terrain was really tricky at times. I got scared! The paths were narrow and the drops so sheer. At times we were scrambling up scree slopes and traversing almost vertical walls of rock. I don't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that clouds obscured the views at times. It definitely didn't help me to know that some mountaineer died up there last Saturday, which we found out half way up! Maybe because of that, there were various arrows and "NO"s graffiti-ed on the path suggesting that it wasn't the best idea to take this route, but everyone else was... And we made it down okay! The views were spectacular. Not only were the mountains we were amongst dramatic, but we could see Quito sprawled out in front of us, and in the distance the perfectly cone-shaped, classically snow-capped volcano of Cotopaxi rising out of the clouds.
I'm still not sure whether it's a great idea, but Marilyn and I are joining a group that Oliver is getting together to attempt Cotopaxi this coming weekend. He suggested it on Friday night, and maybe I wasn't in the best condition to consider the idea rationally. But he's a rock climber - in fact he teaches it - and he's spoken to a good company about getting a guide and seems to know what he's doing. At least, I thought so, until yesterday, when I heard what happened at the weekend. He and two of the other students, Matthew (from the US, like Oliver), and Maria (Danish, like everyone else), hired a car to visit Columbia for the weekend. I think all they really wanted was a Colombian passport stamp. Oliver invited me to come, and I would have been tempted had I not made other plans. Anyway, they got stopped by the Ecuadorean police on the way and searched. Incredibly stupidly, Oliver had marijuana with him. The whole group were interrogated individually, in Spanish, and Oliver ended up forking out a bribe of over $700 to let them go. They made it on to Columbia and back without a hiccup. But Oliver has not been his usual cheerful self since! He claimed he was going to use or get rid of it all before they attempted to cross the border, but even then there'd have been a detectable residue, surely. It makes an interesting travel story (which kept my host family entertained), but a very expensive one for Oliver. Glad I wasn't persuaded to go. Well, kind of...
Nevertheless, I put my name down for the Cotopaxi trip today. I'm hearing various reports. One guy at the school did it last weekend, and says it was the hardest thing he's ever done. But he made it. My host family think I'm crazy, since I have no experience of ice or snow climbing. It's true, crampons and other gear is required, but the company provides all the specialist stuff. It's expensive relative to other things I could do at the weekend, but at $140 it's a bargain, and I'm not going to get an opportunity like this again. I didn't quite make it to the top of Kilimanjaro, but I coped alright with what I did do, so I'm determined that I can do this one. Okay I'm not great with heights, but I hear it's a relatively gradual climb, and we're trussed up to one another. Plus it'll be nighttime or snowing, so I won't see the drops! I've spent nearly 2 weeks at nearly 3000m in Quito, including some running, plus I did an acclimatisation climb on Sunday. We're a group of 7, and most of them have as little or less experience than me. So I'm going to go for it. We leave at 8am on Friday (so I have to rearrange my lessons) and should get back on Sunday evening. I'm scared!
I had SUCH a good weekend. Friday night out in "Gringolandia" was so much fun. We started off in a bar with loads of pool, ping-pong and table football tables. The music was a bit too English/American, but pool was great. I potted the black to bring victory for our team and beat a couple of guys, of which I was quite proud. Then we moved on to another, less game-based bar, and did a bit of dancing. After a mojito (at $2) or two, dancing was easy! And one of the guys from the school, Oliver, showed me a few moves. It was fun chatting to the other students and a few locals, and generally letting my hair down. Amazing how drunk you can get at this altitude though, I was seeing double by the end of the night. Though fortunately I think I managed to avoid standing on too many toes, so all was good!
The next day, slightly hungover, Marilyn (from Sweden), Sam (from New England), Aldis (from Iceland) and I went to the Mitad del Mundo. We got a few photos posing in front of the equator monument and the official line, had a traditional Ecuadorian lunch (minus the roasted whole guinea pig, thankfully), and browsed the touristy tiendas. I really wish I'd bought the llama finger-puppet! We were persuaded by a guy in the car park to take a trip to a nearby volcano caldera (impressed Tash?) for a bit of a hike. Sadly it was too cloudy up there to see much except a few metres of the path ahead, but it was really cool - more cloud-forest type scenery. The guide showed us various medicinal plants and persuaded us to try them. We sampled anis, rosemary, mint, some wierd plant that is supposed to help with period pain, and some hallucinogenic berries. It takes 40 to have hallucinations, we only had 1 each. Probably a good idea since the path was quite narrow and the drop quite steep!
