March 29th, 2009
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We arrived in Loja around 9am yesterday, which was nice. The first thing we did after checking into the hostel was to look for info regarding Peru. Jens had lost my Peru Lonely Planet guide somewhere a day or two ago. I spoke to a travel agent and decided on a route to take. Eight hours, eight bucks, (the price of the trip here seems to equate to the number of hours you will be on the bus), to Piura Peru. I was only able to find one hostel online there, so I will check it out when I get there.
Loja is a lot bigger than Zamora, and feels just as safe. We spent the day taking care of day to day things, laundry, re-organizing, you know, the normal stuff. We walked around and checked the town out. Its pretty nice. We tried finding a nice place for dinner last night, since it is my birthday today, and I wanted something other than rice, beans, soup, and meat. Everyplace that we tried to go was either closed or no longer around, so we ended up having dinner at this ¨pizzeria¨ and had lasagna. We then went to a bar and had a few drinks, and headed back to the hostel because our stomachs were not feeling too well. Not sure what we ate, but I didn´t have a fun night last night. I am feeling a lot better today.
The plan was to stay one more night. I would head out to Peru and Jens would head out to the farm that he will be working on for a month. However last night when he called them, he found out that there were no buses, and that the roads where really bad, due to the rain the night before, and that he would have to leave today and catch a ride from some people. After breakfast he headed out. I went to the bus terminal and bought my ticket to Peru, and just hung around town. I had a really nice birthday by myself enjoying Loja.
I leave tomorrow morning at 7am.
Farewell Ecuador. I spent more time here than I imagined, becuase it was a great place to visit. I can easily spend my three months here, but its time to move on.
ecuador, loja, south americca 09, travel
March 29th, 2009
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The bus ride to Zamora was a fun one. We left Macas around noon, and over 12 hours later we arrived in Zamora. Twelve hours on two buses makes one´s ass feel numb, but that wasn´t the fun part.
About an hour outside of Zamora it started to rain, and when I mean rain, I mean rain like I have never seen before. It was just walls of water. Apparently the locals hadn´t seen rain like this in a long time either.
We were riding right along when all of a sudden the bus jolted to a stop. There was a mudslide in front of us and the bus driver had tried to ride over it, but was unable to. Everyone in the bus got up and was sticking out their head in the pouring rain to see what was going on. Water was rushing down the side of the mountain right next to us. Jens was sitting at the window so he had a better view of everything that was going on. I leaned over to see. While he is looking behind us, he says ¨Holy shit, the car behind us just got hit with a mudslide and trees¨. My breath left me for a moment. Then people on the bus started scream, in Spanish of course, ¨Go! Go! Its all going to come down on us! GO!¨ There was some really tense seconds while the bus driver decided what to do. I just kept thinking, great we are going to get stuck on this bus tonight and be buried in mud slides. Jens just kept laughing. I don´t think he could feel the tension on the bus like I could since he doesn´t speak Spanish very well. Finally the bus driver decided to make a move, revved up the bus and got us over the mudslide in front of us. We made it over it and so did the car that was behind us. Thank someone that we got on this bus and not the later one, otherwise we would be stuck on the bus for sure.
We arrived at Zamora just after 1 am. It was still raining, nothing like before but it was raining hard. The bus terminal was full of people and buses unable to go anywhere due to the rain and road conditions. We decided to walk to the hostel that we wanted to stay at. When we got there, soaked, I may add, no one answered the ringer. Their court yard was right next to the river and the bridge, and there was a huge waterfall filling it up rather rapidly.
We noticed a hotel at the top of the hill and went up it to hopefully get a room there. We rang the bell and waited for a minute or two, when someone finally came out. They had rooms, in fact we think we were the only ones there. It was a really nice hotel, all new modern furniture and clean rooms, even wet ones. The first one that she showed us had water leaking from the window so she gave us another one.
When we woke up the next morning there was no water. We told the woman downstairs, and she investigated. Apparently the whole town didn´t have water due to the torrential down pours, and wouldn´t until later in the evening. We spent the day walking around town and checking it out. It is the smallest town that I have stayed in to date, and it was kind of nice being the only gringos in town. We did get water that evening, but when we tried to shower the next morning, before heading to Loja, there was no water again.
ecuador, south americca 09, travel, zamora
March 25th, 2009
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Baños is an awesome little town. We are heading out of here toady after spending only two nights. It is a base for hiking, rafting, canyoning, biking, and some other outdoor sports, which I didn´t do any of. They also have hot springs, where we spent part of the day soaking before getting amazing massages.
