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August 9, 2007

Exciting Ecuador!

Left Buenos Aires ridiculously early in the morning so that I landed in Quito, Ecuador early enough to still spend the day seeing the sights. The first thing I ran into was a performance of traditional folkloric dances (I've posted 2 of my 3 videos). I did a walking tour of Quito's Centro Historico, got fresh watermelon (watermelon?!) juice, and realized it's impossible to buy batteries on a Sunday (even in the touristy areas).

Before I knew what was happening, though, a strange man came up to me and wanted to talk to me, shake my hand, and give me a traditional kiss on the cheek. He made me nervous (actually, it was his teeth... he had nasty teeth), so I refused and backed off. On my way, I ran into his accomplice, who proceeded to talk to him... they wanted to rob me! Funny thing is, they were talking about it in Spanish... they didn't realize I'm fluent! Stupid criminals to start talking about robbing me in a language I actually understand.

After Quito, I went to Mitad del Mundo, which was a total tourist trap. Of course I had a great time anyway. Not much to say about it... there's supposedly a very cool museum there, but I never managed to find it (apparently it's several hundred yards outside of the Mitad del Mundo complex, down a side street). Guess I'll just have to go back to find it. Anyway, at least now I can say I've stood on the equator.

The next morning I took a taxi to the airport & caught a VIP flight to Lago Agrio. The plane ride was fine, but the bus ride from Lago Agrio to Cuyabeno was terrible. I got awful motion sickness and was hanging out the door of the bus puking (yummy imagery there right). After the bus, we got in canoes and proceeded down the rive to our lodge in the Amazon rain forest. Being as we were in the RAIN forest, the skies opened up and began to pour. I was the last one to get handed a poncho, which was in a bag knotted shut in such an incomprehensible manner that I had to have someone help me untie it, by which time I was drenched. In a panic, I threw the poncho on without looking at how I was doing it... which meant that the side slits went right down my back and the hood ended up upside down catching water. Well, I probably needed a shower anyway.

In Cuyabeno there are 2 lodges and about 8 camps. Lodges are significantly better than camps and include things like a dining area with real food and actual toilets. I stayed in the second best lodge, Cuyabeno Lodge (Tapir Lodge is the best, in case you're planning to visit). It was quite a shock that there was no electricity, no lights, half the cabins had no full walls, and you had to walk outside to get to the shared bathroom. There were no fans, it was stiflingly hot, and the humidity was so high that four days after being drenched on my way there, my shirt still hadn't dried. Half my clothes (and my guidebooks and plane tickets) actually started to mold. Way gross. It almost made the fact that there was no hot water bearable (almost... but not quite). Nice damp rain forest!

Being in the middle of the rain forest was awesome in spite of "roughing" it. We hiked through knee-deep mud, thick vegetation, and saw all kinds of animals. I saw several different types of monkeys, tons of birds, piranhas, several caymans, a sloth, pink river dolphins, and I even saw (briefly) an anaconda. Piranha fishing was awesome! It was for sure one of my favorite activities, even though I never managed to get one in the boat (I pulled 5 out of the water, but they somehow managed to let go of the hook). Our guide, Ramiro, was awesome. He told us about this fruit you could use to draw on yourself like henna. Of course I tried it... it was an old fruit though and didn't work so well (did work a little though). I had a ton of fun, but 4 days in the jungle without hot water, electricity, cell phone service, or internet was enough for me.

The trip back from the jungle was quite the adventure. That week strikes sprang up all over Ecuador (and Peru). So when 14 of the people from my lodge left Thursday to return to Quito, we got stuck right in the middle of them. First of all, a number of trees had fallen down across the river, making it difficult (and funny) getting through them. Having gotten that far, we then had to cross the strike lines. The roads were blocked in at least 3 places. The first place there were a number of large trucks blocking the road. We had to walk past the blockade with all our bags. However, the truck/van they had for us couldn't get past either so we were stuck. A representative from the Ministry of Tourism showed up with a very small truck (smaller than a small US pickup truck). They said they'd take us up to the next strike line and that we could pass through for $80. Of course, not all of us had that kind of money and we thought it a bit ridiculous. So the government representative decided to take us around the strike lines instead.

Keep in mind that the whole time this was going on, none of the other 13 people in my group were fluent in Spanish... and neither our group representative nor the ministry of tourism officials could speak any English. So I became the translator.

They put all 14 of us, all our bags, 2 or 3 guys from the ministry of tourism, our guide, and a driver into the little truck. All at once. And off we went. But the rainforest was (surprise surprise) muddy and the truck got stuck. Plus, there was a creek we couldn't cross in the truck. So we all had to get down and walk carrying our bags across a thin makeshift log bridge, through fields of mud, and during the rain for a kilometer or two. In fact, I was so weighed down that I did in fact get stuck in the mud repeatedly. One of the ministry of tourism guys had to help extricate me. Being ankle-deep in mud was pretty fun when I was wearing boots, but in flip flops it was much less fun.

We finally made it to a house at the edge of the forest and we hid under the porch, eating apples while we tried to dry off and cool down just a little. A man on a motorcycle showed up. They told us the bus could not get to us and we would have to walk another kilometer or two to reach it. Exhausted and bilingual, I asked if one of the guys could help me carry my bag. The ~~hot~~ downright sexy guy on the motorcycle offered to let me ride on the motorcycle to the bus. Well, so much for shomer negiah lol -- no way was I turning that offer down!!! However, one of the girls on our trip had hurt her knee and the group was in an uproar because I got to ride and they would have to walk. With all the shouting in English and all the rapid Spanish, I didn't have time to translate anything to explain what was going on to either side. So down the street I went with all my stuff on the back of a motorcycle with a complete stranger going about 40 miles per hour on an unpaved road full of potholes in the rain wearing no helmet while he dialed numbers on his cell phone and looked back to talk to me. I seriously thought I was going to die. As in, I was fervently praying that I not die. I have never been more glad to get onto a bus. I then gave the bus directions back to where the rest of the group was waiting -- then they were happy with me again. They sent me on the motorcycle because with my Spanish I could actually give directions to the bus!

With the help of motorcycle guy, we made it through one last roadblock, where a mob of angry people was burning all sorts of stuff (smelled bad... I think they were burning tires). I made it safely back to Lago Agrio, safely to Quito, and was able to leave the next morning for Peru.

B"H!!!!!!