On Sunday, having recovered from my hangover (but not from being continually teased about it by Mercedes), Marilyn and I took the Teleferico (a new cable car) a good way up the volcano that looms to the west of Quito, called Pichincha. From a height of 4,100m (at the top of the cable car), we hiked to the top of one of it's summits, at about 4,700m. It doesn't sound much, but it was so tiring at that altitude! It took us about 3 hours to get up to the top, and the terrain was really tricky at times. I got scared! The paths were narrow and the drops so sheer. At times we were scrambling up scree slopes and traversing almost vertical walls of rock. I don't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that clouds obscured the views at times. It definitely didn't help me to know that some mountaineer died up there last Saturday, which we found out half way up! Maybe because of that, there were various arrows and "NO"s graffiti-ed on the path suggesting that it wasn't the best idea to take this route, but everyone else was... And we made it down okay! The views were spectacular. Not only were the mountains we were amongst dramatic, but we could see Quito sprawled out in front of us, and in the distance the perfectly cone-shaped, classically snow-capped volcano of Cotopaxi rising out of the clouds.
I'm still not sure whether it's a great idea, but Marilyn and I are joining a group that Oliver is getting together to attempt Cotopaxi this coming weekend. He suggested it on Friday night, and maybe I wasn't in the best condition to consider the idea rationally. But he's a rock climber - in fact he teaches it - and he's spoken to a good company about getting a guide and seems to know what he's doing. At least, I thought so, until yesterday, when I heard what happened at the weekend. He and two of the other students, Matthew (from the US, like Oliver), and Maria (Danish, like everyone else), hired a car to visit Columbia for the weekend. I think all they really wanted was a Colombian passport stamp. Oliver invited me to come, and I would have been tempted had I not made other plans. Anyway, they got stopped by the Ecuadorean police on the way and searched. Incredibly stupidly, Oliver had marijuana with him. The whole group were interrogated individually, in Spanish, and Oliver ended up forking out a bribe of over $700 to let them go. They made it on to Columbia and back without a hiccup. But Oliver has not been his usual cheerful self since! He claimed he was going to use or get rid of it all before they attempted to cross the border, but even then there'd have been a detectable residue, surely. It makes an interesting travel story (which kept my host family entertained), but a very expensive one for Oliver. Glad I wasn't persuaded to go. Well, kind of...
Nevertheless, I put my name down for the Cotopaxi trip today. I'm hearing various reports. One guy at the school did it last weekend, and says it was the hardest thing he's ever done. But he made it. My host family think I'm crazy, since I have no experience of ice or snow climbing. It's true, crampons and other gear is required, but the company provides all the specialist stuff. It's expensive relative to other things I could do at the weekend, but at $140 it's a bargain, and I'm not going to get an opportunity like this again. I didn't quite make it to the top of Kilimanjaro, but I coped alright with what I did do, so I'm determined that I can do this one. Okay I'm not great with heights, but I hear it's a relatively gradual climb, and we're trussed up to one another. Plus it'll be nighttime or snowing, so I won't see the drops! I've spent nearly 2 weeks at nearly 3000m in Quito, including some running, plus I did an acclimatisation climb on Sunday. We're a group of 7, and most of them have as little or less experience than me. So I'm going to go for it. We leave at 8am on Friday (so I have to rearrange my lessons) and should get back on Sunday evening. I'm scared!
Friday, January 26, 2007
One more thing
Oh yeah, and my phone doesn't work over here. I paid 20 English pounds to have the thing unlocked, but I am told that South American SIM cards won't work with it. I may try and get a cheap phone this weekend, but until I do, my phone is just my alarm clock. Not that I need one. I'm still waking up at 5.30 or 6 every morning naturally! Anyway, send me emails, I'm missing you all!
Bloody Ecuadorean Weather
I thought that, travelling to exotic tropical places, I'd escape the English weather. How wrong I was. It was disgusting last night; I got drenched on the way home. This morning was the same. It's cold and wet. AND I hear England is getting snow! So not fair!! Plus I've got a stonking cold. Couldn't speak when I woke up this morning. I thought that with all the exciting fruits I'm getting I'd be more than meeting my vitamin C requirements.
