My adventures started at 9:30pm on Wednesday night (I had vacation from
school for the rest of the week because of the Fiestas de Quito) and I
took the 9 hour overnight bus from Quito to Cuenca. As we passed
through different neighborhoods and areas in Quito, you could see the
Fiestas de Quito in full swing with lots of music, lights, dancing, and
of course drinking. Starting out at a comfortable temperature, I was
disturbed from my sleep at 2am due to the cold, temperatures outside
hovering around 50 degrees Fahrenheit and proving to be no warmer
within the bus ....and I woke up again at 3:00, and again at 4:00,
until at 5:30am I curled up as much as possible and watched the sunrise
over the Andes. Breathtaking but freezing.
I arrived in Cuenca at 6:30am and realized that Cuenca, at this hour of
the morning, is uncomfortably cold as well. I found myself attending
church at 7am at the beautiful "New Cathedral" (its real name! Named as
such to distinguish it from "Old Cathedral" across the plaza) to keep
from freezing, and spent the rest of the day exploring, touring, and
shopping. By 7pm I plopped down in my bed at my hostel that had, in my
private room, cable tv, a comfy bed, private bathroom (with hot
shower!) and breakfast included for the luxurious price of $9...a good
find.
Friday, then, I found myself writing, so here is an insight of some of my thoughts:
Friday, 07 december 07 7:30 pm hostel in Vicabamba
This morning I woke up thinking I was going to Loja and then on to
Zamora, a town Rough Guide claimed had such beautiful views on the trip
there and back that the trip itself made it worth going. Due to
curiosity to explore a little more in Cuenca and a late start, I didn't
leave Cuenca until 10am, 2 hours past original leaving time. This,
coupled with Loja being 2 hours more south than originally thought, I
canceled my idea of going to Zamora due to daylight restraints and
decided instead to continue to the popular Vilcabamba, an hour south by
bus from Loja.
But back to my Cuenca to Loja ride; 5 1/2 hours of disturbed sleep,
beautiful landscapes, and lots of sun. The sleep issue and over sunning
culminated until by hour 3 I was ready to abandon the bus and just stay
in whatever little town I had landed myself. Then my seat partner got
on the bus.
New seat partner, at hour 3, was a kindly woman of about 50 years old
traveling with her mother to Loja. She asked where I was from, and I
said the U.S., and, excited as could be, she started telling me about
her nephew in L.A. Apparently he married an Ecuadorian/United State-ian
(she was actually born in the U.S. to two Ecuadorian parents so she has
dual citizenship) who, after living in the U.S. for the first 14 years
of her life, moved with her parents to Ecuador to finish "high school"
and university and by the time she finished university, she was dating
Seat Lady's nephew, they married, and now live in L.A....in fact, Seat
Lady visited her nephew and for a month stayed with him in L.A. ... On
and on this lady went for the next two hours. Finally she punctuated
her epic story with "You know, the thing that impresses me the most
about you is how well you speak Spanish!" and with that she sat back
and snoozed for the last stretch. I wasn't about to prod her back awake
to ask how she would know seeing as she was the one who had been
talking the past couple of hours (maybe it was my convincing head
nods!); instead I put my headphones back in and watched the
mountain-scape zip past.
I arrived in Loja then, bought my ticket to Vilcabamba, and prepared
for my next trip. The Lojanos are so nice; from the ticket people, to
the internet café supervisor, to the woman working at Pio Pio (a
fastfood chicken place, "pio pio" apparently the noise chickens make)
who kindly explained that "salchipapas" was salchicha (holding up a hot
dog) and papas (holding up some fries), a concept I hadn't originally
understood because of its blatant simplicity. Because my bus never
arrived at the exact spot I expected, I missed it and a super nice
ex-army-now-bus-station-policer
helped guarantee me a spot in another bus without paying again. We
talked for about a half hour then, poking fun at Quiteños and talking
about Ecuador in general. Finally I got on my bus to Vilcabamba, put on
my iPod, and sat back to enjoy the hour ride.