I could see myself spending a week or more here but I really need to move on. I am in my third week, and I am still in Ecuador.
Jens and I have decided to travel down to Loja together, which is close to the Peruvian border. He is going to work on a farm there for a month and I am going to head into Peru.
baños, ecuador, south americca 09, travel
March 25th, 2009
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After the Galapagos, I flew back to Quito to meet up with my friend Jens. We stayed at the Hostal Chicago on a recommendation. The hostel itself was okay, but the staff wasn´t very friendly. My room only had one tiny vent “window” in the bathroom that opened into my neighbor´s bathroom. It was a little annoying but it was okay.
On Friday I climbed the towers of the Basillica. It was an amazing view from up there. I then met up with Jens after his spanish class and ran around the city looking for a doctor for him, and looking for an alarm clock for me. Needless to say, we didn´t find either of them. We then headed to Mariscal to find the hostel where some of my friends from the Galapagos where staying. We had a lot of trouble finding them as well. Did I mention that it was raining the whole day? When we finally found their hostal, they were heading out to dinner. So we joined them. While walking around looking for a place to eat, we ran into another group that were also on the boat with us, so we all went out to dinner. It was a lot of fun. Some of us went out dancing and closed the place down. I was then taken to an after hours place by some Ecuadorians that we had met at the first club. I didn´t get back to my hostel until 6am. Ecudorians drink and party a lot!
The next morning I woke up at 10am, to go to Otovallo, for their Saturday Market. It was a long three hour bus ride, sightly hung over, and no where near enough sleep. The market was nice, but I didn´t buy anything. I just walked around and looked. Then it started pouring and I ducted into a fast food joint for cover, had some lunch, read my book until the rains stopped, and headed back to Quito. That night I took it easy and hung out in the hostel.
The next day, Sunday, we just walked around El Centro, or Old Town, and had a pretty relaxing day. We headed back to the hostel, and took naps. Earlier we had decided that we would travel to Baños together, and then figure out where we would go from there, either together or on our own. That night I hung out with the remainder of my Galapagos friends that were still in Quito.
The next day we headed out to Baños.
ecuador, quito, south americca 09, travel
March 25th, 2009
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Oh my god, the Galapagos are amazing. I highly recommend them. If you think you would like to go, go. You will not be dissapointed.
The boat I stayed on, The Darwin, was great. The crew was really nice and accomidating. Our guide Nadine was also great. She was this little extremely tanned , built, French women that has lived in the Galapagos for 26 years. The passengers were also great, we all got along really well and clicked almost immediately. We had so much fun that we all continued to hang out back in Quito for two nights. What a great group of people I am really going to miss them.
I was a little afraid of living on a boat for 8 days. I was afraid that I would be sea sick for most of the trip. But I wasn´t. It was a lot of fun living on the boat. We didn´t have any hot water, because the hot water heater blew the first night, complete with making the lights flash, and smoke coming out of the side of the boat. That was fun. The cabins were really tiny, and I didn´t have a cabin mate for the first half of the trip. Which was great.
The first day we did our first wet landing, which means riding the dingy up to the shore and getting out in the water. That made me so happy. I instantly fell in love walking around the beach and taking pictures. I asked Nadine, our guide, what it takes to become a guide. I could see myself doing that everyday. It is so beautiful there.
We saw so many beautiful things, that words can´t describe. I am in the process of uploading pictures now, and will upload them slowly. The internet connection here is not as fast as other places. So please be patient and they will be up shortly.
We saw tons of sea lions, blue footed boobies, lizards, iguanas, tortises, sharks, penguins, crabs, tons of fish, gorgeous landscapes, the list goes on. We hiked about twice a day and snorkeled about twice a day. I hadn´t snorkled since I was little in Mexico and was a little nervous, but, by the end of the trip I was loving it. Loving it so much in fact, that I am now thinking about becoming certified to dive.
The Galapagos were great. I so happy I went.
ecuador, galapagos, south americca 09, travel