I've just finished my first week of classes in the Academia. What have I learnt? Well, I'm not fluent yet, that's for sure. My vocabulary is certainly growing (the fact that you can often just add an "o" or "amente" to English words helps), but I'm a bit useless at conjugating my verbs properly. We had a test this morning, our weekly review - it's like being back at high school! I did alright with parts of the body and adjectives, but my little composition was a bit shitty. I got confused with estar and ser, which both mean "to be". Practice is the key, I'm sure, I just need the confidence to try what I think I know with Spanish-speaking people. It's not the fear of getting it wrong that makes me wary, it's the fact that I can never understand the replies! This morning the maid (whose name I STILL don't know!) was chatting away to me, trying to speak clearly, but even then I didn't really have a clue. It's a bit demoralising when two of the other people in my class of four have absolutely no problems. Now I know what it's like to be the dunce of the class! I'm definitely improving though.
It's really interesting to learn about the culture of Ecuador. Most of the exercises try to incorporate social issues. We had a (very slow paced!) debate about the pros and cons of immigration the other day, and we've covered national festivals, religion and education too. This afternoon, in my one-to-one class, we went through an article translated from an English newspaper about an affair between the mother of a Premiership footballer and her son's teammate, who was only 14. We got into the legality and propriety of underage sexual relationships, all in Spanish, it was a little bizarre!
I'm getting to know the other traveller-types in the school too. There's a real mixture. There's probably about 30 students at the Academia, and at least 15 are between 18 and 25. There are some more mature students, they're really fun too. There are a variety of nationalities, with the inevitable collection of yanks, but fewer English than I expected, and a surprisingly high number of Danish students. Most people chat in English: I'm so impressed by the Icelandics and the Danes speaking near perfect English and learning Spanish! I'm getting to know more of my fellow students. At first it seemed a bit cliquey, since some of them have been here for over a month. But it's not really. Some people are here for aaaages. Their Spanish will be great, but I think I'd get reeeeally bored staying here for so long. I'm already itching to get off travelling again. Can't wait for my tour of Ecuador!
This week has been mostly filled with learning Spanish, but there have been more exciting moments. As well as the amazing soups and veggie meals I'm getting for dinner, I got lemon meringue pie for dessert on Tuesday! My maid tried to scare me by telling me it was made of fish, but surprisingly I wasn't fooled. Bless her. The Ecuadorians do think I'm weird to be vegetarian. I hate to think what the reaction will be in Argentina, home of the best steak in the world. So, because I just can't resist all the good food I'm getting, I really need an alternative strategy to stop me putting on an extra 3 stone. I'm walking to and from school (it takes about 45 minutes) - except this morning when I got a taxi (for $1.80) because the weather was so disgusting - and I went for a run on Wednesday. It's incredibly tiring at 3000m! Good job too - I got lemon meringue pudding Wednesday night as well. My host mother seems to be on a diet and has no carbs or dessert and really small portions, whilst I get a huge bowl of soup (which sometimes consists of pasta, potatoes, cheese and milk), a big plate of rice, bean mush, salad and sometimes fried and caramelised bananas, followed by a huge slice of pie. Still, I think it makes the maid happy that I have a good appetite!
Last night there was a dancing class in the Academia. It was led by a really cute black guy with the fastest feet and hips in the world! I just about managed to keep up with the first few moves, but then it got so fast I coudn't even see what his feet were doing, let along try and copy him! It was really energetic and good fun though. We did a bit of salsa, marangue and tango. Think I'll have to have had a fair few drinks to try them out for real! Marilyn, the Swede, besides being a genius at Spanish, is also an amazing dancer and did a few songs with the teacher after the class. Wish I could dance like that! We went into the area of Quito nicknamed "Gringolandia", for obvious reasons, for a meal after. It was one of the most expensive places in Quito: I paid about $7 for a dish of veggie spaghetti and a diet coke!
Tonight the plan is to go out dancing in one of the salsa-teques. Oh dear! I'll be trying not to make a huge fool of myself. Tomorrow a few of us are going to go to "La mitad del mundo" (the middle of the world), a site right on the equator where the water goes straight down the toilet when you flush it, and various other interesting gravitational or magnetic phenomena occur. There's a museum and such like. And on Sunday, weather permitting (which, as in England, it probably won't be), I'll be going up el teleferico (a cable car) into the mountains for a bit of hiking. Quite excited about that. It'll be practice for Cotopaxi, a big 6000m-plus ice-capped volcano that I'd really like to climb. Only problem is that you need crampons and stuff... and I'm not great with heights...