Meet Manuel, my seat-pal from Loja to Vilcabamba. A native of
Vilcabamba, he has never truly left this town of 3000-4000 people (his
general estimate). Looking to be pushing his mid 70s (though very
lively), I was surprised when he mentioned he lives with his parents.
Now my guide book has mentioned rumor that the mountains of Vilcabamba
housed the very old, that Vilcabambans "enjoyed a considerably higher
than average life expectancy with a very low incidence of
cardiovascular health problems" but quickly dismissed this idea, saying
rigorous studies revealed these claims to be "wildly exaggerated".
Well, Manuel's dad is 105, and his mom is 98. Alive and well, they
enjoy their days with their children, grandchildren, great
grandchildren...great great grandchildren. Seeing the shocked
expression on my face, he continued to say his grandfather died when he
was almost 140, apparently a bit overweight toward the end. Ends up he
died when he fell into some sort of hole? (this is from what I could
gather from his story) at night? so nobody knew he was in
trouble...something about falling so far down he was unable to get out
and drowned in the end (a well?). Punto being, it wasn't of old age
that he had passed away. I asked Manuel what led to people living so
long, and he said (his explanation, my words) that it is a combination
of chillness and the right nutrients/vitamins/diet. Once we arrived in
Vilcabamba, Manuel helped me et a taxi to Hosteria Izhcayluma from
where I am now writing (pencil and paper..old fashioned style!).
Tomorrow I'm going on some sort of "almost like a jungle"
tour/hike/cloud forest adventure..
Sunday, 09 december 07 5am Cuenca bus station
So yesterday I went on a cloudless day to a cloud forest. I, along with
a couple from Germany and our guide, traipsed around (illegally I found
out later) through the national park Podocarpus. It wasn't until we
were quite far in that our guide tells us that along with 1500
different types of birds, the park is also home to tapirs, sloths,
deer, bears, and pumas! Luckily we came across only their tracks on the
trail, but it was a great adrenaline rush for the whole hike.
At the end of our hike, we burst through all the vegetation and back
onto the gravel highway. It was at this point, only a four hour bus
ride to the Peruvian boarder, that I headed back north to begin my +15
hour journey back to Quito.
In Loja I bought a ticket to Zamora (straying slightly from my Quito
path to head toward the Orient) to check out the trip-worthy landscape
between the two towns. I wasn't able to buy my ticket until 4:30pm, at
which point the next bus leaving was at 6:45, so I paid my $2.40 and
wandered around until it was time to go. 6:45pm brought not only my
departure time but darkness, and by the time the bus left the station
it was pitch-black. Though my plan had backfired, I took the ride
anyway deciding 1) it was safer than sitting in the bus station or 2)
it was cheaper than doing a taxi-hostel-taxi (I was timing long bus
rides to be overnight). So it was that I plunged into the tropics
shrouded in darkness.
All towns have their particular quirks, and though I only rode the bus
into Zamora, switched buses, and rode right back out, I was able to
experience the clock of Zamora: a huge lit-up clock that kept time very
well, except that it was exactly 27 minutes late. Oh whatta town.
Back in Loja after my 4-hour round-trip, I watched the bus terminal TVs
until I boarded the 11:30pm bus to Cuenca, where I am right now freeing
and writing at 5:30am.
--------------------------------------------
From here I basically just headed up to Quito at 7:30am because I was
too exhausted and hungry to go running around the ruins at Ingapirca
[plus I have to leave SOMEthing new to visit when I come back!], also
taking into account I had to be back for a test Monday. I arrived into
Quito at about 5:30pm (Sunday) and headed straight to a "chifa"
(chinese restaurant) that at orientation they warned us about broken
health codes, cockroaches, etc....but it was so delicious and so cheap..
photos:
http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2321286&l=fe7ab&id=8628451
Another weekend, another bunch of adventures. This weekend is my last
weekend to roam around anywhere further out of Quito, so we'll see what
it brings. 12 days!
chao for now
annemary