Finally, I'd like to draw your attention to a statistic of which I am most proud.
Items lost so far: 0
To all of you who are placing bets, ha ha ha. (Admittedly there is another statistic of which I am ashamed. Items left in the computer room of the Academia: 1 purse. But that doesn't count, because someone handed it in for me. Right?)
I've just finished my first week of classes in the Academia. What have I learnt? Well, I'm not fluent yet, that's for sure. My vocabulary is certainly growing (the fact that you can often just add an "o" or "amente" to English words helps), but I'm a bit useless at conjugating my verbs properly. We had a test this morning, our weekly review - it's like being back at high school! I did alright with parts of the body and adjectives, but my little composition was a bit shitty. I got confused with estar and ser, which both mean "to be". Practice is the key, I'm sure, I just need the confidence to try what I think I know with Spanish-speaking people. It's not the fear of getting it wrong that makes me wary, it's the fact that I can never understand the replies! This morning the maid (whose name I STILL don't know!) was chatting away to me, trying to speak clearly, but even then I didn't really have a clue. It's a bit demoralising when two of the other people in my class of four have absolutely no problems. Now I know what it's like to be the dunce of the class! I'm definitely improving though.
It's really interesting to learn about the culture of Ecuador. Most of the exercises try to incorporate social issues. We had a (very slow paced!) debate about the pros and cons of immigration the other day, and we've covered national festivals, religion and education too. This afternoon, in my one-to-one class, we went through an article translated from an English newspaper about an affair between the mother of a Premiership footballer and her son's teammate, who was only 14. We got into the legality and propriety of underage sexual relationships, all in Spanish, it was a little bizarre!
I'm getting to know the other traveller-types in the school too. There's a real mixture. There's probably about 30 students at the Academia, and at least 15 are between 18 and 25. There are some more mature students, they're really fun too. There are a variety of nationalities, with the inevitable collection of yanks, but fewer English than I expected, and a surprisingly high number of Danish students. Most people chat in English: I'm so impressed by the Icelandics and the Danes speaking near perfect English and learning Spanish! I'm getting to know more of my fellow students. At first it seemed a bit cliquey, since some of them have been here for over a month. But it's not really. Some people are here for aaaages. Their Spanish will be great, but I think I'd get reeeeally bored staying here for so long. I'm already itching to get off travelling again. Can't wait for my tour of Ecuador!
This week has been mostly filled with learning Spanish, but there have been more exciting moments. As well as the amazing soups and veggie meals I'm getting for dinner, I got lemon meringue pie for dessert on Tuesday! My maid tried to scare me by telling me it was made of fish, but surprisingly I wasn't fooled. Bless her. The Ecuadorians do think I'm weird to be vegetarian. I hate to think what the reaction will be in Argentina, home of the best steak in the world. So, because I just can't resist all the good food I'm getting, I really need an alternative strategy to stop me putting on an extra 3 stone. I'm walking to and from school (it takes about 45 minutes) - except this morning when I got a taxi (for $1.80) because the weather was so disgusting - and I went for a run on Wednesday. It's incredibly tiring at 3000m! Good job too - I got lemon meringue pudding Wednesday night as well. My host mother seems to be on a diet and has no carbs or dessert and really small portions, whilst I get a huge bowl of soup (which sometimes consists of pasta, potatoes, cheese and milk), a big plate of rice, bean mush, salad and sometimes fried and caramelised bananas, followed by a huge slice of pie. Still, I think it makes the maid happy that I have a good appetite!
Last night there was a dancing class in the Academia. It was led by a really cute black guy with the fastest feet and hips in the world! I just about managed to keep up with the first few moves, but then it got so fast I coudn't even see what his feet were doing, let along try and copy him! It was really energetic and good fun though. We did a bit of salsa, marangue and tango. Think I'll have to have had a fair few drinks to try them out for real! Marilyn, the Swede, besides being a genius at Spanish, is also an amazing dancer and did a few songs with the teacher after the class. Wish I could dance like that! We went into the area of Quito nicknamed "Gringolandia", for obvious reasons, for a meal after. It was one of the most expensive places in Quito: I paid about $7 for a dish of veggie spaghetti and a diet coke!
Tonight the plan is to go out dancing in one of the salsa-teques. Oh dear! I'll be trying not to make a huge fool of myself. Tomorrow a few of us are going to go to "La mitad del mundo" (the middle of the world), a site right on the equator where the water goes straight down the toilet when you flush it, and various other interesting gravitational or magnetic phenomena occur. There's a museum and such like. And on Sunday, weather permitting (which, as in England, it probably won't be), I'll be going up el teleferico (a cable car) into the mountains for a bit of hiking. Quite excited about that. It'll be practice for Cotopaxi, a big 6000m-plus ice-capped volcano that I'd really like to climb. Only problem is that you need crampons and stuff... and I'm not great with heights...
Finally, I'd like to draw your attention to a statistic of which I am most proud.
Items lost so far: 0
To all of you who are placing bets, ha ha ha. (Admittedly there is another statistic of which I am ashamed. Items left in the computer room of the Academia: 1 purse. But that doesn't count, because someone handed it in for me. Right?)
Monday, January 22, 2007
Cloud Forest
I got very very excited on Saturday when Pilar said that there might be a squash court at the Academia, where I'll be learning Spanish for the next month. I've just had the tour; there isn't. There is a tiny indoor sports hall with a volleyball net in, so it has potential, but definitely not for squash. After blogging and lunch on Saturday (during which I stupidly decided to stir up my diet coke with my straw and made it explode all over me in a quiet little cafe) I went into the park in the bit of the city I'm based - mainly to dry off. Everyone was playing football, volleyball and basketball, and running or cycling! I got such a craving to do some exercise. I decided that I'd go for a run round the park on Sunday. But then Pilar invited me to go out with "la familia" in the morning, so my plans fell through. I ended up spending most of the day sat in the back seat of the car as we went on a big road trip.
It was fab though. The family, it turns out, for that day at least, was Pilar, Maria-Belen, and her gorgeous "friend", Carlos - or Charlie as he seems to prefer. Charlie is an ex-boyfriend who has been studying in Argentina for 4 years and got back a month ago. Pilar claims they're just friends at the moment but they're clearly together, they're very cute! We spent about 2 hours driving around Quito: picking up Belen and Charlie from his flat, driving back to the house so Belen could have a shower, driving to a shop for some picnic material (where, having been left to melt in the car, I succeeded in setting off the car alarm by trying to open the door for some air - a story Pilar took great delight in recounting to Belen and Charlie), and driving back to the house to pick Belen and Charlie back up. Finally, we were off. I thought we'd be going to a cafe or something, but an hour later we were driving through mountains of dense forest - the "cloud forest". It was spectacular - misty clouds swirl around mountainsides and valleys, every inch of which are covered in lush green vegetation. We arrived in a touristy cloud forest town called Mindo, and stopped at a lodge retreat. It's prime attraction, it seemed, was the "frog concert", every night from 6pm till 8. It turns out that hundreds of little frogs that live in the pond find that dusk is the best time to make themselves known to potential mates, and they do it by "singing". Sadly we were too early for the live spectacle, but the manager of the lodge had it recorded on his mini digital dictaphone! The lodge consisted of several log cabins and a restaurant surrounding a little pond in the forest, with butterfly and orchid enclosure attached. Pilar asked lots of questions about the place, suggesting she was interested in staying here (was she pretending?), so we got the full tour - and some speciality ice-cream! I managed to supress my fear of flying insecty things in the butterfly enclosure; I impressed myself. The best bit was the hummingbirds - loads of them, beautifully coloured, flying freely around the retreat, hovering silently around some nectar pots. Hopefully I'll get to go back to Mindo one weekend; there were adverts all around for rafting, kayaking, tubing, and that thing where you go on a wire between trees. And next time I'll bring my camera!
So right now I'm sat in the computer room of the Academia Latinoamericana. I've just had my first day. I'm definitely being thrown in at the deep end - everything is explained en español! I did a little Spanish test (verbal and oral), which confirmed how bad my Spanish really is, and then we were taken into the old colonial centre of Quito. We visited museums and churches and watched some traditional changing-of-the-guards type ceremony outside the presidential palace. All described to us in Spanish, of course, so I have only a vague clue what we were actually looking at. It was very pretty though, and I took photos, so will try and figure out how to get them on the net. The nuevos estudiantes all seem really cool - there are 6 of us: 2 career-breaker English women in their 40s, as well as a cool Swedish girl, an Icelandic girl and an American guy who are more my age. Not sure who'll be in my class, I shall see tomorrow! Because I signed up for super-intensive classes, I've got 4 hours of group lessons in the morning, then an extra 2 hours of 1-to-1 in the afternoon. No-one else seems to be doing that! I'm going to be so sick of Spanish, and I'm getting that way already!
Right, I'd better be off to have my meal cooked and presented to me back at the house by my maid. She gives my my food and just chats away to me in Spanish. I've got no idea what she's saying, and I'm sure she knows that, but she rambles on anyway. I really have to learn so I can at least understand her!
It was fab though. The family, it turns out, for that day at least, was Pilar, Maria-Belen, and her gorgeous "friend", Carlos - or Charlie as he seems to prefer. Charlie is an ex-boyfriend who has been studying in Argentina for 4 years and got back a month ago. Pilar claims they're just friends at the moment but they're clearly together, they're very cute! We spent about 2 hours driving around Quito: picking up Belen and Charlie from his flat, driving back to the house so Belen could have a shower, driving to a shop for some picnic material (where, having been left to melt in the car, I succeeded in setting off the car alarm by trying to open the door for some air - a story Pilar took great delight in recounting to Belen and Charlie), and driving back to the house to pick Belen and Charlie back up. Finally, we were off. I thought we'd be going to a cafe or something, but an hour later we were driving through mountains of dense forest - the "cloud forest". It was spectacular - misty clouds swirl around mountainsides and valleys, every inch of which are covered in lush green vegetation. We arrived in a touristy cloud forest town called Mindo, and stopped at a lodge retreat. It's prime attraction, it seemed, was the "frog concert", every night from 6pm till 8. It turns out that hundreds of little frogs that live in the pond find that dusk is the best time to make themselves known to potential mates, and they do it by "singing". Sadly we were too early for the live spectacle, but the manager of the lodge had it recorded on his mini digital dictaphone! The lodge consisted of several log cabins and a restaurant surrounding a little pond in the forest, with butterfly and orchid enclosure attached. Pilar asked lots of questions about the place, suggesting she was interested in staying here (was she pretending?), so we got the full tour - and some speciality ice-cream! I managed to supress my fear of flying insecty things in the butterfly enclosure; I impressed myself. The best bit was the hummingbirds - loads of them, beautifully coloured, flying freely around the retreat, hovering silently around some nectar pots. Hopefully I'll get to go back to Mindo one weekend; there were adverts all around for rafting, kayaking, tubing, and that thing where you go on a wire between trees. And next time I'll bring my camera!
So right now I'm sat in the computer room of the Academia Latinoamericana. I've just had my first day. I'm definitely being thrown in at the deep end - everything is explained en español! I did a little Spanish test (verbal and oral), which confirmed how bad my Spanish really is, and then we were taken into the old colonial centre of Quito. We visited museums and churches and watched some traditional changing-of-the-guards type ceremony outside the presidential palace. All described to us in Spanish, of course, so I have only a vague clue what we were actually looking at. It was very pretty though, and I took photos, so will try and figure out how to get them on the net. The nuevos estudiantes all seem really cool - there are 6 of us: 2 career-breaker English women in their 40s, as well as a cool Swedish girl, an Icelandic girl and an American guy who are more my age. Not sure who'll be in my class, I shall see tomorrow! Because I signed up for super-intensive classes, I've got 4 hours of group lessons in the morning, then an extra 2 hours of 1-to-1 in the afternoon. No-one else seems to be doing that! I'm going to be so sick of Spanish, and I'm getting that way already!
Right, I'd better be off to have my meal cooked and presented to me back at the house by my maid. She gives my my food and just chats away to me in Spanish. I've got no idea what she's saying, and I'm sure she knows that, but she rambles on anyway. I really have to learn so I can at least understand her!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
It Begins!
I disagree with what the guidebooks say: it's hot in Quito! I'm regretting wearing my jumper and bringing my bloody heavy ski jacket to explore. There are some English looking girls walking past the window of this internet cafe wearing vest tops and shorts. I've spent the last 3 hours wandering round with the sun getting stronger searching for an internet cafe and dying for a pee. I've tried asking around but my Spanish is seriously pitiful and no-one speaks English. Eventually I found this one, and the guy running it had to ask a customer what I wanted when I was asking for the toilets! "Donde estan los servicios, por favor?" doesn't seem to work here. After a overlong flight it's been good to stretch my legs at least, I suppose.
I can't decide whether I was lucky or unlucky with my journey. Getting to Manchester Airport was the worst bit - it was the windiest day ever on Thursday and we had to shift tree debris off the road before we could even get out of the drive. The traffic was awful, there was a telegraph pole hanging precariously over Glazebrook Lane, Thelwall Viaduct was shut because two HGVs had toppled over, and a tree was blocking our alternative route. When I finally arrived, an announcement declared all runways at Manchester closed and most flights cancelled. Fortunately it turned out that mine was just delayed. For some reason I'm developing a real fear of flying, which wasn't really helped by the weather conditions, or by what I thought was a fun light-hearted travel journal about South America that I decided to finish off whilst waiting for my plane. It suddenly stopped being so light-hearted when one of the 3 main characters unexpectedly drowned in the sea off Columbia, leading to lots of philosophising about the meaning of life and death and travelling. Let's just say I was very relieved to make it to Madrid! My hostel was shit. The rain dripped through the roof onto some echoey metal thing right outside my window all night. Had to shove a towel under it at 3am.
Driving to the airport the next morning, Madrid looked really pretty, I wished I'd had more time there. I thought I might have had my wish granted when I tried to check in for my Quito flight and the Iberia man told me that the flight was over-booked. Apparently this happens often! But fortunately, he said, there were some spare seats, and I was just in time to get the last one. There was some mention of an upgrade to business class but that never materialised. What happened to the people who couldn't get "spare seats"?! The flight was long and dull, but I quite enjoyed "The Queen", and got through a lot of "Into the Heart of the Amazon" (thanks Tash, it's great!). I got a bit worried arriving into Quito about the box of chocolates and tin of biscuits I'd brought for my host family, because food was mentioned as something I'd have to declare when I went through customs on the forms we were given on the plane. I confessed to the customs man and offered them up, but he laughed and waved me on. I didn't even get an Ecuador stamp on my passport! HAVE to get one on the way out. (Managed to blag one in Madrid though!)
Sure enough, amongst the crowds of people waiting to greet people off the plane (it's a small airport and it seemed ours was the only incoming flight all day), I spotted a sign with my name on in big capital letters. It was held up by a small, friendly-looking native Ecuadorean woman, who greeted me with a kiss and a hug. Aww, I get to stay with a cute native family, I thought! She spoke no English at all, and my efforts at making conversation were just dire, so we waited in friendly silence for the car to meet us outside. It struck me how small everyone was - I felt like a giant! And that's saying something!
It turned out that this sweet little lady is in fact the servant of the family I'm staying with. In the car that met us were Pilar, a retired widow (I think), and her lovely 23 year old daughter, Maria. They're tiny too! Pilar speaks a little English, so we can say some things to each other, sort of, but Maria speaks great English. She's a student of Eco-tourism currently doing her thesis, and she plays football for her university team. There's no sign of the 28 year old son, who apparently works in the oil industry (which seems at polar odds with what Maria does given the damage the oil industry is causing to Ecuador's natural environment and native communities...). In fact, I think I've got his room. The maid (who's name I've forgotten, I feel awful) cooked me a yummy dinner of soup followed by pasta carbonara (no bacon, they know I'm vegetarian thankfully) and a salad, and then some black tea. I was still a bit wobbly from the flight so went to bed at 9.30ish - which meant I woke up every half hour after 3am. Felt very refreshed after a much-needed shower. The house - or rather, flat - is lovely, I'm living in luxury! I'm very much enjoying the double bed. And the family seem perfect. I just want to learn Spanish fast so I can actually talk to them properly! There's only so far muchas gracias and muy bueno (which are probably wrong) will take me in conversation.
It's 11.30am and Quito is busy. It's an amazing city, stretching for miles in a valley about 2,600m above sea level, flanked by higher mountains, which are often shrouded in mist. I definitely felt the altitude when I was lugging my backpack up 3 flights of stairs last night! After much wandering around, I have a few observations. It's more upmarket than most of the African cities I visited (the cars don't churn out black smoke and break down every 5 minutes, and the buses and taxis actually look safe enough to ride), and I've only come across a few street kids so far. There's a hint of military presence, but not too much. And although there are the few inevitable whistles and comments, I don't feel like I stick out like a sore thumb amongst the locals here as I did amongst the Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians. The sunshine probably helps, but I feel pretty at ease for the moment. And very hungry...
I'll be impressed if anyone reads to here, I've written loads! Will try and keep it shorter in future! Right, off to find a Spanish dictionary and some lunch.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
What AM I doing going to South America?
Quite a lot of things, actually. Here's a brief run-down:
Ecuador
It all kicks of with a 4-week Spanish course in Quito, Ecuador. English isn't very well-spoken in South America, so I'm going to need it. (January 22 - February 16)
If I've not had enough of the country, I've got a 15-day hiking, biking, rafting tour of Ecuador. Have to satisfy my exercise cravings when I can. (February 18 - March 4)
Peru
Then I'm being a goody-two-shoes with a month of community work with orphans in Trujillo, Peru. Hopefully I'll get some time off to flake out on the beach! (March 9 - April 7)
After all my selfless hard work, I'm going to do the touristy thing on an Inca Discovery Tour, including hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Macchu Picchu - yay! (April 11 - 18)
Argentina and Chile
Next, it's down to the very southern tip of the continent, via Buenos Aires, for a trip round the End of the Earth, doing some hiking and general sight-seeing round the icy and mountainous Patagonian region and visiting the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia. (April 21 - May 5)
Bolivia
I'll be flying into La Paz, the highest city in the world. Bit scared about that, because flying straight up to a location 3,600m high carries a risk of altitude sickness. Think I'll be taking the Diamox left over from doing Kili with me just in case! I'll be doing a 2-month journalism placement on an English newspaper in La Paz. With my time off, I'd love to visit Lake Titicaca (if only for it's comedy name) and do some hiking in the mountains... (May 10 - July 8)
Chile, Paraguay and Brazil
Limited flight routes means I've got 5 days in Santiago de Chile, in the Andes. What can you do in 5 days?
Then I'll be flying to Asuncion in Paraguay, to make my way overland to the Iguassu Falls (3 times bigger than Niagara), and then on to Sao Paulo, from where I fly home at the end of July.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Hi!
So this is my first post. The opening page in my journal; the launch of my blog. A momentous event.
It's Boxing Day 2006. Not sure why I chose this day to start the blog. But it's as good a day as any. Except perhaps New Year's Day, thinking about it. Hmm.
I'm still enjoying the festive period at home in the bosom of my family. You know, watching naff telly and eating far too much, catching up with old friends over lots of drinks, falling out with my brother over who gets the best chair in the living room. Good times. And yet, in the back of my mind wondering how long it will be before we stop doing the family thing at Christmas, how long before friends move away...
But in terms of the more immediate and certain future, South America looms pretty large. I'm in the process of booking my language course, but other than that everything is pretty much booked and sorted -as much as it needs to be, pre-departure. I am excited, definitely, but I'm surprisingly calm about it I think. There's lots I should be doing. I want to be up on South American history (I've got enough reading material from my brother this Christmas), I'm supposed to be getting a head start on learning Spanish with my teach yourself course, and I really ought to get familiar with the Lonely Planet, since it's going to be my bible when I'm out there. And then there's packing. How to get 6 month's worth of stuff into a rucksack? Answers on a postcard...
In fact writing all this is making me realise how little time I have left. Better get cracking on those books.
It's Boxing Day 2006. Not sure why I chose this day to start the blog. But it's as good a day as any. Except perhaps New Year's Day, thinking about it. Hmm.
I'm still enjoying the festive period at home in the bosom of my family. You know, watching naff telly and eating far too much, catching up with old friends over lots of drinks, falling out with my brother over who gets the best chair in the living room. Good times. And yet, in the back of my mind wondering how long it will be before we stop doing the family thing at Christmas, how long before friends move away...
But in terms of the more immediate and certain future, South America looms pretty large. I'm in the process of booking my language course, but other than that everything is pretty much booked and sorted -as much as it needs to be, pre-departure. I am excited, definitely, but I'm surprisingly calm about it I think. There's lots I should be doing. I want to be up on South American history (I've got enough reading material from my brother this Christmas), I'm supposed to be getting a head start on learning Spanish with my teach yourself course, and I really ought to get familiar with the Lonely Planet, since it's going to be my bible when I'm out there. And then there's packing. How to get 6 month's worth of stuff into a rucksack? Answers on a postcard...
In fact writing all this is making me realise how little time I have left. Better get cracking on those books.
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